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Sexually and gender diverse staff in Higher Education Institutions may experience a sense of belonging and acceptance in inclusive environments, but may also face discrimination and bias, leading to feelings of isolation and exclusion. This paper reports on findings from 40 in-depth interviews and six focus group discussions with LGBTQIA+ self-identified staff members in a HEI and LGBTQIA+ allies who may identify as LGBTQIA+ themselves. Findings reveal that first impressions when joining a university as a staff member may have a long-lasting effect, while both positive and negative experiences are present. Further, a pattern is developed among gay men who may be placing more emphasis on their relationship with line managers, which can be supportive but at times toxic, unsupportive and inattentive. In addition to this, the findings highlight discrimination faced by staff, its impact on their wellbeing, and the significance of visibility and representation. This paper concludes that lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ staff members in Higher Education continue to be mixed with a high percentage of staff experiencing discrimination, primarily in the form of microaggressions, but institutions need to be more pro-active to foster safe spaces for all with more inclusive policies and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While teaching a secondary gender studies course, high school teacher "Eleanor" found that though most students identified as queer and expressed interest in disrupting normative understandings of genders and sexualities, their classroom contributions often reified problematic norms. She implemented what she termed a Queer Contemplative Pedagogy to challenge students to think more contemplatively about genders and sexualities. Based on ethnographic classroom observations and individual interviews, this paper examines Eleanor's and the students' efforts to use meditation and contemplative writing to challenge a range of norms and personal assumptions. This study offers a rare pairing of contemplative practice with queer research and provides an instructional approach that pushes youth and educators to continue to examine assumptions and societal constructions related to genders and sexualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gay or queer relationships in Zimbabwe remain a site of discursive contestation. The rise in human rights advocacy has re/located the subject within the human rights premise, shifting the discussions away but not disconnected from the religious, political and cultural representations. This paper examined the societal constructions and attitudes toward homosexuality by analyzing Twitter exchanges that followed the disclosure on the 21st of September 2018, by a teacher (Neal Hovelmeier) of St John's College in Zimbabwe, that he was gay. The disclosure prompted substantial online and offline debates on gay and queer relationships (what is popularly known as homosexuality in Zimbabwe) and produced two discursive divisions. The first division was against homosexuality and galvanized support across cultural, political, traditional, religious and social constructions. Though less popular, the other division found support from within the gay or queer community itself, the global North diplomatic missions resident in Zimbabwe, liberal left-leaning and some civil society organizations. The former's key feature is societal resistance to homosexuality which is constructed by way of inferences to Christianity and traditional belief systems about binary gender and sex categories and sexual relations. The latter has constructed homosexuality from the premise of human rights, acceptance and tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study sheds light on an issue very little research has been conducted on so far, the discrimination trans people in Greece are subjected to every day. The findings presented in this paper are part of a larger study focusing on trans persons' life experiences in contemporary Greece. Eleven participants identified various discrimination areas, employment, education, family, romantic relationships and daily life; participants also pointed out specific measures that would contribute to the improvement of their life. Findings are discussed in relation to measures toward eliminating discrimination against trans persons such as the improvement of gender recognition legislation, an increase in general education regarding gender identity issues and the need for transgender-focused research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper details revalidation of a higher-order (HO) version of the Parental Attitudes Toward Inclusiveness Instrument (PATII), measuring parents' attitudes toward curricular inclusivity of gender and sexuality diversity. The 48-item scale includes two HO factors: Supports and Barriers, and one first-order factor: Parental Capability. Responses from parents of government-school students (N = 2093) provided evidence for scale reliability, validity, and measurement invariance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools are places where youth do work on the construction of their sexual identities which is intimately connected with issues around gender. Using one-on-one in-depth interviews, this article addresses how queer youth navigate dominant understandings of gender and sexuality in the context of their identity and practice. Cognizant of how gender remains a significant force in organizing social relations in schools, the youth parody and abnormalize heteronormativity calling into question the fragility of hegemonic heterosexuality. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that despite evidence that associates schooling with social exclusion, the queer youth's accounts highlight, strikingly, that queer identity and inclusion are not necessarily separate storylines. Offering an alternative view of the schooling experiences of queer youth, the paper motivates that within exclusion, in a matter of speaking with all its unduly assemblages, is inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ways in which two Hollywood films featuring drag queens, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and The Birdcage, offer a kind of "both/and" look at the complexities of gender, sexuality, race, and culture, simultaneously challenging some institutionalized attitudes (especially heterosexism) while reinforcing others (especially sexism and racism)--making the use of drag as a locus of discovery in both films, at best, ambivalent.

