Much debate exists over the proper religious perspective on transgender realities and people. This volume examines transgender in the major world religions. Extensive consideration is given to Christianity, including the arguments presented both against transgender behaviors and by supporters of transgender people. Religions covered include Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto, and indigenous religions such as Native American religions of the United States.

Governing Sexuality explores issues of sexual citizenship and law reform in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe today. Across western and eastern Europe,lesbians and gay men are increasingly making claims for equal status, grounded in the language of rights and citizenship, and using the language of international human rights and European law. This book uses same sex sexualities as a prism through which to explore broader questions of legal and political theory concerning democratic legitimacy; rights discourse; national sovereignty and identity; citizenship; transnationalism; and globalisation. Case studies are widely drawn: from New Labour's sexual politics in the UK to the decriminalisation of same-sex sexualities under pressure from the EU in Romania; to new civil solidarity laws in France.

Here, Bjorklund shows that Swedish literary discourses on lesbianism provocatively contrast with a widely accepted view that attitudes toward homosexuality have gradually become more tolerant. The lasting power of negative discourses upends the assumption that Sweden's progressive laws reflect progressive attitudes toward homosexuality."

Coming out is the process of acknowledging same-sex attractions to oneself and to others. It is both a personal and a public process. For many gay and bisexual students, college marks a pivotal point where for the first time they feel free to explore their same-sex attractions. This book is about the struggles students face in coming out. The focus is twofold: the experiences individuals face in coming to terms with their sexual identity and the process of developing a group identity. The development of a group identity involves a degree of political investment. For some students, becoming political means adopting a queer persona. As one student noted, Queer is kind of an in your face' attitude toward heterosexism and homophobia. A primary focus of this book revolves around the notion of queer identity and how students engage as cultural workers seeking both campus and societal change.

This book addresses policy research on homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools. It covers quantitative and qualitative research into policy impacts for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex students. It draws on a large-scale Australian study of the impacts of different kinds of policy at the national, state, sector and school level. The study covers over 80 policies, interviews with key policy informants and survey data from 3,134 GLBTIQ students. Since new guidelines were released by UNESCO, homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools has become a key area of interest around the world. There has been much pressure on educational leadership to engage with these issues since the UN released international human rights legislation on sexual orientation and gender identity that have implications for student rights. The book presents statistically significant correlations between specific types of state and school level education policies that explicitly named homophobia/ GLBTIQ student issues, and lowered incidence of homophobic bullying, lowered risk of suicide and self-harm for these students. It includes stories from policy makers on how the policies came to be (through lawsuits, ministerial inquiries and political activism), right through to the stories of students themselves and how they individually felt the impacts of policies or policy lacks. International contexts of homophobic and transphobic bullying are discussed, as well as recent transnational work in this field. The book considers the different types of collaborations that can lead to further policy development, the transferability of the research and some of the benefits and problems with transnational policy adoptions.

Near a small village on the edge of civilisation there exists a large, seemingly endless ruin reaching deep down into the depths of the earth. Nobody seems to know just how far it goes, but many explorers, adventurers and curious looky-loos are willing to find out. The village of Adratea was founded by those not afraid of a little darkness, a little danger. This is the story of one particular adventure that went quite wrong, at least for one poor soul. A sexy tale of courage, friendship, love, lust, and impromptu gardening.

This study is about lesbian feminists in London in the late 1980s. It was a period when their community was experiencing considerable conflict and transition, as ideas about gender and sexuality on which their political beliefs were based were being challenged within their own community. The book goes through their public and personal lives, looking at how they coped with the challenges and the complex world of London, and how they began to change as a result.

This international collection of essays forms a vibrant picture of the scope and diversity of contemporary queer performance. Ranging across cabaret, performance art, the performativity of film, drag and script-based theatre it unravels the dynamic relationship performance has with queerness as it is presented in local and transnational contexts.

The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions is a beloved queer utopian text written by Larry Mitchell with lush illustrations by Ned Asta, published by Calamus Press in 1977. Part-fable, part-manifesto, the book takes place in Ramrod, an empire in decline, and introduces us to the communities of the faggots, the women, the queens, the queer men, and the women who love women who are surviving the ways and world of men. Cherished by many over the four decades since its publication, The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions offers a trenchant critique of capitalism, assimilation, and patriarchy that is deeply relevant today. This new edition will feature essays from performance artist Morgan Bassichis, who adapted the book to music with TM Davy in 2017 for a performance at the New Museum, and activist filmmaker Tourmaline.

