Relationship Innovation in Male Couples

Abstract

Interviews with 70 men in coupled relationships in Toronto show the range and development of gay relationships in managing sexual inclusivity. Monogamy scripts appear most commonly among younger men and/or men new to gay relationships, and among men whose formative years have been in cultures with limited or absent autonomous gay worlds. But more common is allegiance to particularly masculine discourses of autonomy and adventurism, insisting on a right to sexual self-determination and attraction to the sense of affirmation and pleasure experienced with other men. Indigenous sexual cultures among gay men have taken their own autonomous path of development apart from (if still a part of) the courtship and family practices of the heterosexual hegemony, and have innovated new options and understandings in conducting relationships.