Rethinking Sexual Identity

Abstract

This paper appraises current existential thinking on sexual identity and its implications for therapeutic practice. It offers a constructionist reading of sexual identity arguing that our sexuality is not essential, invariant or biologically determined whilst also suggesting that existing accounts have paid insufficient attention to the context in which this aspect of our inter- relatedness and desire to be with others finds expression. It explores the ways in which dominant discourses have problematised lesbian and gay sexuality as that which requires explanation thereby serving to construct heterosexuality as an ‘unmarked’ category.