Homophobic Discourse Research Articles

“You’re Gay, It’s Just What Happens”: Sexual Minority Men Recounting Experiences of Unwanted Sex in the Era of MeToo

ABSTRACT Our grounded theory analysis derives from in-depth interviews conducted with 24 gay, bisexual, queer, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) living in Toronto, Canada, to understand their experiences of sexual coercion. Participants drew on discourse from the #MeToo movement to reconsider the ethics of past sexual experiences. The idea that gay or queer sex is inherently risky and unique from heterosexual relations made negotiating sexual safety challenging. These notions were enforced by homophobic discourses on the one hand, and counter discourses of sexual liberation, resistance to heteronormativity, hegemonic masculinity, and HIV prevention on the other. Biomedical advances in HIV prevention such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and undetectable viral load affected how some participants felt about sexual autonomy and safety. Participants held themselves responsible for needing to be more assertive within sexual encounters to avoid coercion. Many believed that unwanted sex is unavoidable among GBM: if “you’re gay, it’s just what happens.” Targeted education aimed at GBM communities that incorporates insights on GBM sexual subcultures is necessary. This work must be situated within a broader understanding of how gender norms and hegemonic masculinity, racism, HIV status, and other power imbalances affect sexual decision-making, consent, pleasure, and sexual harm.

For family, for friends, for (true) love

Abstract We examine promotional materials produced by two organisations in Singapore, TrueLove.Is and Pink Dot, to investigate how these two groups employ discourses of love to support their opposing views regarding the reconcilability of Christianity and same-sex desire. TrueLove.Is is a Christian ministry that encourages LGB Christian Singaporeans to “come out, come home”, while Pink Dot is Singapore’s largest and foremost LGBTQ movement. We identify similarities and differences in their persuasive discourse strategies regarding ideas of love as discussed by lesbian Christian pastors. Although they position the idea of love similarly, their agendas are completely polarised. TrueLove.Is takes the position that non-heteronormative activity is ungodly and sinful, while Pink Dot offers a reconciliation between Christianity and same-sex desire. We employ Peterson’s (2016) approach to homophobic discourse analysis based on Systemic Functional Linguistics and a comparative discourse analysis to investigate the ideologies that inform the two organisations’ materials about the treatment of LGBTQ Singaporeans.

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

Long-term impacts of two secondary school environmental studies programs on environmental behaviour: the shadows of patriarchy and neoliberalism

A survey of alumni of two longstanding interdisciplinary secondary school environmental studies programs revealed that the vast majority of alumni reported being engaged in pro-environmental behaviours, which they attributed to participation in the programs five to twenty-three years prior. That finding in itself is worth sharing. Digging deeper, however, revealed that most reported behaviours were in the private rather than public sphere. Women alumni reported engaging in more household and marketplace-oriented behaviours. Further, a small number of men from the rural school expressed hostility towards environmental concerns using aggressively sexist and homophobic discourse. A feminist analysis takes into account structural forces such as patriarchy and neoliberalism to interpret the findings and illuminates gendered dimensions of pro- and anti-environmental behaviours.

Dispossession and the 1970s Trans-Genre: A Reading of Judy Grahn’s “The Psychoanalysis of Edward the Dyke”

AbstractWhile Judy Grahn’s 1978 prose poem “The Psychoanalysis of Edward the Dyke” has been examined through a cisgendered lesbian feminist lens, this essay argues that Grahn’s poem is more productively interpreted as a satirical trans-genre that critiques not just the clinical treatment of lesbians, but the clinical treatment of trans persons as well. Through a close reading, this essay analyzes the various social and medical encounters in “Edward the Dyke” to address how transphobic and homophobic discourses of this historical period are parodied and used as satirical elements to critique the clinical establishment. A reading of Grahn’s work as trans-genre contributes to a body of work that illustrates the dispossession of both gender variant lesbians and trans subjectivities and the historical intersections of non-normative genders and sexualities in literature.

‘Reader, I married him/her’: Ali Smith, Ovid, and queer translation

AbstractThis essay frames Ali Smith’s novel Girl meets boy (2007) as a ‘queer translation’ of Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.666-797. I argue that Smith’s presentation of a contemporary genderqueer Iphis and Ianthe not only fictionalizes the critical argument proposed by Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble, but uses Gender Trouble as a queer translation manifesto. Reading Girl meets boy through this Butlerian lens, which foregrounds multiplicity and insists on the politically subversive potential of repetition, I show how Smith translates, re-translates, and re-writes Ovid’s text, to make queer identities that are made to disappear in the Latin ‘loosed’ in translation. I also propose a new reading of the conclusion of Ovid’s episode informed by Smith’s queer translation. I discuss Smith’s politicized use of repetition throughout the novel to produce queer translations which disrupt the surface homophobic discourse of the original text; and I situate the novel’s publication within its historical political context — before the legalization of same-sex marriage in England, Wales, and Scotland. In conclusion, I argue that a queer translation practice, as evidenced by Smith’s novel, is an activist project which combats homophobic discourse (ancient and modern) and allows ancient queer bodies and identities to retain their multiplicity in translation.

