Through the looking glass. A '70s lesbian feminist considers queer theory

Lesbian feminists who began their work in the 1970s probably share my mixed feelings about and attitudes towards Queer Theory: curiosity, envy, indignation and occasional agreement. The solar center of mostly male Queer Theory has young lesbian scholars orbiting around it. Gender used to share the stage with sexuality but now seems relegated to the wings. Like Marxists in the 1950s who remembered the heady days of the 1930s, we veteran lesbian feminists cannot help recalling the excitement and sense of possibility in Lesbian Studies twenty-five years ago.     

A lesbian-feminist journey through queer nation

This article is an auto-ethnographical review of the political experiences and literary career of one of the early lesbian feminist critics and theorists. It poses the question: what does it mean to be shaped by one theoretical and political discourse (Lesbian Feminism) and then thrust by historical change into another (Queer Theory)? With the author's life and work as a frame and exemplar, it illustrates the development of lesbian feminist thought. Ultimately, it argues that the insights and values of Lesbian Feminism should not be suppressed by those of Queer Theory, and calls upon lesbian feminists to re-insert themselves into current scholarly and theoretical debates.     

Loud and lusty lesbian queers: lesbian theory, research and debate in the German-speaking context

Taking into account recent developments in Germany, it seems to me that Lesbian Studies has its future within Queer Studies--and I am convinced, it can take a self-assured role; not contenting itself with a niche, but claiming its power to design queer from lesbian perspectives.     

Peripheral perspectives: locating lesbian studies in Australasia

In this paper I identify the key differences and similarities between New Zealand and Australian Lesbian Studies. Until recently, Australian and New Zealand perspectives have been viewed separately. The possible reasons for these differences are discussed and local understandings about diversity that have played a role in the destabilization of Lesbian Studies are considered. I proceed to consider the influence of Queer Theory on teaching and research in Lesbian Studies.     

Lesbian Studies after The Lesbian Postmodern: toward a new genealogy

While Lesbian Studies is established as a commodity in the academic marketplace, its disciplinary contours are rather more obscure-and even more problematically, its disciplinary genealogy remains somewhat crude. The dominant genealogy of Lesbian Studies might best be characterized as a 'collision model,' a battle between politics and theory, even though much existing scholarship draws on both Lesbian-Feminist Theory and Queer Theory.1 This article proposes that the tools and methods of a sub-field called 'Lesbian Cultural History' might be useful in generating other historical accounts of the origins and evolution of Lesbian Studies. Such a project is vital because the writing of our disciplinary History clarifies how we envision a disciplinary future.     

Quare Eire

In this position piece we will briefly introduce The(e)ories: Advanced Seminars for Queer Research, which we founded and have convened at University College Dublin, Ireland, since January 2003. We will do this in an effort to illustrate how the aims and development of The(e)ories have mirrored, but also deviated from the US/UK-centric model of Queer Theory which (although largely a myth) continues to dominate discussions of sexuality. In this, we endeavor here to show how Queer Theory and Lesbian Studies, while not interchangeable, intersect with each other in important ways in our praxis in Ireland and thus, are not reducible to the 'collision model' (Doan, this volume) forwarded by proponents and critics alike.     

Rainbow Research: Challenges and Recommendations for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) Survey Design

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - A growing number of people around the world identify, in some way, as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer...     

Standards of Care in Assessment of Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,Transgender, Gender Expansive,and Queer/Questioning (LGBTGEQ+) Persons

ABSTRACT

A Joint Task Force comprised of members of the Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC) and the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC) present standards of care for assessment of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Gender Expansive, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTGEQ+) Persons.     

Development of the Gay and Lesbian Relationship Satisfaction Scale

This article describes the development and evaluation of the Gay and Lesbian Relationship Satisfaction Scale (GLRSS) as a measure of individuals' gay and lesbian same‐gender relationship satisfaction and social support. Clinicians and researchers administer relationship satisfaction scales to persons in gay and lesbian relationships with a heteronormative assumption that scales developed and validated with opposite‐gender couples measure identical relationship issues. Gay and Lesbian couples have unique concerns that influence relationship satisfaction, most notably social support. Using online recruitment and data collection, the GLRSS was evaluated with data from 275 gay and lesbian individuals in a same‐gender relationship.     

Promoting mental health. Lesbian nurse support groups.

1. Although an underground network of lesbian nurses has existed for years and they are powerful in their leadership in various specialty organizations, many lesbian nurses make themselves "known" only to a few close people. 2. The Lesbian Nurse Interest Group was formed to support lesbian nurses through difficult periods and to discuss unique areas of concern. 3. The group helps to combine all aspects of a lesbian nurse's life and to empower the members to address personal and professional issues.     

Noras on the road: family and marriage of lesbian women in Shanghai

During the past decade, we have witnessed the rise of Shanghai as a new metropolitan centre in China. The city has also become one of the most vibrant sites of lesbian community in the country. The author interviewed 20 lesbian women in the city in 2005. It is found that almost all of the women interviewed are experiencing the pressure of social conformity most severely from their immediate family, and the social expectation of marriage. In this paper, the author demonstrates the conflicts of family and marriage that many of the informants have encountered and how the hegemony of heterosexuality is still securely reproduced and carried out through the discourses of family and marriage in contemporary urban China, and finally, how the informants deal with the controls enacted by the institution of heterosexuality. doi:10.1300/ J155v10n03_06.     

Book Reviews/Comptes rendus

Book reviewed in this article:
DEREK J. PENSLAR, MICHAEL R. MARRUS and JANICE GROSS STEIN (edsj, Contemporary Antisemitism: Canada and the World.
TERRY GOLDIE (ed.), In a Queer Country: Gay and Lesbian Studies in the Canadian Context.     

