Basis Of Sexual Orientation Research Articles

A New Sex Education: The Title IX Defense Against "Don't Say Gay"

Sex education in American public schools has long been the subject of controversy. Although debates overthe inclusion of sex education in schools now focus on students’ access to comprehensive curricula that includes the experiences of queer and transgender students, sex education in the United States has long maintained its roots in the institutional promotion of “sexual purity.” Through an exploration of the latest attacks on comprehensive sex education, particularly in the context of reinvigorated “Don’t Say Gay and Trans” legislation, this Article postulates that a novel interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is needed that requires education policymakers to incorporate the experiences and needs of queer and transgender students insex education curricula. This Article examines the application of the Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County decision to Title IX and argues that the prohibition against discrimination in education on the basis ofsexual orientation and gender identity raises a plausible Title IX challenge to non-inclusive sex education curricula.
 By first offering a brief historical overview of public sex education curricula in the United States, this Article contextualizes the present need for comprehensive sex education as an impactfulresource forstudents, as well as the unique sexual health challenges faced by queer and trans adolescents. This Article then outlines the important changes to Title IX in the wake of the Bostock decision, President Biden’s 2021 Executive Order implementing Bostock, and subsequent appellate case law. Most importantly, this Article will highlight the potential for Title IX claims to be brought against public schools, districts, and states that offer non-comprehensive sex education curricula that excludes content relating to the unique needs of queer and trans students. This Article concludes by addressing potential challenges to such an interpretation of Title IX in the context of sex education curricula and will underscore the important policyramifications of incorporating the experiences and needs of queer and trans students in educational dialogues surrounding sexual health.

Sex and Sexual Orientation, Gender and Sexual Preference

On what we can call the “folk” conception of sexual orientation, sexual orientation is understood as sex-based attraction, that is, as (partly) attraction on the basis of the perceived sex of the person to whom one is attracted. However, in recent discussions, philosophers have either added gender to sex as the basis of sexual orientation, or have altogether replaced sex with gender. Moreover, this addition or replacement has gone – mostly – unargued for. This paper argues that a sex-based conception of sexual orientation remains plausible because (1) it is compatible with gender-based attraction, which I argue can be understood as a preference; (2) the reasons so far on offer for adding gender to sex (or for replacing sex with gender) are not convincing; (3) we have good evolutionary and non-evolutionary reasons for thinking that sex is the basis of sexual orientation; (4) we have good reasons to not add gender as a basis of sexual orientation; and (5) a sex-based conception of sexual orientation accommodates the various sexual orientations that have recently appeared, orientations in addition to the folk two (or three) of heterosexuality, homosexuality (and bisexuality), such as pansexuality, skoliosexuality, gynsexuality, and androsexuality. What emerges is a conception of sexual orientation based on the sex of the people to whom we are attracted, but that understands sexual-based attraction in broad enough terms to include surgically altered bodies.

The current state of regulatory and legal protection of the rights of representatives of the LGBT+ community in Ukraine

The article reveals the current state of regulatory and legal protection of the rights of representatives of the LGBT+ community in Ukraine. The importance of the topic is emphasized due to the following circumstances: 1) LGBT+ representatives make up a significant part of the population and have the same rights as any other person; 2) domestic legislation is gradually approaching the standards of the European Union in terms of prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; 3) the full- scale invasion of the russian federation on the territory of Ukraine caused numerous violations of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories, which largely related to manifestations of intolerance towards members of the LGBT+ community. The classification of regulatory and legal acts related to ensuring the rights of representatives of the LGBT+ community in Ukraine based on the criterion of their division into acts of the legislative and sub-legal levels is substantiated. The exceptional importance of the Constitution of Ukraine as a legislative act of the highest legal force for the proper protection of the rights of representatives of the LGBT+ community is emphasized. It is pointed out the need to improve the norms of the national legislation for the proper provision by the state of the legal rights, freedoms and interests of the person and the citizen and to strengthen the effectiveness of the current legislation in countering any manifestations of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. About sub-legal acts, attention has been drawn to the fact that at the local (functional, local) level, authorized persons may accept documents recognizing sexual orientation and gender identity as a basis that makes any manifestations of discrimination impossible. At the same time, local by-laws cannot go beyond legislative norms, which do not contain an extensive list of grounds on which discrimination is not allowed. It was concluded that the current state of regulatory and legal protection of the rights of representatives of the LGBT+ community in Ukraine should be considered unsatisfactory.