Sexuality in Goytisolo’sAntagonía

AbstractAntagoníais Luis Goytisolo’s masterpiece. In this article I present a quantitative and qualitative study of his prose with regards to sexuality. Through an analysis of keywords, concordances, dispersion, and discourses, I show thatAntagoníafeeds from two historical periods, namely the ending dictatorship and the new democratic transition. Some of its discourses are the product of the Spain of the 1970s and 80s. Among them, we find sexist, male chauvinist, and homophobic discourses latent during those times. Women and queer people are frequently characterized in a negative fashion. However, we also find more subversive discourses that empower women. In sum, I consider Goytisolo’s tetralogy a “fluid” or “transitional” novel in that it is imbued with contradictory discourses rooted in different historical periods.

Navigating precarious visibility: Ugandan sexual minorities on Twitter

Although invisibility has historically provided a degree of protection, Lesbian, Gay, Bi-, Trans-, Queer and Intersexuals need to materialize publicly as a group to successfully advocate for their rights. Decades of systematic exclusion of the community from traditional discourse-producing sites, such as media and physical spaces, could potentially render self-controlled digital spaces an attractive alternative for human rights advocacy and self-representation. The following article explores to what degree the Ugandan sexual minority community utilizes the microblogging platform Twitter’s inbuilt affordance of self-controlled visibility to counter and challenge pervasive homophobic discourses. Through a qualitative content analysis of a purposeful sample of tweets generated by the main sexual minority network (Sexual Minorities Uganda [SMUG]), during the latest general election, the study finds that the affordance of controlled visibility is not consistently exploited for disseminating alternative narratives to external audiences, but rather chooses to highlight the agency of SMUG and its network members.

Homosexuality, Witchcraft, and Power: the Politics of Ressentiment in Cameroon

Abstract:In this study I hope to deconstruct dominant and popular homophobic discourses in Cameroon to offer a deeper analysis of the common association made between homosexuality, witchcraft, and cults. Through a closer engagement with rumors that suggest homosexuality, witches, and cults are working collectively and covertly to destroy Cameroonian society important issues of power, morality, and inequality emerge, providing a more complex understanding of homophobic violence. I argue that in order to address homophobic concerns in Cameroon, activists must contend with the complexity of epistemological differences and speak to the root causes of an emerging ressentiment.

Literatura juvenil contemporânea: representações de experiências homossexuais na escola

This article aims to discuss the meanings (re)produced in contemporary youth books about male homosexual experience in school space. We use the Jorge Larrosa’s notion of experience. The corpus of analysis consists in three books of youth LGBTI literature. For the analysis, we use the principles of exteriority, reflexivity and subjectivity according to Larrosa. It’s possible to observe that the school institutions play an important role in terms of the subjectivation of the characters if they show a (re)producing instance of norms; it is represented as a place that legitimizes homophobic discourses, but also as a place of fight and raise of differences, an institution that challenges the way in which characters attribute meaning to the homosexual experience.

“We show that we are men”: the Dominant Masculinity Profile of the Portoan Ultra-groups

Abstract The ultra-groups that support football clubs have been present in Portugal since the 1970s. Despite this support, performed with many chants and choreographies, the ultra-groups are reported mostly due to violent situations caused by their members. Based on an investigation of four ultra-groups that support football clubs in Oporto that was performed through lengthy observation, interviews, and surveys, this text highlights the characteristics of the dominant masculine profile present in these ultra-groups. The dimensions that allowed for the outline of this profile arise from theoretical perspectives reflecting gender and masculinity as an explanatory dimension of the aggressive behavior of hooligans and ultra-group members. These were briefly dealt in this text. They are composed of key features resulting from research about gender and masculinity in the Portoan ultra-groups, enabling their outlines. The physical and verbal violence, leadership profile, body display, homophobic discourse, and gendered exclusion expressed in the words, chants, and iconography of the ultra-groups allow for the definition of the key characteristics of the aggressive dominant masculine profile present in these Portoan ultra-groups.

