SOURCE: Libretti, Tim. “History and Queer Consciousness: The Dialectics of Gay Identity in U.S. Literature.” In Literature and Homosexuality, edited by Michael J. Meyer, pp. 239-65. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000.

In the following essay, Libretti discusses various contemporary authors's contributions to the building of gay identity, focusing on a sense of solidarity, identification with other politically-oppressed groups in the U.S., and awareness of parallels between identity and literary representation.

I. Queering the Joads

At one point in his provocative 1977 documentary of the male homosexual underground The Sexual Outlaw, gay Chicano novelist John Rechy describes a pivotal moment at a gay parade when almost against his will he experiences a rush of pride in his gay identity. He writes,

There was plenty of dignity, and, embarrassing to admit—man—I felt the itchy sentiment that signals real pride. Here you are, and here they are, and here we are...