An anthology of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies's most provactive LGBT scholarship This compendious, cutting-edge volume offers a broad array of the most provocative gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender scholarship produced by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) over the first decade (1986-1996) of its existence at the CUNY Graduate School. CLAGS has had a profound and legitimizing influence on the establishment of gay and lesbian studies as a discipline. Thousands have attended its events, featuring hundreds of scholars, activists, and cultural workers; many thousands more have lamented how they would have liked to have been there. With this book, they finally, vicariously, can be. Divided into five parts-on identities as they revolve around gender and sexuality; on the terrains of homosexual history; on mind-body relations; on laws and economics; and on policy issues related to gay youth, AIDS, and aging-A Queer World offers a compelling panorama of gay and lesbian life. Featuring the work, among others, of such figures as Yukiko Hanawa, Will Roscoe, Jewelle L. Gomez, Jonathan Ned Katz, Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, Jeffrey Escoffier, Janice M. Irvine, Kendall Thomas, Gilbert Herdt, Vivien Ng, Douglas Crimp, Walt Odets, Serena Nanda, Cindy Patton, Michael Moon, William Byne, and Randolph Trumback, A Queer World is distinctive in its focus on the social sciences and issues relating to public policy. Consisting largely of previously unpublished essays, this volume-and its companion volume Queer Representations: Reading Lives, Reading Cultures-is an invaluable addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in the study of sexuality.

In this extraordinary history, James Driscoll reveals the untold story of how AIDS activists, by thwarting bureaucratic plans imposed by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA), both saved HIV patients and rescued the FDA itself from a self-inflicted public health catastrophe. By 1996, accelerated approval of AIDS drug cocktails transformed AIDS from a death sentence to a manageable disease. That approval, however, came only after years of struggle pitting AIDS activists against the hidebound culture of the Food and Drug Administration, which wanted to run lengthy efficacy trials required for full approval and possibly delay the drugs at a cost of tens of thousands of lives. Driscoll's courageous efforts, which are an important personal part of the story, navigated conflicts among AIDS activist groups as they struggled with both major American political parties to be heard and respected. He examines the effect of AIDS activism on the LGBT community, its views of itself, and its place in modern American society. Additional materials analyze FDA mistakes, drug pricing, and other contemporary challenges for the LGBTs community.

This reference work provides important information about the role academic research has played in the ever-evolving laws covering homosexuality. A comprehensive overview of homosexuality and the law, this fascinating dictionary opens with a history of the Gay Rights Movement which started in Germany during the l860s with Karl Heinrich Ulrich, the "Grandfather of Gay Liberation," who wrote 12 books including, Researches on the Riddle of Love Between Men. Homosexuals were later herded into Nazi concentration camps, where 50,000 of them died. When the war ended, Allied commanders forced homosexuals to finish their prison sentences. This book has 112 entries on subjects such as absurd sex laws, the Crittendon Report, the Boy Scouts, the l996 Defense of Marriage Act, surgical alterations, discrimination, sodomy, loitering, wills, and more. A nearly 100 page appendix details state and local laws. The book includes a list of advocacy organizations and other references, a table of cases, and an extensive bibliography. Includes thoughtful coverage of transsexual, transgendered, and intersexed legal concerns Presents the most current information on the legal status of homosexuals in an easily navigated dictionary format

"A welcome addition to the burgeoning field of Queer Studies."
-- "Journal of Homosexuality"

Queer theory arose as a challenge to the stability of sexual categories. But is queer theory in the 1990s in danger of becoming just another category of theoretical inquiry and just another academic discipline? As queer studies is being legitimated within American universities, what dangers and opportunities arise from the process of legitimation?

The essays in The Gay '90s address these questions in two distinct ways. The first section of the book, "Disciplinary Reflections," reflects upon the process of disciplinary formation as it affects lesbian and gay studies in the academy, contrasting older academic disciplines with newer, identity-based areas of study. The second section, "Interdisciplinary Readings," demonstrates the extent to which contemporary queer studies involves practices of interdisciplinary reading and analysis. Contributors include Dennis Allen, John Champagne, Myriam J. A. Chancy, Gabrielle N. Dean, Leigh Gilmore, Calvin Thomas, Elayne Tobin, Robyn Wiegman, and Thomas Yingling.

