Resolving Identity Conflict: Gay,Lesbian, and Queer Individuals with a Christian Upbringing

Gay, lesbian, and queer individuals with a Christian upbringing often experience conflict between religion and sexual identity. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to understand how gay, lesbian, and queer-identified individuals with a Christian upbringing resolve conflict between sexual identity and religious beliefs. Analysis of in-depth interviews with 15 participants led to 3 conclusions. First, resolving the discord between sexual identity and religious beliefs is a five-stage process of internal conflict resolution. Second, personal and contextual factors affect every aspect of the resolution process. Finally, faith development and sexual identity development are intertwined and fluid constructions.     

Standing OUT/Fitting IN: Identity,Appearance, and Authenticity in Gay and Lesbian Communities

Sexuality scholars have noted the historical connection between appearance and gay or lesbian identity. However, as the social landscape for lesbian women and gay men has shifted over the past forty years, little research has documented how such changes influence gay and lesbian individuals' appearance choices as they form, manage, and maintain their identities. To explore the impact of this “post‐closet” ( Seidman 2002 ) era on the identities and appearances of lesbians and gays, in‐depth interviews were conducted with twenty individuals, aged eighteen to thirty. Findings suggest that while most people use appearance to attain a sense of authenticity after “coming out,” achieving a feeling of authenticity in gay and lesbian spaces presents unique challenges as individuals come under scrutiny by the community.     

Risky behaviour: a new framework for understanding why young people take risks

Theories of youth risk taking range from the realist to the sociocultural. Much of this theorising, particularly in the field of epidemiology, has been strongly influenced by the Health Belief Framework. More recently, attention has shifted to understanding how young people perceive risk and what makes some of them resilient to risk taking. In this article we develop a framework that brings together diverse theoretical perspectives on youth risk taking. We draw on lessons from across the social science disciplines to inform a conceptual framework incorporating the broad context and internal processes of young people's decisions to take risks. Our Youth Risk Interpretation Framework (Y-RIF) has been developed from insights gained during an ethnographic study conducted in South Africa (Graham, Lauren, 2012. Understanding risk in the everyday identity-work of young people on the East Rand of Johannesburg. Doctoral Thesis. University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg.). We argue that our framework is useful, as it offers new ways of understanding why some young people take risks while others are more cautious. It could be used to inform youth behaviour surveillance research and interventions. However, it will need to be rigorously tested.     

Promoting resilience and emotional well-being of transgender young people: research at the intersections of gender and sexuality

Within lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) research there is increasing health-related scholarship on trans lives, with a growing awareness of the impact of health inequalities on trans well-being. The aim of the paper is to provide greater understanding of transgender young people’s views of what is needed to promote their emotional well-being and resilience by undertaking specific analysis of data collected as part of wider research with young people (n?=?97). The study utilised participatory qualitative methods with a cross sectional design generating data via a focus group with trans youth (n?=?5), followed by thematic analysis. Findings suggest that both individual and collective capacities or resources enable and sustain resilience and well-being for trans young people. The adversity trans youth face is present in school, the community and in healthcare, but they are able to find places where they feel safe and connected to others. Practitioners, teachers and school nurses are well positioned to facilitate structural change in alliance with trans youth to promote resilience. Research results were utilised to inform health improvement, commissioning and service delivery.     

The Construction of Sexual Identities in an Online Gay,Lesbian, and Bisexual Bulletin Board System

An online bulletin board system was used to focus on how sexual minority gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) individuals perceive and display their individual and collective sexual identities through textual and visual communication processes. While exploring sexual identity construction, four major themes emerged: “coming out,” separation, equality and civil rights, and misconceptions. Concepts of identity negotiation theory help to conceptualize the observed sexual identity construction processes. This work provides insight into how GLB individuals around the world perceive, construct, and perform their sexuality as well as how they perceive the majority culture as viewing them.     

Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,Sexual-Orientation Questioning Adolescents Seeking Mental Health Services

Summary

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and sexual-orientation questioning (LGBQ) adolescents have many of the same health needs as straight adolescents. In addition, they must learn to manage a stigmatized identity that may create confusion, anxiety, and emotional turbulence for them. Beyond stigma, LGBQ youth are often found to be at higher risk for substance abuse, violence, depression, suicide, and sexual health problems. Based on responses given by urban adolescents seeking mental health services to a clinical self-assessment questionnaire (Adquest), this article examines the relationship between sexual identity and risk factors related to safety, health, sex, substance use, family and friends, worries, and their desire to talk about these in counseling. Findings indicate that LGBQ youth are at higher risk than straights, and express greater desire to talk about substance use, health, their personal lives, and their friends. Mental health practitioners working with these young persons must properly assess and address their risks by creating a sense of community and safe environment for open discussion.     