Geopolitical Othering Versus Normative Isomorphism? LGBTI Rights in Russia and Ukraine

Since 2013, Russia has put forward a socially conservative norms and values paradigm that challenges the European Union’s (EU’s) normative pull in Eastern Partnership countries like Ukraine – especially when it comes to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) policies. The adoption of legislation on ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to minors’ that same year and the homophobic discourse relating to the situation reinforced the link between state violence and homosexuality as a tool for geopolitical othering in Russia. Notwithstanding Ukraine's normative isomorphism towards the EU, the difficulties surrounding LGBTI activism since the signing of the Association Agreement illustrate that also in Ukraine the risk of extra-judicial violence and geopolitical othering remains. Yet at the same time, Ukraine's normative isomorphism towards the EU prevents policymakers from state violence towards and geopolitical othering, thereby effectively setting their state policies apart in an ever divergent path from their Russian neighbour.

Catholic homophobia

Understanding homophobia as a discursively constituted antipathy, this article argues that the culture of the Catholic Church – as constituted through the Roman magisterium – can be understood as fundamentally homophobic, and in its teaching not just on homosexuality, but also on contraception and priestly celibacy. Moreover, in this regard, the article argues for a hermeneutic of continuity from the pontificate of John Paul II to that of Pope Francis – the latter’s ambivalence repeating the ‘scrambling’ of speech that is typical of homophobic discourse.

“Que se quede el infinito sin estrellas”: El devenir diva en la performance de Pedro Lemebel

Dentro de las prácticas de subversión que se promueven en la performance de Pedro Lemebel, persiste un uso ritualizado de la figuración de algunas divas latinoamericanas de mediados del siglo XX. Al tiempo de deconstruir el discurso homofóbico de la dictadura cívico-militar chilena, Lemebel va trazando desde sus reapropiaciones no sólo un devenir mujer sino un devenir diva que, entre sus múltiples dimensiones, in-corpora diferencias de género, sexo, etnia, lengua, reivindicando con ellas una diversidad de cuerpos desafiantes. La complicidad que puede entreverse con estas figuraciones de lo femenino abre un atractivo campo de análisis para explorar lugares comunes y sugestivos puntos de fuga, por donde se movilizan como referentes de antiguas y futuras irreverencias

Three Queens for the Same Throne: Politics, Sex and Disorder in TVE’s Isabel

Isabel the Catholic (1474–1504) is one of the best-known queens regnant in European history. Yet she is seen by many historians as a usurper. In order to secure her claim to the throne, her supporters conducted a defamatory campaign against her half-brother, Enrique IV, and his family. They accused the king of being a sodomite, his wife of being an adulteress, and named their daughter a bastard. The first season of Televisión Española’s series Isabel (2012) transforms this narrative in several significant ways in order to appeal to the postmodern audience. In the series, Isabel is presented as a feminist heroine who seeks personal retribution. She does not attack Enrique for being homosexual, nor is he represented as such; rather, Isabel seeks revenge for the emotional and sexual abuse inflicted upon her by her sister-in-law, Juana de Avis. The portrayal of these characters illustrates the intersection between homophobia and misogyny, as the homophobic discourses of the fifteenth century slip back into misogyny in the twenty-first. Despite being marketed as a feminist story, Isabel draws on misogyny—in the form of a femininely incompetent Enrique and a sexually-disordered Juana—in order to justify Isabel’s rise to power.

キリスト教における当事者運動の可能性 : 同性愛(者)嫌悪への対抗言説の構築に向けて

キリスト教における当事者運動の可能性 : 同性愛(者)嫌悪への対抗言説の構築に向けて

The Queer Threat to Civilization in Fritz Lang's M

This article draws from the insights of queer theory to argue that Fritz Lang's M relies on a homophobic discourse in its portrayal of the child murderer Beckert. This character represents a queer threat, not because he is a homosexual, but because his attack against children in the film is an assault against the reproductive logic of the nation. The article situates the film within responses to the real serial killer Fritz Haarmann to show how homosexuality was associated with violent crime and the seduction of children and youths during the Weimar Republic. This queer threat brings together two opposite sides of society—the police and the criminal underworld—committed to stop the disintegration of social order and the demise of civilization.

