What constitutes lesbian identity? The term homonormativity describes current prevailing idealized assumptions about lesbian identity. This concept, however, marginalizes subgroups within the greater lesbian population. Challenging Lesbian Norms: Intersex, Transgender, Intersectional, and Queer Perspectives dynamically confronts homonormativity in lesbian communities by presenting expert multidisciplinary discussion about what is a definable lesbian identity. This text sensitively explores difficult issues about gender policing and the viewpoints in lesbian communities that hold that transgender, intersectional, and queer individuals are considered to have 'false consciousness.' Consequences of lesbian normativity, both for lesbian communities and for marginalized groups are examined through literary criticism, lesbian, feminist, and queer theories, corporeal philosophy, film, television, cultural criticism, personal narratives, public health, and field research. The issue of the authenticity of lesbian identity causes rifts between some lesbian communities and the groups that strive to be included, yet are still marginalized. Challenging Lesbian Norms directly exposes practices and beliefs within lesbian communities that lead to the assumption of the prototypical lesbian. The book courageously reveals the similarities of lesbian normative stances with other views such as Christian conservative rhetoric, and reviews the health consequences of being marginalized within the lesbian communities. This text actively challenges the foundational notion within lesbian communities that a stable, immutable lesbian sex exists. Topics in Challenging Lesbian Norms include: human physiology, the flexibility of sexuality, and biologic determinism marginalization within lesbian communities transexualism and Lesbian Theory gender and sexual identity construction, partnering practices, and issues involving queer-identified youth demystification of the gay vibe from a femme queer woman's perspective lesbian feminism, gender policing, and casting butch, FTM, and transgendered subjectivities as false conciousness representations of lesbians in television movies Native-American two-spirit women teaching transgender, and its transformative effect identity modeling inclusion of transgender and intersex individuals within the lesbian communities transgender characters in film Latina lesbians and mental health Challenging Lesbian Norms is stimulating, eye-opening reading that is perfect for activists, educators and students in LGBT and women's studies, and public health professionals.

Who is the ultimate judge of the world? When God and organized religion stand at bitter odds, which one are we supposed to listen to? The four tales collected in The Great Debate, through the mixed elements of horror, whimsy, and captivating allegory, follow this common theme, exploring both the pain of LGBT people and others who feel rejected by the church and the joy that comes with realizing that God's love is by no means subject to the laws of human society.

The life of a gay teen growing up in a small town in Tennessee.

"Sexuality and Its Queer Discontents in Middle English Literature" exposes the ways in which ostensibly normative sexualities depend upon queerness to shore up their claims of privilege. Through readings of such classic texts as "The Canterbury Tales, Pearl, Amis and Amiloun," and "Eger and Grime," Tison Pugh explains how sexual normativity can often be claimed only after queerness has been rejected, no matter how appealing such queerness might remain at the story's end. Masculinity itself is thus revealed to be a queer performance, one which heroic protagonists of medieval narratives embody while nonetheless highlighting its constricting limitations.

A unique introduction to sexual and gender identity and queer studies Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people are becoming more and more visible in all aspects of American culture, from party politics to MTV videos. Despite the recent queer publishing explosion, few texts cover a broad range of topics around sexual and gender identities. Most existing works are high-level theory books, texts focused upon specific disciplines or topics, or practical guides aimed primarily at a heterosexual audience or people just beginning to come out. There has been to date no general, accessible, and inclusive work suitable for use as an introduction to Queer Studies. In this collection, contributors assess the conflict between postmodernism and identity, the concept which typically serves as a linchpin for social and political organizing. Others address queer theory, looking specifically at how we define it, how it informs political activism, and how we can theorize such aspects of sexual performance/behaviors as s/m or butch-femme relationships. The volume contains contributions from both established and newly emerging Queer Studies scholars, including Amber Ault, M. V. Lee Badgett, Warren J. Blumenfeld, Gregory Conerly, Patricia L. Duncan, Ruth Goldman, Lynda Goldstein, Sherrie A. Inness, Christopher James, Amanda Udis-Kessler, JeeYeun Lee, Michele E. Lloyd, Tracy D. Morgan, Ki Namaste, Vernon Rosario II, Paula Rust, and Siobhan Somerville.

