Sexuality Studies 2022
In the last century, beliefs about sex, gender, and sexuality have changed dramatically. Part of these changes has been the increased knowledge and acceptance of practices and identities that have been termed at various times transsexual, transvestite, transgender, trans, and trans*. The co categories in the United States has the potential to trouble the assumed link between se 9 and current gender identity, expand the number of acceptable ways of doing gender, an sex and gender. Due to the intertwined nature of sex, gender, and sexuality, increased acceptance of tran people may also fundamentally alter understandings of sexuality.
Sex, gender, and sexuality are often conceived of as natural and biologically determined, but they are in fact socially constructed systems of classification, changing over time and varying across cultures. In its current conception in the United States, sex is a social system that divides bodies into categories based on genitalia, hormones, and/or chromosomes. Although bodies actually exist on a spectrum, only two categories are usually acknowledged (female and male). Those who are not easily classifiable as female or male are termed intersex, and doctors regularly encourage hormone treatments and surgeries to compel male intersex bodies to fit into established binary sex categories. Gender is a social system that encourages conformity to a set of behaviors and identities often assumed to be caused by, and to reflect, a person's sex (West and Zimmerman 1987). Females are supposed to be feminine and identify as women, whereas males are expected to be masculine and identify as men. Those who do not follow these norms are frequently met with social sanctions ranging from harassment and employment discrimination to sexual and physical assault. Just as sex is believed to produce gender, gender presentation is thought to reflect sex. Those presenting as women are assumed to have vulvas and vaginas and those presenting as men are expected to have penises. Finally, sexuality is a social system that places people into status categories based on sexual desires, behaviors, and identity. SOC This classification schema uses a wide variety of criteria, ranging from the type of sexual acts in which one wants to engage - what Freud (1949) termed sexual aim - to the type of person with whom one wants to engage in them with (a.k.a. sexual object). In the contemporary United States, sexual orientation is defined by sexual object, specifically the he sex(es) a person is attracted to.
In current mainstream US culture, sex, gender, and sexuality are mutually reinforcing. Each can be conceptualized as a social structure on its own, but they also work together as a larger system, as understandings of each are dependent on, and naturalized by, beliefs about the other two. This is known as the sex/gender/sexuality system. Since "females" and "males" are thought to be biologically "opposite" (although they are actually much móre similar than different), they are expected to behave in opposite ways (e.g., doing care work vs. physical labor) and are seen as natural sexual pairs. Similarly, understandings of sexuality are predicated on beliefs about sex and gender. If there were no sex categories, current understandings of sexual orientation would not exist, as the orientations heterosexual homosexual, and bisexual are defined by one's own sex and the sex(es) of one's sexual partner(s). Gendered behaviors also support the existing sexuality system. Although sexual orientation is define desire for certain sexed bodies, sex (genitals, hormones, and/or chromosomes) is not visible in even interactions. Instead, people signal membership in a sex category by doing gender. These gendered presentations of self thus indicate whom it is acceptable to sexually desire according to the expectations of one's sexual orientation; for example, a heterosexual man desires presenting as women, using their gender as a proxy for their femaleness.
The academic conception of sex, gender, and sexuality as separate systems is relatively new; in the p they were seen as one and the same. Females were thought to be biologically programmed to behave feminine ways and sexually desire men, whereas males were believed to be biologically programmed behave in masculine ways and sexually desire women. Deviations from the norms of gender and sexual were thought to be caused by abnormalities of sex (Meyerowitz 2002). For example, homosexual desir were thought to be caused by a mismatch of sex and gender. In this "inversion" theory of homosexuality males who desired men were deemed to be gender "inverts" - male bodied people with the minds of women - since women were thought to "naturally" desire men. Similarly, females attracted to women we imagined to have "masculine" brains caused by genetic "irregularities."
