Special Issue: Queer Asia Sexualities 2021, Vol. 0(0) 1–18 © The Author(s) 2021 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/13634607211047518 journals.sagepub.com/home/sex The coloniality of queer theory: The effects of “homonormativity” on transnational Taiwan’s path to equality Ying-Chao Kao Department of Sociology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA Abstract This study extends the “Queer” Asias critique to deconstruct the coloniality of queer theory in transnational Taiwan. Focusing on Duggan’s critique of homonormativity, I used 22-months ethnographic data to examine its Taiwanese glocalization and influences on American scholars’ denigration of Taiwanese marriage equality campaigns. I argue that the glocalization of homonormativity theory has generated the disruption between queer theory and embodied experiences, falsely assumed the universalism of queer theory, and failed to recognize practices of diversifying families and resistance to neoliberalism. The homonormativity glocalization also produces “radical queer temporality” and Orientalist double standards that collude with imperialist epistemology. I conclude with strategies for a decolonial queer theory. Keywords Decolonial queer theory, “Queer” Asias studies, homonormativity, marriage equality, perverse Taiwan Introduction: Coloniality in queering moments The coloniality of sex/gender/sexuality systems has profoundly impacted women and queers of color in the global South. Lugones’ (2008: 1) “The Coloniality of Gender” Corresponding author: Ying-Chao Kao, Department of Sociology, Virginia Commonwealth University, 827 W Franklin St. Rm. 214, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. Email: yckao@vcu.edu