Sex workers are recognized to be potentially vulnerable to violence and abuse. However, the extent and nature of violence committed against male sex workers remains under reported. The aim of this evidence scoping review was to identify the prevalence of violence against male sex workers globally. A systematic search was conducted of 8 databases from 1990 to the end of December 2016. In total, quantitative data from 27 studies conducted in 18 countries were included in the review. Evidence indicates that some male sex workers, especially those in non-Western countries, do experience high levels of violence. The largest proportion of studies reported data on sexual violence, whilst the most common type of violence experienced overall by male sex workers was that of 'verbal or emotional abuse or threats'. The views and experiences of male sex workers should be integrated fully into sex work debates, policy and service provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While drag is primarily understood as a performance of gender, other performative categories such as race, class, and sexuality create drag meaning as well. Though other categories of identification are increasingly understood as essential elements of drag by performers of color, whiteness remains an unmarked category in the scholarship on drag performances by white queens. In this paper, I argue that drag by white queens must be understood as a performance of race as well as gender and that codes of gender excess are specifically constructed through the framework of these other axes of identity. This essay asks whether white performance by white queens necessarily reinscribes white supremacy through the performance of an unmarked white femininity, or might drag performance complicate (though not necessarily subvert) categories of race as well as gender? In this essay, I will suggest that camp drag performances, through the deployment of class as a crucial category of performative femininity, might indeed be a key site through which whiteness is denaturalized and its power challenged. Specifically, I will read on camp as a politicized mode of race, class and gender performance, focusing on the intersections of these categories of identity in the drag performance of Divine.

This paper examines the strategies of drag performer/playwright Charles Busch. His performance aesthetic is explored and shown to be subversive even though its initial impulse is to entertain. Basing my arguments on the work of Judith Butler, Elin Diamond, and others, I argue that drag queens like Busch can not only entertain but also make audiences question and criticize through drag' s power to create a Brechtian alienation effect and historicize the subject. After showing how he can be viewed as a drag queen, I give a brief biography and discuss such contested terms as "camp" and "gay sensibility." I then focus on Busch's staged reading of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and A Doll's House, both done in one afternoon at Theatre for The New City (6 May 2000). By examining the performance of Busch and his fellow actors, I demonstrate how a contemporary relevancy is achieved by having the roles played by a female impersonator whose acting choices are filtered through a gay sensibility. The ongoing dialectic between spectator and performer creates a historicized moment in performance that underscores the gender-dynamics in unexpected and stimulating ways.

