Getting Over It

Abstract

This chapter reflects on the identities that young lesbians and gay men seek at a time of shifting attitudes to lesbian and gay identities. Transformations are occurring generally, although they are far from even (Weeks, 2007), and have been linked to the emergence of new identity narratives for young lesbians and gay men, who seek to go beyond the difference that liberation era identity labels denote, towards a more inclusive identity politics (Cohler and Hammack, 2007; Ghaziani, 2011). This is supported on the other side (so to speak) as transformations in the gender practices of heterosexual young people (notably young men) are, in some places, seen as becoming more ‘inclusive’ (McCormack, 2012). In particular, a growing resistance to labels is taken to indicate an emerging ‘post-gay’ era in which ‘sexual identity categories are becoming less relevant than in the past’ for young people (Lewis et al., 2013: 2.1).