Same-sex Couples Research Articles

Prenatal Version of the Coparenting Relationship Scale Among Finnish Couples Expecting Their Firstborn

AbstractAlthough coparenting has been widely studied, research on what expectant couples think about their future coparenting is limited. Our aim was to examine the psychometric properties of the Prenatal Version of Coparenting Relationship Scale among Finnish couples expecting their first child. We were also interested in the associations between couples’ expectations of coparenting and couple relationship quality. Expectants and partners (N = 157 Finnish couples expecting their first child; 156 in a heterosexual and 1 in a same-sex relationship) individually completed the questionnaires 1–3 months before childbirth. We used Exploratory Factor Analysis and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed that both expectants’ and partners’ expectations of coparenting were very positive. Two dimensions, Expectations of cooperative coparenting and Expectations of coparenting conflict, were found for both expectants and partners, and both dimensions were largely invariant across spouses. The two dimensions were associated with each other. Expectations of cooperative coparenting were positively associated with prenatal couple relationship quality in both expectants and partners, thus confirming concurrent validity between these measures. Support for the discriminant validity of coparenting conflict in relation to couple relationship quality was found for both spouses whereas the discriminant validity of cooperative coparenting was confirmed for partners only. Our results indicate preliminary support for the validity and reliability of the Finnish version of the Coparenting Relationship Scale—Couples’ Prenatal Version (CRS-CPV) for assessing coparenting expectations, especially among heterosexual couples.

Candidate Identity and Campaign Priming: Analyzing Voter Support for Pete Buttigieg’s Presidential Run as an Openly Gay Man

Pete Buttigieg’s candidacy in the 2020 Democratic primaries caught fire more than most predicted. An openly gay man, Buttigieg is also a veteran and a Christian. Did voters penalize Buttigieg for being gay and in a same-sex relationship? Did his other traits offset voter negative bias? We conducted a survey with over 6000 likely voters during the primaries. We included a priming experiment that manipulated the salience of Buttigieg’s identity traits. We then asked respondents how much they liked Buttigieg and who they would support in a match-up between Buttigieg and Trump. Overall, voters penalized Buttigieg for being in a same-sex relationship. The penalty surprisingly increased when his religiosity was highlighted. In contrast, Buttigieg’s military background mitigated voter discrimination when he was presented as a veteran married to a man. This article reveals how double standards and heterosexism penalize gay candidates, and contributes to discussions on minority candidates and electability.

Domestic Violence among LGBT + People in China: Results from a national court rulings review

Abstract Purpose Domestic violence has been an emerging area of study in recent decades for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people (LGBT +). While some research discussed domestic violence among LGBT + couples in Western countries, very little attention was paid to the patterns of domestic violence in the Chinese context. Against this backdrop, this study sought to elucidate the prevalence and distinctive features of family violence against LGBT + individuals that have been recorded by court rulings, as well as to scrutinize the responses of the judicial system towards these cases of violence. Methods This study utilized a qualitative research approach, relying on court rulings as the primary data source. Specifically, data were collected from the official website that publishes judgments from courts at all levels of China. Content analysis and discourse analysis were employed as analytical techniques to uncover the underlying patterns of family violence among LGBT + people and examine the responses of the judicial system concerning the protection of LGBT + individuals. Results Through an analysis of the court rulings, the findings reveal a total of fifty-three cases of family violence involving LGBT + individuals. These cases constitute approximately ten percent of all criminal cases concerning the LGBT + population. Among these cases, forty cases involve violence perpetrated by LGBT + intimate partners. The violence can be further classified into distinct categories, including break-up violence, sexual violence, and violence occurring in daily life. The consequences of such violence typically result in fatalities or physical injuries. Another form of violence examined in the study is observed within legal partnerships, such as between a heterosexual husband and his lesbian wife. This type of violence also tends to lead to severe outcomes, including deaths or bodily harm to the victim. Furthermore, one noteworthy case of family violence discussed in the research involves a parent–child relationship. Conclusions This study uncovers multiple sources of violence experienced by LGBT + individuals within the context of domestic relationships in China. While LGBT + individuals can employ criminal law to protect their rights as citizens, the legal recognition of same-sex relationships remains rare. Yet, this legal recognition could change the situation in same-sex families troubled by family violence.