Bisexual people may appear to have more potential romantic partners than people only attracted to one gender (e.g., heterosexual, gay, lesbian people). However, bisexual people's dating choices are limited by non-bisexual people's reluctance to date bisexual people. Studies have indicated that some heterosexual, gay, and lesbian people are reluctant to date bisexual people, particularly bisexual men. We extend current understandings of gendered anti-bisexual bias through investigating heterosexual, bisexual, gay, and lesbian people's reported willingness to date within and outside of their sexual orientation groups. Participants (n = 1823) varying in sexual orientation completed measures regarding their willingness to engage in a romantic relationship with heterosexual, bisexual, gay, and lesbian individuals. Heterosexual and gay/lesbian people were less willing to date bisexual people than bisexual people were to date them, consistent with anti-bisexual bias rather than mere in-group preference. Preferences against dating bisexual men appeared particularly strong, even among bisexual women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how transgender parents negotiate "coming out" and pursuit of gender affirmation (GA) with their children and co-parents. Sixty-six open-ended survey responses and 38 one-on-one interviews conducted with Australian trans parents, aged 24–67 years, were analyzed using thematic analysis. The main themes were: (i) Anticipating their Response: "Coming Out" to co-parents and children; (ii) "Having that talk"—Negotiating disclosure of trans identity with co-parents and children; and (iii) Negotiating Gender Affirmation alongside Parenting. "Coming out" was experienced as both vital and a point of vulnerability, with GA necessitating communication and negotiation alongside parenting. Many participants reported significant anxiety before "coming out" to co-parents and children. Children's age was an influential factor in reaction to changes in parental gender identity, with younger and adult children reportedly being the most receptive. Results are discussed in terms of the reported benefits of pursuing GA for trans parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the four components of sexual identity, biological sex, gender identity, social sex-role, and sexual orientation. Theories about the development of each component and how they combine and conflict to form the individual’s sexual identity are discussed. As defined here, social sex-role includes the individual’s femininity and masculinity. Sexual orientation includes the individual’s physical and affectional sexual preferences for relationships with members of the same and/or opposite biological sex. This paper may help to clarify meanings of the following terms used in research on sexual identity: sex, gender, femininity, masculinity, heterosexuality, and homosexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a writer of fiction, D. H. Lawrence spent his career maneuvering between heterosexual and homosexual preferences. In order to make a living, he needed to use mainstream publishers. They encouraged his bold work but only if he censored it. What especially interested Lawrence were the differences between male and female orgasm—not just the mechanics but their meaning. Over his career (1910–1930) his views on orgasm evolved from simple release, to ambivalent forms of lust, to a challenging separation of responses: unfathomable silence for males and articulate expression for females. The sexes are privileged differently, and the categorical separation that Lawrence discovers is a revelation. This essay analyzes five of his most famous novels, from Sons and Lovers to Lady Chatterley's Lover, and, based on revisions in his texts, reaches conclusions that differ from those most readers have held. In revising, Lawrence came to reshape his characters' responses into complex, often-coded narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows the critical value of teacher affirmation of LGBTQIA+ identities in improving social and academic outcomes for youth, and in rural areas this need is significant as students often experience discrimination with limited community resources. When provided, professional development is often concerned with safety and bullying with less focus on disrupting heteronormative and transphobic belief systems. Educators experience difficulty discussing these topics, however drawing upon a theory of a pedagogy of discomfort can help facilitators to foster critical thinking and engage learners in emotional labor leading to positive transformation. This article uses survey data to examine the impacts of pedagogical approaches of facilitators that invite and navigate discomfort in a workshop for educators on supporting LGBTQIA+ students in a rural district. Findings show that participants engage in challenging discussions, leading to deeper understandings, compassion, and the potential for positive action in school settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intercollegiate sport in the US is known to be heteronormative, heterosexist, and often an unwelcoming space for LGBTQ individuals, including coaches. A decade ago, scholars documented the scarcity of LGBTQ family narratives in online coaching biographies on athletics Web sites. In the years following, a socio-cultural and legal shift occurred pertaining to LGBTQ rights and visibility in the US. This study extends and replicates Calhoun et al.'s research by examining family narratives of a sample of all NCAA Division-I head coaches of women's teams (N = 3601). Data collected in 2018 as part of the annual Women in College Coaching Report Card™ illustrated despite socio-cultural changes, very few (n = 18,.05%) online biographies included a same-sex family narratives—all were women. Eleven of the 18 head coaches were interviewed, and Erving Goffman's work was employed to theoretically ascertain why and how these women managed identities, stigma, enacted power, and performed character, namely courage. Implications and