SIG Challenge: Reentry Advice for GLB International Students?

Peggy Pusch

I recently conducted workshops and spoke at the SIETAR Japan meeting in Tokyo. At the close of the meeting a young man came to me and asked for ideas on how to deal with foreign students who have come out while abroad and are now returning home. Needless to say, Japan is not an easy place for gays and lesbians although there is a very strong and fairly hidden lesbigay society there. He is aware of the Lesbigay SIG and is on the Rainbow list. He knows of all the international organizations that I know about to provide any information that he did not already possess. Perhaps he really needs advice from those who have dealt with this challenge in other equally unwelcoming societies.

Last week I received an email from a man in Finland who is coming to the NAFSA meetings next May and wanted to know if I planned to do a session there on gays going home or into new cultures --their experiences and the resources they used. We need to deal with this issue more, both at the practical and psycho-logical level, for those who are entering other cultures on study abroad and are returning home after a stay in the U.S.