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This article reports on a national study commissioned by Tennis Australia to assess the positive role that sport, specifically tennis, has on the lives of LGBT+ people in Australia. It explores specifically the role of tennis in building social solidarity and community capital through leisurely and organised sporting activities. Theoretically, this paper is anchored in the work of Putnam, where we demonstrate how sport promotes and bridges social capital. Scholarship that explores how sport can be a source of celebration and enjoyment for LGBT+ people remains underexplored. To gain comprehensive insights into the perceptions and lived experiences of LGBT+ tennis players, we employed a qualitative research design drawing on the methods of semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. In total 27 interviews were conducted, 3 focus groups and over 50 hours of observations at various LGBT+ tennis clubs and tournaments in Sydney, Hobart, Perth and Melbourne. Our paper makes a significant contribution to scholarship by assessing the ways in which sport can advance inclusion efforts for LGBT+ people, and positively impact their lives and overall wellbeing. Our research clearly indicated that those who play tennis reported improvement in their mental and physical health whilst also enhancing their social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tennyson composedIn Memoriambetween 1833 and 1849, a span bisected by Daguerre’s and Talbot’s nearly simultaneous claims to have invented a viable photographic process. Read in tandem with Barthes’sCamera Lucida, Tennyson’sIn Memoriamis seen as originating in what has been called “a desire for photography” and as, in itself, a kind of photographic negative, potentially capable of resuscitating Arthur Hallam’s body. Barthes’s text offers a way to think about Tennyson’s elegy, and vice versa, as both share a fascination with latency (what is latent in the textures of paper; in language; in the psychological self), as well as a compulsion to dovetail the material with the spiritual. A dialectical approach, juxtaposing meditations onCamera LucidaandIn Memoriamwithin a broader framework of photographic history, helps to illuminate elements that the two works share in common, such as a teasing account of the “blind field” of sexuality, and an investment in the materiality of art, the surfaces of paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After more than twenty years of programming and activism aimed at stemming the sexual transmission of HIV (and addressing the needs of those most vulnerable to infection) the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to grow worldwide. Taking up this concern, this paper argues that one of the reasons why HIV prevention has had limited success is because of inadequate conceptualization of human sexuality in such work. Giving sexuality a more prominent position in responses to the epidemic raises a range of issues, including theorization of gender, understanding of sexual subjectivity, the significance of pleasure (or lack of pleasure) in sexual decision-making, and conceptualization of sexual behaviour and culture. Taking these themes forward entails asking significant questions about the underlying paradigmatic and methodological commitments of mainstream HIV/AIDS research, especially the tendency to reproduce accounts of human sexuality as if it were a measurable form of conduct only. Advocating new approaches that take the meaning and symbolic value of sexualities into account complicates established orthodoxies in the field whilst offering potential for more effective HIV prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article takes up diverse strands of psychoanalytic thinking to investigate how desire is manifested in male team sporting environments. In particular, it is posited that sporting desire shares a remarkable structural similarity to the joking relationship in that they both work through the overcoming of obstacles. In doing so unconscious desires are long-circuited and only emerge in radically altered form, upending traditional gender and sexual subjectivities in the process. The paper explores the concept of desire from perspectives that are either straightforwardly psychoanalytic or heavily influenced by psychoanalytic thought. Initially, I examine desire from a Freudian viewpoint before looking at how Jacques Lacan extended Freudian analysis through a linguistic lens. I then explore desire in terms developed by Gilles Deleuze before turning, in the second part of the paper, to an examination of the work of George Bataille to consider the desire of sport through the mechanism of the joke to trace the complex routing that it often takes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the First Special Issue of our Double Special Edition on LGBTQIA+ Topics in Health, Wellbeing and Education. This special issue focuses on LGBTQIA+ Topics in Physical Education. We introduce the Special Issue by describing the sociopolitical backdrop around the world more broadly and specifically in relation to LGBTQIA+ rights. Afterwards, we reflect on the process of choosing Sport, Education and Society as the journal to publish the Special Edition. Moving forward, we briefly summarise the different streams of LGBTQIA+ research in physical education and how this special issue extends our knowledge in these areas. Lastly, we contend that this Special Issue adds a new stream of research on LGBTQIA+ Topics in Physical Education. We conclude the introduction by considering how future research may continue to capitalise on the momentum that LGBTQIA+ research has built in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What do we do with emotion in biographical research: is it an end in itself, a symptom to be explained, a thread to be pulled? This paper presents an experiment in methodology within a field of biographical methods that involved revisiting a single qualitative interview after the elapse of thirty years. The interview with 22 year old Stacey was troubling at the time it was generated (as captured in fieldnotes and interview transcript) and was still troubling when these documents were reprised. Naming sadness as an emotion at play in the material took teamwork and emotionally engaged methods of analysis and interpretation. Working with psychoanalytically informed theories we show how a curiosity about emotion and a willingness to follow feelings can help connect individual stories to collective histories. The paper presents group based analyses and writing methods as a way of tracing the psychic logics of story through scenic material (what we call 'emotional bombshells'). We consider the difference that time might make to an analysis, considering the possibility that more time might produce more perspective through allowing the original context to be rendered (more) visible. We also suggest that clock