Gay Identity Research Articles

Psychological wellbeing facilitates accurate HIV risk appraisal in gay and bisexual men.

Overall, 191 HIV-negative GBM completed a cross-sectional survey, in which they provided demographic information and completed measures of engagement in actual sexual risk behaviours, diagnosis with a sexually transmissible infection in the past 12 months, frequency of HIV testing, use of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), perceived HIV risk, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) identity, sexual identity openness and psychological wellbeing. Results showed that there was a correlation between engagement in actual HIV risk behaviours and perceived HIV risk, suggesting relatively accurate HIV risk appraisal in the participant sample. LGBT identity and sexual identity openness were associated with increased psychological wellbeing. Structural equation modelling showed that psychological wellbeing has an effect on perceived HIV risk through the mediator of LGBT identity. It appears that a state of psychological wellbeing facilitates the construction of a strong and robust LGBT identity, which can be displayed to others, and that a strong LGBT identity in turn facilitates accurate HIV risk appraisal in GBM. In order to achieve our target of zero new HIV infections by 2030, it will be essential to focus on enhancing psychological wellbeing in people at risk of HIV.

Categorically Famous: Literary Celebrity and Sexual Liberation in 1960s America by Guy Davidson

Reviewed by: Categorically Famous: Literary Celebrity and Sexual Liberation in 1960s America by Guy Davidson Jeff Solomon Guy Davidson. Categorically Famous: Literary Celebrity and Sexual Liberation in 1960s America. Stanford UP, 2019. 227 pp. How can there be queer celebrities when sexual queerness itself is censored? Guy Davidson incisively explores this paradox through the literary careers of three mid-century US writers—James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, and Gore Vidal—whose queerness was undeniably present and presently deniable in the public eye and ear, even as it contributed to their celebrity. All three constantly invoked homosexuality, either directly in their work or indirectly in their literary personae, though they actively denied or passively refused to confirm their own sexual practice. They certainly had no desire to be queer icons or activists—or, if they did, they kept that interest private. Baldwin was highly invested in his value as an icon of the Civil Rights movement and knew that his homosexuality lessened his public value to the movement. Nonetheless, he offers a preeminent example of gay fame or, as Davidson describes it, proto-gay fame, as gayness in the post-Stonewall, identitarian sense was still coagulating. Sontag was not proto-lesbian as Baldwin was proto-gay, but her association with camp and other aspects of gay male culture indicates how "gay male culture, as the most widely publicized version of queerness, may enable other kinds of queer cross-identification" (5). At the same time, she rigorously maintained her straight bona fides. While Vidal's fiction and life were preoccupied with homosexual acts, Vidal himself, a queer theorist avant la lettre, took great relish in insisting that homosexuality was an act unto itself, independent from any orientation, much less the marker of a distinct population. Nonetheless, Vidal, like Sontag and Baldwin, was unable to control either his celebrity or its association with homosexuality. Davidson explains how the specifics of public life in the 1960s led to a strange parallel between the status of celebrity and homosexuality, as both were entangled with sexual liberation. The changes in the parameters of acceptable inquiry into the private lives of public figures were coeval with the same forces that shaped gay men and women into a newly politicized minority. If the personal is the political, then so was the sex life of James Baldwin, whether he wrote about it or not. And he did not: There are only three mentions of homosexuality in all his nonfiction, all considered by Davidson, though sexual queerness suffuses Baldwin's novels. Davidson carefully explains how these three writers—who, for most or all of their lives, did not assert a gay or lesbian identity—nonetheless served the nascence of gay and lesbian liberation. And as homosexuality was "fundamental to the [End Page 590] cultural shifts and the political effects collected under the differently weighted but overlapping rubrics of the 'sexual revolution' and the 'counterculture'" (13), so the queerness of these writers reverberated through 1960s US culture, and not just in queer communities. For the counterculture, "unorthodox lifeways constitute forms of political resistance" (187), and homosexuality was the least orthodox form at large in the public eye. One of the most valuable aspects of Categorically Famous is Davidson's analysis of how Sontag's celebrity relates to her simultaneous identification with and distancing from gay male culture. How did "Notes on 'Camp'"—an analysis, tribute, and repudiation that anticipated the counterculture through its fusion of politics and unorthodox sexual styles—place Sontag so firmly within the proscenium of the public intellectuals? Sontag's repudiation of her own queerness is not surprising, but her indirect assertion of it is. Davidson illustrates how, despite the claims of "Against Interpretation," "responses to [Sontag's] persona indicate that erotics and hermeneutics are not easily separated" (86). Her overt eschewal of the personal is contradicted by the "flirtation with the autobiographical—and the sexual—that flickers through and tempers [her] otherwise austerely deindividualized style" (73). Davidson reconciles Sontag's studied performance of a celebrity intellectual with her frequently reproduced glamour shots, which use Hollywood Golden Age techniques to halo her supposed austerity, and shows how her critical devotion to form rather than content often served as "a...