future research are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is the first trans-inclusive exploration of the relation between running away from home, health, and access to healthcare and supportive figures as a function of gender among adolescents. Secondary data analysis of the 2013 BC Adolescent Health Survey found that trans adolescents were 4.25 times as likely as males, and 3.0 times as likely as females, to have run away. Logistic regressions indicated that runaway adolescents of all genders had greater odds of reporting poor or fair overall health (OR: 2.9) and mental health (OR: 4.5), and of foregoing needed physical (OR: 4.8) and mental health care (OR: 4.5) compared to adolescents who had not run away. The relation between running away and health was exacerbated among trans adolescents. Trans and female youth were also less likely than males to report receiving helpful support. Findings highlight the importance of offering trans-affirming services and care to mitigate harms associated with running away from home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been some research centering trans* and gender non-conforming (TGNC) faculty, more is needed to address how they navigate classroom spaces and students' resistance to and about trans* bodies. The purpose of this study was to examine the resistance TGNC educators experienced from students, colleagues, as well as their larger higher education institutions. Findings from this study suggest that TGNC faculty simotaneously experinece hypervisibility and invisiblity both in their classrooms as well as on their campuses. Participants described types of student resistance, rooted within a dichotomous gender bianry. Participants also described increased labor and were often expected to do more emotional and pedagogical work due to their identities. Given these specific experineces, we discuss these faculty's experiences as we call an instiuttional comitment to unknowing gender, an enviornment within higher education that serves reify the gender binary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LGBTQ+ Asian Americans experience intersecting forms of oppression, and due to the limited research on this underserved population, it is important to understand their lived experiences and the factors that enhance and endanger their health. The absence of positive representations of LGBTQ+ Asian Americans in the media upholds stereotypes and feelings of invisibility that have harmful effects. Studying LGBTQ+ Asian Americans using Kpop media offers a new and timely way to understand these identities and outcomes of well-being. This study qualitatively explored how 16 college-aged LGBTQ+ Asian Americans identify with Kpop and reconstruct representations to protect themselves from negative influences surrounding their identities. Using grounded theory methodology, this study found that Kpop functions as a source of representation and social connection that supports LGBTQ+ Asian Americans. Findings also illustrate how LGBTQ+ Asian Americans engage in Kpop fan labor to create narratives that can mitigate the harmful effects of marginalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our editorial introduction to this volume on drag queens highlights what we believe are some of the most prominent and important themes of female impersonation in the past and today. Building on contributors' articles, a substantial body of literature on female impersonators/drag queens and the social construction of gender, and our own extensive ethnographic experiences in a multitude of drag settings, we first suggest that such individuals can be seen as symbolic representatives of the cultural ideals associated with the feminine and women and how they have changed over time. We next argue that the notion of the effeminate drag queen is more a myth than a reality with the contextual benefits many performers receive--status and power--being indicative of the hegemony of masculinity in male-dominated societies. We next explore how additional social identities, such as race, class, nation, and religion, often impact drag performances and how others interpret them. We end our introduction by offering a model that delineates what are some of the present transgressive limits and subversive possibilities of female impersonation.

While a range of studies have explored the difficulties and negative experiences that transgender and gender diverse young people face at school, there has so far been a dearth of research that investigates their positive experiences. Through interviews with three transgender youth, this study explores transgender and gender diverse students' positive experiences of schooling. Positive experiences centering around "significant people," "relationships and dialogue" and "groups and materials" were found to contribute to a safer and more supportive learning environment for each participant. While it is a small-scale study, the findings are hoped to provide educators with examples of positive teaching practices that they can draw from to support transgender and gender diverse students within their own classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This ethnographic study considers the political economy of queer and trans of color community organizations in the context of urban neoliberal governance in Toronto, Canada. While state institutions promote entrepreneurship-based arts funding as a means of economic development, queer and trans of color grassroots initiatives engage with these institutions in ways that compel a reconsideration of the relationship between entrepreneurship and neoliberalism. I propose the concept sacrificial entrepreneurship to identify how the disruption of the neoliberal incitement to personal gain by sacrificing one's economic well-being is patterned along lines of race, gender and sexuality. Focusing on Unapologetic Burlesque, a queer anti-racist community performance initiative, I show how queer and trans of color grassroots initiatives in Toronto take public resources intended to promote individual profit-making to create minoritized spaces of belonging. Through sacrificial entrepreneurship queer and trans of color subjects simultaneously collude and oppose the unfolding of neoliberal state initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to qualitatively explore how queer women sex workers' experiences of stigma impacted health and housing access in Vancouver, Canada. