Gay Male Identity Research Articles

Older LGBT+ Adults and Physical Activity: A Systematic Review of Qualitative and Quantitative Data

Abstract Introduction The present study represents the first systematic review summarizing existing publications on older sexual and gender minority (LGBT+) people's engagement with physical activity (PA) aged 65 and over. Methods Relevant articles were systematically searched in four scientific databases (i.e., PsychArticles, PsychInfo, Pubmed, and Web of Science) in March 2023. We included original articles published after 1968 with relevant keywords associated with “PA”, “older adults”, and “LGBT+ identity”. Of the 887 records identified, 53 articles were included in the systematic review. Results Studies were critically reviewed according to participants’ subjectivity considered in the publications: (a) sexual minority (LGB+) identities; (b) sexual and gender minority (LGBT+) identities; (c) transgender and gender-diverse identities; (d) gay and bisexual male identities; and (e) lesbian and bisexual female identities. The most frequent research areas, taking together all the five identity categories considered in the present review, were the differences between LGBT+ people and cis-heterosexual people, the discrimination and homophobia/transphobia in sport-related contexts, and the competent interventions and aging well in LGBT+ older adults. Conclusions Findings suggest a lack of information regarding PA in older LGBT+ aged 65 and over. Future research should investigate the barriers and enablers of PA in older LGBT+ people. Policy Implications It is mandatory to promote regular exercise to reduce health disparities between older LGBT+ individuals and their cis-heterosexual counterparts. The policy and environmental implications of the findings for older LGBT+ people are discussed.

“Gays, it is said, are moving from the swish era into the macho era”: mapping the Butch Shift in the early South African gay press

Drawing from a content analysis of early issues of the gay newspapers, Link/Skakel and Exit, I map the force with which the masculinization of gay culture, the Butch Shift, entered the white gay imaginary in South Africa in the 1980s via transnational exchanges with comparable print and visual cultures from the Global North (especially the United States) and related processes of indigenization. Along with other relevant editorial and commercial content, selected advertising images for South African gay leisure spaces invested in macho iconographies are discussed as prominent sites for shifting white gay male identity away from effeminacy and toward hypermasculinity in this period. The sissyphobia (or anti-effeminacy attitudes), misogyny, and race politics that informed such discourses are also addressed, along with some polemics against the Butch Shift that appeared in Link/Skakel and Exit at the same historical juncture.

Constructing Gay Male Identity in a Multicultural Society: A Qualitative Grounded Theory Study in Malaysia

Malaysia is a multiethnic and multireligious country in Asia that provides a rich landscape for the study of intersectional influences on sexual identity development. This study adopted a constructivist grounded theory research design to explore sexual identity development in 36 Malaysian gay males of varying ethnicities and religious affiliations. We proposed a five-stage Systemic Interaction Model (SIM) that theorizes sexual identity development as a continuous process of gay men discovering and then cycling between refining and redefining their self-concept. The five SIM stages are as follows: (1) noticing same-sex attraction and gender nonconformity; (2) exploring, experimenting, and eradicating differences from among same-sex peers; (3) confirming sexual orientation as gay; (4) accepting sexual identity as gay and (5) negotiating social expectations and pursuing a perceived ideal gay life. The five-stage model details the intricate intersectional, intrapersonal and interpersonal processes of Malaysian gay men as they move from passive roles into active cultural agents, developing their sexual identity in the relational, closeknit and tight Malaysian society in the process. Implications for health professionals and policymakers were also discussed.

The process of contemporary gay identity development in China: The influence of internet use.