As medical practitioners studied so-called deviants, the belief that gender is determined by sex shifted. Doctors puzzling through how to categorize and "treat" intersex people in the 1950s began to use the terr gender to describe a set of masculine and feminine behaviors that were separate from biological sex. During this same time period, medical professionals who were working with those who came be to known as transsexuals furthered the analytic distinction between sex and gender. The acknowledgement and acceptance of those assigned male at birth (AMAB) who identified as women and those assigned female at birth (AFAB) who identified as men encouraged a theorization that sex did not determine gender. This acknowledgment came at a price, however, as doctors medicalized this "mismatch of sex and gender, diagnosing trans people as "sick" and in need of "treatment."
In their attempts at self-legitimization, those labeled as "deviants" also pushed for distinguishing between sex, gender, and sexuality, often with dire consequences for the more marginalized members of their of their communities. In an attempt to reduce the stigma around homosexuality, many gay and lesbian
and organizations and bars became hostile toward gender nonconforming people. As the gay and lesbian rights movement became more mainstream during the 1970s and 1980s, feminine people assigned male at birth and masculine people assigned female at birth were pushed out of gay and lesbian communities. Similarly, activists in transsexual communities worked to distance themselves from the stigma of homosexuality, frequently emphasizing their heterosexual identities (Meyerowitz 2002) and many cross-dressing organizations in medical une explicitly banned gay men from participating (Denny 2006). Combined practices social distancing gender conformity; constructed sex. gend unlinked gender and sexual nonconformity, constructed sex, gender, and sexuality as separate; and parsed out identities and practices previously been as "gender inversion." The result has been a slow increase in the acceptance of gender conforming les with the acceptance of gender conforming lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, paired people who are nonconforming.
States, however, and many Americans sill assume a biological and causal relationship between them. The understanding and sexuality as systems is was once bi Although it was once thought that biology made all people assigned female at birth behave in feminine ways and desire men, many now believe, for example, that that biology causes some people assigned female at birth to identify as men and/or to desire .This has become known approach to gender and sexuality. and of ay gender and sexuality. Moreover, though there has been increased acceptance of trans people umed to be masculine and desire females and most females are still expected to be feminine and partner with males. Vestiges of ge gender inversion theory remain, as people imagine that masculine women are lesbians and feminine men are gay. Thus, the incorporated into the larger culture, and sex, sexuality are still inextricably intertwined.
Transforming sex and gender categories
Mainstream culture in the United States ha tates has become gradually more supportive of trans people. In 2009 "actual or perceived gender identity" was added as a protected category in federal hate legislation. Justice Department announced that trans people would be protected from workplace discrimination.
Although people have always done gender in no normative ways, trans categories have not always existed. Transsexual did not come into use as meaning someone who identified as a sex other than that they are categories of thought, trans categories arose at particular cultural moments. The term assigned at birth until 1949 and "sex change change operation" in 1952 (a practice now known as gender affirmation surgery). 49 and it did not widely enter the popular imagination until Christine Jorgensen's ary). Although Jorgensen was not the first person to undergo such surgeries, she was the first to become widely known in the United States. Meyerowitz attributes Jorgensen's fame to a number of factors, including being white, normatively attractive, and feminine, and the fact that, at the time, the United States was particularly obsessed with the power of science and men ith the power of science and World War 2 induced questions about the proper roles of women for trans sexuality to emerge in the larger cultural consciousness in a way not as possible earlier in the century. Jorgensen's fame then informed others of the existence of the social category and the possibility of body modifications, and led to discussions about ons about the relationship between sex, gender, and sexuality. Her case was contentious, as some celebrated, and others condemned, her. Much of the anxiety around her centered on sexuality, as she called into question the previously easy division of people in the category of heterosexual or homosexual.
