Sexual Identities: A study of Geographic Locations for Homosexual Anonymous
Sex and its Connection to Youth that Collect in That Space.
Essentially, this piece will be trying to do two things.....
First, it is trying to offer up an understanding of a space in
which gay men (married, bi, etc.) converge at certain hours of the
day to obtain sexual gratification that is not enclosed within or dependent
upon other commercial locations (i.e., bookstores, university Tearooms, etc.).
This space is also, because of its non-institutionalization, is able to
attract a multiplicity of those who cannot enter or choose not to enter
establishments most commonly identified as "gay". Important things about this
space I am trying to piece together: strong masculine pull (lesbians have
their own system and it works very differently, and straight-identitied
women also utilize a different method of introduction), time relationship,
cruising rhetorics (the ritual patterns of speech, using the car as represent-
ation of self, etc.), and function as post-bathhouse resource.
Secondly, I am connecting this to its identification process for
gay youths. My point here is establishing some connection between its
accessibility (in many medium to smaller cities that do not have active
and capable youth centers and some larger towns that do) for youth who have
little other way to meet others with queer identities AND what kind of effect
this has on the process of queer identification and the ritual of reaffirm-
ation of that identity.
Any ideas? Resources? I am seeking many out, but thought this
newsgroup might be a great way to find things that I might overlook or just
not find from my Iowa homebase.
Please let me know.
Shane Luitjens
Drake University