The Story of Sexual Identity: Narrative Perspectives on the Gay and Lesbian Life Course ‐ edited by Phillip Hammack and Bertram Cohler

Abstract

The Story of Sexual Identity: Narrative Perspectives on the Gay and Lesbian Life Course. Phillip Hammack and Bertram Cohler (Eds.). New York: Oxford University Press. 2009. 474 pp. ISBN 9780195326789. $49.95 (Cloth). The Story of Sexual Identity: Narrative Perspectives on the Gay and Lesbian Life Course, by editors Phillip Hammack and Bertram Cohler, explores the role of sociocultural and political contexts embedded in various historical periods and how these affect the life trajectories of gay and lesbian individuals and families. Further, the volume offers several chapters that examine how context informs the ways in which gays and lesbians have and are creating, shaping, and reshaping the stories of their sexual identities, illuminating the meaning behind them in an eloquent and in many instances emotionally intimate way. The editors open the volume with their conceptualization of the co-constructional processes of sexual identity development, drawing from multiple disciplines including history, psychology, sociology, and queer studies. To further conceptually ground the volume they are among the first (cf. Savin-Williams, 2005) to move away from more static early models of sexual identity development (e.g., Cass, 1979) by merging narrative and life-course perspectives. The resulting theoretical framework highlights the fluid and dynamic sexual identities of gays and lesbians and the influential role of context in their development over the life course. The editors, and many of the chapter authors, assert that the meaning of one's sexual identity is more than simply being gay or lesbian, alternative to the idea of a master narrative. The meaning of gay or lesbian varies by person and context, although some elements can be shared, especially within a generation that shares an experience, thereby creating a narrative generation. For example, those gay men of dating age during the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s are a recognized generation defined by a specific historical event. As a result of this shared experience, they share a similar discourse about dating in the age of AIDS. However, this is not to suggest that everyone shares the same discourse. Another example includes an individual's coming out story that is situated in the era of the emergence of AIDS. In fact, several chapters examine new or existing data and literature by contextualizing the life stories of gays and lesbians using a generation narrative in a way that could not be more timely. The current sociocultural and political context affecting the lives of gay and lesbian individuals, couples, and families in the United States and abroad differs vastly between and within countries and is highlighted in several chapters throughout the volume. In the United States alone, some basic rights (e.g., protections from discrimination in housing and the work place) are afforded to gay and lesbian individuals in some states, whereas in others it remains legal to deny housing to someone because of their perceived sexual identity. Similarly, in some states gay and lesbian couples who wish to marry are allowed the same state-level rights and privileges of marriage as heterosexual couples, whereas in other states they can register to receive some marital-like rights via domestic partnerships statutes. Still, in most states no rights or privileges are afforded these couples. Further, in most states and to a small extent at the federal level, the rights, privileges, and constraints for these individuals and families are contested and changing rapidly (for better or worse; e.g., the repeal of Proposition 8 in California). In fact, it has become commonplace to encounter some form of media (e.g., Internet) that discusses the latest developments in gay and lesbian rights, and it is widely accepted that discrimination continues to pervade the fabric of the American tapestry. Certainly, each decade or historical period in American history has differentially influenced the constraints and access to myriad rights, privileges, and safe communities for gay and lesbians. …