"Some stars aren't like you and me": a talk with Wayne Koestenbaum on Andy Warhol

Over twenty-five years after his unexpected death in 1987 following routine gall bladder surgery, avant-garde artist Andy Warhol remains a controversial artistic and cultural figure. In a wide-ranging interview, Wayne Koestenbaum--professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and author of a biography about Warhol published in 2001--discusses the reasons for that controversy as they relate to Warhol's gay sexual orientation and queer outsider contributions to contemporary culture. The introduction to the interview explores why, despite the problems Warhol encountered personally and professionally over the years because of his queer outsider status, his art and personality have had a deep impact on mainstream culture.     

Getting out in the "real world": young men, queer and theories of gay community

A recent opinion piece published in the Sydney Morning Herald expresses a widely held perception that, among young same-sex attracted men in Australia, "queer" has well and truly supplanted "gay" as the language and lens through which self and practice is generated. In this article, I discuss findings from a qualitative research project that studied notions of community among young gay men, and argue that this assumption should not be taken for granted. The article explores participants' understandings of the concept of "gay community," arguing that the young men studied share a common definition of community: one based on a conventional liberal model which prioritizes sameness and the cooperation of individuals to achieve common goals. This is of particular importance in that problems around "fitting in" with these understandings are also raised. In examining the potential place for queer alternatives to these formulations, however, the article finds that queer attracts little support among participants, raising questions about the bind young men may find themselves in if they prioritize sameness as fundamental to community, yet feel themselves to be excluded from community by their own or others' perceived difference.     

Queering Ethnicity in the First Gay Films From Ex-Yugoslavia

Between 2002 and 2005 four of the Yugoslav successor states produced major feature films with lesbian or gay protagonists: Maja Weiss's Guardian of the Frontier (Slovenia, 2002), Dalibor Matani?'s Fine Dead Girls (Croatia, 2002), Dragan Marinkovi?'s Take a Deep Breath (Serbia, 2004), and Ahmed Imamovi?'s Go West (Bosnia and Hercegovina, 2005). As with other films from Eastern Europe that portray queer characters, all of these films were shot by straight directors, and the queer characters are not representations of real local queer communities, but instead are used as metaphors to address topics the filmmakers find more important, such as ethnicity and national identity. The ethnic hatreds that fueled the wars of the 1990s were mobilized through the heterosexual matrix. In these films anxieties about ethnicity are worked out through plots involving queer sexuality, though they work differently for male and female couples: female bodies can be conventionally objectified by the heterosexual male gaze, while male couples become the focus for anxieties about male rape.     

Performativity Double Standards and the Sexual Orientation Climate at a Southern Liberal Arts University

This study employs quantitative and qualitative methods to examine how heterosexual, bisexual, and gay students rate and describe a Southern, religiously affiliated university’s sexual orientation climate. Using qualitative data, queer theory, and the concept tyranny of sexualized spaces, we explain why non-heterosexual students have more negative perceptions of the university climate than heterosexual male students, in both bivariate and multivariate analyses. Although heterosexual students see few problems with the campus sexual orientation climate, bisexual men and women describe being challenged on the authenticity of their orientation, and lesbian and, to a greater extent, gay male students report harassment and exclusion in a number of settings. These distinct processes are influenced by broader heteronormative standards. We also shed much-needed light on how gendered sexual performativity double standards within an important campus microclimate (fraternity parties) contribute to creating a tyrannical sexualized space and negatively affect overall campus climate perceptions.     

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.     

Ex-gay rhetoric and the politics of sexuality: the Christian antigay/pro-family movement's "truth in love" ad campaign

In 1998, a coalition of antigay, pro-family activist organizations published a set of full-page print advertisements in several nationally recognized newspapers. These ads promoted sexual (ex-gay) conversion therapy for homosexuals. I examine these advertisements as a contest over cultural symbols and values, and over the very definition of lesbian and gay identity. This discursive contest had the potential to impact activist politics greatly, but this impact was mitigated significantly by a similar set of ads produced in response by an opposing movement: the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement. The interactive dynamics between opposing movements impact the political field in which activists on each side pursue their goals.     

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.     

Japanese male gay and bisexual identity

Few studies have ever dealt with Japanese male gay and bisexual identity. This exploratory study investigated gay and bisexual identity through interviews of 34 Japanese gay and bisexual men. Though Japan has unique cultural aspects that are different from Western countries, it can be shown that Western concepts or models of homosexual identity are applicable to a considerable extent to Japanese gay and bisexual men. The results of this study suggest that there are two distinct types of Japanese men sexually interested in men, which the author will call "bisexual" and "gay." These two types are compared in terms of three aspects: self-identity, sexual preference, and social identity and role. A significant number of respondents have careers or vocations in the arts. This study touches on the correlation between art and male-male sexual orientation in Japan.     

