Secrecy in the Lesbian World

t HIS STUDY is an ethnographic description of secrecy, its accomplishment and effects, among several groups of lesbians. Simmel (1950: 345-346) defines two types of secret societies. The first includes societies whose very existence is not known; the second, pertinent to the lesbian world, refers to groups whose existence is known but whose members are not. The secrecy surrounding gay life in our society is rooted in the stigma which characterizes homosexual acts and persons. In the following pages I will detail the ways in which secrecy is an inextricable part of lesbian life. This analysis of secrecy among lesbians will concern the ways in which secrecy touches the lives of individual gay women, and the ways that secrecy informs their relationships with both gay and nongay audiences. The data in this study derive from three years of participant observation in a gay organization, at meetings, parties, in other social settings, and in friendship networks in both activist and secret lesbian