One way of mounting a limited critique of homophobia is to assert the liberal credo that everyone has the right to her privacy, and feminists must recognize that many people (many many people!) are not heterosexual. This is better than nothing, but it is not a radical challenge to heterosexuality, in that it does not recognize the compulsory nature of heterosexual institutions. Underlying the argument that as long as consenting adults are involved, sexual preferences are private matters from which the law should keep out, is the assumption that ‘sexuality’ is a private matter, that ‘normal’ sexual behavior springs from nature, and that it has nothing to do with culture or history. But if we recognise that sexuality is located in culture, we have to deal with the uncomfortable idea that sexuality is a human construct, and not something that happens ‘naturally.’
— Nivedita Menon, “How Natural is Normal?: Feminism and Compulsory Heterosexuality,” Because I Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India