time can be transcended when considering unconscious processes and experiences that resist narrative. Recontextualising research materials can enrich meaning and further realise the value of qualitative interviews that always contain more to be heard, resituated in new times and relationships. This is not simply an exercise in nostalgia but is offered as a method in its own right, reanimation as a route to the generation of new intergenerational knowledge of a thick present in which past, present and future co-exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 the emergence of sex education in the early 20th century is well studied, religious reactions to it remained under-studied. The paper addresses this gap by analysing the emergence of Roman Catholic sex education in the German-speaking area from the turn of the century to the 1930s. It explores official doctrinal guidelines, inner-Catholic debates, and the growing body of Catholic sex education publications. The paper argues that for the Roman Catholic Church, sex education was not a mere pedagogical problem but a topic that raised overarching questions such as how to deal with modern natural sciences, female emancipation, or the secular school system. The findings suggest that lay people and clergy working in pastoral care were the driving force for the modernisation of the discourse vis-à-vis a more conservative church authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on South African teenage girls' engagement with pornography. Using a decolonial approach and drawing upon new feminist materialism, this study focuses on the ways in which bodies, gender and sexuality configure to produce and constrain girls' capacities for sexual expression. The paper makes three claims. First, the article turns away from a one-sided representation of girls as only possible to know through the lens of sexual suffering while challenging childhood sexual innocence. Second, the online pornographic field is situated in a gendered and racialised system of organisation whereby the perfect body is naturalised as an esteemed object of desire. Third, the desire for the perfect, slim, blemish-free, hairless body through self-surveillance constricts capacities in line with normative standards of female beauty. A decolonial porn assemblage is harnessed to illustrate the contradictions produced as girls both desire and object to idealised bodies that are naturalised through heterosexual and racialised hierarchies. The paper concludes by considering the implications of approaching girls' engagement with pornography in relation to the expansion and limitation of their capacities and the body as an intense site of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aspiration-capability framework introduces four (im)mobility categories – mobility, voluntary immobility, involuntary immobility and acquiescent immobility – which have received considerable attention. However, few studies have examined how people move across such categories. Drawing on the migration experiences of 17 self-identified Latin American gay individuals, this paper shows how prospective migrants can be pushed into a state of involuntary immobility by their families, and how they can adapt to overcome immobility and fulfill their migration aspirations. The article finds, firstly, that heteronormative values and familial expectations regarding sexuality shape the possibility of mobilizing the family's economic, informative and emotional resources. Secondly, I discuss the adaptation strategies that individuals use to surpass involuntary immobility. To understand movement across (im)mobility categories, as well as the role of social boundaries for migration, this paper differentiates between individual and collective migration aspirations and capabilities. In doing so, the article introduces an approach to explore how interactions between social groups and their individual group members shape the (im)mobility projects of the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the UK a polarised and politicised discourse exists that attempts to pitch transgender identities in opposition to discourses on sexual orientations. This suggests that interventions assisting clients in their understanding of one, would be detrimental on exploration of the other i.e., to be affirming of gender identity is to cause conversion of sexuality and vice versa. This paper attempts to address some of the problems with this oppositional critique and solve some of the practical problems that the theorist and/or clinician may encounter while attempting to help their clients within the realm of psychological therapies. It does so through Deleuzian ontologies of difference, coupled with Bhaskarian critical realism. We aim to present a (re)consideration of the biopsychosocial model of Health. The recent publication of the International Classification of Diseases 11th Edition and its reclassification of trans aetiology as a Disorder of Sexual Development has presented a conceptual shift from gender dysphoria towards a gender incongruence model (WHO 2022). The aim of this article therefore is to develop practice by enhancing the conceptual toolbox of the clinician and therapist working with Gender Sex and Relationship Diversities (GSRD). Thereby enabling them to better approach a wider diversity of clients safely. This paper explores current conversations and ideas around the phenomenon of trans gender identities and minority orientations. It aims to present an ethical model which can inform the clinical practice of therapists and is underpinned by a critical realist interpretation of biological, psychological and sociological aspects of the mind and body. Overall, the paper acts as a call to action against conversion practices which aim to position trans experience and sexual attraction in opposition to each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the creative group and individual interviews with young people aged 11–18 years old in England and Wales in 2018, this paper assembles data that addresses the changing nature of intimacies in young people's digitally-networked lives. Informed by Lauren Berlant's work (2008, viii), it maps how platforms such as Instagram and YouTube circulate certain 'fantasies of the good life' that orient young people towards heteronormative future imaginaries. It argues that publicising intimate relationships on social media works to both reify and unsettle fantasies of monogamy, marriage and domesticity by highlighting their inherent precarity. It also illustrates how smart technologies such as the virtual personal assistants Alexa and Siri reconfigure the good life fantasy. Moving beyond simplistic moral panics that seek to discipline young people's digital intimacies, this paper aims to engage with the nuances of young people's digital sexual cultures. Overall, this paper argues that attending to this complexity can enable practitioners to better attune