ABSTRACT

There is a time in every gay man’s life when he has to decide whether to disclose his same-sex attraction to his family. Mexican gay men are no exception. Some choose to disclose and arrive at the decision to “salir del closet” (to come out of the closet). Others choose not to disclose and decide instead to fulfill heteronormative expectations, or at least to pretend to do so. They hide their homosexuality from their families, even in situations where they are aware that their families likely suspect or know that they are not heterosexual. Some even marry women and form families. Regardless of their decision, however, because Mexican gay men often live in

social environments that they perceive to be hostile toward homosexuality, they implement complicated strategies to manage their sexuality to protect themselves and their families from social stigma. Especially among those who choose not to disclose, such management of their sexuality can require vigilance in order to prevent any information about their sexual orientation from reaching their families. Under such circumstances, some men decide to leave Mexico to put some distance between their families and their places of origin. By this route, they seek to reduce the potential for stigma or involuntary disclosure and to be free from the pressures implied in living double lives. They do so also imagining that by moving to the USA they may be able to live freer sexual lives involving sex with other men. In this chapter, I focus on the intertwined sexual and family-related motiva-

tions for migration that Mexican gay and bisexual men report in describing their decisions to leave Mexico and relocate to the USA. Based on ethnographic accounts collected as part of the Trayectos1 study, I analyze how sexual migration is prompted by the structural conditions that surround the enactment of gay identities or, more generally speaking, homoerotic sexual lives in Mexico. For the purposes of this work, I utilize the term sexual migration to refer to transnational relocation that is motivated, fully or partially, by the sexualities of those who migrate (Carrillo 2004). From among the list of sexuality-related motivations for migration that Mexican gay and bisexual men recount, I focus in particular on their use of international migration as a strategy to achieve two interrelated purposes: (1) to pursue a kind of sexual liberalization that they

imagine is more possible in US cities than within Mexico; and (2) to avoid creating negative situations in the context of their biological family life in Mexico, as well as within their families’ social circles, due to their enacting sexual and romantic lives with other men. The results that I present here contrast greatly with the common finding in

survey studies of Mexican migration that the primary motivation for migration is economic. In the cases focused upon, economic motivations are not absent, but they often are not primary. Instead, they linger in the background and appear to be complementary-an added bonus that accompanies the pursuit of other goals. In this sense, this case study demonstrates the importance of considering the multiple motivations for migration that are important for particular population groups who, at the same time that they seek to improve their economic status, are also attempting to find new forms of freedom and to leave behind social conditions that they find oppressive.2 Thus, my emphasis in the present analysis is not meant to negate or minimize the economic aspects of gay Mexicans’ migration to the USA, but rather to highlight concerns and desires that are central and important to them and that are rarely considered in the Mexican migration literature. By focusing on sexual and family-related pressures for migration, my goal is also to highlight the role that sexuality plays in triggering the migration of some Mexicans. As we will see, factors related to social problems such as homophobia and the social stigma of homosexuality not only propel Mexican gay and bisexual men to uproot themselves and leave their places of origin and force them to initiate new lives in places that are often very unfamiliar to them, but also affect their sexual health and create new challenges for them in terms of HIV risk.