ABSTRACT
Sexual orientation, sexual preference, sexual identity, gay rights, Queer Nation, dykes on bikes, fairy circles … who are these people and what is their proper name? Why are they so vocal and what do they want? Why do they elect to live a detested identity and how can such egregious deviation from the norm be considered anything other than pathological? Does the word “gay” disguise an existence that is sad and lonely? Is bisexuality an evasion or an expanded level of existence? How do people come to call themselves homosexual, bisexual, lesbian, gay, queer? What are the joys and risks, the costs and benefits, of nonheterosexual identity? What does any of this have to do with being “womanly” or “manly?” Who knows the answers to these questions? And why should anyone care?
