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The premise of Ward's work rests on challenging the common assumption, by both straights and gays, that two straight-identified guys fooling around sexually are either gay or wannabe gays. As Ward discusses, there are a range of situations where there is public willingness to think of such sexuality as being not an indicator of an underlying 'gay': that the sex could be from needing relief when the opposite sex isn't available (e.g., prison, single-sex institutions), as teenage/young adults exploring, or as something akin to sexual abuse. But Ward's work points out that: 1) these reasons ('excuses') serve to trivialize sexual agency, and 2) the existence of these 'excuses' is closely woven in with current essentialist, normative, and identity assumptions about sexual variation. Since discussion of these assumptions is the core of the book, I'll not attempt to summarize Ward's excellent discussion of them, but will note here my own reasons for agreeing with her challenges to those assumptions.By way of addressing Ward's linking of these 'excuses' to gay cultural/political assumptions, I'll share Ward's practice of illustrating the personal understanding of the research by using my own observations and reflections as additional 'data'. As an older (retired) gay male academic who has spent most of his life in urban, gay-identified, centers, I have a regular need to get away from the confining structures that urban life places on the people I interact with. Traveling around remote portions of the Inter-mountain West, I visit natural hot springs and similar rural swimming holes whenever I can. In those situations I frequently encounter men, ranging in age from 20's to 70's, who clearly identify as straight but enjoy some male-male sexual interaction.My observations from those interactions, plus from 40+ years experience as gay activist/academic, have reinforced my critique of the contemporary gay political movement as far too often conflating identity with behavior, and as investing too much in the assumption that all same-sex activity is an indication of struggling to develop a sense of self (an identity) as gay or bi. Having watched young men struggle with coming out, but also having talked with and observed men of various ages who are comfortably straight but interact sexually with other men, it's clear that sexual activity and identity are not necessarily related. For some, the identity is important and that is a struggle, but for many others, sex just happens in all sorts of forms with a variety of partners.Of course, embedded in the assertion that sexual partner mixing 'just happens' are two issues that are problematic for contemporary sexual politics: 1) choice, and 2) assimilation. While Ward's arguments draw into question the beliefs by some that same-sex behavior and same-sex identity are biologically hardwired, there is nothing in Ward's work that refutes the fact that both same-sex behavior and identity are frequently engaged/enacted when the participants clearly know that doing so can result in serious consequences (e.g., arrest) or, in some cultures, death. Clearly a wide range of factors result in behaviors and self-definitions that, while not biologically determined, are 'hardwired'.Regarding assimilation, dominant in contemporary gay politics is a normative paradigm that assumes that if we just had marriages rights, our sexuality would be much like the idealized, dyadic, romanticized, image of heterosexual sexuality. Ward is right that the normative pressures in LGB culture create an investment in NOT acknowledging the same-sex activity of straight-identified and hetero-active men, just as the normative pressures create discomfort with acknowledging the fact that sexual behavior in general does not following the romanticized ideal. Fortunately there are multiple authors besides Ward who are arguing that the gay marriage model excludes far too many.Before closing, it's important to address three other issues that are likely to arise with Ward's work:Whiteness: Ward focuses on the experiences of white men. This tactic makes sense given that cultural assumptions about gay sexuality and particularly about sexual identity are based largely on assumptions about the sexuality of white gay men with, as Ward explains, non-white men being treated largely as MSM (men who have sex with men), not as gay. I wish, though, that Ward had addressed more explicitly the embeddedness of class in the culture's focus on 'whiteness' and 'white sexuality', since the cultural definition of whiteness is very class based.“Sexual violence:” The quotes here are intentional. Ward acknowledges that same-sex sexual hazing rituals and similar activities are likely to be subjectively experienced by many as being akin to degrading rape. BUT, she admirably takes the risk of drawing the comparison to S&M and arguing for the positive acknowledgment of the agentic pleasure that may be experienced by some when in the submissive role.Data: Concerns have been publicly raised about the data that forms a part of Ward's argument. Her analysis of Craigslist postings is used to illustrate the issues involved, but the argument built by Ward goes far beyond the Craigslist postings. Craigslist postings are clearly not the best source for understanding straight-identified same-sex activity, and I disagree with some of her analysis of that, but using that is a reasonable option given the lack of data on the phenomenon. Unfortunately, a fair amount of the publicity for the book focuses on the Craigslist data, which I feel misrepresents the breadth of Ward's argument.Conclusion:Having spent years challenging assumptions about class, whiteness, identity, and sexual expression among the same-sex active, I can attest that the issues Ward has taken on make very many uncomfortable, both general population gays as well as sex scholars. My largest critique of Ward is that, for the key audience of sexual rights activists, the book ends with a blank space – what to do next? The conclusion I drew from the book was a strong need for a push for rights for sexual behavior, regardless of any connection to identity. Ward doesn't provide any guidelines for such a political shift, but she has played an important part in laying the groundwork for a focus on sexual behavior rights.