An Obscure Form of Protest: Politicized Pleasure, Gay Liberation and Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical

An Obscure Form of Protest:Politicized Pleasure, Gay Liberation and Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical Mary Rizzo (bio) When Esquire magazine vocal and visible young urban gay men of the era and an older generationsteeped in homophile respectability. Cultural touchstones defined each as much as politics—and were, in fact, signs of political affiliation. As he found in his interviews, while the older generation identified with the doyennes of musical theater like Ethel Merman or Judy Garland, "Today, gay kids identify with males—with Peter Fonda, or Dustin Hoffman." Overall, theater was of little interest, especially Broadway—"Except, of course Hair."1 Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, a colorful, experimental, raucous musical revue about the lives of a group of countercultural youth written by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, premiered Off-Broadway at the Public Theater in 1967 and then moved to Broadway in April 1968. The first show to move from Off-Broadway to Broadway, it blazed the path followed by A Chorus Line and Hamilton. Hair became an immediate smash hit, with numerous touring companies playing the show around the world. By the end of its original run in 1972, approximately 20 million people worldwide, including innumerable gay men, had seen it.2 Hair drew gay fans, in part, because of its frank discussions of homosexuality. While theater became more experimental in the 1950s and 60s, Broadway musicals (with a few exceptions such as West Side Story and Cabaret) remained bastions of Americana with gentle, comedic narratives focused on heterosexual romance, offering ideology in the guise of heartfelt harmonies.3 Hair was different. Its loose plot revolved around hippie Claude's dilemma of whether to evade [End Page 5] the draft. But through its rock music score and scenes in a coffeehouse, at a party and during an LSD trip, the show depicted characters shamelessly engaging in homosexuality, bisexuality, and polyamory. Woof, one of the hippie "tribe," sings "Sodomy," in the first act in an angelic-voice, celebrating sodomy, pederasty, and fellatio, sexual acts that were banned by anti-gay laws on the books in many states. Even with this explicit embrace of gay sexuality, Hair has never been placed in the pantheon of musicals, like Gypsy or Rent, beloved by gay men. It remains unacknowledged in recent scholarly articles, monographs like D.A. Miller's lyrical meditation on gay men and musicals Place for Us: Essay on the Broadway Musical, and in popular, grassroots historical efforts like the website Queer Music Heritage, the 2012 winner of the Allan Bérubé Prize for outstanding work in public or community-based LGBTQ history from the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender History.4 More general histories of 1960s counterculture often ignore it or mention it fleetingly, with no acknowledgement of its importance within gay liberation.5 Musicologist Elizabeth Wollman offers a welcome corrective in her work on adult musicals arguing that, "like Hair, many adult musicals were ultimately used as much to educate mainstream audiences about contemporary sociosexual mores as to entertain."6 By not taking Hair seriously, critics have ignored an important source through which gay men constructed their identities and also missed how that cultural text shaped the gay liberation movement. There are several reasons for the forgetting of Hair's gay past. No character in Hair overtly proclaims a gay identity. With the gay liberation and LGBTQ rights movements from the 1970s onward, homosexuality became a politicized identity that defined a person, rather than a set of behaviors. Hair's proto-queerness meant that it was eclipsed by other musicals and plays with explicitly gay characters, like The Boys in the Band and Falsettos. Materially, after its initial run it became difficult to see. It was revived in 1977 in a disastrous production that closed within a month. Milos Forman's 1979 film Hair focused on Claude, now an Oklahoma farm boy in New York City for induction into the army, and his infatuation with rich-girl Sheila. Most references to homosexuality were eliminated. The song "Sodomy" is sung to shock Sheila and her uptight friends rather than to revel in sexual pleasure. While cast albums from the original run still circulate...