Although media coverage of Jorgensen made the general public aware of the possibility of being transsexual, access to body modification was tightly regulated by doctors. Hormone treatments and was surgeries were usually only accessible through university clinics, and to qualify for surgery patients had to conform to dominant norms around gender and sexuality (Denny 2006). For example, ple, after surgery, transsexual people were expected to be highly gender conforming and heterosexual; due to stigma around homosexual desires, transsexual patients were supposed to be nonsexual before surgery. Many clinics also required that transsexual patients not socialize with other transsexual men or women, hold a transsexual identity, or tell people about their transition. Doctors defined transsexual as a "liminal state rather than an identity; it was what you were as you moved from one clear sex category to "the other. Thus, although medical understandings of transsexuality shifted beliefs about sex and gender in some ways, others remained firmly in place. Doctors introduced the idea that people can, with the help of medical technology, change sex, and questioned the necessity that all people assigned male at birth identify as men and all people assigned female at birth identify as women. However, this change in understandings around the mutability of sex was still accompanied by a belief that there were only two genders and only two sexes and that those who identified with a gender that did not "match" their sex should alter their bodies to conform to the expectation that gender reflects genitals. In subsequent years, some activists have rejected this medical model, and the term "transsexual," as pathologizing.
Redoing gender
Early genital surgeries were often extraordinarily painful and damaged or destroyed sexual response. In the early 1980s, following academic publications arguing that "sex reassignment operations" were ineffective, university-funded clinics closed and for-profit facilities quickly took their place (Denny 2006). With the demise of the university-run gender clinics, denial of a trans identity and disassociation from other trans people, commonly known as "going stealth," were no longer prerequisites for access to medical technologies. Thus, trans community organizing became easier. Starting in the early 1990s, members of these communities coined a new term for themselves - and all others who did gender differently from the norm - the term transgender
The most accepted history of the term transgender is that Virginia Prince invented it as an alternative to then-dominant terms transsexual and transvestite. It is said that she wanted transgenderist to describe someone who wanted to change gender but not have "sex reassignment surgery." However, transgender was quickly adopted as an umbrella category that included transsexual, transvestite, transgenderist, or other non normative gender practices, after Leslie Feinberg used it that way in the book Transgender Liberation (1992). This history is contested, however. Williams (2014) critiques what she terms the " Prince Fountainhead Narrative" and argues that many people before Prince used transgenderism, transgendered, and transgender to describe trans practices.
Regardless of who first used it, in the early 1990s in the United States trans people began using transgender as a way to unify a diverse population of people engaged in non normative gender practice. Public knowledge of this new category transgender began to grow exponentially, aided by activist gr and the growing popularity of the internet (Whittle 1998). Part of this growth was publicly about themselves, including an increasingly vocal group of trans activist 3/ O describing how they have been oppressed, and arguing for the value of trans advocacy Another part of this growth came from increased media attention to trans people, both in the news and in fictional fictional representations. By 1995, the use of transgender as an umbrella category for those who identified as a sex and/or gender other than the one they were assigned at birth was widespread. Transgender as an umbrella category encompasses a wide variety of ways of doing gender. Unlike transsexual, a desire for body
modification is not a prerequisite for category membership. Instead, transgender has been defined as "all persons who cross traditional gender boundaries" (e.g., Green 19 9). Since it is said to include all nonnormative gender gender practices, practices, transgender as as a category is "almost infinitely elastic" (Valentine 2007: 39). Thus, the category includes a number of previously unnamed gender practices, making these ways of doing gender knowable and those who do them recognizable within the gender system (Westbrook 2010). This recognition moves them from what Judith Butler (1993 terms abject (i.e., not seen as human) into a realm of subjects (i.e., humans with agency) eligible for soc acknowledgment and rights. As with all identity categories, trans categories have been intensely debated by those under their purview
Valentine (2007) has detailed how, in the struggle for the right to identify as transgender, many other identities are denied or ignored. Not everyone who identifies as a sex and/or gender other than what they were assigned at birth uses the term transgender or trans. In the 1990s, Valentine interviewed "male- bodied feminine people" who identified simultaneously as "gay," women," and "femme queens." These people were often young, poor, urban, and of color. For these individuals Pander and sexuality were not as separate as academics and transgender activists have posited. Howo gender and However Valentine found that, although they did not identify as transgender, they were nevertheless named as such by leaders in the LGBT community and sene pihen they argue that people are transgender and academics even when they do identity as transgender natural category. and they ignore individuals' self-conceptions (Westbrook 2010).