BackgroundAdolescence and emerging adulthood are critical periods for an individual's sexual identity development. The internet has become a primary avenue for gay identity exploration. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the internet in Chinese young gay male's sexual identity development.MethodsQualitative interviews were conducted with 37 gay males aged 16 to 29. Data were analyzed using grounded theory methods.ResultsThree categories of identity development in relation to use of the internet were identified: (1) Gay identity confirming, which includes verifying same-sex attraction and connecting the attraction feeling to gay identity through consumption of pornography, Tanbi (boy's love) materials, and searching for information online. (2) Gay identity practicing, includes interacting with the gay community to gain understandings of gay subcultures and make close gay friends, engaging in same-sex sexual and romantic relationship development through online group and interpersonal interactions. The internet practice impact on an individual's cognition and behavior by presenting same-sex sexual contact is normal and common, facilitating longing for a romantic relationship, and facilitating relationship development; and (3) Gay identity coping, includes increasing self-acceptance of gay identity, gaining a sense of belonging in the gay community, increasing autonomy in sexual and romantic relationship development, and growing consideration of coming out to parents. Young gay males' coping efficacy was gained through the lessons learned from identity practice.ConclusionThe findings indicate that an individual's internet practice facilitates gay identity confirmation, enriches identity practice, and promotes the transition from self-identification to identity disclosure and integration. Internet practice also threatens to young gay males' sexual risk behavior, emotional hurts from failed romantic relationships. Interventions including sexual identity education and healthy internet use strategies need to be developed tailored to the developmental characteristics.

A Multi-Faceted and Relational Approach to Gay Men’s Identities

The idea of a ‘post-gay’ identity suggests sexuality no longer remains a key identifier to gay men’s sense of self. The concept provides a useful framework for theorising how gay men’s identities include and go beyond their sexuality, allowing scholars to conceptualise it in more complex ways. This study contributes to the literature, by drawing on the idea of ‘personal community’ to unpack how multiple connections inform gay men’s multi-faceted identities. It is based on in-depth qualitative interviews with gay South Asian men in Australia. Findings reveal that friends, partners and LGBT+ groups play important roles in informing respondents’ subjectivities. Significantly, the family of origin was important to identity formation, which challenges the dominant understanding that gay men’s identities exist separately to them. More broadly, findings from this study contribute to a deeper understanding of diverse gay male identities in contemporary multicultural Australia.

Effeminate Gay Bottoms in the West: Narratives of Pussyboys and Boiwives on Tumblr

ABSTRACT Recent discussions of gay male bottom identity have been cautious about positioning bottoms in relation to a gendered identity, and thereby colluding with stereotypes about gay bottoms being effeminate and effeminate gays being bottoms. In wider LGBTQ media in Europe and North America there is an effort to destigmatize effeminate gay men in a dating culture that privileges “masc4masc.” While this is welcome, it obscures the existence of effeminate gay bottom fantasies that are gender stratified and which insist on a connection between sex role preference, sex object choice, and gender presentation. This paper analyses sexual fantasy narratives on the social media platform, Tumblr, and interrogates a deep structure of gender-stratified male androphilia that finds thematic similarities in non-Western settings, where “egalitarian” or Western “gay” expressions of male same-sex unions compete with traditional “heterogender” forms. It concludes by reaffirming the need to consider gender positionality among gay bottoms’ narratives in Western contexts, and for further research on Western gay men to recognize the heterogeneity of gay identities and experiences.

