deviance a continuum – from “high consensus

Moreover, not only is deviance a continuum – from “high consensus” deviance  (rape, murder, robbery) to “low consensus” deviance (stealing a newspaper, smoking  marijuana, getting drunk at a party) – and not only does censure vary from one social  circle to another, but homosexuality itself is a continuum with respect to degrees of  deviance. In the past generation, the abbreviation LGBT (sometimes rendered LGBTQ)  has come into being; it gained acceptance so quickly that, in many circles, hardly  anyone has to explain what it means. It refers to the variant sexuality or homosexuality  cluster: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual (plus “Queer,” though the “Q” sometimes  means “Questioning”). The term refers to persons who are non‐heteronormative or  “non‐cisgendered” (disagreement between one’s biology and genetics and one’s sex  role), and reflects humanity’s capacity for gender and sexual diversity. Political activists  frequently use LGBT to rally all these factions in the fight for political equality. But not  all gays conceptualize intersex persons as belonging to the homosexual continuum, and  some lesbian separatists do not want to be lumped in the same category as men. In any  case, with respect to their deviant status, not all homosexuals are treated equally. Each  category of the sexual diversity spectrum is reacted to differently by sexually  conventional  audiences, and within each category, degree of conventionality varies in  individual cases. Nonetheless, to the extent that lesbians and gay men depart from the  stereotypical sexual role of femininity and masculinity, she or he will tend to attract  negative reactions from some heteronormatively conventional audiences. Hence it is  misleading to refer to homosexuality as completely non‐deviant.  At the end of the day, what remains? What should be included within the macrocosm  of our subject of study? Deviance is behavior, beliefs, or characteristics that are disvalued  by relevant social collectivities. As a result, persons who engage in, believe, or possess  them often develop their own norms, values, subcultures, and lifestyles, in part as  a result of reactions to that disvaluation., 

References

Goode, Erich, ed. 2015. The handbook of deviance. Wiley handbooks in criminology and criminal justice. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.