Homosexual Discretion and Good Taste: Two Rules That Govern Homosexual Sociability Space in Santiago de Chile

Homosexual sociability space in Santiago is not socially homogenous. Beyond non-heterosexual identities segmentation (gay, lesbian, queer, BDSM, etc.), the present article proposes a reflection observing certain social distinctions or differences that come into play to create a hierarchy among gay and lesbian individuals within that space. Using a qualitative approximation, we analyze the discourse of homosexual men and women about ways to display homosexuality in different places in the city, as well as some sociability practices used in homosexual venues. The resulting social hierarchy is understood through two central subjective rules: discretion and good taste, dynamic mechanisms that perpetuate the distance among groups within the same sociability space, and to some extent reproduce the city’s class structure. Given that material means to privatize and sophisticate homosexual expression are unequally distributed in Santiago, the resulting differentiated social networks end up configuring the visibility strategies of homosexual identity played out in the city in the last years.     

Queering Poetics: The Impact of Poetry on LGBT+ Identity in Singaporean Adolescents

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study explores identity formation in LGBT+ Singaporean adolescents, and how reading, writing, and listening to poetry shapes Singaporean adolescents’ social identities as queer people. Analyzing in-depth interviews with nine LGBT+ Singaporean adolescents, four themes were found: (1) LGBT+ Singaporean adolescents interested in poetry believe that reading, writing, and/or listening to poetry has been an integral part of constructing their queer identities; (2) the poems that have impacted LGBT+ Singaporean adolescents’ queer identities the most have been informed by queer sociocultural values; (3) poetry provides validation to LGBT+ Singaporean adolescents that their identities are real and that others before them have experienced the same challenges they are going through; and (4) poetry serves as a third space for LGBT+ Singaporean adolescents to safely construct their growing queer identities. Implications for teachers, counselors, and adult supporters of queer Singaporean adolescents are discussed, and recommendations for future research are provided.     

LGBTQ+ Young Adults on the Street and on Campus: Identity as a Product of Social Context

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) young adults face unique identity-related experiences based on their immersion in distinctive social contexts. The predominant framework of performing separate analyses on samples of LGBTQ+ young people by their primary social status obfuscates more holistic understandings of the role of social context. Using 46 in-depth interviews with LGBTQ+ college students and LGBTQ+ homeless young adults, we ask: How are LGBTQ+ young adults’ capacities for “doing” their gender and sexual identities shaped by their distinctive social contexts? In developing their identities, both groups of LGBTQ+ young adults navigated their social environments to seek out resources and support. Most college students described their educational contexts as conducive to helping them develop their identities, or “undo” rigid norms of gender and sexuality. Homeless young adults’ social environments, meanwhile, imposed complex barriers to self-expression that reinforced more normative expectations of “doing” gender and sexual identities.     

Psychotherapeutic issues with "kinky" clients: clinical problems, yours and theirs

People whose sexual repertoire includes BDSM, fetish, or other "kinky" practices have become increasingly visible, on the Internet, in the real world, and in psychotherapists' offices. Unfortunately, the prevailing psychiatric view of BDSM remains a negative one: These sexual practices are usually considered paraphilias, i.e., de facto evidence of pathology. A different, affirming view of BDSM is taken in this paper. After defining BDSM and reviewing common misconceptions, a variety of issues the practitioner will face are described. These include problems of countertransference, of working with people with newly emerging sexual identities, working with spouses and partners, and discriminating between abuse and sexual "play."     

Intersectionality in the Lives of LGBTQ Youth: Identifying as LGBTQ and Finding Community in Small Cities and Rural Towns

This article presents an analysis of the views of younger bisexual and lesbian women and transgender youth living in a western Canadian small city on their sexual and gender identities. Data were collected through focus groups and interviews and analyzed thematically through an intersectional lens. The purposive sample was composed of 13 youth who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) and whose average age was 19.8 years. The analytical themes of (1) living in a small town, (2) identifying and being identified, and (3) talking intersectionality indicate that the sexual identities and gender identities and expressions of LGBTQ youth change across time and context and are impacted by often overlooked factors including faith, Indigenous ancestry, disability, and class. Further, the size and character of the community significantly impacts LGBTQ youth identity development and expression. This research demonstrates the uniqueness of individual youth’s experiences—opposing notions of milestone events as singularly important in queer youth identity development.     

