Heartbroken, Ray falls into a depression and desperately wants to be with Nicole, who he loves and is willing to give up his gay lifestyle for. Shocked and angry about being lied to, Nicole runs away from him. Ray is attracted to Nicole and they start dating, but once Candance falls ill to AIDS, Ray confesses to Nicole that he is bisexual. After running into Kelvin and his fiancé Candance, Ray gets set up with her friend, Nicole Springer, an up and coming Broadway singer. He meets Quinn, a gay black man who is married with children, who feels unhappy in his marriage and begins a hidden relationship with Ray. After graduation, Ray moves to New York to pursue his law career and begins to adjust himself to a gay lifestyle. Ray and Kelvin become very close and continue to have a secret relationship. He dates his high school sweetheart, Sela, all the way through college, but one day, he meets Kelvin Ellis, a bisexual football player, who introduces Ray to his first same-sex sexual experience. Ray grew up in the South with strong heterosexual values of marriage and family. Lynn Harris’s Invisible Life, published in 1994, follows the journey of Raymond Tyler, an African American man, struggling to discover his sexual identity. Delving into Invisible Life, Brokeback Mountain, and Bi the Way, I will examine male bisexual stereotypes and how these sources influence popular culture’s perspective on the existence of male bisexuality.Į. Those gay men who did use bisexuality as a crutch only made it more difficult for the true bisexual men to come out and be accepted as a real sexual orientation. Some gay men do use the label of bisexuality as a gateway orientation, but that does not mean that bisexuality does not exist. This perception of male bisexuality is not entirely incorrect.
So, it makes sense that some gay people would first come out as bisexual because then, they still partly belong to the majority they are still normal Even if they are not even attracted to girls at all, the fact that they can still say, “But I like girls too” makes them feel more comfortable and secure because they are not yet at ease with their homosexuality. Knowing that you will never be part of the norm or majority ever again. Rejecting the heteronormative culture and coming out as homosexual can be a terrifying feeling, thinking that everyone is going to judge and ridicule you. It’s the idea of having one foot in the closet and one foot out. Homosexual men believe that claiming bisexuality is just a stepping stone, a transition period before coming out as gay.
Bisexuals have a more difficult time finding acceptance because even the gays think they are just lying to themselves and will eventually be gay. Bisexual men have to deal with proving that their sexual orientation truly exists and that they are not simply in transition to being gay. These are just a few common stereotypes about bisexual men. “They’re just horny and will get with anything.” “Bisexual? You mean not ready to come out of the closet.” “Just wait a couple years, he’ll be gay.”