Homosexual Identity Development in E.M. Forster’s Maurice: How Characters accept their Homosexuality?

Homosexual Identity Development in E.M. Forster’s Maurice: How Characters accept their Homosexuality?

Status and Challenges of LGBTI in Nepal

LGBTI stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex. Lesbians are women who experience sexual or emotional attraction to other women. Gays are men who feel sexually or emotionally drawn to other men. Bisexuals are those who are sexually or emotionally attracted to both men and women, or to two or more genders among the various gender identities. Transgender individuals have a gender identity or expression that differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. Intersex individuals possess sexual anatomy that does not fit typical definitions of male or female biology. Sexual orientation is a crucial aspect of a person’s identity and encompasses lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex identities. This study examines the status of LGBTI individuals in Nepal, utilizing secondary data gathered from literature such as books, journals, and newspapers. The findings indicate that Nepali society is deeply entrenched in patriarchal values. While heteronormativity has historically prevailed, the society is gradually becoming more sensitive to the needs of the LGBTI community. The struggle for equal rights and acceptance for LGBTI individuals in Nepali society is extensive and begins early in life, as heteronormative expectations are imposed from a young age. This research aims to provide a better understanding of the situation of LGBT individuals in the Nepali context.

Intersections between Sexual Identity, Sexual Attraction, and Sexual Behavior among a Nationally Representative Sample of American Men and Women

Abstract Social scientists struggle on how to best operationalize and measure sexual orientation. Depending on the survey, researchers can use self-reports of lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) identity, same-sex partner cohabitation, same-sex sexual attraction, or same-sex sexual behavior. All measures come with their own limitations. To illuminate differences in these measures, this study examines the intersections between self-reported sexual identity, attraction, and behavior among a nationally representative sample of US men and women aged 15–45. I explore how and when the three measures align, examine the determinants of self-identifying as gay or bisexual based on sexual behavior and attraction, and assess gender differences in the patterns. I find that about 20% of women and 10% of men aged 15–45 would comprise the LGB community if it were defined to include those who report at least one of the following: gay or bisexual identity, any same-sex attraction, or same-sex sex in the last year. This is much higher than the 6.4% of women and 3.6% of men aged 15–45 who self-identify as LGB. I conclude with recommendations that can aid in measurement of the LGB population, and discuss implications for using certain measures over others when conducting research on the LGB community.

Dead Letters Sent: Queer Literary TransmissionOld Futures: Speculative Fiction and Queer PossibilityCirculating Queerness: Before the Gay and Lesbian NovelMelodrama: An Aesthetics of Impossibility

Dead Letters Sent: Queer Literary TransmissionOld Futures: Speculative Fiction and Queer PossibilityCirculating Queerness: Before the Gay and Lesbian NovelMelodrama: An Aesthetics of Impossibility

Translingual English, Facebook, and gay identities

AbstractThis paper discusses the role of English in ‘enacting one's sexuality’ or ‘gendered identities’ in the Facebook practices of gay Mongolian men. Drawing on digital ethnographic studies, the study aims to illustrate how the role of English needs to be understood from the sophisticated complexities of ‘translingual English’ authored by Facebook users. It presents how Mongolian Facebook users are frequently involved with translingual English practices through their extensive relocalization of variable resources, including English, Mongolian, and other forms of codes, modes, styles, repertoires, and genres. The study also demonstrates how translingual English users deploy Facebook as a highly potent site and formula for the construction and performance of their ‘sexuality.’

LGB + Moms and Dads: “My Primary Identity… is Being a Parent”

Decades of empirical research has demonstrated that same-sex parenting can produce outcomes that are, at least, comparable to hetero-normative parenting. Less research, however, has examined the common, process-oriented experiences of same-sex adoptive parents. To this end, the current study utilized qualitative interviewing techniques, with nine participants, to discern: (1) the ways in which lesbian and gay adoptive parents came to identify as a family, and (2) the ways in which family formation altered lesbian and gay adoptive parent identities. Collective identity theory helped frame the primary findings. While experiences as “lesbian” or “gay” prospectively informed participant conceptions of family, the paramount identity of “parent” retrospectively usurped all other collective identities. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are also discussed.