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 56 queer women sex workers in Vancouver, Canada between June 2012 and May 2013. Participants described sexual stigma in the form of discriminatory comments about their sexuality, and in the form of barriers to housing and complexities in maintaining their relationships in supported housing environments. Enacted stigma was also experienced, particularly drug use-related stigma, in healthcare settings. Consequently, some participants reported felt stigma in the form of hiding their sexuality and relationships to mitigate stigma and to gain access to services. Participants experienced a variety of stigma related to drug use, housing insecurity, and sexuality; thereby demonstrating the intersecting dimensions of stigma and structural oppressions in the lives of the queer women sex workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offers a reface to this issue. Question of where drag compares and fits in with occasional long-term cross-dressing, into the larger pantheon of transgendered behavior; What is clear from the articles in this issue about drag; Core elements of drag which are performance and parody; Current issue in drag which is whether is transgressively undercuts conventional gender categories or bolster them; How drag plays with the forbidden; Difference between the public reaction in India and in Western societies.

This article examines entries into homelessness among adults who identify as LGBTQ2S (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, two-spirit). Twenty LGBTQ2S adults who were currently or formerly homeless participated in one qualitative interview. The interview protocol included questions on the participants' history of homelessness, causes of homelessness, and relationship of their gender and/or sexual identity to their homelessness. Data were analyzed using an iterative coding process. Results demonstrated that the participants listed both structural (i.e., discrimination) and intrapersonal (i.e., substance use) variables related to their homelessness. In particular, substance abuse was a common antecedent of their homelessness, and some participants linked their homeless experiences to discrimination and victimization based on their sexual and/or gender identity. The results are discussed in terms of interventions to prevent homelessness among LGBTQ2S adults and support their exits out of homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people have achieved increased acceptance and access to social institutions in recent years, they have continued to be confronted with persistent homophobic attitudes, including from U.S. law enforcement personnel. Police culture often fosters these beliefs, and consequently results in the under-policing of LGBT citizens when victimized, but over-policing in places of leisure. This relationship is exacerbated when considering the intersectional effect of gender and sexual orientation, undoubtedly impacting legitimacy perceptions due to perceived (and actual) procedural injustice. Using original data collected at an LGBT festival in Arizona (N = 428), the current study examines the relationship between procedural justice and perceptions of police legitimacy among a historically marginalized population. Implications for theory and policy are discussed, with special attention given to contextualizing the findings within the current legitimacy crisis faced by American law enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, we, as queer subjects, share our embodied experiences to rearticulate and reimagine possible and impossible performances of queer relationality as family. We collaboratively pay careful and nuanced attention to our queer performative roles of becoming and being femmes as referring points of this critical queer engagement. To do so, we adapt methodological implications of autoethnography and intersectional reflexivity. Thereby, we take further steps to explore an anti-anti-relational landscape of queerness that works on and against hegemonic, heteronormative, and homonormative paradigms of relating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charlotte Zolotow's 1972 storybook William's Doll introduced us to a young boy who wanted nothing more than a baby doll of his own to hug, cuddle, and love. Since that time other children's picture books featuring gender non-conforming boys have been published, telling stories about boys who dance, cook, and prefer to wear dresses. This qualitative research examines 20 of these books, published between 1972 and 2014. We analyze the themes and messages found in these books, paying particular attention to how the portrayals have changed over time. Research findings focus on historical shifts in the ways that gender non-conformity is depicted, the role that parents and peers play in these books, and how the books frame gender non-conformity as a problem that needs to be resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The view of sexuality Freud first proposed in the Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality contains a discrepancy between the sexuality perverse and polymorphous described in the first two essays and the biologically directed, reproductive sexuality of the third essay. According to Jean Laplanche, the theorist of psychoanalysis who is Freud’s closest reader and translator, the discrepancy is due to two contradictory opinions Freud apparently held at different moments of his writing: one, that sexuality is exogenous, an effect of seduction by adults; two, that sexuality is endogenous, innate in the human biological organism. This article focuses on Laplanche’s elucidation of two aspects of sexuality present in each adult: an instinctual, hormonally based, and ultimately reproductive sexual impulse, which begins at puberty, and the drive-based sexual impulses first theorized by Freud as polymorphous-perverse infantile sexuality, which begin in infancy and continue to be active throughout the individual’s life. Laplanche’s rereading of Freud leads to a more complex understanding of sexuality as always deviant, in one way or another and to a greater or lesser degree, from the established social norms. So-called sexual deviance, therefore, is not a problem within the sexual but an issue within the social field. