Gay Culture Research Articles

Sexology, Popular Science and Queer History in Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others).

Sexology, Popular Science and Queer History in Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others).

Ihlazo: Pride and the politics of race and space in Johannesburg and Cape Town

Pride parades can be understood as the stage where identity politics is performed [De Waal, S., and A. Manion, eds. 2006. PRIDE: Protest and Celebration. University of the Witwatersrand, GALA]. [Johnston, L. 2007. “Mobilizing Pride/Shame: Lesbians, Tourism and Parades.” Social & Cultural Geography 8 (1): 29–45] argues, ‘Pride parades are visible expressions of collectivities which may homogenize experience and exclude those who do not conform to norms’. Thus, Pride has the potential of being a queer platform, in the way that [Warner, M., ed. 1993. Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press] sees queer as being in opposition to ‘regimes of the normal’. While Pride is closely associated with gay culture since the 1960s, it is not without contestation even among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. This paper aims to unpack contestations within Pride in two cities in South Africa, highlighting in particular the ways class, race, space and gender disrupt LGBTQ identifications, organizing and notions of belonging. Using the frame of ihlazo, a notion that includes, inter alia, shame, embarrassment and disgrace, the paper exposes the racial and class collusions that compromise gay and lesbian groups in post-apartheid South Africa.

A Taste for Brown Bodies: Gay Modernity and Cosmopolitan DesireNot Straight, Not White: Black Gay Men from the March on Washington to the AIDS Crisis

A Taste for Brown Bodies: Gay Modernity and Cosmopolitan DesireNot Straight, Not White: Black Gay Men from the March on Washington to the AIDS Crisis

Exploring "Obesity" and the Health of Gay Men using Feminist Poststructuralism

Popular health discourses on obesity tend to highlight the negative impacts of excess weight. Obesity, however, also has the effect of ranking and stationing individuals in the neoliberal health paradigm as unhealthy, immoral, and undesirable. The effects of obesity discourses can be prominently observed in gay men’s culture where muscular, white, thin bodies are glorified. This paper employs a feminist poststructural framework to examine how desired bodies are constituted in gay culture, the effects this has on gay men’s experiences of food and exercise, and resistance within gay culture to dominant obesity discourses. A review of the literature on obesity, gay culture, gay men’s health, body image and eating practices was undertaken to inform this work. Various studies have shown that the views within gay culture on fat bodies result in feelings of body dissatisfaction, rejection, and isolation for many men, especially for those that fall outside the privileged version of male bodies or who are labelled as ‘obese’. A critical review of the literature will explore how these experiences are produced through the sexualized culture of gay men.

Dragging up the past

Drag performances at bars, clubs, pageants and shebeens are wildly popular in South Africa. This can be gauged by the number of websites and posts on various media platforms. However, despite these popular cultural manifestations of drag, academic interest in theorising drag is limited. In this article I attempt to ignite academic interest in theorising drag in the South African context. The reason why I use the term 'ignite' is that after an extensive data base search I only found four published articles on drag, the last of which was published in 2004. In addition, no South African gay and lesbian non-fiction book has included a discussion of drag since Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa (1994), edited by Gevisser and Cameron. The five chapters on drag in Defiant Desire have been used by the researchers above to corroborate or illustrate their arguments about drag in South Africa but have never before been the object of an academic investigation. In this article I 'drag up the past' by foregrounding the five chapters on drag from Defiant Desire and I investigate in particular how the language used by the various writers positions the role and place of the drag queen in political and personal political discourses of the time.

Negotiating Difference Across Time: The Temporal Meanings of the Sydney Mardi Gras in Lesbian and Gay Life Narratives

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the temporal meanings of the annual LGBTI pride event, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Drawing on findings from a large-scale oral history project, the paper explores ways in which Australian lesbians and gay men place Mardi Gras within life narratives. Three temporal frameworks were commonly used by our interviewees. First, Mardi Gras acted as an annual temporal marker through which to plan a year. Second, changing personal understandings of Mardi Gras were used by interviewees to position themselves within the life course. Third, the shifting meanings of Mardi Gras were deployed as a means of narrating broader historical changes in the LGBTI community. We argue that, although lesbian and gay identities might now be considered increasingly mainstream and even “ordinary”, each of these temporal frameworks represents the continued differing experiences of time and space between homosexual and heterosexual lives.