“Queer's” Near Absence in Academic and Student Service Websites

This essay studies several Websites that deal with mainly U.S. universities' LGBT/Queer student services and/or LGBT/Queer academic programs, and it considers the terminology such programs apply to name themselves. Notably, the term queer is almost absent on many of these sites, especially sites that are non-academic and provide student services. Drawing on Annamarie Jagose's Queer Theory, the author suggests that the term queer may be too threatening, too ambiguous, and too masculine to be useful in naming these programs and services. While numerous specific university sites have been explored, the essay focuses on the listings of services and programs found on two sites: University of Illinois-Chicago's site College/University Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Centers/Programs at http://www.uic.edu/org/lgbt and John Younger's Website University LGBT Programs: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies in the USA and Canada at http://www.duke.edu/web/jyounger/lbgtprogrs.html.     

“Her Mouth is Medicine”: Beth Brant and Paula Gunn Allen's Decolonizing Queer Erotics

This article asserts the need to recognize the complexity of the theoretical work of more lesbian Native American writers, focusing specifically Beth Brant (Bay of Quinte Mohawk) and Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna Pueblo). Their poetry and short stories provide a theoretically nuanced analysis of how heteronormativity is intertwined in and dependent on colonialism, and thus a methodology for Queer Theory that requires an understanding of it in relation to colonialism. They reject heteronormative Pocahontas fantasies about Native women, offering a lesbian-based tactic for decolonization through the expression of erotic desire. This article demonstrates the endless possibilities for fierce queer resistance, revolutionary change, and healing from the trauma of genocide and the accompanying colonialist heteropatriarchal disciplining of Native women's bodies.     

Butch bottom-femme top? An exploration of lesbian stereotypes

Lesbian gender labels (i.e., butch, soft butch, butch/femme, femme, and high femme) have set the stage for assumptions about lesbian attractions to sexual behaviors. This study explored the intersection of lesbian gender labels and attraction to sexual behaviors in 214 lesbian-identified women. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 69 with 48% being women of color. Contrary to stereotypes about sexual behavior in the lesbian community, very few differences emerged in regard to lesbian gender label. Overall, results do not support stereotypes about lesbian gender labels and suggest that behaviors in the lesbian community are fluid across labels.     

Introduction: Leading Lesbians Fight Disease and Disability

This thematic issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies focuses on the ways in which lesbian leaders have dealt with disease and disability. In the articles that follow, eight prominent lesbians describe what it means to cope with serious illness and medical treatment in the context of lesbian identity and community. This introduction provides an overview of some of the themes that arose in the various articles, focusing on lesbian support systems as well as best medical practices.     

From Movement Demands to Legislation

SUMMARY

In August 1999, the First Meeting of Lesbians and Lesbian Feminists was held in Mexico City. From this meeting evolved an organized effort for expanded lesbian and gay rights in Mexico City. This article, which, of necessity, is seen through the author's dual role as participant/observer, or insider/outsider, attempts to trace the initial blossoming of two movement ideas-a lesbian kiss-in and legal recognition of same-sex relationships-and their eventual transformation into a major news media event and a proposed piece of city legislation.     

Social‐developmental factors affecting lesbian and gay youth: a review of cross‐national research findings

Lesbian and gay youth face a great many challenges as they grow up. In this article, research focusing upon the social‐developmental factors that affect the positive development of a lesbian or gay identity are reviewed, comparing and contrasting data from the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK). Consideration is also given to the efficacy of behaviours utilised by young lesbians and gay men to avoid harassment and discrimination. It is suggested that lesbian and gay youth represent a particularly vulnerable group of young people who engage in a number of health risk behaviours that are associated not only with sexual orientation, but also fears for personal safety. Finally the authors discuss whether or not strategies to conceal sexual orientation hold benefits for lesbian and gay youth in terms of their physical safety and mental health. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Examining Differences in Identity Disclosure Between Monosexuals and Bisexuals

Sociological research has uncovered many ways social factors and locations influence identity disclosure decisions and strategies among sexual minorities. However, most research has examined only monosexual sexual minorities (i.e., lesbian and gay identified respondents) or lumped various sexual minorities together as one despite similarities and differences in experience and social recognition. In this article, we drew on insights from Queer Theory to compare and contrast social factors that influence identity disclosure among monosexual and bisexual sexual minorities,respectively. Utilizing data from the 2013 Pew Research Center Survey of LGBT adults, we demonstrate ways bisexual identity disclosure experiences both confirm aspects of existing research on monosexual sexual minorities, and reveal nuances and variations typically missing from such literature. In conclusion, we draw out implications for (1) understanding similarities and differences between monosexual and bisexual identity disclosure experiences, and (2) the usefulness of expanding sociological analyses beyond monosexual issues, concerns, and populations.     

Claiming Lesbian History: The Romance Between Fact and Fiction

The contested field of lesbian history exists along a continuum, with undisputed evidence on one end and informed speculation on the other. Lesbian historical fiction extends the spectrum, envisioning the lives of lesbian pirates, war heroes, pioneers, bandits, and stock romantic characters, as well as the handful of protagonists examined here whose quests specifically highlight the difficulty and importance of researching the lesbian past. The genre blossomed in the 1980s, just as the Foucauldian insistence that homosexual identity did not exist before the late nineteenth century gained sway in the academy. The proliferation of lesbian historical fictions signals the growing desire for more thorough (if not completely factual) historical underpinnings of the burgeoning lesbian identities, communities, and politics set in motion in the 1970s.