Negotiating cultural identity among gay men in Turkey: From belonging to becoming Strangers, to the diaspora of global gay

Abstract

This article aims to figure out how gay men in Turkey construct their cultural identities and to what extend they feel a sense of belonging to Turkish culture by focusing on how they define Turkish culture, whether they identify themselves as ordinary consumers of Turkish culture or as strangers to it. While doing so, the article also pays attention to impact of globalization which is considerably influential upon the formation of cultural identities. That is, in addition to the circumstances available in Turkey, we aim to discuss how the possibilities enabled by globalization and global gay culture play a significant role for the ways gays construct their cultural identities. Thus, our questions are formed in accordance with the way they define Turkish culture, how they position themselves within it, to what extend they feel as a part of it, and how they interpret global gay culture by comparing it to the circumstances available in Turkey. Based on interviews, we conclude that gays in Turkey do not identify themselves merely with the Turkish culture that they are organically related to and within which they often feel as strangers. Moreover, they culturally feel as members of the diasporic gay communities as a result of the impact of globalization.