Antsiwinik. Expresarse como homosexual en una secundaria de contexto indígena

El presente artículo está basado en una investigación de enfoque etnográfico realizada entre 2016 y 2018, y ofrece un acercamiento a la percepción de lo que se podrían denominar identidades homosexuales en contextos indígenas, específicamente en una escuela secundaria ubicada en un ejido del municipio de Ocosingo, Chiapas. Se analizan situaciones conflictivas que experimentaron tres alumnos que se habían asumido como antsiwiniketik partir de la relación con sus compañeros y adultos dentro y fuera de la escuela. Para su análisis se recuperan aportaciones teóricas y conceptos tales como: lucha de poder, heteronorma, sistema sexo-género, estudios de género, teoría queer e interculturalidad.

Tourism and male homosexual identities: directions for sociocultural research

Purpose This paper aims to offer a critical review of the existing research on the relationships between tourism and male homosexual identities and, based on a sociocultural perspective, suggestions for specific directions in future research. Design/methodology/approach The analysis is based on a review of the literature that focuses on two independent yet intersecting topics: tourism and homosexuality and identity formation processes. Findings Specific directions for future research are offered regarding the role that tourism plays in homosexual identity development. The proposed paths for future research include the tangible contributions of tourism to the stages of homosexual tourists’ identity development and the (re)construction, negotiation and globalisation of homosexual and queer identities through tourists’ cultural interactions. Two further suggested directions are the significance of tourism for non-Western homosexual tourists and tourism’s impacts on local homosexual identities. Research limitations/implications This study is based solely on the existing literature on male homosexuality and mostly on studies published in English. Originality/value The research included a critical analysis of the commonly assumed significance of tourism in homosexual identity formation. The results provide directions for future empirical research and calls for a solid theoretical foundation that allows researchers to demonstrate, understand and explain how tourism contributes to gay and queer identities.

“Love Your Films and Love Your Life”

Commentary| November 01 2019 “Love Your Films and Love Your Life”: An Interview with Fan Popo Fan Popo; Fan Popo Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Bao Hongwei Bao Hongwei Bao Hongwei is associate professor in media studies at the University of Nottingham. He holds a PhD in gender studies and cultural studies from the University of Sydney. His research primarily focuses on gay identity and queer politics in contemporary China. He has published articles in Cultural Studies; Health, Culture and Society; Global Media and China; Interventions: A Journal for Postcolonial Studies; Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art; JOMEC Journal; and Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research. He is coeditor of Queer/Tongzhi China: New Perspectives on Research, Activism, and Media Cultures (with Elisabeth Engebretsen and William Schroeder, 2015) and author of Queer Comrades: Gay Identity and Tongzhi Activism in Postsocialist China (2018). Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google positions (2019) 27 (4): 799–809. https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-7726994 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Fan Popo, Bao Hongwei; “Love Your Films and Love Your Life”: An Interview with Fan Popo. positions 1 November 2019; 27 (4): 799–809. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-7726994 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll Journalspositions Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2019 by Duke University Press2019 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

“I Want to Make Queer Films, But Not LGBT Films”