Unpublished Post-War Writing and Emergent Gay Cultures

The 1950s and ’60s were pivotal decades in the emergence of modern gay life. New Zealand’s cities expanded rapidly after the end of the war, and the size of homosexual networks grew quickly. There were profound contradictions too. While many men partied, others were imprisoned for same-sex activity. A homemade queer literature accompanied these changes, and four examples illustrate the tensions of the time. The first, an essay called “De Profundis for Today,” was the work of Dunedin businessman Ernie Webber, who wrote it in Mt Eden Prison in 1957. The second piece, an early 1960s novel titled “The Rock Orchid,” is by Bert Pimley, a fellow inmate of Webber at Mt Eden. The third and fourth pieces, short essays by Auckland man Don Goodsell, are very different in their context and tone. The evocatively titled “Did You Ever See a Dream Limping?” and “The Night is Young and We’re So Beautiful” tell not of imprisonment but of the social opportunities of New Zealand’s cities during the 1960s

Contemplating Co-Occurring Cultures: A Grounded Theory Study of Sexual Decision Making Among Hispanic Men Who Have Sex With Men.

Introduction HIV infection continues to be a serious health concern globally. Of the 1.2 million people with HIV infection in the United States, men who have sex with men (MSM) account for 57% of cases. Hispanic/Latino individuals accounted for 24% of new HIV diagnoses, with male-to-male sexual contact responsible for the majority of cases. A factor in HIV prevention is the sexual decision-making process. The purpose of this study was to describe the process by which sexual decision making occurs among Hispanic MSM. Method Utilizing a grounded theory approach, 19 in-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted from participants ages 25 to 65 years living in South Florida. After consent, participants completed an in-depth interview. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed to identify categories and subcategories. Findings A theory grounded in the data called Contemplating Co-Occurring Cultures (Hispanic, gay, and health cultures) emerged that described the central phenomenon. These co-occurring cultures were the foundation of sexual decision making among participants. Conclusion Clinicians providing care to this population should be aware of the complexity of the sexual decision-making process. Awareness of these factors may provide the opportunity for HIV risk reduction strategies developed specifically for Hispanic MSM.

Race, K.The Gay Science: Intimate Experiments with the Problem of HIV. London: Routledge. 2018. 194 pp. £105 (hbk) ISBN 978‐1‐138‐68382‐2

Race, K.The Gay Science: Intimate Experiments with the Problem of HIV. London: Routledge. 2018. 194 pp. £105 (hbk) ISBN 978‐1‐138‐68382‐2

‘I’m a proud Israeli’: Homonationalism, belonging and the insecurity of the Jewish-Israeli body national

The section ‘gay rights in Israel’, part of the gaytlvguide.com website promoting gay life and culture in Israel, narrates Israel as ‘… one of the world’s most progressive countries in terms of equality for sexual minorities… by far the most tolerant Middle Eastern country towards homosexuals’. The ways in which Israel has been positioning its spatio-cultural exceptionality and the rise in LGBT discourses of national inclusion in Israel and beyond has already been identified by Jasbir Puar as ‘homonationalism’. This article, however, asks how. Namely, how do homonational discourses come to produce and hail queer populations as national loyal subjects? I suggest that, to better understand the hailing power of homonational discourses in Israel and beyond, theories of national-civilisational belonging, affect and interpellation must be reassessed and the insecurity at the heart of the national-civilisational edifice interrogated. To do so, the article draws on Lacanian psychoanalytical tools as I look into the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF’s) approach towards LGBT recruits as well as the rise in LGBT campaigning on the political right.

