"Coming Out" in the Age of Social Constructionism: Sexual Identity Formation Among Lesbian and Bisexual Women

Abstract

Meanwhile, sexological theory progressed as social constructionists carefully exposed and challenged essentialist assumptions. This scrutiny changed scientific understandings of sexuality, sexual identity, sexual poli­tics, and the history of sexuality. But sexologists have not yet fully reex­amined the process of sexual identity formation. The result is a disjunction between contemporary concepts of sexual identity and available models for describing sexual identity formation. This disjunction magnifies some of the conceptual problems in the existing literature on sexual identity formation and highlights the need to reconceptualize the process.