Teaching queer theory at a Normal School

This article presents a case study of the ongoing struggle to queer West Chester University at the level of the institution, the curriculum, and the classroom. Part of that struggle includes an effort to establish a policy for free speech that accommodates the values of the institution toward diversity. Another part involves attempts to introduce LGBT Studies into the curriculum, and the resulting debates over whether the curriculum should be "gayer" or "queerer." I discuss the personal struggle to destabilize ready-made categories and encourage non-binary thinking, while honoring the identities we live, and perform, in the classroom. In the last four years, WCU has hired half a dozen out gay or lesbian faculty members, some of whom identify as "queer." In many ways, those faculty members have entered a climate open to new ideas for adding LGBT content to the curriculum and to queering the structure and curriculum of the university. But as faculty, staff, and students engage this cause-along with the broader cause of social justice at the University- we have found that our enemies are often closer than we might have guessed. Detailing the tensions that have characterized the landscape at WCUduring my three years and half years there, this essay elaborates on the epistemological and pedagogical issues that arise when queer Theory meets LGBT Studies in the process of institutional, curricular, and pedagogical reform. I argue that questions about content and method, inclusion and exclusion, and identity and performance can be answered only with a concerted effort and continued attention to the cultural tendency to re-assert binaries while simultaneously learning from them. What is true of West Chester, I argue, is true of the larger social system where the contested terrain of the queer has implications for the choices we make as both stakeholders and deviants in the systems we chronicle and critique.     

Gay/Queer Dynamics and the Question of Sexual History and Identity

This article examines how the essentialist/constructionist and gay/queer divides have been structured by a division between closed and open notions, and it then argues that these gay and queer notions also interrelate. It argues that unhistoricist queer theory has recently drawn attention to this closed/open interrelationship by inadvertently raising (a) doubts about the irreducible openness of queer; (b) questions about its fundamentalism; and (c) reservations about its ability to handle the re-emerging issues of consonances between sexual concepts across history and the importance, usages, and allure of sexual identities. I argue that these concerns are well grounded, and that queer theory may thus have reached its expiration date.     

A “Different Economy of Bodies and Pleasures”?: Differentiating and Evaluating Sex and Sexual BDSM Experiences

ABSTRACT

This study examines how BDSM participants understand sexual experiences. Data are drawn from 32 in-depth, semistructured interviews and discussion-board threads from a large BDSM community Web site. The analysis suggests that many BDSM participants perceive sexual BDSM experiences as not only significantly different from but also better than mainstream or “vanilla” sex. Three primary differentiation mechanisms are identified. First, BDSM participants constructed sex as requiring genital contact, while framing sexual BDSM as creating sexual fulfillment not requiring normative indicators of sexual experiences (e.g., orgasm). Second, participants constructed sexual BDSM as centered on emotional and mental experiences, while perceiving sex as being centered on physical experiences. Third, participants perceived sexual BDSM experiences as facilitating deeper interpersonal connections than those available in sex. Importantly, these mechanisms serve not only a differentiating but also an evaluative function. Most participants in this study reported a strong preference for sexual BDSM over sex.     

Women's Experiences of Work in the Iranian Broadcast Media (IRIB): Motivations,challenges, and achievements

This paper examines Muslim women's work experiences in the Iranian broadcast media (IRIB) through a study of their motivations, challenges, and achievements. These women have resisted family and social constraints that prevent them from working in broadcast media; (re)constructed a new identity for themselves as Muslim women active in modern media; reformed some restrictions and pushed back conservative norms and regulations in the organization; and improved the representation of women in the broadcast media. Before the 1979 revolution, many religious communities and families were deeply skeptical about film and broadcast industries. It was deemed that such media were instruments of decadence and “Westernization.” For many practicing Muslim women, working in the broadcast media at that time was not an option. Since the 1979 revolution, and the assumption that the media has become “Islamic,” many religious women have begun working in broadcast media. Using data from thirty semi-structured interviews with these women, it can be seen that Iranian Muslim women have negotiated a better space in IRIB, although they are still far from equal with men. These women have constructed new, complex identities that go beyond simplistic dichotomies such as traditional/modern, submissive/liberated, and religious/secular.     