Other Scenes of Speaking: Listening to Palestinian Anticolonial-Queer Critique

Palestinian Queers for BDS first called on the international LGBTQI community to be in solidarity with Palestinians and support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign in 2010. PQBDS argued that Israel was using gay rights and gay lives to pinkwash state-sanctioned violence against Palestinians. Since then, much has been said and written about Israel's pinkwashing campaign and the violence it endorses and engenders. But much remains unsaid about Palestinian anticolonial-queer modes of engagement that persist despite Israel's settler-colonial project. With specific attention to the 2012 Jadaliyya debate between Jasbir Puar and Maya Mikdashi, on the one hand, and Haneen Maikey and Heike Schotten, on the other, this article discusses various activist and scholarly responses to Israel's pinkwashing campaign, and particularly how these responses elide Palestinian anticolonial-queer activism in different ways. Ultimately, this article asks: What becomes (in)audible as a Palestinian anticolonial-queer critique?

“We’re All Born Naked and the Rest Is” Mediation: Drag as Automediality

“We’re All Born Naked and the Rest Is” Mediation: Drag as Automediality

Enhancing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Cultural Competence in a Midwestern Primary Care Clinic Setting.

The process of initiating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) cultural competencies and educational interventions developed to increase staff knowledge on LGBT culture and health issues is discussed, including a computer-based module and panel discussion. The module intervention showed a statistically significant increase (p = .033) of staff LGBT knowledge from pretest to posttest scores. An evaluation after the panel discussion showed that 72% of staff indicated they were more prepared for LGBT patient care.

Book Review: Fragmented Citizens: The Changing Landscape of Gay and Lesbian Lives

Book Review: Fragmented Citizens: The Changing Landscape of Gay and Lesbian Lives

A comparison of risk factors for various forms of trauma in the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual homeless youth

ABSTRACTNumerous homeless youth experience trauma prior to leaving home and while on the street. Bullying and trading sex (i.e. exchanging sexual favors for survival items such as food) are additional forms of trauma experienced by many homeless youth. Although lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) homeless youth experience higher rates of child abuse compared to their heterosexual counterparts, there is a paucity of research comparing these two groups. As such, we compare whether difficulties finding items of necessity (e.g. food) and different forms of trauma including child sexual abuse, being bullied, trading sex, and street sexual victimization significantly differ for LGB and heterosexual homeless youth. Bivariate results reveal that LGB youth have more trouble finding shelter and are more likely to trade sex compared to heterosexual youth. Logistic regression results show that trading sex is correlated with street sexual victimization. In the second model, we find that being female, experiencing more child sexual abuse, and ever having traded sex are all positively linked with street sexual victimization. LGB youth are over-represented among homeless youth populations and are also more likely to trade sex; therefore, these young people need services that are widely accessible and specific to their needs.

Acceptable femininity? Gay male misogyny and the policing of queer femininities

While it represents a common form of gender-based violence, misogyny is an often-overlooked concept within academia and the queer community. Drawing on queer and feminist scholarship on gay male misogyny, this article presents a theoretical challenge to the myth that the oppressed cannot oppress, arguing that specific forms of gay male subjectivities can be proponents of misogyny in ways that are unrecognised because of their sexually marginalised status. The authors’ interest in the doing of misogyny, and its effects on specific bodies and subjectivities, leads them to discuss the extent to which white gay male misogyny can function to reinforce a particular gender and racial hierarchy that continually confines queer femininities to the status of the abject other, for failing to exhibit their feminine credentials and for making gender trouble. The study also addresses how specific markers of femininity are depoliticised through the workings of this misogyny, exploring what femininity does when it is conceptualised outside a heteronormative framework. To address these ideas, the authors firstly propose a theoretical account of misogyny in order to understand its analytical status as a cultural mechanism within the psychic economy of patriarchy. Secondly, they use queer approaches to effeminacy and subject formation for making the case for gay male misogyny and its connections to femininity within white gay cultures, asking how misogyny might become an essential component of the performance of hegemonic masculinity. The article concludes with a discussion of the ways in which gay male misogyny reinforces white male dominance over women and queer femininities specifically, advocating for resistance to the reproduction of such patriarchal arrangements.