View the Table of Contents.
Read the Preface.

"Rodriguez furthers her work . . . with an engaging writing style that is poetic, personal, philosophical and theoretical. . . . This book is highly recommended."
-- "Reforma Newsletter" "A fascinating critical approach to the development of the so-called latinidad, i.e., the identity of Latinos in the US. Unlike that in other ethno-queer studies, Rodriguez's data and primary texts of analysis are not literary works. Instead, this refreshing, funny, and daring book takes the reader through unexplored queer Latino communities.... Highly recommended."
-- "Choice"

"It is rare to find as vital and sassy and smart an essayist as Juana RodrA-guez. She takes us through the intersections of culture and theory in ways that compel us to rethink what queer does to Latinidad as much as what Latinidad does to queer. She shows what it means, politically and culturally, to read for the possibility of survival and affirmation. She is careful, attentive, dynamic, disorienting, and exhilarating as she reads political and cultural events, literary and theoretical texts, and the nuances of language use for a complex cultural subject in process. A fabulous read."
--Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor at the University of California at Berkeley

"Mapping slippery subjects outside of fixed identities, this book is always against closure: Queer Latinidad at its best."
--JosA(c) Quiroga, author of "Tropics of Desire: Interventions from Queer Latino America"

According to the 2000 census, Latinos/as have become the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. Images of Latinos and Latinas in mainstream news and in popularculture suggest a Latin Explosion at center stage, yet the topic of queer identity in relation to Latino/a America remains under examined.

Juana MarA-a RodrA-guez attempts to rectify this dearth of scholarship in Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces, by documenting the ways in which identities are transformed by encounters with language, the law, culture, and public policy. She identifies three key areas as the project's case studies: activism, primarily HIV prevention; immigration law; and cyberspace. In each, RodrA-guez theorizes the ways queer Latino/a identities are enabled or constrained, melding several theoretical and methodological approaches to argue that these sites are complex and dynamic social fields.

As she moves the reader from one disciplinary location to the other, RodrA-guez reveals the seams of her own academic engagement with queer latinidad. This deftly crafted work represents a dynamic and innovative approach to the study of identity formation and representation, making a vital contribution to a new reformulation of gender and sexuality studies.

This volume is an attempt to serve as a venue for giving a voice to queer people from all faiths and no faiths to describe how they negotiate or have negotiated spiritual violence in their lives, as well as the voices of heterosexual allies who strive for the inclusion of queer people as a counter narrative to spiritual violence of full inclusion and embracement and demonstrate that some communities of faith do not operate from paradigms of violence, but instead operate with love, affirmation, and inclusion. These counter narratives are important. This volume is a collection of narratives that describe a variety of experiences - stories of pain and rejection, joy, and overcoming and transformation. The voices of the authors in this collection are a mixture of personal narratives, theoretical or academic thought, and because art and spirituality often go hand-in-hand, some of the authors offer the reader more creative writing that reflects their ideas.

"Queer Popular Culture "is an exciting new collection that brings together work from several disciplines that address queer representation in multiple contexts. The articles cover many aspects of contemporary U.S. and international queer culture, including the rise of the queer cowboy, the emergence of lesbian chic, and the expansion of representations of blackness, and work on queer, Taiwanese, online communities. Other essays address queer representations from soap operas to gangster films. The book also includes a pedagogical section that addresses the use of queer concepts in the classroom

Leading sexuality scholars explore queer lives and cultures in the first full post-war decade through an array of sources and a range of perspectives. Drawing out the particularities of queer cultures from the Finland and New Zealand to the UK and the USA, this collection rethinks preconceptions of the 1950s and pinpoints some of its legacies.