Sounds Like There was No Sexual Orientation Discrimination? Attributions to Discrimination on the Basis of Auditory Gaydar

ABSTRACT Auditory gaydar happens when people’s heterosexuality is called into question by their vocal characteristics. Auditory gaydar has been shown to prompt discrimination against both women and men interviewing for leadership positions. Two experiments tested whether attributional ambiguity makes auditory gaydar discrimination difficult to detect in such contexts. Either heterosexual participants (Study 1, n = 161) or heterosexual and sexual minority participants (Study 2, n = 238) heard short clips of straight- vs. lesbian/gay-sounding speakers, described as unsuccessful applicants for leadership positions. Participants explained the speakers’ unsuccessful outcome in their own words and rated the likelihood that gender and sexual orientation discrimination caused that outcome. Attributions to gender discrimination were common whilst attributions to sexual prejudice were vanishingly rare. Women targets were rated more likely to have experienced gender discrimination, and lesbian/gay-sounding targets were rated more likely to have experienced sexual orientation discrimination by some participants (Study 1) or all participants (Study 2). We conclude that auditory gaydar may prompt discriminatory treatment in leadership hiring processes more readily than in prompts the recognition that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has occurred.

A New Dawn for Gay Rights in Botswana: A Commentary on the Decision of the High Court and Court of Appeal in the Motshidiemang Cases

AbstractIn 2003, the Botswanan Court of Appeal decided in Kanane v The State that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was not proscribed by the Botswanan Constitution because no evidence had been adduced showing that the society of Botswana was ready for gay individuals. After sixteen years, things changed: in 2019, in Letsweletse Motshidiemang and LEGABIBO (as amicus) v The Attorney General, the High Court held that the law criminalizing anal intercourse violated the fundamental rights of gay people. In 2021, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court decision. This commentary briefly examines these three decisions. It argues that Kanane gave too much weight to public opinion to the detriment of constitutional interpretation. Through a robust approach to generous interpretation of fundamental rights, the Motshidiemang decisions partly remedied the flaw in Kanane. However, judicial clarification is still required on some aspects of the decision.

Knowledge about Federal Employment Nondiscrimination Protections on the Basis of Sexual Orientation

Using a US nationally representative online sample, we measure the level of knowledge on employment nondiscrimination laws. Although Americans are well informed about sex, race, and disability being protected characteristics, only about 71 percent think that sexual orientation is a protected characteristic. Sexual minorities are as uninformed as heterosexual individuals that sexual orientation is legally protected from employment discrimination. Furthermore, sexual minorities living in states that did not previously have statewide employment nondiscrimination protections prior to the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County are less likely to think that sexual orientation is a protected characteristic.

Health Care Capitalism and the Precarious Right to Bodily Autonomy in the United States since the Rights Revolutions

In May 1990, in the first case of its kind, the National Gay Rights Advocates (NGRA) secured a California court judgment prohibiting an insurance company from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. Great Republic Insurance Company had been using a supplemental questionnaire to screen out “occupations that do not require physical exertion … such as florists, interior decorators, and fashion designers,” as well as to use applicants’ marital status, “living arrangements,” and medical history to assess the likely risk of their exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) when denying health care coverage.1 That same year, Moblization for Youth (MFY) Legal Services in New York filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of women living with HIV who had been denied access to Social Security benefits because the government did not recognize their HIV-related conditions as qualifying for state health care coverage under the Medicaid program.2 In one sense, the cases were starkly different: one sought to protect the privately insured from discriminatory scrutiny on the basis of their sexuality while the other attempted to bring a protected class of people into public view to make a claim to health care. Yet both reveal an important truth about the concept of rights in an American context. The structure of the U.S. health care system, one based on private insurance for most and a threadbare, convoluted system of categorical assistance and public insurance for children, the disabled, and the elderly, has shaped Americans’ experience of their own sexuality and bodily autonomy in ways arguably unique to the United States. The public/private hybrid in health care has dramatically curtailed the capacity of those outside the heteronormative family structure to realize their demands for full equality in the wake of the rights revolutions. Efforts to secure a right to sexual or gender identity have foundered on the rocks of the health care system when faced, for example, with a public health crisis like HIV or a lack of health insurance plans willing to fund gender-affirming health care.

