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Honmosexual identity is conceptualized as a life-spanning developmental process that eventually leads to personal acceptance of a positive gay self-image and a coherent personal identity. J. Habermas' theory of ego development is utilized to provide a synthesis and understanding of the literature on the construction and maintenance of the homosexual idenity. It is concluded that the homosexual idenity generally emerges in a three-stage process in which the person progresses from an egocentric interpretation of homoerotic feelings to an internalization of the normative, conventional assumptions about homosexuality to a post-conventional phase in which societal norms are critically evaluated and the positive gay identity is achieved and managed.