to and support young people to navigate contemporary digital relationships and sexuality issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the role of transnational AIDS networks and resources in the consolidation of one of the earliest identity categories, meti, used within an emerging Nepali LGBT movement in the early 2000s. It argues that political identity formation in resource-poor contexts with limited domestic support for queer organising has been a cumulative effect of transnational exchanges between activists and resource networks. Beyond this, the paper traces the emergence and changing meanings of meti to show how a seemingly Indigenous category is more closely linked to modern configurations of male same-sex sexuality in response to opportunities available for political mobilisation. The paper is based on secondary research and interviews with 71 participants and participant observation conducted during seven months of fieldwork in Nepal, and interviews conducted outside the country between 2016 and 2019. [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]

This paper examines the star figure, both literally and figuratively, of Jane Russell, a glamorous Hollywood actress, singer, dancer and comedienne who first rose to American public prominence through a promotional censorship scandal surrounding Howard Hughes' 1943 Billy the Kid narrative, The Outlaw. Whilst Russell starred in a raft of Hollywood westerns throughout the course of her long film career, this paper will examine Russell's representation, early in that career, particularly in the films and the promotional materials for the 1948 Bob Hope comedy vehicle, The Paleface, it's 1952 sequel; Son of Paleface, and her cameo appearance that same year, in one of the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby's immensely popular 'Road to' films, Road to Bali. This paper will consider the way in which these roles provided ample means for Paramount to exploit Russell's high profile, scandalous sexpot, pin up persona by deploying humour and deliberately and repeatedly referring back to her infamous film debut for Hughes, but will also consider how in these film's narratives and promotion, her persona actually develops, admittedly starting with, but ultimately progressing beyond, her Outlaw notoriety, towards a more complex depiction of independent, active and assured womanhood that saw her through the remainder of her career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Most previous research on sexual minority migrants focused on those who move from places where there are fewer legal rights for sexual minorities to where there are more. This paper distinctively fills a research gap through a focus on a subset of sexual minority migrants: sexual minority expatriates. It presents a five-year ethnographic case study of a judicial review in Hong Kong QT v Director of Immigration and other lesbian and gay couples who moved to Hong Kong, and business organisations that advocate for immigration equality. First, the analysis highlights that both subjective cultural assumptions and objective legal conditions play an important role in sexual minority expatriates' assessment of gay-friendliness of the work destination. Second, this paper uncovers the agency of gay and lesbian expatriates' impact on the local legal sexual landscape and illustrates how sexual citizenship could be reclaimed by relying on the homonormative logic that the same-sex couples are productive labour and beneficial to the economy. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of sexual minority migration by theorising how sexual minority migrants may not only be constrained by the legal and social environments in the migration destination, but they may also actively change and shape them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades there has been an increase in the use of participatory and emancipatory methodologies within disability research; centring the lived experience of disabled people. This paper explores some of the ethical and practical considerations when researching in the area of disabled women and sexuality, highlighting the pervasiveness of ableist attitudes and processes. Drawing on critical disability studies and utilising critical reflexivity, the researcher, a disabled woman, discusses some of the strengths and limitations of being an 'insider-outsider' researcher. The paper also presents some strategies and considerations for researchers who seek to use inclusive methods in research with and by disabled people, including the importance of language and multi-methods to facilitate and promote access and expression. If research is to be a true reflection of the community being researched, then it is vital inclusive principles are incorporated into all stages of research projects. There has been an increase in research that includes disabled people in all stages of the research process. This paper discusses some of the ways the researcher, a disabled woman, used inclusive research methods throughout her study focused on disabled women's experiences of sex education, sexual expression and violence. The paper considers some of the strengths and challenges of insider research, and outlines ways to promote access and expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe literature regarding the life course and queer migration has shown that many gay men and lesbians seek large cities to live their lives away from the prying eyes of their families and build their sexual identity. In the global south, little is known about the effects that sexuality can have on the migratory trajectories of individuals. In that sense, what happens to the lives of those that have never left their hometowns and have had to find ways to experience their sexuality in these places. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to discuss queer migration, the impact on the lives of the individuals that left their hometowns, others that at one point came back and those that never left in the first place. Based on 21 life course interviews with self-identified LGB individuals in small/medium towns in Brazil, this paper shows how aspects such as closeness to family, educational trajectory, financial stability affects the migration trajectories of LGB individuals that live in small/medium cities. The results show that families are an important influence in the decision-making to migrate, to stay or to return to your hometown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of sexuality, especially queer sexuality, has occupied a historically marginal position within political economy. Where feminist scholars have addressed the topic, they have typically done so through the lens of women's sexual labour and social reproduction and/or by framing sexual orientation and gender identity as a variable through which patterns of differentiation may occur. Most critical political economy ignores sexuality entirely. As a