Commentary| November 01 2019 “I Want to Make Queer Films, But Not LGBT Films”: An Interview with He Xiaopei He Xiaopei; He Xiaopei He Xiaopei is executive director of the Pink Space Sexuality Research Centre in Beijing and a film director. Her films include The Lucky One, which follows an HIV-positive woman with advanced cancer retelling her story of struggle with poverty and a judging society, and Our Marriage: When Lesbians Marry Gay Men in China, an exploration of the lives of four lesbians who decided to marry gay men in order to secretly pursue their relationships with their girlfriends and at the same time fulfil their social obligation to get married, and Yvo and Chrissy, which follows the life of a queer anarchist community in Brighton, UK. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Séagh Kehoe; Séagh Kehoe Séagh Kehoe is a postdoctoral fellow in Chinese languge and Culture at the Contemporary China Centre, University of Westminister. They recently completed their PhD in contemporary Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham. Their research focuses on ethnicity, gender, and media in modern and contemporary China. They have published in Asian Ethnicity and The China Quarterly. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Bao Hongwei Bao Hongwei Bao Hongwei is associate professor in media studies at the University of Nottingham. He holds a PhD in gender studies and cultural studies from the University of Sydney. His research primarily focuses on gay identity and queer politics in contemporary China. He has published articles in Cultural Studies; Health, Culture and Society; Global Media and China; Interventions: A Journal for Postcolonial Studies; Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art; JOMEC Journal; and Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research. He is coeditor of Queer/Tongzhi China: New Perspectives on Research, Activism, and Media Cultures (with Elisabeth Engebretsen and William Schroeder, 2015) and author of Queer Comrades: Gay Identity and Tongzhi Activism in Postsocialist China (2018). Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google positions (2019) 27 (4): 811–823. https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-7727007 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation He Xiaopei, Séagh Kehoe, Bao Hongwei; “I Want to Make Queer Films, But Not LGBT Films”: An Interview with He Xiaopei. positions 1 November 2019; 27 (4): 811–823. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-7727007 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll Journalspositions Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2019 by Duke University Press2019 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Commentary You do not currently have access to this content.

Sexual orientation openness and depression symptoms: A population-based study

Abstract Background Sexual minorities (e.g., lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals) are at higher risk for depression than heterosexual individuals. Lack of openness about one’s sexual orientation is a suggested source of these disparities, but it has been linked to both positive and negative mental health. Few population-based studies have explored the association between openness and depression, and potential mediators and moderators of this association, including social support and sexual orientation-based victimization. Methods Swedish respondents to the 2014 wave of the European Health Interview Survey were used to identify a population-based sample of self-reported sexual minorities. All individuals reporting a nonheterosexual identity (and a matched sample of heterosexuals) were invited to participate in a follow-back study in 2016 (n = 320). A total of 191 (59.7%) individuals completed the survey, of whom 80 reported a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or other nonheterosexual identity. Results This first nationally representative survey of sexual orientation openness showed that only about one third of the sample reported being completely open. We found no evidence of a direct association between openness and depression or a mediating effect of social support or victimization on this association. However, social support moderated this relationship, such that greater openness was linked to higher depression among sexual minorities reporting low levels of social support. Conclusions Our study suggests that sexual orientation openness is not directly related to lower risk of depression among sexual minorities, but is instead dependent on access to social support. Sexual minorities might need social support for navigating the stress of open self-identification.

Adding grey to the rainbow: a narrative analysis of generational identity through stories and counter-stories of older gay men

AbstractWe explored identity formation among nine gay men who were born between 1946 and 1964. This group of nine was the largest homogeneous sub-group within a larger sample (N = 18). Although participants share similar demographic characteristics, their individual social, personal and narrative identities diverge to represent distinctive embodied selves. Guided by queer and feminist theories, the qualitative analysis identified dominant and counter-narratives that demonstrate the complexity of sexual identity as it evolves over time. All nine men recall being aware of their gay identity as children; however, like many socially constructed labels, their outward identity was more complex and difficult to understand. The findings demonstrate how participants negotiated their sexual identities through decades of social change. As illustrated within each subset of identity (i.e.social, personal and narrative), some participants found themselves breaking ground for a broader gay rights social movement, while others described their experience of being relegated to silence and invisibility for most of their lives. This research contributes to an ongoing discussion concerning the individuality found among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals in later life. As the LGBT population becomes more visible, there will be a growing need to understand the individualism that exists within this coalition and affirm their diversifying sexual and gender identities.

Who ‘framed’ Ramchandra Siras? Journalistic discourses of sexual citizenship in India

In 2010, a professor in India was forcibly outed as gay and catapulted into a nationwide debate about LGBTQ rights in India. A textual analysis of prominent Indian English-language newspapers revealed the framing devices journalists used to report the case, unpacking how coverage essentialized gay identity, signified civil rights and citizenship, problematized notions of consent, complicated public/private demarcations of sexuality, and negotiated competing claims of morality. Journalistic discourse inevitably privileged dominant western neoliberal conceptions of sexuality, reducing sexual citizenship to a particular classed and gendered subject at the expense of a more expansive range of alternative sexualities in India.