Debated issues in the Church of England: The Roles of Theology and Psychology

Abstract This paper tests whether or not psychological type preferences predicted the extent of liberal versus conservative attitudes towards a range of controversial moral issues among 3,515 clergy and laity from the Church of England who took part in the 2013 Church Times survey. Summated rating scales were produced from Likert items related to four different issues: same-sex relationships, the ordination of women, divorce and remarriage, and cohabitation. After allowing for general theological stance, psychological type preferences for sensing over intuition and thinking over feeling were significantly associated with more conservative attitudes. For theological liberals, sensing types had slightly more conservative moral attitudes, on average, than did intuitive types, but there was no difference among theological conservatives. For theological conservatives, thinking types had slightly more conservative moral attitudes, on average, than did feeling types, but there was no difference among theological liberals.

Women’s experience of obtaining health and social services following intimate partner violence: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer relationships in rural communities

The purpose of this secondary analysis was to explore the intersection of gender, sexuality, and rurality in a person’s experience of seeking health and social services following intimate partner violence (IPV). Data from the primary study, SPEAK: Sharing Personal Experiences of Accessibility and Knowledge of Violence, were used for this secondary analysis. This study reviewed the experience of women who identified as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer (LGBTQ) and lived in a rural community. With an intersectional lens, this study employed an interpretive description approach utilizing a case-study design, and the experiences of LGBTQ women who had experienced IPV seeking health and social services in rural communities were explored. Data collected from demographic questionnaires and one-to-one interviews indicated that gender and sexual identity present challenges when intersecting with rurality and IPV. Identifying as LGBTQ may hinder a woman’s ability to seek help from healthcare and social services. These findings may be useful to inform future practice and policies pertaining to resources and services available for rural LGBTQ women who have experienced IPV when seeking care.

Marital and family relations in Ukraine: the state of legislative consolidation and prospects for development

The article is devoted to the consideration of issues related to revealing the essence of the concept of traditional marriage and family relations, defining their scope and fundamental differences. The existing types of marriages, in addition to the legally established ones, were studied and their features were clarified. The state of legislative consolidation of norms regulating nontraditional marital and family relations has been determined. The issue of ensuring state registration of same-sex relationships in Ukraine is analyzed and options for improving the national legislation are proposed to settle controversial issues related to civil partnerships.

‘Queer Villainy’: Carmen Maria Machado’s <i>In the Dream House</i> as Testimony to Lesbian Abuse and Love

Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) are popularly believed to be the exclusive preserve of the heterosexual population. This assumption underpins the fact that policy and interventions aimed at reducing DVA often focus on remediating men’s behaviour so that they become less violent towards women. Such views exclude the fact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) people also experience DVA. This lack of knowledge is partly due to the lack of legitimacy afforded to non-heterosexual relationships. This extends to literary-cultural representations, and there is a particular dearth of texts representing lesbian partnerships. Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir, <i>In the Dream House</i> (2019), fills a gap in literary representations of lesbian relationships, as well as in representations of DVA between same-sex partners. In this article, we read the work as literary scholars, but we do not interpret it as a hermetically sealed work of art with no reference to the world. Instead, we argue that it makes an important contribution, in literary form, to the emerging scholarship on DVA amongst LGBTQ people. We explore how its literary strategies create rich connections with popular culture and give it a place in the queer archive.

Changing characteristics of HIV-positive gay and bisexual men's relationships in the era of biomedical prevention.

To assess changes in personal and relationship characteristics among HIV-positive Australian gay and bisexual men (GBM) as rates of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and knowledge and confidence regarding the effectiveness of viral suppression in preventing HIV transmission have increased. Repeated behavioural surveillance of GBM recruited from venues, events, and online in seven Australian states and territories. HIV-positive participants were included. Trends in demographics, HIV treatment, and relationship characteristics were assessed with binary and multivariable logistic regression. A total of 3,643 survey responses (2016-2020) were included. Over time, HIV-positive GBM became less likely to identify as gay or report an Anglo-Australian ethnicity. The average length of time since HIV diagnosis increased and the frequency of attending HIV-related clinical appointments decreased. There were no changes in the reported number of recent sex partners or proportion reporting regular male partners over time. Among HIV-positive GBM in relationships, the proportion reporting HIV-positive partners decreased, and the proportion reporting HIV-negative partners increased. Levels of condomless sex with regular partners increased over time, however, this was concentrated among HIV-positive GBM in serodiscordant relationships. Findings suggest that increased accessibility and trust in biomedical prevention strategies have contributed to broader relationship and sexual opportunities for HIV-positive GBM in Australia. Our findings suggest future health promotion activities could highlight the social and relationship benefits of to further promote the effectiveness of treatment as prevention to further increase trust in it as an HIV prevention strategy among GBM.

