ABSTRACT
The excellent works of fiction, memoir, and academic study stemming from and/or commenting on gay urban culture over and over replay the scene where the young man finds his first sex in a bathroom or bar and emerges from that space changed. Another Christian justification of homosexuality rests on the idea that homosexual activity is no less moral than intentionally nonprocreative heterosexual activity; that is, homosexuality is morally equivalent to the use of birth control. In the Christian tradition, the abstract claim of unitivity evokes analogies of intimacy, steadfastness, and one-fleshness. A form of the unitivity described in the Christian tradition is apparent in the cultures and communities that many gay men inhabit. A Christian evaluation of sexuality will return to the heart of the moral tradition by examining concrete practices in context rather than accepting hollow dictums on abstract acts and identities.
