Ruling the Exceptions:

This paper examines the challenges presented to current gender-based domestic violence theory by the existence of same-sex domestic violence. Charging the dominant theory is heterosexist and ignores the experience of battered lesbians and gay men, Island and Letellier (1991) have argued that domestic violence is not a gender issue and advocate a psychological framework that emphasizes batterer treatment. Examining the theoretical conflicts, this paper attempts to domenstrate that sociopolitcal and psychological theories can be successfully integrated into a social-psychological model. Such a model, developed by Zemsky (1990) and Gilbert, Poorman, and Simmons (1990), is explored and critiqued as an excellent beginning. By integrating psychological principles and sociological concepts, this theory explores the many dimensions of power and explains the phenomenon of domestic violence as it occurs in all relationship configurations. Suggestions for further theoretical considerations and research are made.     

Housing the Elderly:

This paper explores the intergenerational housing option as a viable and frequently necessary housing option for elderly invidividuals. The advantages and disadvantages are presented both for the elderly individual as well as the affected family members; along with cultural and religious affiliations that influence filial intergenerational housing responsibilities. The following topics are also discussed: federal and local support systems, housing style options and future research recommendations for intergenerational housing.     

Shifting the Focus:

Agencies that serve survivors of sexual violence have frequently failed to make services accessible to lesbians and gay men. Similarly, agencies serving lesbians and gay men have frequently overlooked the problem of sexual violence in this community. One hundred fort-five lesbians, gay men and bisexuals responded to a survey about their knowledge of services for survivors of sexual violence, the services they need and want, their perceptions of sexual violence in the gay and lesbian community, and the extent of sexual victimization in the gay and lesbian community. Forty-one percent of respondents reported that they had been sexually victimized, and the majority believed that education programs were the most important service needed.     

Dividing the Ranks:

No abstract available for this article.     

Beyond the Classroom:

No abstract available for this article.     

Walking the Tightrope:

In societies where homosexuality is legally proscribed, gays and lesbians rely on private and informal networks for mutual self-help, information dissemination, sociability, and the sharing of gay goods. This is particularly the case in Singapore where an authoritarian and paternalistic state is actively involved in the marriage and procreation of its citizens, and is hostile to homosexuality. In the era of AIDS, a new social movement has developed in ways that de jure seek to educate the public about AIDS but de facto serve the needs of the larger gay community. The dual roles of Action For AIDS are fraught with tensions, ambivalence and problems, but represent a strategic response to the social and political conditions in which the organization is located.     

At the End of the Line:

No abstract available for this article.     

Modernization: the burden of the past

Embarking upon modernization, Russia will have to struggle with the debris of a degrading industrial society. The paper employs the concepts of ‘decay energy’ and ‘humanitarian catastrophe’, regarding these phenomena as inseparable from the transitional process. A detailed analysis of various types and forms of decay energy leads the author to the following conclusions: (1) minimization, elimination and/or conversion of disintegration forces and products of decay is an integral part of the modernization project for Russia; (2) this project ought to have an ideology, a leader, social forces supporting it, educational resources, and access to the media; (3) the environmental movement is one of the few collective actors poised to combat the decay forces, which possesses a well‐developed worldwide support network and has created a discourse that is comprehensible to the authorities as well as the business world and lay people; (4) for Russia with its numerous ‘frozen’ and ‘hot’ conflicts, this transition will be especially difficult and costly.     

In the Interest of the Fetus:

No abstract available for this article.     

Transitioning Transgender: Investigating the Important Aspects of the Transition: A Brief Report

The purpose of this study is to identify important aspects of the transition to facilitate decision-making and improved care for transgender patients by transition-care providers. A survey was used to identify transition aspects deemed significant by transgender persons. Among transgender women, the most important transition elements were legal gender change, hormone therapy, breast augmentation, frontal bone setback, and removal of body hair, and among transgender men, change of dress/clothing, name and legal gender change, speech therapy, hormone therapy, chest reconstruction and breast binding. This information is useful to physicians as they care for transgender patients to better offer transition-related counseling.     

Into the Lion's Den:

The need to "couple," to have that special person with whom we share not only sexual intimacy but a past, present, and future, is not limited to the "straight" world. Raised by heterosexual parents, gays (male homosexuals) desire that same type of intimacy. Given that intimate relationships provide a very necessary function for the larger community of heterosexuals, those relationships should provide the same function for gays. This paper examines the differences and similarities between long-term gay and heterosexual intimate relationships, and the support each of those types of relationships receives from the community in which they exist.