Risk Factors Linked to Violence in Female Same-Sex Couples in Hispanic America: A Scoping Review.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) among women is an understudied topic in Hispanic Americans; therefore, we aim to describe this phenomenon and its associated risk factors in comparison with other sexual orientations and practices. A scoping review was carried out using the following databases: Scopus, Web of Science, Redalyc, Scielo.org, and Dialnet. The following keywords were used: same-sex, intragender, couple, domestic, and partner violence. The inclusion criteria applied were studies published between 2000 and 2022 with a minimum participation of 15% of Hispanic Americans, resulting in 23 articles. The findings showed a lower presence of studies on violence in women compared to men. Minority stress, power dynamics, social support, and childhood experiences of violence, which are related and complementary to each other, were identified as risk factors. We concluded that there is little research on IPV among women. In addition, studies require a renewed focus to comprehend this type of violence, which cannot be equated with those of heterosexual couples. This approach continues to perpetuate the invisibility of this problem, and, therefore, a more inclusive and specific perspective is needed.

Traditional Values and Adolescent Sexual Orientation in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria

The study investigates the traditional values and sexual orientation of adolescents in secondary school in Delta State. The theoretical frame for the work is the Social Bond Theory. The study is carried out using both quantitative and qualitative research. A descriptive research design and in-depth interviews (IDIs) are used for the study. The study area is the Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State. The population of public secondary schools is 26, with about 16,783 senior secondary school students. The sample size is 520 senior secondary school students. The questionnaire titled "Traditional Values and Adolescent Sexual Orientation of Secondary School Students" is used for data collection. It has a reliability of 0.78. A median item is used to answer the research question. The benchmark of acceptance for any item is 2.5, and anything below 2.5 is rejected. The content analysis is applied to the in-depth interviews. Findings from the study revealed that adolescents might not directly support same-sex behaviour due to the traditional values in place emanating from stigma. Also, some students might get involved in same-sex practice if they are opportune to travel out of the country; this implies that the only obstacle to such practice is traditional values. A recommendation was made that parents should educate their children about sexual orientation about our traditional values from infancy until adolescence and stop seeing it as taboo.

Loneliness and Pathos in Heiner Carow's Coming Out (1989)

Abstract: Heiner Carow's Coming Out (1989) is unique as the first (and last) East German feature film to place a homosexual relationship front and center. Coming Out challenges the social and institutional attitudes and conventions of a heterosexist East German society. Taking seriously Carow's suggestion that cinema is a form of debate, this article explores through precise considerations of form and affect how the film sought to move a predominantly heterosexual audience emotionally as part of its project to meaningfully integrate the queer community into the social whole. I analyze the film's mood-rich disclosure of its world, the employment of melodramatic conventions, and the use of strategies that blend the diegetic world with extradiegetic reality. Through my analysis of Coming Out along both aesthetic and affective lines, I emphasize the film's value beyond its amply discussed representation of queer life in the GDR as an example of how cinematic affect operates politically through particular strategies unique to film form.

