Desiring mates

The discourse of gay liberation reads silence surrounding personal participation in same-sex sexualized pleasures as a sign of repression, oppression and a positioning in the closet. In contrast, coming out is an important step towards accepting one's true homosexual self. The demand for the emancipation of the homosexual type further suggests that all same-sex sexualized contact signifies the homosexuality of the subjects involved, regardless of whether they recognize this or not. This compulsory homosexualization of men who have sexualized contact with men does not apply to relationships between male friends ("mates"). A "mateship" union grants a level of privacy otherwise eradicated by a gay liberation movement insistent on the public confession of a homosexual orientation. To remain silent about corporeal pleasures poses a threat to the modernist preference for control of bodies and to the established gay identity. Silence offers a space for the construction of new modes of same-sex intimate relationships within a queer framework.