GENDER & SOCIETY, Vol XX No. X, Month, XXXX 1–23 DOI: 10.1177/0891243217723883 © 2017 by The Author(s) “WE CAN WRITE THE SCRIPTS OURSELVES” Queer Challenges to Heteronormative Courtship Practices ELLEN LAMONT Appalachian State University, USA Courtship conventions are premised on widespread and deeply held cultural beliefs that men and women need and want different things from their romantic relationships. Yet queer relationships challenge the notion of distinct gendered behaviors in romantic rela- tionships, and queer people often explicitly seek to undermine conventional relationship practices. Using interview data from 40 LGBTQ-identified respondents, I examine how queer people negotiate culturally dominant gendered dating and courtship practices. My findings show that, rather than replicate heterosexual norms, respondents actively reject them, seeking new and more egalitarian ways of building romantic relationships. Significantly, the narratives drawn on to justify egalitarian dating practices are similar to those used in their committed relationships. Respondents emphasized egalitarian, flexible, and non-gendered care work in committed relationships, indicating that how people date may potentially set the stage for the dynamics in their relationships. The importance placed on these alternative norms in queer communities, however, contradicts respond- ents’ assertions that they can create relationships free from cultural constraints, demon- strating how emerging norms can breed their own pressures for conformity. Keywords: gender; sexuality; dating; courtship; LGBTQ AUTHOR’S NOTE: Thank you to stef shuster, Teresa Roach, Paula England, Sushmita Chatterjee, Cameron Lippard, Jo Reger, Amy Stone, and three anonymous reviewers for their generous feedback. This research was partially supported by Appalachian State University’s University Research Council Grant and Department of Sociology. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ellen Lamont, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608 USA; e-mail: lamontec@appstate.edu. 723883GAS XX X 10.1177/0891243217723883Gender & SocietyLamont / “We Can Write the Scripts Ourselves” research-article 2017