"A forgotten yet award-winning playwright, Cal Yeomans was one of the founders of gay theatre whose work was fueled by gay liberation and extinguished by the AIDS epidemic. Exploring both sex and sexuality so candidly, he burst the boundaries of what was considered acceptable. His writings were not only manifestations of the sexual liberation of the times, but were also attempts to overcome what he had been raised to despise. Schanke's examination of Yeomans' life and legacy allows a rare exploration into the pivotal moment of gay American history between the Stonewall riots and the AIDS epidemic"--

From Jen Sincero, author of the New York Times bestseller You Are a Badass, comes a deliciously sexy how-to guide for any woman who sleeps with chicks (or just is curious about it)!"You can't swing a dead cat at a bridal shower without hitting a straight chick who's slept with another woman, who's thought about it, or who's ready to make the move as soon as someone breaks out the booze." Such are the incisive pearls of wisdom to be heard from straight chick and girl-on-girl dabbler Jen Sincero, author of You Are a Badass. A deliciously sexy how-to guide, it gives curious straight women the complete inside scoop on girl-on-girl action--from pickup lines and virgin jitters to threesomes, techniques, and toys. Drawing on personal experience and hundreds of interviews with straight girls who've slept with lesbians, straight girls who've slept with straight girls, lesbians who've slept with straight girls, and straight girls who've done both or neither, Sincero covers the A to Z of the experience including: -Obtaining a visitor's pass to the girls-only club -The super-huge importance of sticking your hand down your pants -The straight girl's starter kit--from nail clippers to cocktails to get her in the mood -"Gettin' Some 101"--positions, techniques, and instructional photos -"And Boy Makes Three!"--how to have a threesome that's fun for all -Suggestions for further viewing and reading and much, much more Packed with expertly toned advice that is at once laugh-out-loud hilarious and fundamentally practical, The Straight Girl's Guide to Sleeping with Chicks is ideal for any woman looking to spice things up with a boyfriend, break the ice with a best friend, or simply add a few just-in-case items to her sexual menu.

Tyler can't inherit unless he gets married ...and when Glen proposes, hijinks ensue. Follow the guys on their world-spanning adventure as they defeat mobsters, an evil step-mother, a rakish brother-in-law and pirates. No, really -- pirates! Plus there's an underground super-base. And hockey. Come for the romance, stay for the hockey.

View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction.

"This voice and timely book addresses the perceptual split between an officially 'colorblind' world and the lived experience of so many for whom race determines so much. Although centered on images of black men, these extraordinary essays provide compelling insights about stereotypes of women, whiteness, class status, ethnicity, and gender. From 'suspect profile' to 'natural athlete, ' the disuniting effects of racial cliches are meticulously analyzed in this sharp and always moving anthology."
"--Patricia J. Williams, Author of The Rooster's Egg and The Alchemy of Race and Rights"

"This exciting anthology breaks new ground in the battle to end misogyny and sexism. It gathers for the first time the diverse and eloquent voices of black men -- many of them speaking out as feminists for a revitalized vision of feminism. This unique collection offers insights, perspectives rarely heard, and tremendous hope. It is required reading for all who care about the intersection of race, gender, class and sexuality."
"--Urvashi Vaid, Director of the Policy Institute of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation"

In late 1995, the Million Man March drew hundreds of thousands of black men to Washington, DC, and seemed even to skeptics a powerful sign not only of black male solidarity, but also of black racial solidarity. Yet while generating a sense of community and common purpose, the Million Man March, with its deliberate exclusion of women and implicit rejection of black gay men, also highlighted one of the central faultlines in African American politics: the role of gender and sexuality in antiracist agenda.

In this groundbreaking anthology, a companion to the highly successful "Critical Race Feminism," Devon Carbado changes the terms of the debate over racism, gender, and sexuality in black America. The essays cover such topics as the legal construction of black male identity, domestic abuse in the black community, the enduring power of black machismo, the politics of black male/white female relationships, racial essentialism, the role of black men in black women's quest for racial equality, and the heterosexist nature of black political engagement.

