ABSTRACT
In the previous two chapters, I have represented two binary patterns prevalent in existing research on non-heterosexual and student identity (gay and closeted) and two not usually taken into consideration (homosexual and queer). In addition, two more ways non-heterosexual male students identify in college are clear to me from my conversations with the respondents: those who consider themselves “just like everyone else”—“normal”—and those who view their lives as having parallel components. These categories move even further away from the binary master categories of “heterosexual” and “homosexual,” blurring the lines of demarcation while conversely corroborating those classifications as well. This paradox is evidence of the diversity in collegiate non-heterosexual identification, which is lacking in the identity development theories currently existing for students and gay men. In this chapter, I present first “normal” and then parallel narrators’ educational life stories.