result, matters of queer oppression and resistance have not been systematically investigated or theorised. This paper addresses this gap by fusing together insights from the emergent 'queering IPE' literature with two other strands of scholarship that integrate queer concerns into the study of global capitalism: the 'globalisation' and 'state-centric' frames. Based on this, I propose a theoretical framework for understanding queer struggle and apply this to the analysis of LGBTI politics and activism in Ghana. The paper argues that queer oppression and resistance are important topics of inquiry in and of themselves in political economy. At the same time, a broader ontological shift is required to recognise the constitutive role of sexuality within political economic phenomena, which has potentially far-reaching implications for future research agendas within and beyond the study of queer politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines how the discourse of sexuality was employed to gain political legitimacy by the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) to out-manoeuvre their political rivals Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai Faction (MDC-T) in the Zimbabwean elections of 2013. In the context of Zimbabwe politics, the nexus between sexual discourse and political contests presents a conspicuous shift from dominant day-to-day mundane political debates centred on policy to debates of personal (mis)conduct and morality. The nexus between sexuality and political legitimacy is analysed using Michel Foucault's ideas on sexuality: repressive hypothesis and biopower. The paper maintains that the media have been used to disseminate the discourse of sexuality to the electorate. Importantly, the influence of media is scrutinised using the theory of mass communication and media politics as articulated by Castells, and the Propaganda Model postulated by Herman and Chomsky. Through Critical Discourse Analysis and results from unstructured interviews the paper observes that the discourse of sexuality had a considerable bearing on gaining political power. Lastly, the paper observes that, although the discourse of sexuality has a symbiotic relationship with amassing political power, there were other factors that influenced the electoral outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has demonstrated how LGBTQ+ hate is widespread on the internet. The nature of the online world is such that the permanence and desistance of hate is greater than its offline counterpart. However, comparatively little attention has been paid to the impacts of this type of behavior. Drawing on the findings of a survey involving 175 LGBTQ+ respondents aged 13–25, and 15 follow-up interviews, this paper addresses this gap by exploring the range of significant impacts that LGBTQ+ young people experience on their well-being and relationships with others. Given the ubiquitous nature of online abuse, this paper demonstrates the need for a targeted criminal justice response. Consequently, this paper discusses the implications of the findings with respect to future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of the International Journal of Sexual Health is devoted to the issues of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and the effort by the World Association for Sexual Health to argue that the promotion of sexual health is an essential strategy for attaining those goals. Recently, the World Association for Sexual Health has published Sexual Health for the Millennium: A Declaration and Technical Document (2008). This special issue of the IJSH contains the background papers which served as a foundation for the development of the declaration and technical document. These articles argue that sexuality is a fundamental aspect of being human, that human development must be premised on the promotion of sexual health and is a basic human right for all citizens. Public policies designed to promote human development must make the promotion of sexual health an essential strategy. This special issue is designed to stimulate more interest in the Sexual Health for the Millennium: A Declaration and Technical Document, encourage further analysis and research which will support the statements in the declaration, provoke more advocacy for sexual health, and, most importantly, to stimulate sound and effective public policies to create a sexually healthier world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her groundbreaking text, Male Daughters, Female Husbands, Ifi Amadiume offers an ethnographic account which depicts, among others, gender in the making in Nnobi society in Nigeria. This paper, drawing from Amadiume's work, looks at three related specific moments of understanding gender and sex categories in a South African context. Through empirical research based on a qualitative study; a literary text; as well as visual arts, the paper tracks the notion of nongayindoda, a Nguni term for (gender) fluidity to offer new insights that go beyond Western gender binaries. Nongayindoda has been used to refer to masculine women or men-like women. In some contexts, it has been assumed to relate only to women who have chosen not to have relations with men. Some have considered the term derogatory and thus shied away from using it. In this paper, the term is turned upside and interrogated to reveal broader meanings. In the end, I argue that nongayindoda offers an opportunity to move beyond gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper challenges the invisibilisation and silencing of indigenous conceptions of womanhood in feminist scholarly work. It argues that "Mosotho woman," as we know it today, is a colonial construct for it is located within and fixed to hetero-patriarchal binarised hierarchies. It further argues for the reflection on historical narratives of women the likes of 'Manthatisi of the Batlokoa as exceptional representations of precolonial conceptions of womanhood in Lesotho. As we interrogate the current invocations of "woman" in Lesotho, we ought to use these herstories as springboards to understand the silenced indigenous conceptions of bosali (womanhoods) that are not only complex but multifarious and beyond the confines of binarised hetero-patriarchal constructions. Drawing on the narrated life stories of 20 "never-married" women – methepa – the paper discusses boithlompho (self-respect), mosali oa 'mankhonthe (perseverance), sexual empowerment, and botho (personhood) as underpinning the indigenous definitions of bosali. This paper argues for retrieval, elevation, and continuation of indigenous languages, rituals, and spaces as sources of knowledge and theory on womanhoods in local contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the recent call to expand the discussion about sex and sexuality in social work, and coming from an international perspective, this paper offers a theoretical and practical strategy for teaching sex and