“That Makes Me Gay”

Abstract

This chapter shows how some young people become sexual by highlighting how gender non-conforming behavior and characteristics are used to explain how people know that they are gay. Heteronormativity acts as a straightening device, meaning that it’s not enough to be heterosexually oriented; one must also be appropriately masculine or feminine to be straight. Further, heteronormativity is so entrenched in society that young people may interpret their violations of heterosexual scripts as necessary evidence that they are not straight. Beyond genderqueerness and homoerotic desires—consistent with a queer of color analysis—Spectrum youth have formed their queer identities based on their experiences with class, race, ability, nationality, and more, exposing the ways that heteronormative culture is not just straight but white and middle class. Therefore, finding a place like Spectrum, which serves as a release valve from the pressures of heteronormativity, is often the first time these young people start to have a sense of belonging in society. Spectrum then is a place of socialization where young people experiencing a queer subjectivity learn the language and the culture of queer.