Porn star/stripper/escort: economic and sexual dynamics in a sex work career

This article explores the career dynamics of performers in the gay male pornography industry, by focusing on a common career path- from porn star to stripper to escort. Between 1995 and 2005, most men performing in gay porn films, unlike contract actresses in the straight porn industry, have been unable to earn enough income to work exclusively as performers in front of the camera. The industry's constant search for new faces and fresh performers creates what sociologist Paul Cressey has called "the retrogressive dynamic": The longer a person works in a sexual occupation, the less one is paid, and the lower the status of the work venue. In the porn industry, one aspect of this process is referred to as "overexposure," during which the performer experiences a diminishing "fantasy potential" as fans lose erotic interest in the porn star who has appeared too frequently in too many movies. Performers attempt to confront the retrogressive dynamic by limiting the number of adult films in which they appear in a year, diversifying their sexual repertoire, or shifting into other roles within the industry (behind the camera, marketing, production, etc.). One common option is to pursue work in economically complementary forms of sex work such as stripping and escorting.     

Disciplining "Sextext": queers, fears, and communication studies

This essay is a critical interrogation of disciplinary responses to Tom Nakayama and Fred Corey's 1997 Text and Performance Quarterly essay, "Sextext." Disciplinary responses to the essay suggest strong resistance to queer theory as a "legitimate" intellectual and critical framework. By reading the responses to "Sextext" through the lens of queer theory, and by offering a political reading of conventional studies of sexual representation, this essay suggests how disciplinary boundaries in Communication Studies are policed to protect the production of "legitimate" scholarship. By revealing these practices, this essay provides further support for the central value of queer theory to the discipline of Communication Studies.     

Sister outsider, or "just another thing I am": intersections of cultural and sexual identities in Australia

This article originates from a radio project titled Muff Divas and Drag Queens that investigated a wide range of gay and lesbian histories in the state of New South Wales. The project produced two half-hour radio programs that were broadcast nationally on community radio stations in February 1996 to coincide with Sydney's annual month-long Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival, the premier event on Australia's queer cultural calendar. Of the two documentaries produced, the first addressed 30 years of queer culture in New South Wales while the second explored our diverse identities as lesbians and gay men. This paper draws extensively on material collected for the second program. Muff Divas and Drag Queens was funded under the Literature and History Program of the New South Wales Government's Ministry for the Arts, with support from the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras cultural program and Sydney community radio station 2SER.FM.     

Ferment in LGBT studies and queer theory: personal ruminations on contested terrain

The tensions between queer and gay rights theorists, not surprisingly, have grown as queer theory has developed and matured. In this self-reflexive essay, the "contested terrain" between these distinct perspectives is explored, particularly within the discipline of communication studies. The assumptions of queer theory are summarized briefly, and the author takes an autoethnographic approach to demonstrate the constant interplay between lived experience and the basic assumptions of queer theory. The author challenges both LGBT theorists and queer theorists to always consider the implications of their theories and practices.     

Desiring mates

The discourse of gay liberation reads silence surrounding personal participation in same-sex sexualized pleasures as a sign of repression, oppression and a positioning in the closet. In contrast, coming out is an important step towards accepting one's true homosexual self. The demand for the emancipation of the homosexual type further suggests that all same-sex sexualized contact signifies the homosexuality of the subjects involved, regardless of whether they recognize this or not. This compulsory homosexualization of men who have sexualized contact with men does not apply to relationships between male friends ("mates"). A "mateship" union grants a level of privacy otherwise eradicated by a gay liberation movement insistent on the public confession of a homosexual orientation. To remain silent about corporeal pleasures poses a threat to the modernist preference for control of bodies and to the established gay identity. Silence offers a space for the construction of new modes of same-sex intimate relationships within a queer framework.     

Ambivalent Spaces—The Emergence of a New Gay Male Norm Situated Between Notions of the Commercial and the Political in the Swedish Gay Press, 1969–1986

Within sexual geographies, sexual struggles over urban public spaces are frequently explored. Less common is research on sexual struggles within sexually shared spaces and gay spaces. The aim of the article is to examine discursive struggles of meanings of gay male identity enacted in discussions of commodification/capitalism, disclosure, and space in Swedish gay press during 1969–1986. We trace the ambivalent feelings or the emergence of a new gay male norm situated between commercialism and non-commercialism within the Swedish gay press back to the 1970s. In the article we show how a monosexualization process was taking place in both the Swedish gay press as well as within sexual spaces. We explore rhetorical struggles between two competing discursive meanings of (ideal homonormative) male homosexuality, gay culture, and space: one wider (inclusive) and one narrower (exclusive).     