The usage of trans terms is constantly changing. Previous is constantly changing. Previous terms such as "transvestite," "transgenderist Transgendered.," and "tranny; their use is now and community members alike well into the e have fallen out of favor ; use is now considered by d by some to be transphobia. Similarly, due to controversies over whether be a sign terminological focus on "gender," was though, many people began to instead ungender, with further, using trans* as the asterisk so instead use trans. These attempts at expanding the umbrella may reference to a a when searching digital when so of trans ways of being gendered or s as the terms themselves are difficult to ice the will immediately produce results on search on results on the internet
categories have, instead, redone gender (West and Zimmerman 2009). This is not to argue that conceptions of trans or transgender do not challenge aspects of the current sex and gender systems. Trans categories have altered the sex and gender systems by introducing the ideas that sex and gender are changeable, gender identities and practices can be diverse and nonbinary, and gender presentation and sexed embodiment do not have to "match." However, although they do challenge current ways of doing gender, they do not challenge the idea of gender - the belief that all people fit into a gender category and that behaviors reflect gender identity (Westbrook 2010). With transgender, gender is still posited as central to a person's identity and a vital part of social interactions. Indeed, with the promotion of preferred pronouns and diverse gender options on forms, gender may have become even more central to people's understandings of themselves and others.
Enduring inequality Although trans people are increasingly acknowledged socially and legally, they still experience high levels of discrimination and violence. Much of this is linked to fears around sexuality. As Westbrook and Schilt (2014) demonstrate, at the national, state, and local levels, governments have been hesitant anti discrimination protections to trans people for fear that such legislation will allow will allow trans women (whom legislators often conceive of as "really" men) access to "women en only" or spaces such as restrooms and locker rooms. This fear comes from a belief that that all all male bodies are potentially inclined toward, and capable of, sexual assault of females and that all female bodies are vulnerable to such assaults when there are no males around to protect them. Although rooted in false assumptions that options that perpetuate gender inequality, such fears have been effective in preventing inclusion lusion of trans people in anti discrimination legislation. Similarly, as Schilt and Westbrook ( d Westbrook (2009) show, much of the fatal violence experienced by trans people is also related to fears around sexuality. Most of the trans people killed in the United States are trans women and a majority of those are killed by cisgender men with whom they have had sexual relations. In these sexual interactions, it seems that the cisgender under men either become aware of, or become uncomfortable with, the trans women being trans and move from seeing the trans women as women to seeing them as "really men. Thus, in their minds, the relationship moves from heterosexual to homosexual. Some of these men react with violence, as they fear being stigmatized as homosexual. Hence, the intertwined nature of sex, gender, and sexuality has resulted in discrimination and violence against trans people.
Transforming sexuality
Rising acceptance of trans people and categories and the related significant shifts in understandings of sex and gender may also produce changes in beliefs about sexuality. This has the potential to reduce discrimination and violence in the future. Thus far, the idea of trans people being sexually involved with anyone has not been accepted in mainstream culture and transgender people are compelled to do an enormous amount of transgender labor to explain and protect themselves in sexual relationships.
Like previous decades where gay or lesbian television and movie characters were not shown in sexual relationships, mainstream media has shied away from depicting trans people in romantic situations. This lack of cultural depiction is likely to etuate fears around what is now termed trans sexualities, meaning trans peoples' and their partners perpetuate fears a sexual desires, behaviors, and identities. For a long time, academics did not focus on trans sexuality sexualities, with the exception of studying sexually "risky" behavior ), such as sex work and sex with/by drug users. Doctors who worked with trans people assumed that they hated the body they were born with and, thus, were asexual unless they had surgically altered their genitals. This silence arou .This silence around trans sexualities is slowly changing, as evidenced by the Jour by the Journal of Homosexuality's 2014 special issue "Making Space for Trans Sexualities." In previous eras, shifting academic understandings, such as a move from seeing trans people as "sick deviants" to seeing trans as a legitimate gender identity, have resulted in changes in the larger culture. Extrapolating from this, there is potential for a number of future changes in cultural understandings of sexuality.
