ABSTRACT
To clarify the relation between sexual identity and cultural visibility, the previous essays have discussed sexuality as if it were a discrete, isolatable entity. While such an approach may be initially necessary to focus in on gay culture with any precision, it understates the extent to which homosexuality occupies merely one stretch along a sliding scale of “sexualities,” which itself delineates just one among many kinds of cultural difference. Despite the tendency of minority scholarship to concentrate on subcultural particularity, no group stands fully independent of any other and, far from cleanly differentiated, minorities more nearly come bundled together. I wish, then, to conclude by returning to the popular materials of my first chapter. But this time rather than following a single group’s surreptitious “queenings” of mainstream culture, I would consider how exchanges among minorities can be used to reconceptualize their relations to each other and to dominant culture.
