We can only be healthy if we love ourselves: Queer AIDS NGOs, kinship, and alternative families of care in China

Abstract

In this article, I draw from recent developments in the anthropological literatures on kinship and care to complicate and extend analyses of Chinese queer NGOs and AIDS activism. By highlighting the practical, moral, and political dimensions of daily life and work within Chinese queer NGOs, I argue that they constitute what I call “alternative families of care” by serving as important sources of material and emotional support and care for queer men, including increasing numbers of HIV-positive men who have sex with men, in a social climate that is still largely unsupportive and hostile toward both queerness and people living with HIV/AIDS. I also show how HIV/AIDS prevention and care are additionally regarded by many Chinese queer activists as an important political strategy for demonstrating the responsibility of queer men in the face of the AIDS crisis, achieving greater recognition from the government and society, and eventually attaining increased rights, including same-sex marriage.