UC Santa Barbara

This study explores young women's experiences "coming out" in high school. I find that across race and class backgrounds, young women in high school are increasingly coming to articulate their sexuality as fluid rather than with more conventional stable identity categories such as "lesbian." Based on 79 ethnographic interviews with women who came to see themselves as non-heterosexual in high school, I find 46 (58%) identify themselves as fluid/pansexual/queer or without a label, 7 (9%) identify as bisexual, 15 (19%) identify as lesbian but also somewhat fluid, and 11 (14%) identify as strictly lesbian. I find the use of "fluid" (and related synonyms) as a label is more than a shift in language; women who come to see themselves as fluid have markedly different experiences coming out in high school than do women who identify as lesbian. Young women in high school who identify as fluid and those who identify as lesbian have a similar process in coming to recognize their romantic and sexual attractions, and yet those who identify as lesbian are far more likely to feel stigmatized from their peers because of their sexual orientation.