As the number of acceptable ways of being sexed and gendered expand, so may the number of sexual orientation categories. Currently, there are are no widely used terms for those who are attracted to trans people, except for the derogatory "tranny chaser," which stigmatizes such desire as a fetish (Tompkins people, except to 2014 and Chapter 32 in this volume). Some have suggested transamorous or transsensual as terms that would legitimate and make legible such desires. We might not also also conceive of a system where people identify. as trans-sexual (desiring trans people), cis-sexual (desiring cis people), or pansexual (desiring all genr If such sexual orientation categories became more widespread, it would fundamentally alter dominant beliefs about sexuality.
In the current sexuality system, both trans people and their partners have often turned to queer as the lab that best encapsulates their desires. In her interviews with cis women partners of trans men, finds that, though these relationships are regularly perceived as straight, many identify as queer, part because there is no other language to describe their identities and and desires. Similarly, some find that, in the two most common sexual orientations were pansexual and queer. This shift away from heterosexuality in their sample of trans people, the most common gender identity was genderqueer and and homosexuality is the logical outcome of a genderqueer identity, since heterosexuality and homosexuality are dependent on "man" and "woman" as gender identities and cannot articulate desires b- or for a genderqueer person. As the growing wing acceptance of trans categories and practices expands the possible ways of doing gender to include nonbinary identities such as genderqueer, queer as a sexual identity category - meaning attraction to multiple genders - may become more widespread.
In addition to expanding the number of acceptable ways of doing gender and sexuality, trans categories also have the potential to unlink the assumed causal relationship between sex and gender. In everyday into question the idea that sex assigned at birth determines one's gender identity. However, the reverse interactions, one's gender presentation is imagined to reflect one's genitals. The category transsexual cal relationship has remained remained question their sex and gender "match." Currently, a fixed and knowable identity as either to body modification. needed for access to body and labia reductions with relative ease (Davis 2002), just as vaginal tightening, a to reduce the size of their chests and increase the size of their testicles, as those surgeries surgery to red d gender conformity. Similarly, a clear identity as a trans man or trans woman facilitates ac in modification, as long as those modifications will increase their conformity to expectations of sex and body modification oward embracing trans categories and identities may loosen the restrictions on access gender. The shift towa body modifications for trans people, thus allowing for more "mixed" embodiments. As more and more tran decide whether to pursue hormonal and surgical body modification at all or to engage in some people modifications but not others, the assumed link between sex and gender may change and a available sex identity and gender identity may become acceptable, such that one could identify as both sex nale and a woman. This would set the stage for a reconceptualization of attraction, distinguishing between attraction to gender presentation (desiring masculine people and/or feminine people and/or androgynous people, etc.), sex (desiring male bodies and bodies and/or female bodies and/or intersex bodies), and gender identity people (being attracted to those who identify as m men and/or women and/or genderqueer or nonbinary). The unlinking of sex and gender would also fundamentally shift one of the premises on which the current sexuality system rests - that one can use gender presentation as a proxy for sexed embodiment. Coming full circle, this may alter the current imperative within the gender system that one signal sex with gender, such that people may feel free to wear dresses because they enjoy them, rather than to indicate the
presence of a of a vulva and vagina. In Western thought, we tend to construct our classification systems as a set of binaries - you are either ga or straight, a man or a worman, and cisgender or transgender- rather than as spectrum that, for example, acknowledges a diversity of sexed, gendered, and sexual practices that may also change over the life course. As trans categories allow for more varied presentations of gendered and sexed selves, the assumption that sexuality is binary and fixed over the life course may change. The existence of trans people might problematize the belief that sexual orientation is stable over the life course, as a trans person's sexual orientation may change as their gender identity does. Similarly, the sex and/or gender transition of a romantic partner can significantly disrupt the understanding of sexual orientation as innate and fixed, as, if the relationship continues after the transition, the label put on the relationship would change from, for example, heterosexual to homosexual or queer .
