Advocacy Beyond Identity: A Dutch Gay/Lesbian Organization’s Embrace of a Public Policy Strategy

ABSTRACT

The gay/lesbian social movement has primarily been understood as an identity movement. This article contributes to expanding understandings of the gay/lesbian movement by following the advocacy of the Dutch Association for the Integration of Homosexuality COC (COC) as a case of a gay/lesbian movement organization’s expansion of its action repertoire to include public policy goals. On the basis of archival and interview data, this article identifies several factors that enabled the COC to see the Dutch government as a potential public policy partner. Previous legal successes and facilitation by the institutionalized wing of the women’s movement, coupled with a constitutional change, resulted in the COC’s development of a policy strategy. By tracing the history of the COC’s strategic interactions, this article demonstrates that, while an identity strategy was constant throughout the COC’s advocacy, the organization could combine an identity strategy with strategies of legal change, cultural change, and public policy.     

Validation of the Beliefs about Children’s Adjustment in Same-Sex Families Scale in Italian University Students

ABSTRACT

Assessing attitudes toward same-sex parenting has important implications for both intervention and prevention programs designed to foster the tolerance and normality of sexual and family diversity. Few empirically validated measures of rejection of same-sex parenting have been developed. The current study examined the psychometric properties of an Italian translation of the Beliefs about Children’s Adjustment in Same-Sex Families Scale, a 14-item scale distributed in two subscales that measure direct and subtle rejection toward same-sex parenting, for its use in assessing heterosexual people’s attitudes toward same-sex parents in Italy. The sample consisted of 344 Italian heterosexual university students (113 men) with a mean age of 20.48 years (SD = 1.60). The results showed that the scale has a good factor structure (via confirmatory factor analysis) and satisfactory reliability and acceptable criterion-related validity. Therefore, the BCASSFS can be used to measure opposition toward gay and lesbian parenting in the Italian context.     

Hearing “That’s So Gay” and “No Homo” on Campus and Substance Use Among Sexual Minority College Students

ABSTRACT

Sexual orientation microaggressions are common on college campuses and can contribute to negative outcomes; yet little is known about their relationship with substance use outcomes. Among a convenience sample of cisgender sexual minority college students (n= 574; 57.0% female, 24.9% people of color, 50.7% gay/lesbian; 72.4% public school) from 37 states (67.8% Midwest), this analysis investigates the association between hearing “that’s so gay” and “no homo” on campus and hazardous alcohol use and the frequency of illicit drug use. Using multivariable regression analyses, the commonly heard phrases “that’s so gay” and “no homo” were each found to significantly increase the risk for hazardous drinking and the frequency of drug use among students. Efforts should be made to create more welcoming campus climates for sexual minority students by reducing the use of these microaggressions and, in the meantime, offering supports to mitigate their harmful effects.     

Dualism,Tension, and Integration: Dialectics as a Theme of Integration in Daily Lives of Israeli Gay Men Who Became Fathers Through Overseas Surrogacy

ABSTRACT

This article explores the constructed meanings of lived experiences of Israeli gay men who became parents through commercial overseas surrogacy. Based on the analysis of 39 in-depth, semistructured interviews with gay fathers, we show that their parenting experiences are shaped in contradictory ways, allowing them to adopt a reflective position in relation to existing social frameworks. Data from in-depth interviews reveal three major themes. The first refers to the gap between biogenetic and social concepts of parenthood and kinship. The second presents the dialectics between continuity and change that gay parenthood exhibits. The third theme focuses on the impact of these contradictions on gay parents’ identities and the construction of autonomy concepts in their lives. By doing so, we highlight the importance of tensions and contradictions in shaping the daily living experiences of gay parents, as well as the importance of dialectics in promoting gay parents’ integration within heteronormative society.     

When “They” Become “Us”: The Effect of Time and Ingroup Identity on Perceptions of Gay and Lesbian Group Members

ABSTRACT

Prejudice change manipulations rarely produce the expected attitude change effects. Our research suggests that attitude change depends on time-dependent memory consolidation processes. This study tested the effects of group information and time on perceptions of gays and lesbians. Heterosexual participants (N = 90) were randomly assigned to a condition where their ingroup, or an outgroup, included gay and lesbian individuals. We measured participants’ gay and lesbian political attitudes and evaluations of the groups’ members at a short or long delay. Results showed no effect of our manipulations on political attitudes, F(1, 86) = 0.14, p = .72. Contrary to predictions, participants evaluated gay and lesbian ingroup members less positively at the long versus short delay, t(49) = 3.72, p = .0004, d = 1.01. Results suggest that members of stigmatized groups are perceived more negatively when associated with one’s ingroup.     

