Not the “Other” Mother

SUMMARY

This paper presents findings from recent Australian qualitative research with lesbian co-parents where study participants' fluid narrative identities are deconstructed in order to better understand how language constructs relationships within private and public domains. Language used to define, describe and give meaning to roles and relationships of lesbian co-parents within social and kinship networks and wider community is explored. Through claiming language and telling their stories lesbian co-parents give meaning to their lives; affirm their identity; and present their relationships as visible and valid.     

Chilling out in ‘cosmopolitan country’: Urban/rural hybridity and the construction of Daylesford as a ‘lesbian and gay rural idyll’

This paper advances scholarship on ‘lesbian and gay rural idylls’. A growing literature examines how ‘lesbian and gay rural idylls’ are not only produced in opposition to the urban, but are themselves urban constructs. We extend these contentions by exploring the processes of idyllisation suffusing lesbian and gay festival tourism in Daylesford, a town in non-metropolitan Victoria, Australia. We find that Daylesford’s idyllisation by the lesbian and gay tourism industry blurs the urban/rural binary, and instead hybridises rurality and urbanity in the tourism images and practices of ‘cosmopolitan country’ associated with the town. Research findings from Daylesford are analysed to examine how the dynamics of tourism marketing and festival attendance help produce and articulate this hybrid variant of the ‘lesbian and gay rural idyll’. We utilise two sets of mostly qualitative data for this inquiry: travel commentaries in the news media, and a survey conducted in Daylesford at the 2006 ChillOut Festival, Australia’s largest lesbian and gay rural festival.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
Penelope Eckert and John R. Rickford (eds.), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation
Richard Watts and Peter Trudgill (eds), Alternative Histories of English
Shana Poplack (ed.), The English History of African American English
Urszula Clark, War Words: Language, History and the Disciplining of English
Beverley A. Lewin, Jonathan Fine and Lynne Young, Expository Discourse: A Genre–based Approach to Social Science Research Texts
Alexandra Georgakopoulou and Marianna Spanaki (eds.), A Reader in Greek Sociolinguistics – Studies in Modern Greek Language, Culture and Communication
Maya Khemlani David, The Sindhis of Malaysia: A Sociolinguistic Study
Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication     

Book Notices

Gregory M. Mathoesian. Reproducing Rape: Domination through Talk in the Courtroom (Language and Legal Discourse)
Sidney Greenbaum (ed.). Comparing English Worldwide: The International Corpus of English.
Mari´a José Serrano. La variacio´n sinta´ctica: formas verbales del periodo hipote´tico en espan˜ol
Ian Hutchby. Confrontation Talk: Arguments, Asymmetries, and Power on Talk Radio
Nikolas Coupland and Adam Jaworski (eds.). Sociolinguistics: A Reader and Coursebook     

Book Reviews

Shoshana Blum-Kulka. Dinner Talk: Cultural Patterns of Sociability and Socialization in Family Discourse .
Karin Aijmer. Conversational Routines in English: Convention and Creativity .
Laurel J. Brinton. Pragmatic Markers in English: Grammaticalization and Discourse Functions .
Gunther Kress. Before Writing: Rethinking the Paths to Literacy .
Martha C. Pennington. Phonology in English Language Teaching .     

Grappling with Realities: Policy and Practice in HIV Social Work

In 2012 the NSW HIV Strategy 2012–2015: A New Era was released, with a goal of eradicating Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) by 2020. This new policy, prioritising biomedical treatment, has raised challenges for social work practitioners working in the HIV field. We undertook a research project exploring the implications of the Strategy on social work clients and practice. A questionnaire was sent to 57 HIV social workers and 32 (56.1%) responses were received. Thematic analysis identified five main themes affecting social workers and their clients. These were a new stigma, treatment benefits, the complexity of people's lives, the psychosocial voice, and ethical and professional tensions. We propose that a more holistic HIV strategy including the psychosocial realities that inform HIV transmission, testing and treatment options, and adherence be adopted.     

Filial Bereavement

Summary

Loss of parents for midlife lesbians is discussed in the context of continued development in middle age. From an intersubjective point of view, comprehension of externality, the capacity for mutual recognition, the disruption and repair of recognition and affirmation of subjectivity and the agenic “I” color relationships with parents throughout life. In filial bereavement, there can be a resurgence of intersubjective development along with an easing of internalized homophobia. In recovery from loss, there are opportunities to make loving identifications that more fully acknowledge externality and difference.     

Substance Abuse in Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender Communities

Abstract

This article calls attention to the lack of knowledge concerning alcohol and other drug (AOD) use in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations. Twenty-five Internet Web sites related to the LGBT substance use are reviewed.     

Addressing the Needs of Lesbian Widows

Abstract

This qualitative research study identifies difficulties encountered by widowed lesbians, especially those difficulties unique to lesbians in their grief recovery process. It suggests the need for more support services for lesbian widows and outlines the kinds of information and skills needed by counseling professionals who work with this population.