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Jeffrey Weeks is a renowned author and activist who has expressed open support to the gay movement. Starting out as a political theorist, Weeks became a widely respected and influential writer whose main contribution was in exploring 19th century sexual identity and sexual culture. Weeks is famous for writing three books on homosexuality, namely, 'Coming Out', 'Sex, Politics and Society', and 'Sexuality and Its Discontents.'

SUMMARY. Contemporary concern over paedophilia and child sexual abuse usually rests upon uncritical and under-theorized conceptions of childhood sexualities. This article examines some of these assumptions and then outlines the social 'constructionist' alternative. Focusing upon the processes by which a child comes to script its sexual world, a number of central dimensions are posed: the scripting of absences, of values, of secrecy, of utility, of gender and of generation. By analyzing the complexity of childhood sexualities, the implications for cross-generational sexuality may be clarified.

SUMMARY. The experience of beign gay and young has been seriously neglected in youth culture research and in youth service provision. This stems in part from the pervasiveness of both the heterosexual assumption and the sexual stigma. Since the advent of the gay movement, however, some modest research into gay youth has been conducted and some has been generated through the activity of gay organizations themselves. This paper reviews the experience and problems of being young and gay in Britain as revealed through three research studies. It outlines some key changes that have occurred during the 1980s, especially the emergence of gay youth organizations. It concludes by suggesting the diversity of the gay youth experience in England.

Life history research is currently undergoing a revitalisation across many disciplines and many nationalities. This two volume collection of twenty-two original papers was the result of a symposium, itself part [...]