Afropolitan Sexual and Gender Identities in Colonial Senegal

Drawing from Achille Mbembe’s theorization of Afropolitanism as an opportunity for modern Africans “to experience several worlds” and develop flux, hybrid, and constantly mobile identities (“Afropolitanism” 29), this essay attempts to make an intervention into the ways in which this phenomenon appeared in colonial Senegalese culture. A neglected site of Afropolitanism was the colonial metropolis of Dakar which reflected subversive homosexual or transgender identities during the 1940s and 50s. Focusing on key writings such as Armand Corre’s book, L’ethnographie criminelle d’après les observations et les statistiques judiciaires recueillies dans les colonies françaises [criminal ethnography based on judiciary observations and statistics gathered from French colonies] (1894) and Michael Davidson’s travelogue, “Dakar” (1970), this essay wants to uncover a part of the silenced and neglected history of sexual and gender variances in colonial Senegalese culture. In these texts, one finds salient examples of Afropolitanism which were deployed as tools of resistance against homophobia and transphobia and as means of affirming erotic, sensual, and transgressive identities. In the end, colonial Senegalese culture transcended gender and sexual binaries in order to provide space for recognizing and examining Afropolitan sensibilities that have thus far been neglected in African studies scholarship.

Variation in perceptions of sexual identity: partisanship and personal exposure

ABSTRACT Public opinion research on attitudes toward LGB people and policies often implicitly assumes that the public conceptualizes lesbian, gay, or bisexual identity in similar ways. This study empirically tests perceptions of the composition of sexual identity group membership using a survey experiment to examine how people map dimensions of sexual orientation onto discrete sexual identity categories. Respondents are asked to classify the sexual identity of profiles of anonymous adults based on the combination of three attributes related to sexual attraction, experience, and openness to same-sex relationships. The results show that while respondents appear to achieve consensus on how certain “prototypical” combinations of attributes are categorized, there remains substantial variation in how the public makes sexual identity categorizations. In particular, consistent with existing work on the relative invisibility of the middle ground of sexuality, respondents appear hesitant to identify profiles as “bisexual.” Republican respondents and respondents that do not have personal exposure to someone who is bisexual are especially less likely to do so. Overall, the results underscore the complexity of sexual identity and have implications both for understanding public opinion toward sexual minority groups and the ability to accurately assess demand for policies related to sexual minority rights.

Reframing, Reconciling, and Individualizing: How LGBTQ Activist Groups Shape Approaches to Religion and Sexuality

AbstractPast research reveals the multiple ways that people grapple with the connections between religious and sexual identities. Some people perceive religious identities to be in conflict with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ) identities, but others believe such identities to be compatible. Some people look to religious authorities for guidance in understanding the connections between religious and LGBQ identities, whereas others rely on strategies of religious individualism. What factors affect people’s approaches to understanding the connections between religious and sexual identities? Drawing on 77 interviews with participants in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) activist groups at four Christian colleges and universities, and employing Goffmanian insights, this article shows how LGBTQ activist groups’ different audiences inspire distinct approaches to understanding religion and sexuality. The study demonstrates that activist groups can powerfully shape understandings of seemingly disparate social identities and suggests a theoretical framework for future research.

Affective antecedents and consequences of revealing and concealing a lesbian, gay, or bisexual identity.

This study examined affect as it relates to the identity management (IM) experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) workers. We integrate IM theories and evidence (Chaudoir & Fisher, 2010; Pachankis, 2007) within the framework of affective events theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) to predict relationships among mood, identity management, and emotion at work. LGB participants rated aspects of positive and negative affect each work morning and immediately following IM situations at work over 3 weeks, making it possible to examine within-person changes and next-day consequences of IM. Our results provided little support for the notion that LGB workers' IM behaviors are driven by affect. However, there do appear to be affective consequences of IM behaviors. After concealment, participants experienced diminished positive affect and increased negative affect; in contrast, revealing was associated with increased positive affect and diminished negative affect. Additionally, these immediate affective consequences of identity management continued into the following day for some facets of affect. We examine these findings as they relate to the identity management and affect literatures, thereby building new insights into their intersections. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).