sexuality in social work. The pedagogical strategy aims at creating a critical thinking classroom. Specifically, the paper presents six key topics for teaching sex and sexuality critically in social work: 1. Sexuality in social work fields; 2. Sexuality as a social constructed phenomenon; 3. Categorizations and sexual identities; 4. Structural-based privileges and disadvantages; 5. Reproduction of power asymmetries through microaggressions; 6. Expanding the conception of sexuality in social work. Each topic is presented with suggestions for literature and critical questions for classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two co-related studies about Two-spirit people in Atlantic Canada, the coming out stories share critical cultural perspectives about gender identity and sexuality from a L'nuwey (Mi'kmaw) perspective. This qualitative research implemented Etuaptmumk or Two-Eyed Seeing, a co-learning methodology using Indigenous and western perspectives for data collection and analysis. The findings surface stories about resiliency among Two-spirit people who face distress and anxiety, with supports mainly coming from family and community. According to their narratives, coming out is part of their cultural awakening process. The paper shares that Two-spirited people come out in intervals or phases, especially trans people. Sexuality and gender identity development are in flux until they reach a balanced and spiritual state. The Two-spirit identity process is non-linear that may evolve in a life cycle. The study captures the ongoing resurgence of regional Indigenous perspectives of gender identity and sexuality. The narratives share the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual states of Two-spirit people during their coming out process. The stories are a source of hope and empowerment for the Two-spirit community relating to gender and sexuality. This study is the only current community-based evidence about coming out experiences of Two-spirit people in Atlantic Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College students have been recognized as a risk group for substance use. Nevertheless, coherent risk factors for stimulant use remain to be elucidated. The objective of this paper is to identify risk factors associated with the recreational use of MDMA, cocaine, amphetamine and methamphetamine. An online questionnaire was distributed among colleges in Berlin. A sample of 12,914 college students participated, of which 9,382 met the inclusion criteria. Past-month prevalence was 7.0% for MDMA, 6.7% for amphetamine, 5.8% for cocaine and 0.1% for methamphetamine. Associated factors included male gender, "other" gender, homosexual and bisexual orientation, open relationship status or being single, engaging in sexual risk-taking behavior, having a psychiatric diagnosis, tobacco use, drinking alcohol and an increased number of (illicit) substances consumed in the past month and in life. Berlin college students showed a substantially higher prevalence of stimulant use compared to both the general population and college students in other cities. Certain parameters, e.g., polydrug use, were particularly high in this group. The results can be used in further development of prevention efforts. However, conclusions about causality are limited by the cross-sectional nature of this study, highlighting the necessity for longitudinal studies in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asexuals present at health services with unique needs, yet providers typically lack training to care for this population. This narrative review aims to inform providers on best methods of asexual care. Search terms included "asexuality" and "health." Abstracts were screened against inclusion criteria, yielding 987 articles. After full-text screening, 44 papers were included. Pathologization, microaggressions, lack of awareness, and institutional neglect pose challenges to asexuals seeking care. Providers can improve asexual care by affirming identity, taking asexual-specific approaches, educating themselves, challenging biases, and fighting for institutional-level changes. These findings may guide practitioners in developing asexual-competent practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses data from interviews with young girls (13-23) of African descent and is part of our larger research programme, entitled 'AfroGreek Cultures in Athens'. In it we wish to offer an exploratory mapping of African women's and girls' lived experiences in Greece. Given that women of colour usually have to wrestle with derogatory assumptions and stereotypes about their character and identity, in order to preserve their true selves and secure recognition as citizens, we would like to investigate the everyday practices and experiences of African teenage girlhood in Greece. What can African teenage girls tell us about how they see themselves within Greek society and their own community? To what extent certain patriarchal and heteronormative ideologies and power relationships about sexuality, religion, family, self-regulation, popular culture, are (unwittingly) internalized, and passed on to the next generation of young African girls in Greece? For the purposes of this article, we focus on how our participants accounted for the constructions of femininity within the African community; technologies of sexiness; managing one's sexual conduct; and parental control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article offers a critique of the dominant secular/sexual paradigm in the Netherlands by focusing on everyday experiences of sexuality among Turkish-Dutch women. A secular approach towards sexuality rests on the fictive duality of a sexually liberated, progressive majority Dutch and a conservative cultural ‘Other’. This paper argues that despite scholarly work challenging the secular/framework within which minoritised women’s sexuality is problematised, cultural stereotypes continue to persist in Dutch populist discourse and everyday life. Based on life story interviews conducted with eight women, it illustrates the specific ways in which normative expectations are imposed on minoritised women based on perceived religious or cultural differences. These expectations constitute a ‘script’ that is imbued with cultural stereotypes. Dissonant moments emerge when my interlocutors fail to conform to the ‘script’. In contrast, when their choices validate these expectations, they are interpreted as a reflection of their ‘cultural background’ instead of being seen as instances of agentic behaviour. These processes further reify dichotomies in the form of sexually liberated and oppressed as the choices these women make are never seen as individual expressions of sexuality unless they openly contest these expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manchadikkari is a region in central Kerala occupied primarily by Dalit Christian communities. The majority of the people in the