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gender identity is a key question for drag performers. Previous research has shown a lack of consensus about the subversiveness and gender fluidity of drag performers. This article examines the question: How does the relationship between performers and their audience affect the subversive nature and gender representation of drag performers in this study? Furthermore, is this relationship complicated by sexuality? This study uses ethnographic and interview methods, examining experiences of 10 drag performers. Findings indicate mutuality in the relationship between performers and audience. The recursiveness of this relationship provides a constant feedback to the performers in their effort to displace the audience’s previously held notions. The performers have fluid understandings of gender and sexuality, often presenting multiple genders in and out of drag. Interactions between performers and their audience indicate their belief in gender fluidity; moreover, the drag performers themselves desire to be subversive and gender and sexually fluid. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research presents an examination of Black gay men and their lived experiences while undergraduates at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Based on 10 in-depth interviews with self-identified Black gay men, the author presents four emergent themes, which reveal the complex ways in which Black gay men navigate and negotiate the intersections of their multiple identities as related to race, sexual orientation, and gender at HBCUs. The findings of this research have implications for larger discussions of community, Black masculinity, and gay identity in predominantly Black and non-Black contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on a grounded theory analysis of interviews with transgender-identified people from different regions of the United States. Participants held a variety of gender identities under the transgender rubric (e.g., crossdresser, transman, transwoman, butch lesbian). Interviews explored the participants’ experiences in arriving at their gender identity. This article presents three clusters of findings related to the common processes of transgender identity development. This process was made possible by accessibility of transgender narratives that injected hope into what was a childhood replete with criticism and scrutiny. Ultimately, participants came to their identities through balancing a desire for authenticity with demands of necessity—meaning that they weighed their internal gender experience with considerations about their available resources, coping skills, and the consequences of gender transitions. The implications of these findings are considered in terms of their contribution to gender theory, research, and clinical support for transgender clients. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, I argue that collaborative photography offers dynamic potential for imag(in)ing trans intimate partnerships beyond the authority of textual representation. I present five photographic and narrative case studies, spanning a range of trans partnerships in the UK, to demonstrate some of the complex ways in which bodies, genders, sexualities, and time intersect in trans intimacy. I argue that the photographs create an imaginative resource, both for the people depicted in the photographs and for those viewing the photographs, providing new possibilities for thinking about trans partnerships, expanding the ways in which trans intimate partnerships are imag(in)ed, and opening up new spaces of possibility for gender and sexual identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The image of the male warrior still dominates military culture, to the exclusion of women and homosexuals. Complicating the picture is a technological revolution that promises to widen the current gap between the myth and reality of the modern warrior even further. Nonetheless, despite long arguing that homosexuals were a direct threat to military culture and effectiveness, the Pentagon has largely treated the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell as a policy matter. The difficulties still experienced by women in the armed services 40 years after they were first incorporated in significant numbers indicates that this response will be insufficient to address the deeper cultural issues. Gender issues implicate deeply held beliefs and values that persist even in the face of years of official admonishment and denial. Unless the military begins to transparently bridge the gap between the myth and reality of the modern warrior, military service without discrimination based on sexual orientation will remain an unachieved goal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In many instances, adults serve as gatekeepers for what books children are permitted to explore. Unfortunately, this means that most children have limited access to picture books with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) characters. In this article, we use queer pedagogy and observations about neoliberalism to provide a qualitative analysis of LGBTQ characters in picture books which were finalists for a Lambda Literary Award during 2000–2005. We examined the ways in which LGBTQ identities and relationships are negotiated and how sexual prejudice is treated. While it is improbable that the books we analyze would be embraced by proponents of