A more radical identity.

Name: Simone N. Sneed Age: 19 Hometown: Albany, N.Y.

Call me queer. That's what I told my coworker a few days before I spoke at the National Hip-Hop Political Convention in Newark, N.J., in June. Later I told one of my best friends the same thing. She looked at me, smiled, laughed, and said, "Simone, you're a 'queer andro femme.'" "That sounds like a Star Wars character," I responded.

Lately I've noticed a lot of identity exploration among my peers. I'm from a generation that decided their sexual identities early on in life--I came out of the closet as a full-fledged Ani DiFranco--listening, Birkenstock-wearing lesbian when I was 13 years old--but little did I know that several years later I would be reexamining what my sexuality means to me. Over those years I have met an ever-expanding population of queers, polyamorous people, flexuals, gender queers, bois, boy-girl wonders, tranny fags, tranny chasers, hetero boys who used to be lesbians, and lesbians who used to be hetero bio boys.

While speaking on a gay rights panel at the trip-hop convention, I got into a discussion about how homosexuality has become mainstream. It's the new heterosexuality, some said; gays and lesbians, who were once thought of as lefty, individualistic, and unique, are now simply imitating heterosexual culture. The gay community has bought into consumerism, and "gay" no longer appears to be an identity that my peers and I are comfortable with. There used to be a strong sense of politics and counterculture associated with a gay or lesbian identity. But that seems lost.

This loss of radical individualism has caused many gay and lesbian youths to take on alternate sexual identities that allow for growth and exploration. For me, that identity is "queer." So please don't call me a lesbian.