Jonathan Alexander Summary

Cultural norms constrain and condemn voices who want to speak openly about their sexuality. In the article, Out of the Closet and Into the Network, Johnathan Alexander invites his audience to think about how discussing sexual orientation in an anonymous computerized network classroom can give the homosexual community a voice to safely to express themselves without being persecuted for their sexuality by heterosexuals.  Because Alexander is an openly gay male, he has experienced the alienation of being a homosexual in a heterosexual society.  His own personal experiences shape his argument of being mistreated and isolated because of his sexuality.  Alexander really drove home the point that “identity is related to sexual orientation” and it “is socially construed, constructed, and controlled (212).