Resumen

HERRERA OESTERHELD, Florencia. Construccion de la identidad lesbica en Santiago de Chile. Universum [online]. 2007, vol.22, n.2, pp. 151-163. ISSN 0718-2376.  doi: 10.4067/S0718-23762007000200010.

The construction of a lesbian identity is usually a long and painful process. For a woman to categorize herself as a lesbian it is necessary that she has an awareness of the existence of"lesbian" as a social category and then she has to relate it to her own life experiences so she can identify with it (Jenness 1992). In this article I review the concept of homosexual identity, I describe the relationship of Chilean lesbians with their sexual orientation and I analyze the inner process of the construction of a lesbian identity experienced by the women who participated in my research

Palabras clave : Sexual identity; Lesbianism; Homosexuality.