Sex, death and austerity: resurgent homophobia in the British tabloid press

ABSTRACTThis article explores how the current context of neoliberal austerity has come to shape representations of gay identity in the British tabloid press. Focusing on the reporting of two news events by the Daily Mail and the Sun between July 2016 and July 2017, the High Court ruling on the provision of the HIV prevention drug PrEP by the National Health Service and the rise of so-called “chemsex” amongst gay men, I argue that the right-wing tabloids have reformulated traditional homophobic scripts in ways that correspond with the contemporary social and political context of neoliberal austerity. My analysis therefore expands scholarly understandings of how austerity ideologies shape normative understandings of “good” and “bad” behavior through the specific context of gay identity. I argue that the right-wing tabloids have come to circulate a negatively coded vision of gay life characterized by drug addiction and promiscuous, “risky” sex, which is constructed as the antithesis of the idealized, respectable and responsible subject of neoliberal austerity. Amidst the uncertainties of neoliberalism, these representations manufacture and sell a seemingly transcendental, conservative, heteronormative consensus around sexual moralities under austerity.

A threat to Canadian national security: a lesbian soldier’s story

ABSTRACTBefore 1992, lesbians and gay soldiers were purged and discharged from the Canadian military for “reasons of homosexuality.” Those caught or suspected of homosexuality were subject to lengthy, humiliating, and degrading interrogations. This short story sheds light on this painful past. It is based on findings of a nationally funded pan-Canadian longitudinal study examining how Canadian military policies and practices influenced the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender soldiers and their partners. In total, 126 people were interviewed. While in the military, countless soldiers were investigated, numerous interrogated, many lost their careers, some committed suicide and others survived. Personal details have been changed to ensure the anonymity of the people, but it is their voices that tell this story. An official state apology was delivered November 28, 2017. Due to an impending class action court case, an agreement for compensation was also reached. Compensation and memorials will be forthcoming to those who were affected by the LGBTQI2+ purge campaign. To this day, no evidence exits that these soldiers were “ever” a threat to national security.

Sexual Migration and HIV Risk in a Sample of Brazilian, Colombian and Dominican Immigrant MSM Living in New York City.

We examined motivations for migration to the United States (US) among 482 Brazilian, Colombian, and Dominican men who have sex with men (MSM). Participants' most common reason for migration was to improve their financial situation (49%), followed by sexual migration in order to affirm their sexual orientation (40%). Fewer endorsed sexual migration motivated by avoiding persecution due to being gay (13%). We conducted further analyses among 276 participants who migrated after age 15 and were HIV-negative at the time of migration. We hypothesized that sexual migration would be associated with greater likelihood of HIV acquisition post-migration. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis indicated that sexual migration motivated by avoiding persecution due to being gay was associated with increased odds of contracting HIV after arrival in the US whereas sexual migration to lead a gay life was not. Our findings highlight the importance of addressing the negative impact of anti-gay discrimination in countries of origin.

Gay men's digital cultures beyond Gaydar and Grindr: LINE use in the gay Chinese diaspora of Australia

ABSTRACTRecent research on gay men's digital cultures has focused predominantly on Western, English-language-based sites and populations. In the case of Australia, a country with an official multiculturalism framework in place and against a backdrop of significant levels of Asian immigration over the past several decades, a more pluralistic approach is needed to critically interrogate the dialectic between platforms, users and wider sociocultural complexities. To this end, the current paper presents research in progress on the social chat application LINE and its use amongst the Chinese diaspora of gay men in Australia. Drawing on data from participant observation carried out over several months during late 2015 and early 2016 in an Australian-based LINE group for local Chinese gay men, we highlight here how LINE functions as an important intermediary for many Chinese men engaging with gay men's digital cultures in this context. In particular, we show how LINE plays a crucial role in Chinese gay men's engagements with gay men's digital culture in Australia by (1) mediating this group's navigations of new social and cultural environments and (2) remediating their experiences within other platforms central to the broader GLBT community.