The Body that Does Not Diminish Itself: Fat Acceptance in Israel's Lesbian Queer Communities

This article follows Charlotte Cooper's call to widen fat studies scholarship to contexts outside the United States, and Adrianne Hill's call to locate historically specific connections between lesbian communities and promotion of fat acceptance. Three in-depth interviews were conducted with Jewish-Israeli fat women. Through the development of their ability to appreciate their fat body and the fat bodies of other women, participants employed a mixture of disparate feminist-lesbian and queer discourses, in a similar, albeit not identical manner to the one used in the U.S. context. One of the major differences is that queer/lesbian communities in Israel are not in contact with the Israeli fat acceptance movement.     

A Lesbian Story

The photographs that follow were produced as part of a visual art exhibition project, A Lesbian Story during 2006–2008, which investigated the dearth of photographs of lesbians in South Africa. A component of the project was a workshop, the aim being to gather diverse opinions and diverse experiences of what it means to be lesbian in South Africa, and to represent aspects of one’s identity visually using photographs. Zanele Muholi and I worked together in preparing and presenting the workshop in Johannesburg during March/April 2007. Mmapaseka Letsike was one of eight women who participated. The photographs and the captions are hers.     

Promotion of Sexual Health in the United States

Abstract

The United States has been experiencing a severe sexual health crisis in the last decade. This paper reviews these sexual health challenges and discusses a major initiative and a “Call to Action” that was launched by the U.S. Surgeon General in 2001 to promote sexual health. This led to several initiatives to overcome obstacles that were preventing the development of a sound, scientifically based public health policy to promote sexual health. This paper specifically outlines the components of the Sexual Health Program housed at the Morehouse School of Medicine's National Center for Primary Care, including the National Advisory Council and the National Consensus Process.     

Lesbians Define Themselves: Diversity in Lesbian Identification

Ninety-nine self-identified lesbians provided definitions of what being a lesbian meant to them. A content analysis revealed two major categories: politically-based definitions and nonpolitical definitions. The political definitions included two highly interrelated subgroups, one of definitions based on woman-identification and the other including a broader world view that included affiliations with other oppressed groups. Nonpolitical definitions included four subgroups; those who defined lesbianism as sex/love with women, lesbianism as a true essence, just happening to love a woman, and lesbianism as only one small aspect of the person. There were only a few differences between women who cited political definitions and those with nonpolitical definitions. Lesbians who provided political definitions were more likely to identify themselves as feminists, were more involved in political activities and slightly more of them had a history of depression and eating disorders. Lesbians who provided nonpolitical definitions were more likely to have children, to have been raised in a conservative religion, and to think that they were born as lesbians. Various interpretations of the categories of definitions are provided.     

Men's Reproductive and Sexual Health

Abstract

A broad definition of men's reproductive and sexual health (MRSH) includes medical (pathophysiological) matters such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs), developmental anomalies, malignancy, trauma, and infertility. It also includes psychosocial concerns: sexuality, contraception, disease prophylaxis, developmental and lifecycle issues, tobacco and drug use, sexual identity and orientation, and partnership issues. College men, of whom a large majority are sexually active, have a range of MRSH needs, including some that are particular to their age and social environment. To reach men effectively requires approaches that are somewhat different from those used with women. Clinicians in college health services are in an excellent position to help young men recognize the importance of reproductive health and sexual responsibility. College health services therefore should offer men screening; clinical diagnosis and treatment for MRSH conditions; and information, education, and counseling services, in a manner designed to meet their unique needs.     

Sexual Health for the Millennium: An Introduction

ABSTRACT

This special issue of the International Journal of Sexual Health is devoted to the issues of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and the effort by the World Association for Sexual Health to argue that the promotion of sexual health is an essential strategy for attaining those goals. Recently, the World Association for Sexual Health has published Sexual Health for the Millennium: A Declaration and Technical Document (2008). This special issue of the IJSH contains the background papers which served as a foundation for the development of the declaration and technical document. These articles argue that sexuality is a fundamental aspect of being human, that human development must be premised on the promotion of sexual health and is a basic human right for all citizens. Public policies designed to promote human development must make the promotion of sexual health an essential strategy. This special issue is designed to stimulate more interest in the Sexual Health for the Millennium: A Declaration and Technical Document, encourage further analysis and research which will support the statements in the declaration, provoke more advocacy for sexual health, and, most importantly, to stimulate sound and effective public policies to create a sexually healthier world.     

Love and Sex in Constructing Identity Among Men Who Have Sex with Men

Interviews were conducted with 102 Ontario men who have sex with men who identify themselves as gay, bisexual, and not gay, concerning the meanings and satisfactions associated with their sexuality. Sexual discourses of men who identify themselves in different ways reveal some common criteria for placing self and others into the gay category. Gay, in the everyday speech of these men, appears to refer to an elaborated discourse around the potential for emotional involvement and relationships rather than a reference to an essentialized sexuality. Comparison of men who place themselves inside and outside sexual identity categories shows that many find gay identity to be a horizon of increased possibilities, rather than the limitation critiqued by queer theory. These findings are contextualized in recent debates in identity theory.     