Health risk-factors for gay American Indian and Alaska Native adolescent males

Having multiple identities as a homosexual American Indian or Alaska Native adolescent male increases the likelihood for poorer health and diminished well-being. This study assessed the differences in self-perceived health status between gay adolescent males and their heterosexual counterparts. A national nonrepresentative sample of 5,602 Indian and Native adolescent males was surveyed about issues of sexual behavior, physical and sexual abuse, mental health status, substance use, attitudes about school, participation in violence, and access to health care. Results indicate that there were no real differences between gay and heterosexual male respondents for substance use or attitudes about school. Statistically significant differences were found, however, in areas of mental health, as well as physical and sexual abuse. Gay adolescents were twice as likely to have thought of or attempted suicide. Gay adolescents were twice as likely to have been physically abused and nearly six times more likely to have been sexually abused. Gay American Indian or Alaska Native adolescent males constitute a very vulnerable population and are clearly in need of targeted health and social services. Unfortunately, the benefits seen by adults of the "two-spirited" gay and lesbian American Indian movement have not been accessible to Indian and Native adolescents.     

Jewish disappearing acts and the construction of gender

In this essay I propose to investigate the interarticulation of race/ethnicity and gender at two fin de siècle moments: the conceptualization of the Oedipus complex at the turn of the twentieth century and the conceptualization of gender as performative in contemporary queer theory. Though these gender constructions contrast strikingly with one another-queer theory opposes and calls into question the heteronormativity of the Oedipal itinerary-both theories are produced through the displacement of racial/ethnic difference onto sexual and gender difference. One line of investigation in this essay is to relate their difference to the distinct situations of ethnic in-betweenness in which they were produced. Freud's situation as a Jew undergoing assimilation to Western European customs has been compared to that of the post-colonial subject. Judith Butler's and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's theories of queer performativity have been located in a post-assimilationist situation in the U.S. of the 1990s. At both moments a doubling takes place but with a radical shift in perspective. Whereas the post-colonial subject undergoes a psychic splitting in which the point of view of the colonizer predominates and promotes assimilation via mimicry, the post-assimilation subject performatively constructs difference, often by a reverse mimicry that involves identification with a subaltern group. Finally, in both situations the notion of "queer incoherence" is deployed not to negate gay and lesbian specificity, but rather to articulate such specificity as historically emergent, on the verge of definition.     

Gaydar: visual detection of sexual orientation among gay and straight men

Currently, American gay people believe they have a unique ability to pick each other out in a crowd (often termed "gaydar" ["gay" + "radar"]). This was established through a nationwide Internet-mediated survey (n = 460). To test for the presence of this ability in gay men, the researcher asked self-identified gay and straight male participants to view a series of unfamiliar men on videotape and determine the sexual orientation of each. The higher overall accuracy of gay men demonstrated a trend level difference from their straight cohorts although falling short (primarily due to small sample size) of the p < 0.05 level. A theory for the emergence of this skill (termed "Adaptive Gaydar" by the author) as a unique perceptual ability/coping mechanism uinique among gay people is also presented.     

The (temporary?) queering of Japanese TV

One of the primary texts of the "out" queer cinema of Japan is the television serial D s kai, first aired in 1993. Unlike Western television shows positing queer characters, D s kai presents its gay characters without apology or excuses, and as leads rather than as colorful appendages. At the same time, however, the show filters gay eroticism through the (hetero)normative mode of serial melodrama, at once pushing the boundaries of national permissiveness while normalizing and homogenizing homosexuality by rendering it within a conventional form.     

Latino Gay and Bisexual Men's Relationships with Non-Gay-Identified Men Who Have Sex With Men

This study investigated relationships between Latino gay-identified men in metropolitan New York City and their non-gay-identified male partners. Phase 1 consisted of in-depth interviews (N = 33), and Phase 2 consisted of quantitative surveys (N = 120) with Brazilian, Colombian, and Dominican men who have sex with men (MSM). A majority of participants reported having had sex with heterosexually identified men, and in many cases, the relationship was sustained over time. We found mixed results concerning an attitude sometimes attributed to Latinos that sexual orientation is defined by sexual role, with receptive MSM seen as gay and insertive MSM seen as straight. Although there were no significant associations between partner sexual orientation and unprotected anal intercourse, gay men were less likely to take the insertive role in oral or anal sex with straight-identified male partners than with gay partners.