Specifically, different kinds of capitalism yielded different dominant understandings of gay identity held by the movement over its 70-year history: reform capitalism created a psychiatric gay identity social contract capitalism created an “out” minority gay identity capitalism-in-crisis created a decentered and contested gay identity and neoliberal capitalism created a domesticated and consumerist gay identity. Although largely forgotten by social movement scholarship, I argue that this relationship continues. This article revisits a central tenet in the research on gay identity: namely, that industrial capitalism “created” gay identity and set the stage for the modern lesbian and gay movement in the United States.