area are agricultural daily wage workers who have been economically and culturally marginalized. Caste discrimination and exploitation mark their past and present. The people in Manchadikkari articulate powerful anti-caste politics through their creative cultural productions like songs, stories, and plays that take shape in their community groups. The remembrance and reiteration of caste experiences in these community groups keep alive the history of caste exploitation and transmit these memories to the next generation. This paper analyses the play Azhakante Kutil ('Azhakan's Hut'), authored by Thankamma Titus from Manchadikkari in 2021 and performed by a group of women who are members of the community group 'Sanjeevani.' This study considers the processes of conceptualization, production, and performance of the play to show how these processes embody anti-caste politics. The play dwells on the community's caste history to show that caste is not an anachronism of the feudal era but actively determines the present cultural and material conditions. When contextualized in the community, the play exists as a moving narrative of the community's cultural activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of Global Public Health brings together papers examining how sexuality, gender, health and human rights have become increasing visible and highly contested within global health. The papers included here question and explore the often contradictory processes through which global equity-seeking populations negotiate pleasure and danger across multiple arenas (including HIV and AIDS, LGBTQ+ health and rights, intersex rights, sex worker rights, realities of refugee and displaced persons, and gender-based violence) and in diverse geographic contexts (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Mauritania, Nigeria, Peru, Rwanda, and the USA). These papers examine emerging questions about the gaps and limits in current legal structures that do not legitimize sexual rights as fundamental human rights, the role of agency (and of bounded agency) needed to navigate constrained contexts, ways in which community-based solidarity efforts shape access to sexual rights, and how sexual pleasure and consent are experienced and negotiated in rights-constrained contexts. The interdisciplinary authors included in this collection showcase how the ranging definitions of sexual rights, their enactment, and expressions of pleasure and danger are inextricably entangled with local contexts and cultural systems that underpin not only people's lived experience but simultaneously become central topics for global health research, policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research conducted in various parts of the globe suggests that young people who can openly communicate with their parents about sexuality benefit in many ways. Correspondingly, in Bangladesh, the lack of an open communication on sexuality in the youth–parent relationship is considered a barrier to ensuring young people's sexual and reproductive health and overall well-being. Taking 'silence' as a core concept, this paper investigates what silence on sexuality means to Bangladeshi young people in their relationship with parents. It draws on findings from an ethnographic study conducted among 72 middle-class boys and girls aged between 15 and 19 years and 18 parents living in Dhaka over a year between 2016 and 2017. The findings suggest that silence is not always perceived as problematic by young people, and this is particularly true for topics related to sexual pleasure. This paper challenges the monolithic understanding that silence is necessarily bad and hinders young people from getting what they need. It offers an additional conceptual understanding to silence for studying sexuality among youths and designing interventions for their sexual and reproductive well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on anthropological research exploring women's changing sexuality within an urban context of Tanzania. The women involved were participating in an HIV prevention trial and worked in bars, restaurants, hotels and nightclubs, or sold local beer or food in Mwanza city. In ethnographic fieldwork and interviews and group discussions with women, narratives about sexuality focused on gendered and moral discourses of sexuality, the commodification of sexuality, and emotions and intimacy in relationships. This paper discusses how women's sexual subjectivies are shaped by a city where social, structural and economic changes over an era of neoliberalism and AIDS has created both disciplinary and liberalising spaces in which gendered and moral discourses of sexuality have emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2006–2007, the romantic affair between Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and white-collar worker Susan Kuronen received unprecedented attention in the national media. Analyzing the coverage of the affair and its aftermath in Finnish evening papers through Sara Ahmed's notion of affective circulation, the present article investigates the drawing of public and private boundaries through the public reviling of Kuronen for revealing intimate details concerning Vanhanen's private life. As the couple's relationship unraveled, the evening papers began fashioning class differences between the parties both previously characterized as "ordinary" and middle-class, labeling Kuronen as common and trashy. Addressing the dynamics of class and gender at play, the article shows that although Kuronen was accused of continuously revealing her private life, she actually gave few interviews herself. Rather, the popular press reused the same comments and quotes extensively in an intertextual process of circulation through which Kuronen was crafted into a highly affective media figure and an object of considerable public dismay. In addition to exploring the intertextual working practices of the popular media, the article investigates the effects of the circulation of affect from evening papers to online discussion forums as underpinned by social hierarchies, the uses of privacy as a politician's media strategy as well as the risks that this involves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lifetime of disadvantages shapes how lesbians and gay men navigate healthcare as they age and their fears about end-of-life care. This paper investigates how a localized group of older white, college educated, and economically privileged gay men and lesbians conceptualize their approach to healthcare. Analyzing 23 in-depth interviews with gay men and lesbians over the age of 60 I consider how they utilize their advantages when aging and facing declining health. I pay particular attention to how discriminatory social and legal contexts shaped elders' current situations and ability to be "out" and engage with healthcare professionals. I utilize the theory of cumulative advantages and disadvantages as another