Foucault's Work: A Reminiscence of Ancient Days

Foucault's Work:A Reminiscence of Ancient Days Timothy Hampton (bio) In May of 1982 I received a message from Paul Bouissac, a professor of French at the University of Toronto, to come to his office. I had just completed an MA in comparative literature and was preparing to move south, back to the United States. Toronto's comparative literature program was going through a transition. Several of my favorite professors were leaving. It was time for me to leave, too. Bouissac was a noted semiologist who had been a circus performer at one point in France, and had written a well-received study of the semiotics of the circus. He informed me that the university was hosting a Summer Semiotics Institute in June, at which a number of visitors would be coming to teach for a month. Would I be interested in working for Michel Foucault, as his research assistant, in return for free tuition? Foucault was at that point involved in his work on the techniques of self-construal in late antiquity and the early Christian period. He had just published The Care of the Self. With Jacques Derrida, he was one of the figure heads of a strangely named invention called "French Theory," a fantasy in the American imaginary that there was a club of French guys (and one gal, Julia Kristeva) who sat around in Paris and cooked up new concepts to animate the careers of ambitious American academics. Of the various French theoreticians, Foucault was the one I found most appealing, because of his interest in history. As an undergraduate, I had read and loved his book on madness. So, I signed on. The short-lived Semiotics Institute was a summa of academic stardom. In addition to Foucault, the philosopher John Searle was a headliner, along with Umberto Eco, whose novel The Name of the Rose had just come out in Italian. There were other experts: a scholar of Bakhtin, a hard-core linguistic semiotician, and, for a few weeks, the great medievalist Eugene Vance. Eco was still known mostly as a slightly eccentric essayist who sometimes wrote about modern art. He got third billing, after Foucault and Searle. I was summoned to meet Foucault on opening day, in an office in Victoria College. It was a brutally hot and humid Toronto day—a day on which no reasonable human would venture out in anything more than a [End Page 377] light shirt. Foucault appeared in a black leather biker's jacket, an advertisement, as I took it, of his sexuality, in the midst of the AIDS crisis, and a moment when black leather was still associated with a certain gay male identity. He was friendly and funny, and seemed genuinely interested in what I was reading and trying to do. As the institute shifted into full speed, Foucault offered lectures, to a large crowd, and a seminar, to a group of about fifteen students. The lectures were the main event. Foucault had a set of texts in English that he read from, about the practices of monasticism in late antiquity and the early Christian periods. He was especially interested in John Cassian, the fourth-century monk who had been instrumental in spreading the practices of monasticism to the Christian West. What were the techniques that Cassian proposed? What was the logic he used to justify and shape monastic practice? It soon became clear that my job was not the job of research assistant at all. I was to be a language consultant and a bodyguard. Each day Foucault would read his lecture text, and each day there would be questions. Many of them came from students in Toronto's venerable Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies. These were people who really took medieval Christianity seriously. They were perfect foils for Foucault, because they were skeptical of absolutely everything he said. They were not impressed by his fame, and they pushed back after each lecture. One student, in particular, was writing a thesis on Iamblichus, the third-century Neoplatonist who had been a biographer of Pythagoras. He challenged Foucault insistently on the details of monastic practice. Each time he opened his mouth Foucault would mutter, somewhat...

Negotiating and Managing Gay Identities in Multiple Heteronormative Spaces: The Experiences of Black Gay Mineworkers in South Africa

ABSTRACT Sexual diversity is a contentious topic in South Africa because many people still hold the perception that sexual identity can only be understood in heteronormative terms. This article adopts a feminist research approach to investigate how black gay male identities are constructed and managed at home, within friendships and in mining workplaces, drawing on data collected from five black gay male mineworkers. It opens up discussion on gay mineworkers’ experiences in a country where diversity is upheld and celebrated through a democratic constitution, yet gay men must often negotiate and manage their sexual identities to fit in with the dominant heteronormative discourses present in different spaces in society, including adopting false heterosexual identities in particular spaces, which limits their freedoms. The study argues that experiences of constructing and managing black gay identities in heteronormative spaces is guided by the level of acceptance and tolerance perceived by gay people.

Gender identity in interaction: overcoming heteronormativity

The present article reviews theoretical concepts that can contribute to the analysis of the construction of gender identity in interaction, moving on from heteronormativity, understood as the normalization of heterosexuality as the only, or more, legitimate form of sexuality. Identity is discussed together with the concepts of face, rapport and (im)politeness from a discursive approach (van der Bom & Mills, 2015). It is argued that gender identity face builds on attributes of both respectability and identity faces with differing strengths and saliency depending on the individuals and the context. Analysis is limited to the construction of hetero and gay male gender identities in interaction with women in academic contexts and draws on data from a corpus of naturally occurring interactions compiled by the author. Gay males seem to differ from hetero males in in their choice of resources for doing face-enhancing positive politeness and rapport with their female colleagues. Despite the limited size of the sample, the study hopes to contribute to a better understanding of the construction of gender identity from a discursive approach.

Nothing for nothing: edging as filmic structure in the films of Jerry Douglas

ABSTRACT Porn scholars have focused on the money shot (or cum shot) as the primary force around which feature-length visual pornography organizes its narratives. But not all such films work in this fashion. Using theories of narrative, this article will discuss how the films and videos of Jerry Douglas mimic the practice of edging, a masturbation technique whereby one holds off climax as long as possible. Instead of achieving closure, many of Douglas’ films ‘edge out’ the narrative towards an ending that leaves tensions in suspension. An analysis of Douglas’ filmography provides a deeper understanding of the operations of pornographic narratives and contributes to the understanding of the centrality of pornography in establishing urban, post-Stonewall gay male identities.

