Masters Thesis

The tie that binds us together: queer Filipina/x Americans, kinship, and survival

Acts of care, intimacy, and struggle are practiced outside of ascribed traditional family structures. Queer kinship is cultivated and nurtured by folks—biological or nonbiological, queer or non-queer—who intentionally choose to be in each other’s lives. Queer kinship not only operates based on the identities of queer or non-queer people, but rather the practices, commitments, and shared values and principles of everyone involved. In an exploratory study, I centralize queer Filipina/x experiences with queemess and queer kinship to argue that queer kinship is an intimate site of care, resilience, resistance, and struggle. I assert that queer kinship and the practices involved are material responses to current social, political, and economic conditions. Additionally, I build on using “queer” as an identity marker, rather, I highlight the material manifestations of queerness through mundane care practices and the collective process of unlearning internalized homophobia. Participants in the study demonstrate that they build genuine and intentional long-lasting relationships with one another for the purpose of fighting for a socially just future.

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