way to understand literature on health inequalities and LGBTQ health work, finding that despite systemic inequalities some gay men and lesbian elders use their resources to find gay-friendly primary care physicians, age at home, and build social supports for caregiving as their health declines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this paper, we examine ways in which a group of teenage fathers in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, talk about their involvement in becoming a teenage father. We draw from a qualitative research project based on five focus groups and 20 individual interviews with teenage fathers aged between 17 and 19 years of age. We argue that when teenage fathers talk about their experiences, they locate caring and traditional versions of masculinity in understanding their roles. These versions of masculinity are socially and culturally located which both expand and constrict teenage fatherhood and caring masculinities. We conclude with some implications for addressing teenage men in the construction of masculinities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysing survey data from 1,304 LGBTQ + young people in Australia collected in 2016, this paper considers key distinctions between the experiences of bisexual and pansexual participants, and lesbian and gay participants in relation to social media use and aspects of connection, harassment and mental health. Presenting quantitative data, illustrated by qualitative extracts, we found broad similarities in motivations for using social media and how participants connected to peers and communities. There were some statistically significant differences, however, in respondents' motivations for using social media and who they connected with on these platforms. Importantly, bisexual and pansexual participants reported more negative experiences of harassment and exclusion across all major social media platforms when compared to their lesbian and gay peers. Bisexual and pansexual respondents also reported poorer mental health experiences. These findings speak to the different impacts of discrimination and oppression that young people experience in everyday life. There is a need for focused attention on bisexual and pansexual young people in academic, policy and youth-work domains. Young people will benefit from more substantial school-based education on LGBTQ + identities - beyond the experiences of gay and lesbian people - to 'usualise' varieties of difference in gender and sexual identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of policy documents and textbooks, this paper contributes to the growing field of research on the role of schools and schooling with regards to the construction of gender and sexuality by focusing on school practices and educational spaces. We argue that the nation-state in the Islamic Republic of Iran is a religious biopolitical state and its official discourse in the realm of gender and sexuality relies on heteronormative as well as gender normative belief systems. School spaces are therefore constituted as strongly heteronormative, and non-heterosexuality is not recognised as a legitimate subject position. Through its everyday practices, the education system upholds the state's ideology, by which the ideal/normal student is read as being heterosexual and cisgender, adhering to Islamic/state values, and constituted on the axis of strict gender binaries. Education about sexuality-gender diversity is therefore excluded and/or silenced. This paper aims to explore school discourses and practices in terms of gender and sexuality and how schools construct and regulate sexual and gender identities, with the aim of producing the ideal Islamic/Iranian subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to analyze the representation of sexuality in the prose of the Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko (1856–1916). Selected works of this author are presented in the context of Polish-Ukrainian relations in Galicia, then a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and against the background of contemporary modernization-oriented ideologies, such as socialism and nationalism. The main objective of the paper is to present Franko's work with regard to how knowledge/power in relation to sexuality was obtained both generally in Europe and also locally, in Galicia. Those contexts functioned in a network of relationships between the discourse concerning sexuality and the emergence of a modern Ukrainian political entity. Hence, the paper's theoretical rests on the assumptions of Michel Foucault (1978) regarding the role played by the subjugation of sexuality in the process of constructing the subject. In addition, the text seeks to examine the genealogy of the representation of the body, sex and gender to be encountered in contemporary Ukrainian culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores attitudes of staff, residents and family members towards sexually diverse persons based on data from the first national study of its kind in Aotearoa New Zealand. The study was a two-arm mixed-method cross-sectional study using a concurrent triangulation design. The quantitative arm included the results of 433 staff surveys related to knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and beliefs about sexuality, intimacy and ageing. The qualitative arm included interviews with 77 participants including staff, residents and family members. This paper focuses only on sexual diversity. A generational cultural effect was noted among all respondents; younger participants expressed the most open and accepting views of diversity. Residents were aware that they mostly held the views of their generation; nonetheless they also looked to staff to set the tone. Staff held varying views and felt that residents would be less accepting; some staff felt the issue of intimate relationships was not something they were willing to discuss at intake. Facilities will want to establish policies about sexuality and intimacy and communicate those policies and practices to staff, residents and family members. Facilities may also wish to consider specific educational events about sexual diversity for residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rejecting the association between aging and asexuality that persists in the UK's cultural representation of the female aging body, this paper reveals the importance of sensuality and maintaining physical agency to older women. It pays attention to the phenomena of participating in recreational burlesque classes to counter and negotiate potentially negative representations. Through in-depth interviews and researcher-as-participant observation, the paper explores the transformative possibilities mediated through participating in theatrically glamorized performance classes and the processes thereby initiated. The author examines the potential of burlesque to offer improvements to wellbeing and healthier