Part 1, Learning to Be Black: Unreconciled Strivings of DL and Black Gay Male Identity

AbstractWhile I was growing up, conversations about homosexual relationships were a taboo subject for as long as I can remember. It is a subject that burns deep within the heart and soul of the United States. For years, some DL and Black gay men have struggled to understand the Black community’s objection to the union of homosexual relationships. The term “DL,” which is short for “on the down low,” is a common way to refer to Black men who live their everyday lives in the guise of heterosexuals, are often married to women, yet also engage in discreet relationships with other men. This first-person narrative focuses on a time when I was employed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in New York City. I reflect on some of my interactions with DL and Black gay men. I discuss how some Black men who identify as gay are oftentimes hesitant to adopt the label “queer,” and to some extent even “gay,” due to the association of these terms with whiteness. This article is Part 1 in a series of two, both published in the same issue of Visual Arts Research. It is in direct conversation with the second article, “What It Means to Be Black: DL, Black, and Black Gay Male Images in Media—A Television Criticism. “ It is my intention to start this journey with “Learning to Be Black: Unreconciled Strivings of DL and Black Gay Male Identity” and end with an echoing negativity about how images of Black men are viewed and perceived in social media through a television criticism. These two articles are companion pieces, which feed off each other and rhythmically flow into a cohesive union of these most poignant and pressing topics of being DL, Black, and a gay man in the United States.The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. —W. E. B. Du Bois (1903)

Singing to the Most High for those below: the construction of gay male identity and the motifs in Josiah Wise’s “cherubim”

This paper seeks to take a closer look at the construction of queer male images through music. Queer music has been around since queer people have begun making music, taking various shapes and evolving along with the social climate. It has moved from being invisible to the naked “ear”, so to speak, to being more overt and subversive. This paper will take the form of a case study of a particular song by Josiah Wise entitled “cherubim,” that paints a picture of queer identity in quite an interesting way. By utilizing close-listening, thematic and stylistic elements this paper will describe and analyse the motifs hidden beneath the words and the notes to then explore how exactly this song fits into the general discourse of current queer politics.

The Influence of Online Experiences: The Shaping of Gay Male Identities

ABSTRACT Although research has documented that technological advances via online avenues have impacted the way LGBT individuals gain social capital, less is known about how these online experiences influence the coming out processes for gay men. Using a qualitative approach, this study seeks to understand how the online experiences of gay men either enhanced or inhibited the coming out process. Clustered themes revealed four insights: 1. Online experiences catalyzed the coming out process, 2. Early milestones about the realization of homosexuality came largely from online experiences, 3. Pornography was a tool often utilized for sexual knowledge, and 4. Online experiences helped affirm homosexual identity. Generally, data show that online experiences may manifest offline experiences (i.e., meeting up with another individual, talking about their sexual orientation with others), and that technological communication expedites the coming out process.

Transnational queer sociological analysis of sexual identity and civic-political activism in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China.

The sociology of homosexuality lacks engagement with queer theory and postcolonialism and focuses primarily on the global metropoles, thus failing to provide a plausible account of non-Western non-normative sexual identities. This research adopts the author's newly proposed transnational queer sociology to address these deficiencies. First, it critiques the Western model of sexual identity predominantly employed to elucidate non-Western, non-normative sexualities. It does so by examining not only the queer flows between West and non-West but also those among and within non-Western contexts to produce translocally shared and mutually referenced experiences. Second, the proposed approach combines sociology with queer theory by emphasizing the significant role of material, as well as discursive, analyses in shaping queer identities, desires and practices. This article employs the approach to examine young gay male identities, as revealed in 90 in-depth interviews conducted in Hong Kong (n=30), Taiwan (Taipei, n=30) and mainland China (Shanghai, n=30) between 2017 and 2019. More specifically, it highlights the interplay between the state and identity by investigating the intersection and intertwining effects of these young men's sexual and cultural/national identities, revealing three different forms of civic-political activism. The article both demonstrates the way in which sexuality and the state are mutually constituted and provides nuanced analysis of the heterogeneity of contemporary homosexualities in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. In applying a new sociological approach to understanding sexuality, this research joins the growing body of scholarship within sociology that is decentring the Western formation of universal knowledge.

