Love in the Gay World: Negotiating Intimate Relationships in Lima´s Middle-Class Gay Scene

Abstract

This article explores how young gay men who are involve in Lima’s middle-class gay scene made sense of their intimate relationships regarding discourses about sexuality, intimacy, and love. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 14 such men, I found that diverse and seemingly conflicting discursive configurations coexisted and intertwined within aspects of their relationships such as monogamy, sex-role positioning, and interpretations of sexual intimacy. Although participants mostly endorsed “modern” categories, more attuned with global messages of gender equality and egalitarianism, they also combined them with discourses that were more “traditional”—gendered and related to romantic love. Participants negotiated these tensions through a pattern of reflexive and unreflexive (dis)identifications, which were embedded in structural socioeconomic conditions. These findings acknowledge the complexities of Latin American middle-class gay sexualities and challenge rigid models of same-sex desire, as well as arguments about the exceptionally reflexive qualities of “modern” gay identities.