When the individual comes into play: The role of self and the partner in the dyadic play fighting of rats

Social play in rats is rewarding and important for the development of brain and social skills. There are differences in the amount of play behavior displayed among individuals, with earlier studies suggesting that, despite variation across trials, individual differences tend to be consistent. In the present study, juvenile Lister-hooded rats were paired with a different, unfamiliar same-sex partner on three days and based on the amount of play each individual initiated, it was characterized as a high, medium or low player. Using this categorization, we explored three features related to individual differences. First, we show that by increasing the number of test days from two, as was done in a previous study (Lesscher et al., 2021), to three, characterization was effectively improved. Secondly, while the earlier study only used males, the present study showed that both sexes exhibit a similar pattern of individual differences in the degree of playfulness. Even though low players consistently initiated less play than medium and high players, all rats varied in how much play they initiated from one trial to the next. Thirdly, we assessed two potential mechanisms by which the playfulness of one rat can modify the level of playfulness of the other rat (i.e., emotional contagion vs homeostasis). Analyses of individuals’ contribution to the play of dyads suggest that rats consistently adjust their play behavior depending on the behavior displayed by the partner. Since this adjustment can be positive or negative, our data support a homeostatic mechanism, whereby individuals increase or decrease the amount of play they initiate, which results in the experience of an overall stable pattern of play across trials. Future research will investigate the neural bases for individual differences in play and how rats maintain a preferred level of play.

Violence in Queer Families: Symbolic Recognition of Same-Sex Relationships in Russian Law

PurposeThis paper deals with criminal court cases of intimate partner violence in queer families (IPV) in Russia. It aims to uncover ways for these families to be recognized in law, even if only for the purposes of deciding cases of violence among LGBT + partners.MethodsThe study deploys methods of discourse analysis to uncover powers which produce the texts of court rulings. The article is based on close examination of nine cases of IPV occurred in various places across Russia. Eight cases concern bisexual and lesbian women; one case is about men in a same-sex partnership.ResultsThe analysis suggests that only the most severe cases of IPV reach criminal courts in Russia (murder, manslaughter, and serious injuries). As courts deal with violence among intimate same-sex partners, they have to discuss LGBT + identities, queer sexualities, and same-sex families more broadly, as well as such forms of violence which are not criminalized but build up to the ultimate violent act (psychological and financial violence, battery).ConclusionsRegardless of reluctance to recognize queer families in family law, same-sex relationships are already recognized in the legal discourse with the help of various categories for the purposes of processing criminal cases. However, this recognition casts queer families as subordinate and pathological, especially through the widespread invocation of traditional values rhetoric.

Queering the Mainstream: Anna Melikian’s About Love (2015)

ABSTRACT About Love (2015), Anna Melikian’s fourth film, is her first attempt at mainstream cinema. Mimicking the form of an almanac film, it comprises five apparently discrete but intimately interconnected short films, or novellas, all set in Moscow. Their most obvious link is the film’s central thread: a lecture about love at the Strelka Institute, attended by the protagonists of some of the novellas and delivered by one of them: an expert on the topic, played by Renata Litvinova. None of the novellas directly addresses non-heteronormative sexualities, through focussing on same-sex relationships. However, the centrality of Litvinova – arguably Russian cinema’s most prominent queer icon – introduces an unignorable note of the queer. On closer viewing, moreover, it becomes clear both that the film does depict queer identities, subjectivities and relationships and that it is queer in other ways. Drawing on various queer and feminist theoretical approaches, this article therefore argues that About Love depicts post-2013 Moscow as a place that can accommodate and celebrate queerness, demonstrating that Melikian’s representation of love challenges the ostensible narrative assumptions of heterosexual normativity and offers, as a queer counterpoint to the mainstream, a range of compelling non-normative representations of love and the self.

Sexual and reproductive health in Britain during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: cross-sectional population survey (Natsal-COVID-Wave 2) and national surveillance data

ObjectivesTo assess sexual behaviour, and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes, after 1 year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Britain.Methods6658 participants aged 18–59 and resident in Britain completed a cross-sectional...

Same-sex relationships and recriminalisation of homosexuality in Ghana

Most Ghanaians conveniently ignore or vehemently deny the existence of homosexual relationships in precolonial Ghanaian cultures. The denial of these relationships in precolonial Ghanaian cultures has gained attention due to section 104 of the Criminal Offences Act of Ghana which criminalises ‘unnatural carnal knowledge’ and the ‘promotion of proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values bill, 2021’ (anti-LGBTQI+ bill), currently being debated in Ghana’s Parliament. Historical evidence suggests, however, that Western European researchers who first visited Africa and Ghana suppressed evidence of homosexuality, while indigenous people unwittingly concealed homosexual relationships because of a ‘culture of silence’ surrounding sex and sexuality in precolonial Ghana. From a decolonial theoretical perspective, this article argues that the non-appreciation of precolonial Ghanaian (homo)sexual history partly accounts for the criminalisation of same-sex sexual relationships, homophobia, violence, and violations of the rights of sexual minorities in contemporary Ghana. The paper connects the presence of same-sex sexual intimacies in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), and the absence of criminal sanctions as a basis for rethinking current attempts in Parliament to recriminalise homosexual relationships, in order to chart a path of the equal legal protection of every person, regardless of their sexual orientation.