Heteronormativity and the (re)construction of gay male entrepreneurial identities

This article explores how heteronormativity shapes the (re)construction of gay male entrepreneurial identities. Drawing on in-depth interview data and utilising conceptual resources from queer theory, this article traces the effects of heteronormative entrepreneurial discourses, evident in the types of gay male sexualities discursively mobilised by study participants to (re)construct normal gay male entrepreneurial identities. Study data reveal the regulatory and normalising impact of heteronormativity along three discursive themes: entrepreneurial gay masculine identities; the entrepreneurial (gay) ‘family type guy’; and repudiating the feminine in women and other gay men. This article contributes to the limited LGBT entrepreneurship literature, in particular, the scholarship on heteronormativity and entrepreneurial identities, showing how heteronormativity retrenches both the heterosexual/homosexual binary and the male norm at the core of dominant entrepreneurial discourses.

In Search of Meaning: A Preliminary Typology of Gay Male Spiritual Identity Development

Reconciliation of the conflict between religious identity and sexual orientation has been related to a number of psychological challenges (Lease, Horne, & Noffsinger‐Frazier, 2005; Schuck & Liddle, 2001), and little is known about the convergence of spiritual identity, distinctly defined as separate from religious identity, and sexual orientation identity. This qualitative inquiry investigated the process by which 7 Caucasian gay men from a variety of religious backgrounds constructed spiritual identities outside the realm of institutionalized religion. From the findings, the authors hypothesize a typology of spiritual development influenced by religions of origin. Limitations of the study, implications, and future directions in research are also addressed.

Gone With the Plague

This article suggests that two historical performances by the Danish subcultural theatre group Buddha og Bagbordsindianerne should be understood not simply as underground, amateur cabarets, but rather that they should be theorized as creating a critical temporality, as theorized by David Román. As such, they function to complicate the past and the present in rejecting a discourse of decency and embracing a queerer, more radical sense of citizenship. In other words, conceptualizing these performances as critical temporalities allows us not only to understand two particular theatrical performances of gay male identity and AIDS in Copenhagen in the late 1980s, but also to theorize more deeply embedded tensions between queer identities, temporality, and citizenship. Furthermore, by reading these performances and other performances like them as critical temporalities we reject the willful blindness of traditional theatre histories and make a more radical theatre history possible.

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

Editorial Focus of the Gay Magazine <i>Badi</i> and Its Attempt of Reshaping Gay Male Identity in Japan

This paper examines how the editorial focus of the Japanese gay magazine Badi has shifted over time and how the magazine has shaped the identity of gay men in Japan. Badi is the most popular magazine for gay men in Japan today. Its creation in 1993 coincided with a period of marked change in Japanese society regarding views toward homosexuality as well as with several watershed events such as in 1991 when homophobia was first addressed in a Japanese court and in 1994 when the first pride parade was held in Tokyo. By examining Badi as part of the Japanese gay liberation movement of the 1990s, and dividing the magazine’s editorial run into four distinct periods, we show that although the editors shaped the new identity and lifestyle, they were bolstered by masculinity.

Global identification helps increase identity integration among Turkish gay men

ABSTRACTGlobalisation provides novel contexts for individuals to express and transform their identities in ways that may not be available in their local cultures. For gay men living in cultures where traditional masculinity norms prescribe heterosexuality and the rejection of homosexuality, gay-male identity is inherently threatened. However, adopting an identity as a ‘global citizen’ may increase the compatibility between gay and male identities, and hence augment well-being. We conducted an experiment with a community sample of 220 gay men in Turkey, manipulating pro- and anti-globalisation world views. Priming with pro-globalisation world views increased people’s identification as global citizens, and thus indirectly led to higher gay-male identity integration. Identity integration, in turn, predicted higher subjective well-being. This study brings the first experimental evidence on the link between global identification and gay-male identity integration. Beyond its local focus on the cultural context of Turkey, it highlights the importance of an intersectional approach to studying social identities by showing how the compatibility of two social identities can be increased by adopting a third social identity.