“Pray That God Will Change You”: The Religious Social Ecology of Bias-Based Bullying Targeting Sexual and Gender Minority Youth—A Qualitative Study of Service Providers and Educators

The bullying of sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) is pervasive, with documented negative impacts on health. We explored the social ecology of bullying of SGMY, with a focus on religion as a source or context of bullying. Semistructured interviews with service providers, educators, and administrators in Toronto, Canada, who work with SGMY explored perspectives on the bullying of SGMY, focusing on religiously based bullying and strategies for intervention. Interviews (45-60 minutes) were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic content analysis. The data revealed religiously based homophobic discourse that permeates religious (places of worship, faith-based schools) and secular microsystems (public schools, families) across SGMY’s social ecology. The language and ideology of “sin” and “conversion” were evidenced in direct religiously based bullying of SGMY in schools, and victimization in places of worship and family microsystems, as well as serving as a rationale for bullying and nonintervention by teachers, school staff, administrators, and family members. Multisectoral and multilevel influences of religiously based sexual prejudice on the bullying of SGMY suggest that existing individual-level and microsystem-level responses in schools should be augmented with institutional, policy, and legal interventions in SGMY’s more distal social ecology in order to effectively prevent religiously based homophobic bullying.

Homophobic Muslims: Emerging Trends in Multireligious Singapore

AbstractThis article examines the recent emergence of homophobia among Muslims in Singapore. While Islamic scriptures were used to justify homophobia, interpretations of these holy texts regarding non-normative sexualities have always been diverse. The anti-homosexuality exegesis of Islamic scriptures gained traction in a particular constellation of contemporary politics. When the state broached a discussion over whether a colonial-era law criminalizing homosexuality should be repealed, evangelical Christians were the first to vigorously support the retention of the law. Evangelical Christian homophobic discourses were soon reproduced by Muslims, whose own conservatism has been rising in recent years. Longstanding state biases against Muslims (who are mostly lower-working-class Malays), however, restricted the expression of their religious conservatism, which makes it useful for them to perform good citizenship by standing alongside evangelical Christians (mostly middle-class Chinese). This article demonstrates that Muslim homophobia has complex roots and explanations that cannot be reduced solely to Islam.

Brokeback Mountain and Reproductive Futurism

리 에델만의 “재생산적 미래주의”에 대한 비판을 원용하며, 이 논문은 이안의 <브로크백 마운틴>이 이성애규범적인 가치와 폭력을 어떻게 조명하는가를 살펴본다. 자신의 2005년 저서 『미래는 없다: 퀴어이론과 죽음욕동』에서 에델만은 이성애규범성의 특권적 위치가 “재생산적 미래주의”에 의해 보존되고 있음을 밝힌다. 그에 따르면, “재생산적 미래주의”는 비생산적인 쾌락의 유예를 요구할 뿐 아니라, 주체와 존재가 합일을 이루는 불가능한 미래를 위해 현재의 희생을 끊임없이 요구한다. “재생산적인 미래주의”의 대척점에 “퀴어다움”을 위치시키는 에델만은, “퀴어다움”이 지배적인 담론과 제도가 요구하는 강제적인 이성애적 섹슈얼리티와 재생산을 거부한다는 점에서 윤리적인 가치를 지님을 천명한다. 이 글에서는 <브로크백 마운틴>이 그 같은 이성애 규범적이고 동성애 혐오적인 담론들과 어떻게 협상하고 타협하는지를 규명한다. 또한, 이 논문은 <브로크백 마운틴>이 1980-90년대 미국사회에서 발생한 에이즈의 위기 속에서 퀴어 주체들이 겪은 트라우마와 그들의 대응을 재현하고 있음을 시사한다. 마지막으로는 프로이드의 멜랑콜리아 개념을 이용하여, 영화의 마지막 장면을 자세히 분석함으로써, 퀴어주체가 과거와 맺는 윤리적 관계의 양상에 대해 살펴본다.Building on Lee Edelman’s critique of what he calls “reproductive futurism,” this essay investigates how Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2005) bears and interrogates the traces of heteronormative values and violence. In his searing book, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (2004), Edelman argues that the absolute privilege of heteronormativity is preserved by “reproductive futurism,” which not only demands the deferment of non-(re)productive pleasures but also the brutal sacrifice of the present for the impossible future in which the subject’s alienation would fade away into the seamlessness of identity. Presenting queerness as antithetical to the “reproductive futurism,” Edelman asserts that queerness achieves its ethical value in that it refuses the heteronormative mandate by which our dominant culture and institutions demand compulsory heterosexuality and reproduction. The present study examines Brokeback Mountain as a cultural site in which such heteronormative and homophobic discourses can be questioned or endorsed. I also argue that the discussion of AIDS is central to the film, which symbolizes the traumatic experiences of queers amid the AIDS epidemic in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. In doing so, this discussion suggests that Brokeback Mountain shows how a melancholic queer subject establishes an ethical relationship to the past that refuses the mandate of reproductive futurism embodied in the figure of progressive future.