Reconciling Freedom and Equality for Peaceful Coexistence: On the Need to Reframe the Religious Exemptions in the Sex Discrimination Act

In this article I evaluate the capacity for the religious exemptions in the Sex Discrimination Act (Cth) to provide peaceful coexistence through reconciling freedom and discrimination. The exemptions provide that religious educational institutions can directly discriminate against staff and students on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity if they do so in good faith and in accordance with their religion to avoid injury to the religious susceptibilities of adherents to that religion. The exemptions fail to provide peaceful coexistence through reconciling freedom and discrimination for two reasons. First, the exemptions are offensively and irrelevantly targeted at sexual minorities, undermining the dignity of diverse staff and students. Second, in their form as exemptions, they frame the communal rights of people of faith as a grudging exception to a general prohibition against discrimination, positioning religious institutions as seeking a special privilege to maliciously make decisions based on prejudice. Reframing the exemptions as positive associational rights simultaneously addresses these twin failures by 1) removing the stigmatic focus on sexual minorities, 2) supporting equality, and 3) providing a necessary and robust legal protection for religious educational institutions to select and regulate members of their community to maintain a religious ethos, thus supporting religious freedom. The recognition of positive rights for religious institutions contributes to peaceful coexistence by promoting diverse approaches to the public good while avoiding the hostile targeting of sexual minorities.

Investigative and Charging Considerations for International Crimes Targeting Individuals on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Abstract International crimes targeting persons based on their sexual orientation and gender identity have been documented since at least the Nazi persecution and murder of LGBTIQ+ persons in World War II, and continue in modern campaigns by ISIS in Iraq, among other places. Yet few, if any, perpetrators have ever been held accountable for such crimes, and there remains a dearth of specialized practical guidance for investigators or prosecutors. Attempting to fill this gap in scholarship and practice, this article outlines the legal basis for possible crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as well as investigative and prosecutorial guidelines for them. First, it demonstrates how gender persecution in the Rome Statute includes persecution on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, as found in a recent case at the Colombian Special Jurisdiction for Peace (‘Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz’ or JEP). Drawing on recent ICC cases from Mali and Sudan, as well as preliminary examinations conducted in Afghanistan and Nigeria, this article further explains how the social construction of gender underpins gender persecution in the ICC system. Second, this article outlines additional avenues under the Rome Statute for accountability for violence against LGBTIQ+ persons, including the war crime of torture, or as demonstrated in the Myanmar/Bangladesh situation, to prove contextual elements of crimes against humanity. Finally, this article offers concrete recommendations for investigators and prosecutors examining these international crimes, using an intersectional, gender-competent and trauma-informed lens to better understand and address victims’ trauma, to present their evidence effectively in court, and to obtain the most complete, truthful and coherent account of events possible. It concludes that there are multiple avenues through which such evidence can be investigated and elicited in court, and encourages practitioners to do so when possible to document and honour the particularized harm this group experiences.

The World Health Organization's work and recommendations for improving the health of trans and gender diverse people.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is guided by its global programme of work and the goal that a billion more people have universal health coverage (UHC). To achieve UHC, access for those most vulnerable must be guaranteed and prioritized. WHO is committed to developing evidence-based guidance to work towards UHC for trans and gender diverse (TGD) people. This commentary describes WHO's work related to TGD people over the last decade. In 2011, WHO developed guidelines for the prevention and treatment of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in men who have sex with men and TGD people. In 2013, the "HIV civil society reference group" called on WHO to provide specific guidance for TGD people. Values and preferences of TGD people were considered by WHO for the first time, which informed the development of the 2014 WHO Consolidated Guidelines on HIV Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment and Care for Key Populations. The 2014 Guidelines included a comprehensive package of HIV-related health and enabling interventions with specific considerations for TGD people, as well as a specific policy brief in 2015. Regional WHO offices developed and/or supported the development of blueprints on transgender health and HIV in 2014 and 2016. A 2015 WHO report on sexual health, human rights and the law elucidated the harmful impacts of discriminatory laws on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2019, the 11th edition of the international classification of diseases saw the removal of "transsexualism" as a mental and behavioural disorder. WHO's first guideline on self-care interventions, updated in 2021, included key considerations concerning TGD people. In 2022, WHO's updated key populations guidelines include a prioritized package of not just HIV, but also viral hepatitis and STI health interventions for TGD people. Still, a broader and more specific health approach and a greater focus on social issues are needed to better serve the health needs of TGD people. WHO's understanding and commitment to TGD people's health has evolved and improved over the past decade. Together with professional and community trans health organizations, WHO should now start developing evidence-informed global guidance on TGD health as part of its remit to support UHC to all.

