Genes and gay identity

[Tavia Nyong'O]

Why do biological arguments for homosexuality appeal to me, despite the
way they are alleged to have 'back-fired' in the past? Because being gay
feels to me and almost every gay person I know as a destiny. Gayness is
not so much a social construct as a historical construct. The alleged
mutability and instability of gay identity is
located not so much at the level of individual life experience
as it is reflected in long term  historical struggle and change.
Diachronically, or in cultural comparison, there is almost total
mutability. But within any moment of history as lived by one person,
sexual identity must be experienced as fairly stable. So I find
Butler's idea that we recreate our sexual sense of self on a daily
performative basis has a very narrow range of usefulness. 

This is why I have alway thought the comparison to race is an especially
good one, however it angers some black homophobes. Race has no coherent
biological referent, but we all usually act 'as if' it did. 
Gayness has even less of a coherent biological
referent, but seems to us as if it must have one, since it is given and
not chosen.

The political implications of this are obvious. A group that feels itself
bound by destiny will be more likely to act in concert to secure its
rights and recognition. A group that is persuaded its mutuality is
contingent, fictive and requiring constant iteration will not count for
much politically.

Tavia