A Grounded Theory of Sexual Minority Women and Transgender Individuals’ Social Justice Activism

Psychosocial benefits of activism include increased empowerment, social connectedness, and resilience. Yet sexual minority women (SMW) and transgender individuals with multiple oppressed statuses and identities are especially prone to oppression-based experiences, even within minority activist communities. This study sought to develop an empirical model to explain the diverse meanings of social justice activism situated in SMW and transgender individuals’ social identities, values, and experiences of oppression and privilege. Using a grounded theory design, 20 SMW and transgender individuals participated in initial, follow-up, and feedback interviews. The most frequent demographic identities were queer or bisexual, White, middle-class women with advanced degrees. The results indicated that social justice activism was intensely relational, replete with multiple benefits, yet rife with experiences of oppression from within and outside of activist communities. The empirically derived model shows the complexity of SMW and transgender individuals’ experiences, meanings, and benefits of social justice activism.     

Being Transgender: The Experience of Transgender Identity Development

This article is based on a grounded theory analysis of interviews with transgender-identified people from different regions of the United States. Participants held a variety of gender identities under the transgender rubric (e.g., crossdresser, transman, transwoman, butch lesbian). Interviews explored the participants’ experiences in arriving at their gender identity. This article presents three clusters of findings related to the common processes of transgender identity development. This process was made possible by accessibility of transgender narratives that injected hope into what was a childhood replete with criticism and scrutiny. Ultimately, participants came to their identities through balancing a desire for authenticity with demands of necessity—meaning that they weighed their internal gender experience with considerations about their available resources, coping skills, and the consequences of gender transitions. The implications of these findings are considered in terms of their contribution to gender theory, research, and clinical support for transgender clients.     

“No Pumps Allowed”: The “Problem” With Gender Expression and the Morehouse College “Appropriate Attire Policy”

ABSTRACT

Within higher education literature, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have been lauded for their exceptional ability to provide African American students with culturally engaging academic and social environments. While the aforementioned may be true, much of this literature has presented HBCU students and these institutions as monolithic entities, with little regard to the ways social identities (e.g., gender, gender identity, sexual identities) shape students’ undergraduate experiences. This investigation uses critical discourse analysis to explore the media’s coverage and reactions to the Morehouse College appropriate attire policy in order to examine how their campus stakeholders problematized gender expression within this HBCU context. Implications for this research provides insights into how HBCU communities can both recognize and respond to the needs of their diverse queer student populations. This study concludes with highlighting new advancements being made on HBCU campuses that illustrate how they are making their campuses more inclusive of queer students.     

Queer Youth in Educational Psychology Research

ABSTRACT

Despite greater social acceptance of individuals with diverse sexual identities across the world, queer students still experience greater bullying, poorer academic motivation, and lower school attendance than heterosexual students. Educational psychology could provide additional insight toward these experiences for queer students in school, but the field of educational psychology is often absent from research on queer students. To partially address this concern, the current article examines why researching queer students is important, reviews extant research on queer youth in predominant educational psychology journals, and provides potential avenues of future research. Further, the article explores protective factors that help queer students succeed in school.     

A Fragmentary Archive: Migratory Feelings in Early Anglo-Saxon Women’s Letters

The letters by Anglo-Saxon women in the Boniface correspondence are connected by cultural practices and emotions centered on the conversion mission that functioned to maintain connections between the Anglo-Saxon diaspora. A striking recurring focus of these letters is on loss and isolation, which connects them to the Old English elegies. Many of the letters describe the writers’ traumatic experiences that result from the death or absence of kin. These are women who endured the trauma of being left behind when others migrated overseas or who, in traveling away from their homeland, found themselves isolated in an alien environment, displaced in time as well as space. This article offers an analysis of the letters, focusing on the queer temporalities they explore, the queer emotions they evoke, and the queer kinships that they forge. It argues that the women’s letters represent fragments of an early queer archive of migratory feelings.     