Lesbian and Gay Parents: Their Experiences of Children's Health Care in Australia

This study investigates the experiences of lesbian and gay parents seeking health care for their children within the Australian medical system. Previously unavailable demographic data was collected on lesbian and gay families, and qualitative information was sought from parents about positive or problematic health care experiences related to sexual orientation and family constellation. Ninety-two lesbian or gay parents responded to a national postal and Web-based survey. Eighty-nine percent of respondents reported a high level of satisfaction with the health care received by their children. Despite overall satisfaction, however, 49 percent of parents identified fear of disclosure of sexual orientation, and 27 percent reported negative or problematic experiences with their children's health care related to sexual orientation or family constellation. This study indicates that fear of discrimination and homophobic attitudes towards lesbian and gay families remain a factor within the Australian health care system.     

Sexual motivation

We discuss the long‐standing “sex‐as‐drive‐or‐appetite” controversy—whether sexual desires may arise on their own, from internal states, or whether they only arise when attractive stimuli are presented. The issue is approached through integration of sexual motivation within an umbrella theory of motivational systems that closely follows currently dominant incentive motivation theories. In this formulation sexual motivation, like hunger or thirst, emerges from an interaction of external incentives and internal states. Deprivation acts to enhance the palatability of incentives but does not create an internal goad. That is, there is no aversive internal sensation associated with sexual deprivation. Through this perspective we integrate sex with findings from other motivational systems such as hunger or thirst and clarify otherwise puzzling phenomena: why orgasm and sexual motivation can be decoupled; how female sexual motivation arises and is similar to males'; how novel stimulation affects sexual motivation; and why measured sexual motivation seems to vary with experimental technique. Sexual self‐stimulation is accounted for under this model. Predictions are generated for the outcomes of both human and animal experiments. Finally, practical implications are discussed.     

Introduction: Transnational Lesbian Cultures

This special issue examines the transnational shape and shaping of lesbian lives and cultures in and across China, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It uses the expression “transnational lesbian cultures” to suggest that despite sometimes radically different sociopolitical and cultural contexts, the lived experiences of same-sex desire and their emotional attachments create particular affinities between women who love women, affinities that reach across the distinct cultural and social contexts that shape them. The articles brought together explore lesbian subcultures, film, graphic novels, music, and online intimacies. They show that as a cultural and political signifier and as an analytical tool, lesbian troubles and complicates contemporary sexual politics, not least by revealing some of the gendered structures that shape debates about sexuality in a range of critical, cultural and political contexts. While the individual pieces cover a wide range of issues and concerns—which are often highly specific to the historical, cultural, and political contexts they discuss—together they tell a story about contemporary transnational lesbian culture: one that is marked by intricate links between norms and their effects and shaped by the efforts to resist denial, discrimination, and sometimes even active persecution.     

Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender Families

This article reviews new scholarship on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families. The past decade witnessed rapid expansion of data and strong research designs. The most notable advance was in studies on variation among mostly planned lesbian comother families. Cumulative evidence suggests that although many of these families have comparatively high levels of shared labor and parental investment, they may not be as “genderless” as previously depicted. Gay men's diverse paths to family formation and planned parenthood have also been explored, but almost no research studies their children's experiences. Conceptualizations of sexual orientation expanded to include bisexuals and others, and some understanding of the experiences of transgender people has begun to emerge. Future work should explore relationships among members of the families they create.     

Integrating Religious and Sexual Identities: The Case of Religious Homosexual Men in Singapore

Abstract

The sexual and religious ecosystem in Singapore represents an intricate interplay of factors that religious homosexuals navigate to attain a well-adjusted personal identity. A qualitative research project was conducted to understand how Christian and Muslim homosexual men in Singapore integrate their religious and sexual identities. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine religious homosexuals to elicit responses on their dual-identity experience, and coping strategies. Narrative analysis revealed three themes (and a number of subthemes): (1) Intrapersonal factors (a personal journey, knowledge seeking, reinterpreting belief system, redemption by good deeds, and love prevails over sin), (2) Interpersonal factors (segregating social circles, involvement in the gay community, role models, and social support), and (3) Sociopolitical factors (state and societal tolerance of homosexuals, and homosexual events). Interestingly, the participants assigned positive attributes to being both religious and homosexual, and reported that embodying both identities was enriching than if they had possessed just one of the two identities. This suggests that integrating positive psychological frameworks (e.g., stress-related growth) to existing ones may provide a more holistic account of identity integration among religious homosexuals.