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

This book explores representations of same-sex desire in Indian literature and film from the 1970s to the present. Through a detailed analysis of poetry and prose by authors like Vikram Seth, Kamala Das, and Neel Mukherjee, and films from Bollywood and beyond, including Onir's My Brother Nikhil and Deepa Mehta's Fire, Oliver Ross argues that an initially Euro-American "homosexuality" with its connotations of an essential psychosexual orientation, is reinvented as it overlaps with different elements of Indian culture. Dismantling the popular belief that vocal gay and lesbian politics exist in contradistinction to a sexually "conservative" India, this book locates numerous alternative practices and identities of same-sex desire in Indian history and modernity. Indeed, many of these survived British colonialism, with its importation of ideas of sexual pathology and perversity, in changed or codified forms, and they are often inflected by gay and lesbian identities in the present. In this account, Oliver Ross challenges the preconception that, in the contemporary world, a grand narrative of sexuality circulates globally and erases all pre-existing narratives and embodiments of sexual desire.

"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 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.

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.

During the last 25 years, homosexuality has played an important role in public debates in Western societies. With globalization, the civil protection of gay rights is spreading rapidly outside the Northern hemisphere and many non-Christian religious traditions are taking public positions on the issues. Favoring a dialogue among various religious systems and an in-depth review of their positions, Pierre Hurteau offers readers new insights into how each of the traditions studied - Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Afro-American religions - articulates its own regulatory mechanisms of male sexuality in general, and homosexuality. Moving away from a Eurocentric view, this book reminds readers that sites of non-heterosexual identity are multiple.

"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.

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.

An examination of how female same-sex desires were represented in a wide range of Italian and British medical writings, 1870-1920. It shows how the psychiatric category of sexual inversion was positioned alongside other medical ideas of same-sex desires, such as the virago, tribade-prostitute, fiamma and gynaecological explanations.

In most Caribbean countries homosexuality is still illegal and many outside of the region are unaware of how difficult life can be for gay men and lesbians. This book is born out of the near-silence surrounding the lives of queer Caribbean citizens and collects interviews with writers, activists, and citizens to challenge the dominance of Euro-American theories in understanding global queerness. These interviews gives voice to those who live and work on the front lines of the battle for the recognition of LGBT rights in the region, with the hope that their voices will bring wider awareness of, and shed light on, the problems faced by LGBT Caribbean citizens.

This book explores the alleged uniqueness of the European experience, and investigates its ties to a long history of LGBT and queer movements in the region. These movements, the book argues, were inspired by specific ideas about Europe, which they sought to realize on the ground through activism.

"Perhaps many heterosexual couples with children and less than harmonious households could learn something."
--"New York Times"

"An effortless how-to book that would be recommended hand-me-down reading for prospective same-sex parents from those who've fingered the pages within."
--"Metapsychology Online Book Review"

The gay and lesbian community is experiencing a baby boom. Advances in gay rights coupled with increased availability of alternative reproduction techniques have led to an unprecedented number of openly gay and lesbian parents. Estimates are that between 6 and 14 million children in the United States are being raised by at least one parent who is gay. Yet, very little is known about how gay or lesbian headed families function, or whether they differ in any relevant ways from families headed by straight parents.

Written by two developmental psychologists, The Gay Baby Boom reports the findings of The Gay and Lesbian Family Study, the largest national assessment of gay and lesbian headed families. By asking participants detailed questions about the way they parent, the authors are able to describe for the first time exactly what takes place within gay and lesbian headed families across the county. Traditional research has tended to assume that there is something uniquely different and potentially psychologically damaging about children being raised by gays. The authors draw on their data to show these fears unfounded.

Men's Bodies, Men's Gods explores the intersection of body, religion, and culture from the specific perspective of male identities.

How are male bodies constructed in different historical periods and contexts? How do race, ethnicity, and sexual preference impact on the intersection of male bodies and religious identity? Does Christianity provide models to cope with the aging and ailing male body? Does it provide models for intimacy between men and women? Between men and men? And, how do men reflect the carnal dimensions of power, abuse, and justice?

This book contests the idea that lesbian and gay categories are disappearing, and that sexuality is becoming fluid, by showing how young people use them in a world in which heterosexuality is privileged. Exploring identity making, the book shows how old modernist stories of sexual being entwine with narratives of normality.

Winner of the 2010 Distinguished Book Award from the American Sociological Association, Sociology of Sexualities Section Winner of the 2010 Distinguished Book Award in Latino Studies Honorable Mention from the Latin American Studies Association

The Sexuality of Migration provides an innovative study of the experiences of Mexican men who have same sex with men and who have migrated to the United States.

Until recently, immigration scholars have left out the experiences of gays and lesbians. In fact, the topic of sexuality has only recently been addressed in the literature on immigration. The Sexuality of Migration makes significant connections among sexuality, state institutions, and global economic relations. Cantu; situates his analysis within the history of Mexican immigration and offers a broad understanding of diverse migratory experiences ranging from recent gay asylum seekers to an assessment of gay tourism in Mexico. Cantu uses a variety of methods including archival research, interviews, and ethnographic research to explore the range of experiences of Mexican men who have sex with men and the political economy of sexuality and immigration. His primary research site is the greater Los Angeles area, where he interviewed many immigrant men and participated in organizations and community activities alongside his informants.

Sure to fill gaps in the field, The Sexuality of Migration simultaneously complicates a fixed notion of sexual identity and explores the complex factors that influence immigration and migration experiences.

Outlines theoretical and methodological problems in documenting lesbigay history generally (and specifically, the history of lesbigay professionals, particularly those in the feminized professions like librarianship). This book will appeal especially to historians of traditionally underrepresented populations (women, Native Americans, African Americans, lesbigays). In particular, chapters on methodological problems in lesbigay research, separatism, and biases created by gender bias will pull together for the first time integrated feminist/radical perspectives on library history. The authors call for more responsible treatment of such subjects as the outing of historical figures, and conversely, a more open approach to research on gender outlaws in the workplace. Heralds a new era in historical research in which the collective subjective of a particular group of hidden minority voices is given front stage. Leading scholars from a variety of disciplines examine the theoretical and methodological problems of lesbigay history and apply them to librarianship, one of the despised feminine professions. Founders and early leaders of the Task Force for Gay Liberation of the American Library Association, the oldest professionally endorsed gay task force in the world, reflect on their early struggles to gain recognition, and describe how sexism, homophobia, and discrimination have taken a toll in their personal and professional lives. These stories challenge the notion that libraries have unequivocally defended the intellectual freedom and integrity of all their citizens, and provide a poignant counterpoint to the culture wars and political correctness debates within the lesbigay community. Because of societal taboos, until recently, lesbigay history has been invisible to the majority of its participants. Directors and workers in some of the world's leading gay and lesbian archives also share their experiences in collecting and making acccessible ephemera and other partial historical remains to restore a heritage and identity to lesbigay citizens.

The book explores migration and queerness as they relate to ethnic/racial identity constructions, immigration processes and legal status, the formation of trans/national and trans/cultural partnerships, and friendships. It explores the roles that religious identities/values/worldviews play in the fortification/critique of queer migrant identities.

Examining how lesbian and gay Israelis negotiate the linguistic performance of their sexualities and the constraints of Israeli national ideologies, this book broadens current understandings of the uses and effects of variation in language and details the interconnections between language use and sexual, national and political identities.