Due to the intertwined nature of sex, gender, and sexuality, the transformation of one results in changes in the othere, Just as trans categories have caused a redoing of understandings of sex and they are likely to redo sexuality. As long as US culture tends to emphasize sex, gender, central to the understanding of the solf and vital to interactions with others, none of these "undone."
Straight men being not so straight
The question many people ask is: "why do men identify as straight if they have sex with other men?" Just as important, how- ever, is the reverse: "why do men have sex with other men if they identify as straight?" These are two related but separate issues. To investigate these topics, I interviewed 60 straight-identified men who have sex with other men. I focused on men in rural areas and small towns because little prior research has focused on sexuality in these settings. The stories these men told me were complex, messy, and filled with paradox-yet were also genuine.
The majority of the men I interviewed reported that they were primarily attracted to women, not men. These interviews show that sexuality is multidimensional, and that attractions, behaviors, and identities do not always align. Sexual identities may describe how individuals perceive themselves, but they do not always indicate a person's attractions or sexual behaviors.
Most of the men I interviewed identified as straight because they felt that this identity best reflected their understandings of themselves as masculine, their romantic relationships with women, or their integration in straight communities. Most did not want to identify as gay or bisexual. Additionally, many men explained that their marital sex lives were not as active as they wanted. Sex with men allowed them to have more sex, but in a way that they felt was not as threatening to their partnerships as extramarital sex with women.
why some straight-identified men have sex with other men Over half of the men I interviewed were married to women but no longer had sex with their wives, or had it infrequently, and felt that sex with men was not cheating or was less threatening
to their marriage than extramarital sex with women. As fifty- seven-year-old Adam from Wisconsin said, "My wife really doesn't necessarily enjoy sex, and I don't feel like I want to take up an affair or relationship with another woman. I don't feel right about that, so my sexual experience with other men is basically out of need to have some personal gratification." Adam explained that sex with men is "not cheating," because "men are a lot less complicated and it's just easier, it's like, it's sex but there's no attachment. I don't think women can do that." Men like Adam felt that sex with women would be cheating, but sex with men was not-or was at least less of a threat to their relationship.
Although it may seem as though men who turn to extra- marital sex are dissatisfied with their marriages, the reality is more complicated. Research has shown that many men and women have extramarital sex because they consider their marital sex lives unsatisfying and feel that extramarital sex will ensure they continue to have sex, but without harming their partnership. Men I interviewed described this as well. Travis, a fifty-nine-year- old man in South Dakota, was frustrated that his wife was no longer interested in sex, but also explained, "I've got friends that say why in the hell do you stay married to her. Well, I guess it's because I love her, and other than the fact that we don't have a sexual relationship we do have a good relationship." Most of the men I interviewed were, like Travis, mostly satisfied with their marriages. Their biggest complaint was that they did not have as much sex as they would have liked.
As for why men would turn to other men rather than women for extramarital sex, many of the men I interviewed believed that women and men are complementary emotionally, but not sexually. They thought that women may become too emotionally attached after a hookup, whereas men would not. This belief is not necessarily true, but many men believed it. As lan, a forty-two-year-old man from Idaho, said, "Whereas men are able to more easily separate a sexual encounter from feelings or emotions, they can categorize that, yeah, this is just to get together for sexual release because, they're needing [it]. [Guys] can be more readily available. If you're looking for a hookup off Craigslist for example, you're much more likely to be able to do that with another man. so part of it is effort and availability."
why they identify as straight
Regardless of reasons for having sex with men, the fact remains that some straight-identified men still have sex with men-so why not identify as bisexual or gay? Many men identify as straight for reasons related to masculinity and because they are a part of institutions and communities that expect heterosexuality and masculinity. Many men feel that to be mas- culine, they need to identify as straight. This is one reason why fewer men than women identify as bisexual and report same-sex experiences: women are perceived as less socially valuable than men, and therefore have more flexibility to engage in same-sex sexual behavior. Gender inequality, in other words, makes it less likely that men will have sex with other men or identify as bisexual.