An African moral approach against the perverted faculty argument: Ukama, partiality and homophobia in Africa.

In Africa, homosexuality is routinely understood as a form of immoral behaviour. This has great implications for the physical and psychological well-being of homosexuals in Africa. One of the reasons why homosexuals are sometimes understood to be behaving immorally is because it is believed that same-sex relations are unnatural. I think that this conception of unnatural is grounded on the perverted faculty argument, although this is not often expressed in such terms. In this article, I will develop a concept of natural grounded on the concept of Ukama. I will show that despite Ukama implying a functional conception of nature, just like in the perverted faculty argument, it does not imply that homosexuality is immoral.

Sexuality, Migration, and LGB Policy: A Portrait of Immigrants in Same-Sex Couples in the United States

Both internationally and in the United States, the policy landscape for same-sex couples is changing rapidly, and surveys report swiftly increasing numbers of immigrants in same-sex couples in the US. Yet few researchers have examined immigrants in lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) couples on a large scale, especially regarding their relationship to LGB policy. Are these immigrants disadvantaged and fleeing anti-LGB contexts, or are they empowered to migrate by progressive origin-country LGB policy? Using American Community Survey data from 2008 to 2019 and original datasets indexing LGB policy changes in 122 countries and all US states, this study assesses and characterizes the scale of LGB migration to the US as well as the role of LGB policy. Compared to immigrants in different-sex couples, those in same-sex couples come from richer, more democratic countries that are less represented among immigrants in the US. They also tend to be more highly educated, work in more prestigious occupations, and have higher incomes. While previous work largely focuses on LGB immigrants from repressive contexts, fixed-effect models show that higher proportions of these immigrants come from LGB-friendly countries, and they are more likely to live in progressive US states. These findings highlight how sexuality as well as state policies seemingly unrelated to migration can shape migratory pathways.

THE CHALLENGES BISEXUAL HUSBANDS FACE IN TRYING TO KEEP THEIR MARRIAGE TOGETHER: A CASE STUDY IN MALAYSIA

Bisexual men who are married to heterosexual women and at the same time have alternative relationships with same-sex partners are an invisible community in society, especially in Malaysia. A marriage involving one of these non-heterosexual partner such bisexual men will only be known when a divorce or marriage annulment case is settled in court. In Malaysia, although there are statistics that showcase divorce or annulment of marriages, the reality is that there are still “mixed-orientation couples” who manage to maintain their marriages to this day. To maintain a marriage, of course, there are challenges faced by them, which are the focus of this study. A total of 15 informants who claimed to have a bisexual orientation and were legally married to a heterosexual woman were interviewed in depth. The results of the study are divided into two main themes, namely, internal challenges and external challenges. Internal challenges includes unsatisfying sex life, controlling men-sex-men addiction, financial matters, and negative’s attitudes from wives, while external challenges only family in-laws involvement. Overall, the findings of this study are expected to be used by government agencies responsible for empowering families, such as the Department of Religion and the Ministry of Women, Family, and Community Development, will design and help married bisexual men navigate their distinct challenges, encouraging more fulfilling marital relationships. They can enhance their relationship, promote understanding, and assure the duration and happiness of their marriage by doing so.

Violation of the Right to Private and Family Life in Case of Lack of Official Recognition of Same-sex Relationships

The present study focuses on presenting the positive obligations of the signatory states of the European Convention on Human Rights, under Art. 8 of the Convention, to provide a legal framework enabling same-sex couples to enjoy adequate legal protection of their relationship. In order to achieve the proposed research objective, we considered the most recent cases before the European Court of Human Rights, namely the case of Buhuceanu et al. against Romania, respectively the case of Fedotova against Russia.