“We’re Disgusted With Queers,not Fearful of Them”: The Interrelationships Among Disgust,Gay Men’s Sexual Behavior,and Homonegativity

ABSTRACT

Using a combination of personal reflections, published literature, and original empirical research, we argue that the disgust triggered by gay men’s sexual practices (specifically, anal intercourse) is a critical, though overlooked, contributor to heterosexual men and women’s homonegativity (i.e., negative attitudes and behaviors directed toward men who are or are perceived to be gay). We conclude our article by articulating several directions for future inquiry that we believe will advance current understanding of prejudice and discrimination directed toward gay men.     

Affective Responses to Gay Men Using Facial Electromyography: Is There a Psychophysiological “Look” of Anti-Gay Bias

ABSTRACT

Despite a wealth of attitudinal studies that elucidate the psychological correlates of anti-gay bias, studies that provide evidence of the physiological correlates of anti-gay bias remain relatively scarce. The present study addresses the under-representation of physiological research in the area of homonegativity by examining psychophysiological markers, namely the affective manifestations of anti-gay prejudice, and their correspondence with anti-gay behavior. Facial electromyography (EMG) was the technique used to acquire the psychophysiological markers via recordings from two facial muscle sites. Whether heterosexual men’s implicit affective reactions to gay male couples best predicted their overt and covert discriminatory behavior toward a presumed gay male confederate was determined. The strength of the implicit affective reactions to predict anti-gay discrimination was then tested against the strength of participants’ implicit cognitive reactions acquired via the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Results indicated that the affective reactions recorded via facial EMG emerged as the strongest predictor of discrimination toward gay men compared to the cognitive reactions recorded using the IAT. Findings support the contention that emotional reactions to gay men using implicit techniques such as facial EMG are potentially valuable pathways toward understanding the nature and sequelae of anti-gay behavior.     

“We’re Not in Oz Anymore”: Shifting Generational Perspectives and Tensions of Gay Community,Identity, and Future

This essay analyzes the writings from a gay male intergenerational project, wherein the process of generating creative prose, poetry, and fiction are used to explore differing understandings of age, aging, and future across gay male cohorts in Chicago. The project suggests one’s age strongly informs one’s perception of power dynamics and one’s perceived access to power. Specifically, youthist logics and lingering cultural myths surrounding the aging gay male shape and constrain intergenerational relations. Furthermore, the study marks and theorizes an emergent generational divide in the conceptualization and articulation of “gay identity” as well as how this identity is understood in relation to “the gay community.” The essay concludes by examining the implications and potential of this research to expand models and logics for meaningful gay male intergenerational exchange, or a queered form of generativity.     

Gay Porn’s Bareback Momentum

ABSTRACT

A profound shift has occurred in the last decade in mainstream commercial gay pornography from condoms to “bareback” (condomless) depictions of anal sex between men. This article explores gay porn’s “bareback momentum” as demonstrated by the displacement of condoms in the 10 most visited gay porn Web sites (that have operated for 10 years or more). While all 10 began by releasing condom pornography, the study finds all except one (Falcon) have since gone bareback—represented visually as a timeline. The sites analyzed are, in order of popularity: Sean Cody, Helix Studios, Lucas Entertainment, Corbin Fisher, Bel Ami, Next Door Studios, Randy Blue, Falcon Studios, Cocky Boys, and Chaos Men. Textual analysis reads each site’s transition individually, yet connections between the sites are the article’s central concern, from which an emphasis on couples and break-up narratives is revealed. Falcon’s commitment to retain the condom is attributed to its brand identity.     

The Relation of Social Support,Connectedness, and Collective Self-Esteem to the Psychological Well-Being of Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Youth

Abstract

The present study extended the research on the mental health of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth by testing the relationship of social support, social connectedness, and collective self-esteem to psychological well-being in a sample of 218 LGB youth. Perceived social support significantly predicted psychological well-being subscales; social connectedness and collective self-esteem contributed significantly to the psychological well-being of the LGB participants when controlling for perceived social support. Age moderated the relations between several of the social and psychological well-being variables. Results of the study suggest that helping professionals working with LGB youth consider assessment of the youth's sense of connectedness to those around him/her and esteem related to LGB group membership in addition to assessing general social support.     