Additionally, many of the men I interviewed equated marriage to a woman-and often childrearing with straightness. Chris, a sixty-three-year-old man from Montana, identified as straight, "because I'm married and I've got children. And I do love my wife." Jared, a sixty-three-year-old man from lowa, similarly concluded that the identity straight "describes me best because I am married, have children, adult, grown children-but I also have urges to be with men." In short, the men I interviewed felt that being straight was a way of life, indicated by being in relationships with women and perhaps raising children. Being in a relationship with a woman meant being not gay, nor even bisexual, despite sex with men. It is, of course, possible to identify as bisexual regardless of the gender of one's partner. Yet, the mer men I interviewed felt that romantic interest in women was more important to their identity than sexual behavior with men.
Sexual identities do not always perfectly reflect attractions or sexual behaviors. Instead, they indicate and institutions. In other words, some men feel that sex relationships to certain people, communities, and i with men is irrelevant to their identities given other aspects of their lives. As Connor, a forty-three-year- old man from Oregon said,
Maybe only a few times I've ever mentioned this; I can't exactly in a politically correct world. I think there's a definite disconnect between gay and homosexual. There's the homosexual community, which there community, there's the homosexual proclivity, and then the gay community. It's like you can be an athlete without being a jock. And you can be homosexual without being gay, or into all of it. It just becomes so politically charged now.
Like Connor, the men I talked to considered straightness an identity, a way of life, or a community. Identifying as straight meant they could continue relationships with their women partners, chile ity. extended family, friends, and other people in their st their straight communities, relationships they did not think possible with a gay or bisexual identity. It also meant they could avoid stigma and feel connected ton In terms of identity, having sex with men was largely irrelevant. socially dominant group. irrelevant. Relatedly, as thirty-two-year-old Peter from Montana explained, sexual identity is a "way for groups of people to as of come together or separate, and so i feel like l like as a community, straight sexual identity is where I feel aligned.
He went on, "Personally, I don't really believe that anyone is just like completely heterosexual completely homosexual, I think everybody's got some place on the spectrum of that. I very comfortably wear
hat label of being a straight white man, because culturally and socially that's what makes the most ense for me. I'm not interested in trying to get my environment to acknowledge me as some different hew fluid sex thing." Like Connor, Peter felt connected to a straight community. His attractions to and sex with men did not detract from his feelings of belonging within that community. Heteronormativity, of course, encourages everyone to identify as straight, as does stigma against gayness and bisexuality. Sexual identification is far from completely voluntary, Still, today there is widespread LGBT visibility, and LGBT people have many legal rights today they did not have even a decade ago, Thus, men's reasons for identifying as straight and having sex with other men are more complicated than they first appear.
rural and small-town contexts
Living contexts shape how people identify. This is the case even though LGBQ people live in all types of areas, including rural areas and small towns, Most of the men I interviewed felt that heterosexuality and masculinity were normal and expected of them, Unlike the main characters in the film Brokeback Mountain, however, most of the men I interviewed did not fall in love with other men or desire an opportunity to come out as gay or bisexual. Neil, a thirty-four-year-old from South Dakota, explained that his everyday life made identifying as straight and masculine obvious: "Day to day, the majority of the time I just kind of live in that straight world, straight persona. No one would ever think that I would be curious on the other side I guess, I don't think anyway. Kind of a macho guy, I guess, I like my job, and where I live, the rural area, [it is] very conservative, so it's kind of a straight world that I live in." For Neil and others like him, having occasional sex with men did not detract from embeddedness in their "straight world." Expectations to be straight and masculine, and few visible alternatives to either in rural and small-town America, encouraged many men to identify with what they felt was normal and expected of them.
Furthermore, a higher proportion of rural and small-town men are married (to a woman) than are their counterparts in large urban areas, which shows that marriage is more central to their identities. This attitude encouraged many of the men I interviewed to have sex with men rather than extramarital sex with women because they felt such behavior was not as threatening to their marriages,
Counterintuitively, the enhanced importance of marriage to rural and small-town American culture actually encourages sex between some men in these areas. Many men I interviewed explained that extramarital sex with women could harm their marriages, whereas extramarital sex with men was not as much of an issue. Their wives would likely not have agreed, but few knew about their husbands' sexual encounters with other men.
generation and age
Generational and life course dynamics affect how all people identify their sexuality. Coming of age during especially homophobic decades in the United States, such as the 1950s through the 1980s, affected how people were socialized, what options they felt were vere available to them, and how they understood their gender and sexuality. Generational factors are not the only ones at play, however. Surveys of young to middle-aged men, including the National Survey of Family Growth and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, show disconnects between behaviors and identities among men of many ages.
