Browning touches upon some intriguing areas of consideration.
Among them are identity as a product of generational development, identity as a construct of internal and external boundaries and even going out as a gay parallel to Puritan ideas of redemption. By contrast, the gay-straight divide is much more fluid and bridgeable in Naples, Italy, where Browning's encounters with a gay doctor and transvestites lead him to situate homosexual identity in a web of family relations and social codes. To buttress his thesis that experiencing being gay is shaped by one's culture, Browning looks at the ritualized gay sex of Sambia tribesmen of New Guinea and at homosexuality among middle-class Brazilians and Filipinos. The search for a responsible, liberated sexuality, he insists, can serve as a model for political activists working to achieve an inclusive, pluralistic, democratic society. A study of the effect of geography on the definition of sexuality and sexual roles.