The relationship between the Hebrew heroes David and Jonathan has caught the attention of popular and scholarly writers alike. Yet there is little agreement about the nature of this relationship that speaks of a love between two men that 'surpasses the love of a man for a woman' (2 Sam. 1.26). Weighing the arguments of scholars including Nissinen, Stone and Zehnder, Heacock produces a meta-critical analysis of the many interpretations of the relationship between David and Jonathan, identifying three dominant readings: the traditional political-theological interpretation, the homoerotic interpretation, and the homosocial interpretation. After outlining the three interpretive approaches, Heacock considers the evidence cited to support each: namely, themes in the David and Jonathan narrative and related biblical texts, ancient political treaties, laws pertaining to homogenital behaviour in the ancient Mediterranean world, and the heroic tales of the Gilgamesh Epic and Homer's Iliad. By applying recent epistemological shifts in knowledge as developed in the interdisciplinary fields of sexuality studies, queer studies and ancient studies, Heacock emphasizes the inescapability of the modern reader's cultural context when reading the narrative, particularly the influence of modern discourses of sexuality. Rather than suggest an alternative historical reading, Heacock turns the debate on its head by abandoning claims to historical veracity and embracing the input of the contemporary queer reader. Using queer theory and reader-response criticism, he offers a reading of the relationship between David and Jonathan through the lens of contemporary gay male friendships. This queer reading not only celebrates manly love in its numerous forms, but also adds a self-critical voice to the discussion that exposes the heteronormative assumptions underlying the questions often asked of the narrative.

This pioneering collection of previously unpublished articles on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender language combines queer theory and feminist theory with the latest thinking on language and gender. The book expands the field well beyond the study of "gay slang" to consider gay dialects (such as Polari in England), early modern discourse on gay practices, and late twentieth-century descriptions of homosexuality. These essays examine the conversational patterns of queer speakers in a wide variety of settings, from women's friendship groups to university rap groups and electronic mail postings.
Taking a global--rather than regional--approach, the contributors herein study the language usage of sexually liminal communities in a variety of linguistic and cultural contexts, such as lesbian speakers of American Sign Language, Japanese gay male couples, Hindi-speaking hijras (eunuchs) in North India, Hausa-speaking 'yan daudu (feminine men) in Nigeria, and French and Yiddish gay groups. The most accessible and diverse collection of its kind, Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality sets a new standard in the study of language's impact on the construction of sexuality.

Offering queer analyses of paintings by Caravaggio and Puccini and films by OEzpetek, Amelio, and Grimaldi, Champagne argues that Italian masculinity has often been articulated through melodrama. Wide in scope and multidisciplinary in approach, this much-needed study shows the vital role of affect for both Italian history and masculinity studies.

Friends as lovers; lovers as friends; ex-lovers as friends; ex-lovers as family; friends as family; communities of friends; lesbian community. These are just a few of the phrases heard often in the daily discourse of lesbian life. What significance do they have for lesbians? Do lesbians view friends as family and what does this analogy mean? What sorts of friendships exist between lesbians? What sorts of friendships do lesbians form with non-lesbian women, or with men?

These and other questions regarding the kinds of friendships lesbians imagine and experience have rarely been addressed. Lesbian Friendships focuses on actual accounts of friendships involving lesbians and examines a number of issues, including the transition from friends to lovers and/or lovers to friends, erotic attraction in friendship, diverse identities among lesbians, and friendships across sexuality and/or gender lines.

No, they weren't 'just friends'! Queer women have been written out of history since, well, forever. 'But historians famously care about women!', said no one. From Anne Bonny and Mary Read who sailed the seas together disguised as pirates, to US football captain Megan Rapinoe declaring 'You can't win a championship without gays on your team', via countless literary salons and tuxedos, A Short History of Queer Women sets the record straight on women who have loved other women through the ages. Who says lesbians can't be funny?

"Sexual Pathways" introduces the topic of bisexuality--a subject largely misunderstood. Persons who display dual sexual attraction experience some form of erotic fulfillment with both same-sex and opposite-sex partners. They may or may not identify themselves as bisexual, but during significant periods of their life span they act bisexually. Studies of human sexuality world-wide indicate the incidence of bisexuality ranges from high to low prevalence in all literate and many nonliterate societies. To better understand the bisexual perspective, the author presents interviews with 30 men and women. Each describes his or her sexual pathway from birth to adulthood, portraying the construction of a lifestyle that incorporates a bisexual perspective.

The entrepreneurial university has been tasked with making an impact. This collection presents professional-personal reflections on research experience and interpretative accounts of navigating fieldwork and broader publics, politics and practices of (dis)engagement primarily through a feminist, queer and gender studies lens.

This title aims to increase awareness about the specific circumstances of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) diversity. Based on a wide array of literature, it provides a global vision of this reality, explaining the evolution of homosexuality during history and reasons why it has been considered a sin, an illness and a crime.