Sartre’s choice-based view of sexuality clashed with emerging born-this-way gay identity politics

Evidence

The book was considered shocking at the time, not least because it included a chapter on lesbianism — although few yet knew that Beauvoir herself had had sexual relationships with both sexes. Sartre too supported gay rights, although he always insisted that sexuality was a matter of choice, which put him at odds with the views of many gay people who felt that they were simply born that way. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 69

Categorization

• XREF: Illustrates the philosophical stakes of existentialist free choice versus essentialist identity claims, echoing debates in the reader’s own knowledge base about constructivist versus essentialist accounts of identity. — connects to: Sartre treated sexual orientation as a chosen response rather than an innate fact — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 716; Identity is now a matter of choice rather than inherited absolute truth — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 112; Identity is a positional political choice, not an ascribed primordial given (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Sartre treated sexual orientation as a chosen response rather than an innate fact #corroborates (0.90) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 716
• Identity arises from action and struggle rather than preceding politics #contradicts (0.78) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 121
• Identity is a positional political choice, not an ascribed primordial given #contradicts (0.75)
• Identity is now a matter of choice rather than inherited absolute truth #qualifies (0.72) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 112