On "doing" and "being" gay: sexual behavior and homosexual male self-identity

Abstract

The possible relationships between sexual behavior and homosexual male self-identity are examined within a symbolic interactionist frame-work. The presence or absence of definitions of homosexuality, the nature of these definitions, and the rules learned by the individual for their application to himself and others determined how he perceived his feelings, his behavior, and his sexual identity. The identity histories of the men illustrate how the peer groups in which they were socialized and the behavior of their friends prevented them from defining their behavior in terms of the "homosexual pattern." They began to reinterpret their behavior as "homosexual" when they perceived changes in the behavior and definitions of their behavior by their friends, or when they came into contact with self-defined homosexuals.