“All of My Lovers Fit Into This Scale”: Sexual Minority Individuals’ Responses to Two Novel Measures of Sexual Orientation

Previous qualitative research on traditional measures of sexual orientation raise concerns regarding how well these scales capture sexual minority individuals’ experience of sexuality. The present research focused on the critique of two novel scales developed to better capture the way sexual and gender minority individuals conceptualize sexuality. Participants were 179 sexual minority (i.e., gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, queer, asexual) individuals who identified as cisgender (n = 122) and transgender (n = 57). Participants first completed the new scales, then provided qualitative responses regarding how well each scale captured their sexuality. The Sexual-Romantic Scale enabled the measurement of sexual and romantic attraction to each sex independently (same-sex and other-sex). Participants resonated with the way the Sexual-Romantic scale disaggregated sexual and romantic attraction. Although cisgender monosexual (lesbian/gay) individuals positively responded to the separation of same- and other-sex attraction, individuals with either plurisexual (bisexual, pansexual, or fluid) or transgender identities found the binary conceptualization of sex/gender problematic. The Gender-Inclusive Scale incorporated same- and other-sex attraction as well as dimensions of attraction beyond those based on sex (attraction to masculine, feminine, androgynous, and gender non-conforming individuals). The incorporation of dimensions of sexual attraction outside of sex in the Gender-Inclusive Scale was positively regarded by participants of all identities. Findings indicate that the Sexual-Romantic and Gender-Inclusive scales appear to address some of the concerns raised in previous research regarding the measurement of sexual orientation among sexual minority individuals.     

Sexual Orientation Stigmatization and Identity Work for Gays,Lesbians, and Bisexuals in the U.S. Military

ABSTRACT

This study examines communicative stigmatization processes and their influence on self-concept clarity for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals (GLB) in the United States military. In-depth interviews were conducted with GLB (N = 16) military service members and veterans, and data were analyzed using grounded theory analysis. Findings revealed that GLB identity repudiation incites feelings of identity incongruity for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals in the U.S. military. GLB identity repudiation was composed of three key communicative practices. Further, because non-heterosexuality was viewed as seemingly incompatible with the military identity, many participants struggled to integrate their two social identities effectively. As such, participants employed several strategies to manage their conflicting sexual and role identities.     

Where Kinsey,Christ, and Tila Tequila Meet: Discourse and the Sexual (Non)-Binary

Drawing on 80 interviews and 17 months of participant observation in Lexington, Kentucky, this article details how individuals drew on three areas of national and local discourse to conceptualize sexuality. Media, popular science, and religious discourses can be viewed as portraying sexuality bifocally—as both a binary of heterosexual/homosexual and as a non-binary that encompasses fluidity. However, individuals in Lexington drew on each of these areas of discourse differently. Religion was thought to produce a binary vision of sexuality, whereas popular science accounts were understood as both binary and not. The media was understood as portraying non-binary identities that were not viable, thus strengthening the sexual binary. These differing points of view led identities such as bisexual and queer to lack cultural intelligibility.     

Negative Religious Rhetoric in the Lives of Black Cisgender Queer Emerging Adult Men: A Qualitative Analysis

Given the intersection of racial, religious, and sexual identities for Black queer populations, the current study examines sexuality-related religious rhetoric. Twenty Black cisgender queer men were recruited to participate in a qualitative interview. Using thematic analysis, the research team identified four themes: negative religious rhetoric, personal consequences of negative religious rhetoric, social consequences of negative religious rhetoric, and growth from negative religious rhetoric. Participants explained the pervasiveness of negative religious rhetoric within their churches and family structures. Men also conveyed how negative religious rhetoric frames societal ideologies around same-sex behavior, often condoning violence toward queer populations. Although men had negative experiences, participants articulated the importance of using oppression as a platform for growth. Black cisgender queer men are present within religious institutions; however, such negative religious rhetoric may negatively affect their mental and physical health. Researchers, clinicians, and clergy should consider the ways negative religious rhetoric marginalizes queer populations.     

Complicating the Coming Out Narrative: Becoming Oneself in a Heterosexist and Cissexist World

Traditional stage models of LGBTQ identity development have conceptualized coming out as a linear process from “closeted” to “out” that all queer/trans individuals must follow if they are to be considered healthy and well adjusted. These stage models have been critiqued for their rigidity and absence of a dynamic understanding of the coming out process. In this article we explore the findings from a qualitative photovoice study with 15 LGBTQ youths in a small urban center in Ontario that supports these critiques. We explore the efficacy of the photovoice technique in investigating questions of sexual and gender identity. This article identifies some contextual factors that are important in understanding coming out as a social (rather than internal) process; it also identifies some of the ways in which these youths’ experiences challenge normative understandings of the “good, out queer.”