The term was coined by Teresa de Lauretis in 1990. Viva Smelly, Messy Humans. Sexuality as choice opens up a continuum of sexual options, which . . . is threatening to those who have imposed a categorical definition of their sexuality. Not in the sense of selecting off a platter at a buffet, but in the true sense of going for it wholeheartedly. No. 6, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1995.
Most gay people take their sexuality to be fairly fixed, something which is unlikely to change.
Often, they also perceive it as something about which they had very little choice. More strongly, in recent times many gay men and lesbians seem to believe that they were born gay. A widespread belief that sexual identities can be explained biologically stands in direct opposition to the social constructionist view which is now the orthodoxy among scholars working in queer theory, history and politics. An Alternative Student Newspaper , Vol. An Alternative Student Newspaper , Vol.