Queer Nuclear Families? Reproducing and Transgressing Heteronormativity

ABSTRACT

During the past decade the public debate on gay and lesbian adoptive rights has been extensive in the Norwegian media. The debate illustrates how women and men planning to raise children in homosexual family constellations challenge prevailing cultural norms and existing concepts of kinship and family. The article discusses how lesbian mothers and gay fathers understand and redefine their own family practices. An essential point in this article is the fundamental ambiguity in these families' accounts of themselves–how they simultaneously transgress and reproduce heteronormative assumptions about childhood, fatherhood, motherhood, family and kinship.     

Love,Lust, and Loss in the Early Age of AIDS: The Discourse in the Body Politic From 1981 to 1987

ABSTRACT

This article explores the idea that the AIDS epidemic constituted a defining moment for the Canadian gay rights movement and illuminates the intricate power dynamics of the development of a community identity. Using grounded theory inductive and deductive content analysis, and interviews with activists from the Body Politic magazine, this article considers notions of health “from above” and “from below” by examining relations between the community and government and their confrontation with medicalization and the medical profession. I also examine how the magazine reported and negotiated issues related to the community’s self-policing and “self-managed oppression” through efforts to promote safer sex and risk reduction.     

Heterosexual Marital Intention: Effects of Internalized Homophobia,Homosexual Identity,Perceived Family Support,and Disclosure Among Chinese Gay and Bisexual Men

ABSTRACT

The present study explored the factors that influence the likelihood that 217 Chinese gay/bisexual men will engage in heterosexual marriage, focusing on the Chinese cultural context, in which filial duties to marry, have children, and support one’s parents in their old age are taken seriously. Data on heterosexual marital intention (HMI) were examined in relation to demographics, internalized homophobia, homosexual identity formation (HIF), perceived family support, and disclosure. We estimated a multinomial logistic regression model for HMI. Internalized homophobia was a predictor for HMI. Lower levels of HIF and disclosure were found in gay/bisexual men who have married or who intend to marry; and the more family support gay/bisexual men perceived, the more likely they were to enter heterosexual marriages. The findings could help to better evaluate and comprehend the factors leading to heterosexual marriages involving Chinese gay/bisexual men. The social implications of this research are also discussed.     

Sense of Belonging to Specific Communities and Depressive Symptoms Among Australian Gay Men

Sense of belonging to the general and broader gay communities has been shown to be beneficial for gay men’s mental health. This research investigated the interrelations between sense of belonging to three forms of gay community (the broader gay community, gay groups, and gay friends), sense of belonging to the general community, and depressive symptoms by examining a path model. A community sample of 177 gay men, aged 18 to 79 years, completed the Sense of Belonging Instrument–Psychological subscale, the Centre for Epidemiological Studies–Depression Scale, and the Sense of Belonging within Gay Communities Scale. The model provided excellent fit to the data in which sense of belonging to the general community mediated the relationships between a sense of belonging to gay groups and with gay friends and depressive symptoms. Results imply that enhancing gay men’s sense of belonging to gay groups and with gay friends is likely to be associated with fewer depressive symptoms, by virtue of their enhanced sense of belonging to the general community.     

Homosexual not Homogeneous: A Motivation-Based Typology of Gay Leisure Travelers Holidaying in Cape Town,South Africa

ABSTRACT

The gay traveler, a segment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) travel market, is perceived to be a homogeneous market segment as a result of the assumption that gay men have a unique “homosexual lifestyle.” This assumption is problematic as it conceals many other important variables, and it may hinder effective destination marketing. A Web-based electronic survey was completed by 469 gay male travelers, and attribute-based benefit segmentation was carried out by applying a hierarchical cluster analysis using Ward’s procedure with Euclidean distances. The typology is based on the push and pull framework; the motivations of travelers were assessed both in terms of their socio-psychological motivations and destination attributes of Cape Town. The typology empirically suggests that gay travelers are not homogeneous, and that sexuality influences the travel behavior of a minority of gay men. Consequently, not all gay travelers or activities by these travelers can be labeled as “gay” tourism.     

