Remaking Intimate Citizenship

Drawing on Plummer’s concept of ‘intimate citizenship’, this chapter examines the work of PFLAG China (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of China), also known as TrueSelf, within a society marked by intergenerational ambivalence. PFLAG China encourages young people to embrace their ‘authentic selves’ and take responsibility for their lives. Beyond offering knowledge about sexual orientation and peer support, it advocates for parental love and acceptance, urging parents to support their children in being true to themselves. Additionally, the organisation constructs public advocacy narratives from a parental perspective, using concepts like ‘family harmony’ and ‘social harmony’ to justify broader social recognition. Doing so bridges LGBTQ+ or tongxinglian (same-sex loving) activism with values the wider society shares. This chapter thus provides a contextualised analysis of how intimate citizenship is reshaped in a non-Western cultural setting.