Comp Het

Comp het is shorthand for compulsory heterosexuality, a concept from Adrienne Rich's 1980 essay "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," which argued that heterosexuality is a socially enforced institution rather than a natural default. In today's queer communities, especially online, the term is used more casually to describe the experience of performing or feeling pressured into straight attraction and relationships before recognizing one's own queerness. Many lesbians, bisexual women, and non-binary people describe "working through their comp het" as a turning point in coming out to themselves, when they separate genuine desire from what they were taught to expect. It names a pressure, not an orientation.