self-perceptions for aging women experiencing marginalization through social invisibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at how shame functions in the teaching of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the classrooms for 13–19 year-olds in secondary schools in Bangladesh. Using the theoretical framework of affect, the paper looks at shame and other experiences of discomfort and hesitation among teachers while teaching these topics to young people. Drawing insights from 25 in-depth interviews with teachers in secondary schools in urban, semi-urban and rural settings, the paper explores how teachers deemed teaching certain topics as 'excessive', unnecessary and inappropriate in school settings. Teachers experience reluctance and discomfort in discussing culturally sensitive sexual and reproductive health and rights topics, and a persistent fear of being ridiculed and excluded from their community. By exploring how affect can be understood to initiate critical reflection about classroom norms, pedagogy and the role of teachers, the paper highlights the challenges for teachers who are seen as gatekeepers of sexual and reproductive health and rights knowledge, and brings forth a more nuanced reflection on the knowledge production process in classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the queer gaze within pop music videos. It contends that the contemporary US musician Hayley Kiyoko can be seen as a queer music video auteur who has transformed what the 'gaze' can mean in mainstream pop music through directing her own videos. The paper asserts that through her performance within and, arguably even more significantly, via her direction of videos, Kiyoko has produced a new and complex portrayal of how female sexual desire is represented even when, on the surface, it may not necessarily appear to disrupt normativity. Reaction videos made by Kiyoko's fans have also queered the gaze whereby the 'watcher' becomes the 'watched'. The paper concludes that online spaces and digital technologies are radically reshaping understandings of queer sexuality in music videos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to the call to better understand sexual health among South Asians in the United States. Utilizing the sexual health model as a guiding framework, this paper examines the state of research on South Asian sexual health, discusses the research gaps and makes practice, policy, and research recommendations. Recommendations for future research include a need for disaggregated data to capture nuances among South Asian ethnic groups; a need for more qualitative studies; and a need for practice and research to understand positive sexuality congruent with cultural, spirituality & religious beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why teach Black sexualities? How might Black lived sexualities provide students a more nuanced understanding of geography and place-making practices? The junctions of Blackness, sexuality, and place are understood as active processes that are being shaped and formed by and through power relations. This paper argues for centralizing the mutually constitutive nature of sexualities and Blackness, by troubling the normative notions of sexualities as commonly approached in curriculum and pedagogy. Focusing on Black sexualities is imperative, as Black lives, politics, and locations permeate the social order and can make visible the ways in which colonial legacies imbue global structures of dismissal, displacement, and erasure. Black sexualities are always personal and political, intermediating between systemic axes of oppression grounded in colonialism and imperialism and the agency of Black sex and sexual identities in spite of pathologizing structural components of society and space. As such, this paper considers the opportunities that Black sexualities offer in teaching and learning in the geography classroom. I consider the role of curricular choices, course discussions and assignments, and the pedagogy of embodiment. Embedded in a Black Geographies framework, I argue that centering a Black sense of place is essential to pedagogies of Black sexualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper establishes a novel niche by providing an original critical synthesis of the potentials and challenges of using public art to teach about, and "que(e)ry", sexuality, gender and space. The argument vouches for a critical pedagogy that pursues a visual politics for experiential and potentially transformative learning about processes of social inclusion and exclusion, marginalization, and empowerment. It draws from vignettes of first-hand pedagogical methods in class (in the form of collaborative class debates coordinated through creative educative content including an infographic and educational film) and in the field (in the form of a guided walking tour abroad). The vignettes illustrate how a critical pedagogy aims to instigate "awakenings" and deconstructions of norms (e.g. heteronormativity) and privileged positionalities (e.g. cisgendered, white (gay) male). The analysis indicates multi-sited levels of praxes: critical reflections and critical actions that may stretch beyond the teaching space into "real-world" contexts. The paper demonstrates the value of putting personal experience central by interlocking research and teaching practices. It thereby shows the value of collaborative knowledge production for situated, nuanced understandings of self/culture. This study advocates further "first-person" investigation into the ensuing challenges of negotiating topic sensitivity and the disclosure of positionalities (of both educator and learner). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While feminist and queer pedagogic literatures can celebrate the inclusion of "other lives", and the successes of their endeavours, this paper seeks to focus on the "here" and everyday hegemonies of heterosexualities and masculinities and the "failings" inherent to teaching practices. When engaging Irish and UK students in learning about geographies of genders and sexualities teaching about hegemonies seeks to perform a political pedagogy of questioning privilege from our positionings. The teaching that I discuss is informed by student and popular presumptions about places such as Ireland and the UK as "sorted" and, indeed, "leaders" in terms of progress about sexualities (and gender identities). Such presumptions not only create specific geopolitical regimes, but have specific classroom manifestations. In this paper, I reflect on my presumed "outness" and deliberate non-namings in shared/communal spaces, extending the discussion of "here" to include how personal-institutional-national nexus create, and are created by, teaching spaces. Thus, the paper explores diverse possibilities for teaching social difference and how pedagogies are always geographically created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]