Additionally, the aging process itself may shape sexual behaviors. About a third of the men I interviewed began having sex with men or increased the frequency with which they had sex with other men because of the aging process. Many reported that their wives experienced health issues or lost interest in sex as they aged. Thus, the aging process itself-in combination with other factors I explored earlier-encouraged straight-identified men to have sex with other men. It is not necessarily that the men I interviewed identified as straight because they were older. Instead, many had sex with men because they were older. Thus, generational factors and the aging process both explain why some men have sex with other men yet identify as straight.
prejudice against Igbt people
Prejudice against LGBT people, of course, plays a role in sexual identification. As I found through interviews, however, it is only one of many reasons for straight identification. Indeed, many of the men I interviewed were actually fairly liberal: a majority supported same-sex marriage and the right for same- sex couples to raise children. Only a distinct minority were overtly homophobic or biphobic.
Of course, there are many types of homophobia and biphobia, and support for legal rights can coexist alongside other forms of anti-LGBT prejudice. Research has shown that many straight-identified people support equal legal rights but not certain social rights, like the ability for same-sex couples to kiss in public. Additionally, bisexuality is often stigmatized or ignored in popular discourse, and this affects how people understand their sexuality. Clearly, this issue is complicated.
It is worthwhile to examine nationally representative survey data to help understand how much of a role prejudice plays in straight identification. The National Survey of Family Growth is one of the only surveys that measures sexual identity, sexual behavior, and attitudes about sexuality and masculinity. I combined surveys across years to create a dataset that spanned from 2011 until 2017, and examined the only four questions it asked about LGBT issues and masculinity during each of those years: "Sexual relations between two adults of the same sex are all right." "Men have greater sexual needs than women." "Men only need to see a doctor when they are hurt or sick." "When a man is feeling pain he should not let it show." I then compared the responses of straight-identified men who reported consensual sex with at least two other men compared to those who did not.
The results showed that straight-identified men who had had two or more male sexual partners were little different in their attitudes than other straight-identified men about LGBt rghts and masculinity. If anything, compared to other straight- identified men, they were more supportive toward LGBt people and less likely to say that men should only go to a doctor when hurt or sick or that men's sexual needs are greater than women's. Follow-up analyses showed that only about a third of straight-identified men with two or more male partners were homophobic and deeply conservative on gender attitudes. Most were liberal to moderate
These analyses suggest that most straight-identified men who have sex with other men do not identify as straight only because of prejudice. Homophobia and biphobia do inform many men's beliefs about gay, bisexual, and straight identities and impact their decision to identify as straight. Ultimately, however, prejudice is only one of many reasons men who report sex with other men identify as straight. For some men, it plays a large role, and for other men, a small one. In short, this issue is complicated, and it is overly simplistic to say that straight-identified men who have sex with other men are simply closeted gay or bisexual men. There are numerous factors that affect sexual identification. While many people understandably think that men are "closeted" if they have sex with other men yet identify as straight, this is not exactly true. These men are secretive about their sexual behavior, but not their identity.
Relatedly, most of the men I talked to ed to knew that bisexuality was a possible identity but did not claim that identity. Otto, a 52 year old man from Oregon, for instance, admitted that "for a long. I time I thought I would probably be described as bisexual. But the more I read and understand, a associated myself more with identified bisexuals, that's not me, man. I'm not looking for a partner than for sex." Many people are prejudiced against bisexuality and believe that bisexuals are co This belief is widespread but false. Most of the men I interviewed did not report these beliefs, ho Most of the men I interviewed knew that bisexual people existed and that they could have potentia