neoliberalism, we also briefly consider some ways in which they may be inadvertently consistent with that perspective. The article closes with recommendations regarding discussion questions, additional readings, and educational activities aimed at guiding children, and adults, to appreciate a diversity of multidimensional identities and family structures, to develop strategies to respond constructively to emotional and physical violence, and to promote the public wellbeing. We hope that this analysis will lead to more frequent, productive, and expansive discussions of this literature among adults and children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author, a lawyer who advocates for transgender children and youth, explores how clinical approaches to transgender children and youth are keeping pace with social and legal changes affecting these young people and with recent evidence suggesting that children are harmed by family and societal rejection as well as by attempts to change their gender identity or gender expression. The author urges providers and legal advocates to work with policymakers and the families of transgender children and youth to create a future in which these young people can reach their full potential and be embraced as fully equal, respected, and participating members of society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article adopts an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the intersections of gender, sexuality, and dance. It examines the expressions of sexuality among gay males through culturally popular forms of club dancing. Drawing on political and musical history, I outline an account of how gay men's gendered choreographies changed throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. Through a notion of 'technologies of the body,' I situate these developments in relation to cultural levels of homophobia, exploring how masculine expressions are entangled with and regulated by musical structures. My driving hypothesis is that as perceptions of cultural homophobia decrease, popular choreographies of gay men's dance have become more feminine in expression. Exploring this idea in the context of the first decade of the new millennium, I present a case study of TigerHeat, one of the largest weekly gay dance club events in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a contextual discourse analysis of the media response to a campaign against bullying that was developed in the spring of 2007 in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. As a feature of masculine socialization, male-on-male bullying secures the reproduction of an aggressive and heteronormative hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1987) for boys and young men in contemporary North American mainstream culture. I argue that the celebration of the “Pink Campaign” is illustrative of the normalizing silences, or “unremarkability,” about the related discourses of sexism and homophobia that motivate everyday practices of male-on-male bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female-To-Male (FTM) transgender individuals were approached at a conference and several peer support groups in the United States and asked to complete a short questionnaire regarding their medical care. Results from the 122 completed questionnaires indicated that a high number of respondents were taking testosterone (n = 106) and had some gender-confirming surgery (n = 68). Seventy percent of respondents rated their overall quality of health care "good" or "excellent." A surprising finding was the low number (7%) reporting diagnoses of polycystic ovarian syndrome-the incidence of which has been reported elsewhere as high as 50%. Also notable were the high levels of employment, insurance, knowledge of standards of care, and access to providers, contrasting with reports from studies involving predominantly Male-To-Female (MTF) individuals. Finally, FTM's usage of transition-related medical resources can vary, but many within this study are foregoing genital surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research draws from literature relating to gay identity in psychology and sociology and feminist theory to consider the effect of gay identity and gender on gays' and lesbians' attitudes toward various types of advertising content that are most commonly used to target gay consumers. As such, this study empirically tests whether gay males' and lesbians' responses to gay-oriented advertising content are moderated by individual characteristics: (1) the degree to which they identify as gay, and (2) their gender, and by the explicitness and gender of the gay-oriented advertising imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like much of the general public, the vast majority of my students strongly hold dichotomous, essentialist outlooks about what the categories female and male/gay and straight are supposed to represent and be. One way that I have found to challenge these oppressive worldviews, and also to queer my classes in the process, is to take my course participants to drag shows and/or to use videotapes of drag queens and drag kings in my classes. As part of an ongoing ethnography of drag performers I am undertaking, I have taken over 300 students to drag shows over the past eight years. Female students have often found attending a drag show to be a fun experience free of the sexual harassment found in most bars, while male students often contextually experience being a social minority for the first time in their life. From both attending drag Shows and/or watching recordings of them I show in class, students have reported gaining an experiential appreciation of the performed basis of gender, sexuality, and inequality. Or, stated slightly differently, students begin to understand how the stratification system metaphorically makes drag queens of us all. This, in turn, provides the basis of the foremost argument l make in all my classes: equality will not be realized until nondichotomous, truly new ways of relating to others are envisioned and acted upon.

