Minority Stress in the Lives of Men Who Have Sex With Men in Cape Town,South Africa

The mental health outcomes of men who have sex with men (MSM) living in sub-Saharan Africa are understudied, despite evidence that discrimination and stigma are widespread. This article examines the occurrence and mental health effects of minority stress in a sample of diverse South African MSM. Twenty-two MSM living in Cape Town took part in exploratory qualitative in-depth interviews and completed mental health questionnaires. Results indicate that the majority of participants experienced minority stress, which affected their sexual relationships and coping strategies. Concealment behaviors and perceived discrimination levels were high and were associated with race, religion, SES, and geographical location.     

Does demographic knowledge matter? Results of a poll in the New York City Watershed

A 1993 telephone survey of 1,150 households in 15 upstate towns in the New York City watershed asked a number of knowledge and attitude questions related to perceptions of national, local, and world population size. Considerable public ignorance of population size was revealed, with gender differences the most critical explanatory variable. Males were much more likely to respond to knowledge questions on population size, and to respond more accurately, even after several other characteristics were held constant. However, knowledge is at best unrelated to measures of concern about population, and even shows a slight tendency to be associated with lower concern.     

Queer theory, late capitalism, and internalized homophobia

The emergence of queer theory represents a transformation in the approach to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered peoples. It has claimed new ground for treating sexuality and gender as worthy subjects in their own rights, rather than offshoots of gay and lesbian studies or of general cultural theory. The author contends, however, that it is doubtful that this approach can lead to social change. Queer theory has dismissed the usefulness of the disciplines that were the foundation of the social movements that initiated gay and lesbian studies, such as political economy, and in doing so, it has surreptitiously mirrored the social relations of reproduction that constitute late capitalism. This mirroring has had unseen consequences for the individual in society, and with queer theory's insistence on the relativity of experience and the dismissal of identity, has set the stage for a benign reinforcement of internalized homophobia. The author argues that this approach can be mediated by recognizing that identity is fluid, and that by focusing on identifying with social movements rather than centering analyses on the problems associated with identifying as a particular category of status and being, we can refocus our energies on the building and maintenance of mutual support and collective recognition that can lead to resolving the stagnation now dominating attempts to develop coalitions around issues that matter.     

Job-related diversity: the comprehensiveness and speed of board decision-making processes—an upper echelons approach

Strategic decision-making processes influence firm-level outcomes. Using the theory of upper echelons, this study investigates how diversity in directors’ skills, knowledge, and industry experience influence board decision-making processes that may impact overall strategic decision-making processes. Such diversity has been commonly accepted to be a ‘double-edged sword’—enhancing comprehensiveness but hindering the speed of decision-making. On the contrary, we used an existing large survey database to show that directors’ diverse educational background, functional background, and industry experience (job-related diversity) have a positive effect on comprehensiveness as well as the speed of board decision-making. In addition, our results indicate that board processes (directors’ use of their knowledge and skills) play an important role by transmitting the positive effects of diversity. The study is in a tradition of exploring how boards may influence firms’ strategic decision-making processes. Our findings provide additional arguments for adding job-related diversity to boards of directors.     

Overcoming Ungrievability: Transgender Expectations for Identity after Death

Butler (Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London, UK: Versa; 2004) observed cultural shifts immediately after 9/11 and suggested that, with regard to grievable and ungrievable lives, societal power structures “produce and maintain certain exclusionary conceptions of who is normatively human” (p. xiv–xv). The current study brings new understanding to the concept of grievability by exploring the symbolically violent de-transitioning of trans people after their deaths. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine the thoughts and attitudes of older trans people (40 y. o. plus) with regard to the phenomenon of nonconsensual de-transitioning after death and the expectations they have regarding the expression of their own identity after death. The wishes of the participants were grouped into four outcome categories: hoping to be memorialized only as their lived identity (25%); only as their identity-assigned-at-birth (6%); as both identities combined (44%); and those who claimed that they did not care how their identity was memorialized (25%). Our findings serve to emphasize the importance of open and honest end-of-life communication as well as to underscore the diverse nature of the transgender population and the complexity of the transgender identity.