Chapter 24 Further Reading: LGBTQ+ Courtship — Beyond the Heteronormative Frame

Foundational Frameworks

Warner, M. (1999). The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life. Free Press. The seminal text for the homonormativity argument discussed in section 24.10. Warner argues against the normalization of gay and lesbian relationships through the marriage and military-service frameworks; his critique remains essential context for evaluating what marriage equality accomplished and what it may have foreclosed.

Weston, K. (1991). Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship. Columbia University Press. The foundational study of chosen family in LGBTQ+ communities. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in San Francisco; describes the social and emotional functions of chosen family with ethnographic specificity that later, more quantitative work has built on.

Gay Male Courtship and Apps

Race, K. (2015). 'Party and play': Online hook-up devices and the emergence of PNP practices among gay men. Sexualities, 18(3), 253–275. Analysis of how digital app culture intersects with recreational drug use in gay male sexual networks. Discusses the explicit communication cultures of gay male apps and their relationship to community health.

Licoppe, C., Rivière, C. A., & Morel, J. (2016). Grindr casual hook-up encounters as events. The Sociological Review, 64(1), 129–146. Sociological analysis of how Grindr interactions constitute a specific type of social encounter distinct from both bar-based cruising and heterosexual app dating. Accessible and theoretically clear.

Lesbian and Bisexual Experience

Rose, S., & Zand, D. (2000). Lesbian dating and courtship from young adulthood to midlife. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 11(2–3), 77–104. The research on lesbian initiation uncertainty and verbal negotiation discussed in section 24.3. Important for its specificity about courtship processes rather than relationship quality outcomes.

Mulick, P. S., & Wright, L. W. (2002). Examining the existence of biphobia in the heterosexual and gay and lesbian communities. Journal of Bisexuality, 2(4), 45–64. The source for the "double stigma" concept discussed in section 24.4. Methodologically clear and directly relevant to the bisexual courtship discussion.

Trans Experience

Darwin, H. (2017). Doing gender beyond the binary: A virtual ethnography. Symbolic Interaction, 40(3), 317–334. Qualitative research on trans people's navigation of gender identity in romantic contexts. Discusses disclosure timing and medium in the terms used in Case Study 24.2.

James, S. E., et al. (2016). The Report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. National Center for Transgender Equality. The largest survey of trans people's experiences in the United States. Freely available online; chapters on relationships and family document the courtship and partnership experiences of a nationally diverse trans sample.

Race and LGBTQ+ Desire

Han, C. W. (2007). They don't want to cruise your type: Gay men of color and the racial politics of exclusion. Social Identities, 13(1), 51–67. The foundational analysis of racial exclusion in gay male cruising culture, predating but directly applicable to app contexts. Combines personal experience, community ethnography, and theoretical analysis.

Moore, M. R. (2011). Invisible Families: Gay Identities, Relationships, and Motherhood among Black Women. University of California Press. Research on Black lesbian communities in New York City; documents community-specific courtship norms, class dynamics, and the significant gap between the predominantly white samples in most lesbian relationship research and the experience of Black lesbian communities.

Community and Youth

Gray, M. L. (2009). Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America. NYU Press. Research on LGBTQ+ youth in rural Kentucky; documents the crucial role of online community in queer youth identity formation and courtship when physical queer community is inaccessible. A necessary corrective to urban-centric LGBTQ+ research.