Queer by Choice

A collection of quotes taken from :

"Queer by choice: Lesbians, gay men, and the politics of identity" Whisman, Vera (1996) Routledge, New York


Edward Porter - 'My friends say "you're eithere straight or gay." And I say that's not true. I am not, twenty four hours a day, a sexually oriented person. It's at those times when I am going to be sexual, it is homosexual. The only time I'm gay is basically when I have a relationship with someone.'
Vera Whisman - 'So you might even say that relationships are gay, not that people are gay.'
Edward Porter - 'Oh, I like that.'

Mary Behnke (p34) - 'We don't even know what it would be like to choose to be heterosexual, almost, in this society. Because what you've seen on television and in the ads, and on and on, ad infinitum from moment one, and you know, when the first thing ever said about you is "It's a boy" or "It's a girl," you're being shuttled into that traditional gender role. I think it would be nice if change could be made so that all people could be fully human and heterosexuality could be a choice.'

Henry Yount (p34-35) - I think in a hundred years from now, homosexuals will have provided a means for a healthy heterosexuality. Heterosexuals never make a choice. There is no choice, that's the norm. So it's as bad for them as it is for homosexuals. Heterosexuals are left in this helpless position also, of "Well, that's the way it is. That's what I'm supposed to do, that's how I', supposed to behave." And that's not healthy. The route of being attracted to someone because they have the opposite plumbing is just a lie. I'm not heterophobic, but I just look forward to a time when it's a healthy choice, and it's made for good rational reasons, which is that you want to be involved with this person, whatever their plumbing is.'

Malcolm Wilson (p24) -I know that people do [choose to be gay]. I have friends who have. I didn't used to before, but now I sort of feel that I can accept the idea that one could turn gay. Which I guess means that one could turn heterosexual, I suppose. I mean, on some of these talk shows you always see at least one person who will say "I used to be gay and now I saw that light." What is going on? You start to think, well, is it really possible for the person to have *turned* heterosexual?'

Sam Broome (p21) - 'I think calling yourself bisexual is the purest form of narcissism. It's like, "If it has an orifice, I'm going to use it."

On Stonewall (p17) - 'The reason so few of us are bisexual is because society made such a big stink about homosexuality that we got forced into seeing ourselves as either straight or non-straight... We'll be gay until everyone has forgotten it's an issue. Then we'll begin to be complete.' (Wittman 1992, orig. 1970:331)