compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence - adrienne rich

Compulsory heterosexuality. Lesbian existence.  What do these two terms mean?

It was very hard to not Google the meanings of the two, but I know to get the right answers out of this article I had to refrain.  After reading, I am still a little confused as to what these two words mean.  Rich is a very talented writer, and would be understandable for those who are extremely into these subjects, or love to read – none of these apply to me. 

I thought breaking down the words separately would help give me a bigger picture of a definition I could come up with myself (I didn’t think that googling them separately was breaking the rules):

Compulsory: required by rule

Heterosexuality: a sexual attraction to (or sexual relations with) persons of the opposite sex

Lesbian: a homosexual woman

Existence: the state or fact of existing

(These were all via Siri ;p)

Going by souley on the article I saw:

Compulsory heterosexuality as more of an encouragement for people who are heterosexual to go into politics and see what the world of law is doing to them and others.  Another thing that I saw out of the article was that Rich says that this is a mans world, and a man makes a compulsory heterosexual for his needs.  She does speak of how men biologically men have only one innate orientation--a sexual one that draws them to women--while women have two innate orientations, sexual toward men and reproductive toward their young.  Making women obviously different and more “prone” to different orientations.

Lesbian existence was broken down into two separate terms in this article.  One: “lesbianism,” and two: “alternative lifestyle.”  It was very hard for me to tell if Rich was for or against lesbians by the way she wrote. Once again, she makes lesbian existence about politics and political rights and wrongs.  However, Rich speaks about lesbian awareness, and about how so many women live in secrets because they are afraid of who will judge them.  Rich does state that it is a hard world, for everyone. 




Question for class:
For Rich, would you say she is for lesbians or completely against them? Where is Rich going with all of this? Is being gay something your born knowing?   
Comments:
Want to know where Rich is going with all of her information.  I saw a lot of contradictions in her writing.