Beatrice Gusmano Performing Non-Heterosexual Identities Through Homonormativity. Narrative Interviews with Italian Gay Male Workers in Professional Positions 1. Introduction This paper seeks to discuss how minority sexual identities are constructed and managed at work. The workplace is a specific space where differences are socially produced, and in which identity hierarchies are enacted through rules and particular kinds of interactions 1 . People who deviate from the norm have to cope with invisible barriers during their careers, since it is necessary to emulate the dominant social category in order to be successful 2 . Studying how sexual identities are created, constructed and maintained entails referring to the wider reference setting, that is, Western culture, where the homosexual experience is still considered a deplorable transgression. At the same time, though, a widespread allegiance to heteronormative assumptions is assumed by some of those who define themselves as non-heterosexual. The aim of this paper is thus to present how male homosexual workers in professional positions perform what can be defined as homonormative identities in the workplace. In order to analyze this subject position, I will take into consideration the challenge 1 J. ACKER, Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: a Theory of Gendered Organizations, Gender and Society, 4, 1990, pp. 139-158. 2 L. ZIMMER, How Women Reshape the Prison Guard Role, Gender and Society, 1: 4, 1987, pp. 415-431.