The problems of orthodox liberalism led gays and lesbians, along with other new social movements, to explore other theoretical resources. Gay liberation theory grew out of Marxism, in particular Marcuse's treatment of sexuality in Eros and Civilization (1955), and focused on the relation between sexuality and capitalism. Dennis Altman ([1971] 1993), Mario Mieli (1977), and Guy Hocquenghem (1978) each offered analyses suggesting that without the guilt and renunciation demanded by capitalist discipline we would all be polymorphously perverse, free to experience pleasure with a variety of different partners. This "liberationist" theorizing is now virtually unknown and/or discredited even by students who see themselves as radical (Lehring 1997). In academic circles Marxism was pushed aside not by liberalism, however, but by poststructuralism. This shift marked the decline of utopian or universalist theories that aimed at the end of repression in favor of theories that sought to account for the particular constructions of self and society that include not only repression but also forces of desire, meaning, and agency -- that is, theories that understand the heterosexual self not simply as one forced to abandon its homosexual desires upon pain of expulsion but as a self created and given meaning precisely by the lure of belonging to the "normal."
San Francisco Gay Pride Parade 2011
Photos at San Francisco Chronicle, and also, "S.F. Pride - a grown-up vibe, cheers for New York."And an excerpt from Shane Phelan literature review, at the American Political Science Review, "Queer Liberalism" (June 2000):