While engaged in research on the same-sex marriage debate in mainline denominations, I interviewed 23 LGBT Christians, four of whom were drag queens. While it is not possible to generalize from such a small sample, the drag queens in this study insist on maintaining their identity as Christians despite the hegemonic discourse that renders faith and LGBT identities mutually exclusive. They developed innovative approaches to reconciling their gender and sexual identities with their spirituality. Their innovations are potentially liberating not just for them personally, but for LGBT people generally because they challenge Christianity's rigid dichotomies of gender and sexuality.

With this chapter, I explore the potential of drag king performance as a tool of deconstructing gender. I begin with a brief examination of the ways that gender is constructed as natural through the repetition of a set of norms, noting the pervasiveness of these norms and their location at the center of cultural imagination. I then turn to the idea of drag as a practice of subverting these norms through breaking their repetition. I argue that drag king performance, through its failure to approximate the "natural male," draws attention to the very constructedness of the category, and thus of all naturalized categories of gender. Using the budding Edmonton drag king scene as a case example, I discuss some of the ways that drag kings take queer theory and gender deconstruction out of the classroom and into practice. I speculate as to the effectiveness of such practices in the realm of queer theory, pointing to the ways that these performances may be read to reinforce rather than subvert gender norms. I also look at the complexities of "passing" gender performances, such as transsexual or transgendered practices, and the ways that these practices align or do not align with performances intending to fail. I propose that the emergence of these practices is in itself a beginning step toward a reevaluation of normative gender, and toward a radical reinvention of new gender possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the anti-effeminacy attitudes among gay men. Impact of gender conformity on the attitudes of gay men; Implication of insecurity among gay men for the development of anti-effeminacy attitudes; Comparison between hegemonic masculinity ideology and masculinity consciousness.

Investigates the link between heterosexual masculinity and homophobia in college males. Examination of gender self-discrepancy, attribute importance and self-esteem as predictors of homophobia; Findings showing sensitivity among college males to gender stereotypes.

The study reported here investigated the relationship between Instrumentality (I) and Expressivity (E) (two personality variables related to sex roles), sexual orientation, occupational level and marital status. The hypothesis was that women high in I and low in E may find traditional heterosexual relationships to be in conflict with their personality traits, and that a lesbian choice may offer a way of life more in keeping with such traits. The study used a sample of 159 women, and found that neither I nor £ alone, nor I × E, could predict sexual orientation. A weak relationship was found between I and housewifery, such that women who were married with children and did not have a job outside the home tend to score lower on I. Expressivity bore no relationship to any of the variables. Women who were high on I and low on E were not more likely to be lesbian. The study concludes that there is no relationship between I, E, and sexual orientation; also that it is inappropriate to use housewives as a heterosexual comparison group for lesbian women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Varying perceptions of gender, sex, and sexuality are investigated, using several examples, from the Pokot of East Africa to the Tewa Indians in New Mexico. The role that labels play in the acquisition of gender identity is also explored; and the influence of Cartesian dualism is challenged, suggesting a need to expand Euro- American conceptions of gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the anthropological interpretation of sexual meanings in Brazil as presented in the recent work of Peter Fry. Following Fry’s lead, it places central emphasis on the study of male homosexuality and sexual ideology, suggesting that these cultural domains can be fully understood only when situated within the wider context of sexual meanings in Brazil. With this in mind, it traces the historical development of a series of analytical distinct, though practically interrelated, systems of sexual classification which structure the constitution of meaningful sexual identities in Brazil life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]