Visible but Hidden: An Intersectional Examination of Identity Management Among Sexual Minority Employees

As organizations have increasingly prioritized the inclusion of sexual minorities, there has been a proliferation of studies examining the ways by which organizations can foster environments that enable sexual minorities to express themselves authentically at work. Yet, extant research has predominantly ignored the role of other social identities in shaping the experiences of sexual minority employees, their decisions regarding the ways they express their sexual identities at work, and the consequences of those decisions. The current study correspondingly draws on theorizing on intersectionality to propose that workplace experiences related to race, a visible identity, may alter the decisions employees make about the expression of their invisible sexual identities. We additionally extend current conceptualizations of identity management to consider the ways employees may manage the presentation of their more visible racial identities at work. Results indicated that harassment experienced on the basis of sexual orientation and race combined to influence identity management strategies related to sexual and racial identities. Furthermore, concealing one's sexual orientation and suppressing one's racial identity uniquely contributed to decrements in employee well-being and interacted to predict employee outcomes. Yet, the nature of the interactions varied by employee race. Findings from this study support the need to adopt an intersectional approach to understanding invisible inequalities at work and inform future theoretical and practical efforts aimed at fostering workplace inclusion. Keywords: identity management; sexual orientation; race; employee well-being

Religious Values in Secular Institutions?

Universities that are incorporated under a secular charter face a number of challenges in claiming religious exemptions or religious character. These secularly chartered but religiously motivated universities (SCbRMU) often are attempting to get the best of both worlds, by maintaining entitlement to government funding that is exclusive to secular entities while also claiming religious protections. In this paper, Yeshiva University (yu) is used as a case study of the difficulties faced by these institutions. yu has been sued by a group of students and alumni for refusing to authorize an official lgbt club, and yu has argued that it is entitled to a religious exemption from New York City anti-discrimination laws. This paper discusses the history of yu and its relationship with lgbt rights, as well as relevant case law concerning religious education, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and religious exemptions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the legal options a SCbRMU has when faced with these issues, including shedding part of its identity (either the religious or the secular), maintaining the status quo, and defiance. Ultimately, none of the options are ideal for such an institution, and the nature of the conflict for yu, when discrimination against funding religious institutions leads to the financial need for a secular charter, and the school’s secular status then leads to difficulty receiving a religious exemption from anti-discrimination laws, show that society is not tolerant of ambiguity in this scenario, and institutions are better served if they avoid these contradictions.

Religious-based discrimination in the commercial context on the basis of sexual orientation: A comparative perspective

This paper considers how three jurisdictions, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, have sought to reconcile freedom of religion with equality rights, particularly in the commercial context, and particularly in relation to sexual orientation. The recent decisions of the United Kingdom Supreme Court and United States Supreme Court form the backdrop for that discussion. It is argued that the former made piecemeal, and misleading, use of American case law, and a fuller consideration of that jurisdiction’s position was warranted, and would have led to a different view of the recent American decision. It argues that the United Kingdom Supreme Court was in error in viewing a message on a cake ordered from a baker as an example of the baker's expression, leading it to an incorrect conclusion at odds with statutory mandates in the commercial sphere around refusals of service. Both high court decisions risk undermining progress on the equality front.

The prospects for the legalization of same sex marriages in vietnam

This article discusses the various factors in Vietnam that are influencing the possibility of introducing a law on same sex marriage and draws three main conclusions. Firstly, it argues that the greatest concern about the possible success of the campaigns on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues in general, and the recognition of same sex marriages in particular, is indeed a political fear. It recommends keeping the campaigns on LGBT issues separate from the political sphere and to differentiate themselves from the traditional confrontational methods used by political dissidents. Secondly, the enactment of a law on LGBT rights which incorporates the principles and rules of anti-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and identity is proposed. This law will fill the gap left by the current lack of an anti-discrimination law in the specific field of LGBT rights in the first step of a typical process towards the legalization of same sex marriages. Thirdly, the paper highlights the leading role to be played by legislation in Vietnam, and which shall need to be acquired though legal transplanting, in granting marital rights to same sex couples and providing the basis for the courts to give them substantive rights.

The myth of the safe space: Sexual orientation disparities in therapist effectiveness.

Psychotherapy has been shown to be effective on a broad level (e.g., Wampold & Imel, 2015); however, a growing body of literature has revealed that some therapists have outcome inequities within their caseloads. These inequities have been observed on the basis of social identities including race (see Imel et al., 2011, for example) and gender measured on the binary (Owen et al., 2009). However, despite the great need for further research on sexual minority populations in psychotherapy, this phenomenon has yet to be explored on the basis of sexual orientation (i.e., if a disparity exists within-therapist caseloads between queer-identified and heterosexual clients). The present study was comprised of a sample of 1,725 clients treated by 50 therapists at a university counseling center (17.7% of the sample endorsed a sexual minority status). Multilevel modeling was used to analyze data from the Behavioral Health Measure-20 (BHM-20; Kopta & Lowry, 2002). The results indicated that clients' sexual orientation status was not significantly associated with any of the BHM-20 subscales or with the Global Mental Health Scale (GMH). Of interest was that therapists varied in the extent to which their clients' symptoms and GMH improved and how that improvement varied by client sexual orientation status. Thus, attention must be paid not only to which therapists are more and less effective overall, but also to the specifics of which clients (and the social identities those clients hold) are improving while under their care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Homelessness Post-Bostock

Housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is a critical problem facing LGBTQ+ people in the United States. In addition, LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender people, disproportionately suffer from homelessness and face discrimination by homeless shelters on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. This homelessness and discrimination both disproportionately affect transgender people of color. This Note makes two contributions that would enable courts to grant meaningful relief in these contexts. First, it argues that “sex” in the Fair Housing Act includes sexual orientation and gender identity after the holding in Bostock v. Clayton County. Second, it argues that the Fair Housing Act applies to homeless shelters. These two arguments enable LGBTQ+ people to sue under the Fair Housing Act for the discrimination they experience in homeless shelters.

Adolescent Gender Identity and the Sex Discrimination Act: The Case for Religious Exemptions

There is a lot of controversy about section 38(3) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (‘SDA’) which permits discrimination by faith-based schools against students on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. This article explains the background to this provision, which in its present form was the result of amendments in 2013. It also explains the problems that would arise if the subsection were repealed without making other amendments to the SDA. Faith leaders have consistently made it clear that they do not want the right to expel or discipline students on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and so support the repeal of s 38(3). However, other amendments are needed to protect the rights of faith-based schools. These are, in any event, necessary to buttress the (very doubtful) constitutional validity of the 2013 amendments insofar as they concern gender identity. There is also a need for broader changes to the SDA to address the confusion about how the law on gender identity applies to children and adolescents. It is unclear when a child gains a legally protected gender identity; whether a clinical diagnosis of gender dysphoria is needed; what respect needs to be given to the views of parents, even with a Gillick-competent adolescent; and what professional discretion can be exercised by school principals when they consider that supporting the social transition of an adolescent is not in his or her best interests. The SDA needs to be amended to make clear that it does not require schools to support and affirm the ‘social transition’ of a young person against the wishes of a parent or when the school considers in good faith that this is not in the best interests of the young person. Difficult pastoral issues need to be left to professional judgment, drawing upon the best advice available from the young person’s treating medical and mental health practitioners.

Sexual diversity and local values in a rural South African university town

ABSTRACT During South Africa’s apartheid era, the social and political ideology of Afrikaner nationalism Othered those who disrupted an idealised vision of white heteronormative Afrikaner masculinity. While protections from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation were enshrined in the post-apartheid constitution in 1996, anti-LGBTQ violence remains a reality. It is common for young LGBTQ individuals to exercise the personal freedoms associated with leaving home to attend university to express their sexual orientations and/or gender identities more readily. This paper applies interpretive phenomenology to interview data with members of the LGBTQ student community at a rural university town in an overwhelmingly white Afrikaans region. It explores the complex and ill-defined relationships between LGBTQ student experiences, local heteronormative values, and shifting institutional identities in an era of social transformation.

LOS PROCESOS PROBATORIOS DE SOLICITUDES DE ASILO POR ORIENTACIÓN SEXUAL E IDENTIDAD DE GÉNERO EN EUROPA: ANÁLISIS DESDE LA PERSPECTIVA DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS

This essay introduces a critical analysis the different legal aspects of the assessment of evidence in asylum applications on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in Europe. National authorities enjoy a wide margin of discretion in the acceptance and assessment of the evidence. However, this freedom is limited by respect for the protection of the dignity of the person enforceable by international and regional standards. This research is focused mainly on the European Union law and the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on this matter.

The US Supreme Court andthe Future of Sexualand Gender Minority Health.

Over the past decade, the United States has made substantial progress in advancing the rights of sexual and gender minority (SGM) people. In 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decision in Obergefell v. Hodges provided same-sex couples the fundamental right to marry across the United States.1 In 2020, the landmark Bostock v. Clayton County decision extended the interpretation of "on the basis of sex" under title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to prohibit workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.2 This sweeping decision sets the precedent that other sex-based antidiscrimination laws should be interpreted to include SGM people. However, explicit and broad protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity are not common features of federal laws, and existing SGM protections remain tenuous, as they rely on judicial interpretation. With recent shifts in the composition of SCOTUS, there is the increasing possibility that the hard-earned protections for SGM people in the United States will be reversed through recently argued and upcoming cases. Based on the available empirical evidence, we are concerned about the possible physical and mental health sequelae. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print May 20, 2021: e1-e3. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306302).