Discovering Multiple Identities among Italian Non-Heterosexual Men in a Cruising Context

For many men in modern Western societies it is not uncommon to have anonymous same-sex acts in cruising places with a varying frequency depending on their biographical history. Specific identities of men cruising for same-sex acts (cruisers) in a park located in a North Italy city were investigated. In this study 57 men were interviewed by three different methods (individually, couple interviews, and one focus group of friends). A pragmatic approach was followed throughout the analysis of the data, drawing from a number of analytic strategies, including constant-comparative, typographic, and narrative methods. Queer theory and queer historiography were also blended into the examinations of the men’s lives. Cruisers’ identities consisted of three elements: self-perception, or what an individual felt or perceived about himself and his contexts; experiences, or what and/or how he behaved or acted; and interpretations drawn from the cruiser’s experiences, or the meanings he ascribed to himself and his life concerning his experiences, in juxtaposition to what he perceived as the normative values of the contexts of which he was a part. Six identity types among cruisers were delineated, providing evidence of different ways non-heterosexual men identify in cruising places. Understanding the nuances of cruisers’ identities will prevent other researchers from extrapolating from only the visible elements or actions of this population.