Life-Stories and Storied Lives: Genre and Reports of Lived Experience in Gay Personal Literature

ABSTRACT

Personal literature may be written either as a life story such as an autobiography or memoir or as an autobiographical novel. Using the three volumes comprising the memoir of author Paul Monette and the three volumes comprising the autobiographical fiction trilogy of journalist and novelist Edmund White, this article explores the goal of each author for selecting a particular genre in which to write about lived experience. Each author enjoyed an elite education and came to adulthood in postwar America in the decade prior to the gay rights era beginning in the 1970s, and each writer participated in the sociosexual culture emerging over the succeeding decade. Each writer became HIV+ in the 1980s (Monette died of complications attending AIDS in 1995), and each writer experienced the loss of his lover to AIDS. While Monette and White each experienced the anti-gay prejudice of postwar American society, Monette's youth was less troubled than that of White who grew up in a complex family with a distant yet harsh father toward whom he was also sexually attracted. While Monette's goal in writing a memoir was that the suffering of his generation of gay men should be remembered, White's goal was more personal, choosing autobiographical fiction in his effort to overcome his feelings of shame about being gay founded on his desire for his father.     

Disclosing Lesbian and Gay Male Sexual Orientation in Later Life: Attitudes of Younger and Older Generations in Eight Latin American Countries

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research was to explore attitudes toward older lesbians and gay men disclosing their sexual preferences in eight Latin American countries. The sample consisted of 1,539 participants belonging to three age groups (18–29 years, 60–69 years, and 70 years and over). Their answers to two open-ended questions were content-analyzed, and binary logistic regressions were run on the extreme attitudinal categories. Results showed that although most attitudes were positive, a solid percentage of participants still expressed different kinds of derogatory attitudes. Men (as compared to women) and participants who were more religious and less educated tended to hold more negative attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. Both older samples were more prejudiced than the younger one, and attitudes also varied according to country. There was a general trend showing more positive attitudes toward older lesbians and gay men in those countries where sexual minorities’ rights are better assured, which suggests that measures to protect sexual minorities and to make sexual diversity in older age visible could be advisable.     

Community Cleavages: Gay and Bisexual Men’s Perceptions of Gay and Mainstream Community Acceptance in the Post-AIDS,Post-Rights Era

Changes in gay and bisexual men’s connectedness to the gay community are related to the declining public visibility of HIV/AIDS and greater acceptance for homosexuality and bisexuality in mainstream society. Little work, however, has focused on perceived acceptance for subgroups within the gay community or broader society. Using interviews (n = 20) and a survey (n = 202) of gay and bisexual men in a mid-sized Canadian city, we find perceived hierarchies of acceptance for the various subgroups as well as an age effect wherein middle-aged men perceive the least acceptance for all groups. These differences are linked with the uneven impact of social, political, and institutional changes relevant to gay and bisexual men in Canada.     

“Still Raped Over Here”: Gay Male Femininity and the Rewards of Camp Ambivalence in Richard Day’s Girls Will Be Girls

ABSTRACT

Girls Will Be Girls (GWBG) delivers a substantive queer-feminist critique of heteronormative animus toward women and gay men through jokes that weaponize that animus for insurgent purposes. The film’s rape and abortion jokes showcase the provocative notion that negative representations of femininity might be wielded strategically and, in fact, more resonantly because they resist recuperation by marginalizing normative hierarchies. GBWG’s enactment of gay male femininity deploys queer dissidence by ameliorating pain through mockery while emphasizing the costs of heteronormative and patriarchal inflictions. This essay offers a test case for a queer feminist politics—one that, without discarding the imperatives for and rewards of more materially grounded political work, mines the critical as well as affective affordances of rage, mockery, and indignity against heteronormativity’s arbitrary but still formidable injunctions. A queer feminist reading of camp denaturalizes heteronormativity with a potency that queer theory and feminist theory might harness yet more effectually in less divided collaboration.     

“He's a Big Old Girl!” Negotiation by Gender Inversion in Gay Men's Speech

ABSTRACT

On the basis of participant observation in the gay communities of San Francisco, Paris and Oslo, this article charts a pattern of gender inversion in the negotiation of identities and social relations that can be related to an international gay culture. The use of gender inversion in gay men's speech is seen as evidence of the discursive construction of specific generic identities whose capacity to carry meaning is dependent on conventional categories of gender.