Featuring work by Cornel West, Huey Newton, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Houston Baker, Marlon T. Riggs, Dwight McBride, Michael Awkward, Ishmael Reed, Derrick Bell, and many others, Devon Carbado's anthology stakes out new territory in the American racial landscape.
"--Critical America, A series edited by Richard Delgado and Jean Stephancic.

Before the 1969 Stonewall Riots ushered in the contemporary gay liberation movement, overt representations of same-sex desire in American literature and the arts were few and far between. Even in the 1970s, when gay and lesbian cultures began to register on our national consciousness, such work was still quite rare.

In the 1980s and 90s, however, all that changed. The Queer Renaissance puts a name to the unprecedented outpouring of creative work by openly lesbian and gay novelists, poets, and playwrights in the past two decades. This volume is one of the first to analyze critically this cultural awakening and is one of the only books to consider the work of gay male and lesbian writers together. Most importantly, The Queer Renaissance is the first book to consider how this wave of creative activity has worked in tandem with a flourishing of radical queer politics.

The Queer Renaissance explores the work of such important figures as Audre Lorde, Edmund White, Randall Kenan, Gloria Anzalda, Tony Kushner, and Sarah Schulman to question the dichotomy between art and activism. In addition, The Queer Renaissance interrogates the ways queer theory deploys, intersects with, and contests contemporary theoretical movements such as cultural studies, feminist theory, African American theory, and Chicano/a theory.

"Lifting the Spiritual Self-Esteem of the LGBT Community" is written for all people-whether heterosexual or members of the LGBT community-who are disgusted with the judgmental and discriminatory way that religions project and impose their beliefs onto the lives of others in the self-righteous name of God. Author Khepra Ka-Re Amente Anu provides source material for readers to counter and fight back against religious institutions, organizations, and individuals who condemn any lifestyle that does not conform to their own narrow ideology. He offers a critique of the man-made, mythological religions of Africa-Egypt/Ethiopia, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

With the exception of Buddhism, religions are violent; the scriptures of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are manuals that provide instructional and operational guidelines for the enslavement of humans. Hinduism promotes a brutal and discriminatory caste system, while Christianity and Judaism give instructions about enslaving children, breeding male and female slaves, and the beating and killing of slaves.

No benevolent God would approve of violence or slavery. Religions are nothing more than man-made myths that should be cast in the same light as Santa Claus, Peter Pan, or Tinker Bell.

This timely collection provides high-quality interdisciplinary essays which address lesbian and bisexual representation in popular television shows such as "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "E.R.," "Queer as Folk," "Sex and the City," "The L Word" and "The O.C.." It also offers a critical introduction to queer women on television and to the scholarship that discusses such representation, and allows a framework for a multiplicity of viewpoints on a variety of topics and series.

This collection explores the representation and performance of queer youth in media cultures, primarily examining TV, film and online new media. Specific themes of investigation include the context of queer youth suicide and educational strategies to avert this within online new media, and the significance of coming out videos produced online.

A valuable survey of a cutting-edge issue, this book outlines the history of same-sex marriage, explaining how politics and religion have intersected to decide and control who can legally marry. Marriage equality became law in the United States in 2015 with the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. Marriage is, strictly speaking, a secular ceremony, requiring only civil sanction. However, many couples also seek the blessing of a religious body upon their union, and not all religious bodies support marriage equality. Some oppose it outright and some support it outright, while others are divided. This work examines the issue of same-sex marriage in the U.S. and internationally. It surveys the attitudes of major religions towards same-sex marriage and also looks at leading and sometimes polarizing personalities, like politician Pete Buttigieg and Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who exemplify both the religious and political sides of the issue. The book's A-Z organization makes it easy for readers to locate important court cases, individuals, religious bodies, and social movements at the center of the same-sex marriage debate. Provides a comprehensive background of same sex-marriage in the United States by looking at its history, which shows how the topic has developed over the past half-century Surveys the current treatment of same-sex marriage by major religions, illustrating the diversity of views towards same-sex marriage among religions today Looks at modern court cases up to and through Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, providing a outline of what the law currently says about same-sex marriage and religion Includes a comprehensive, annotated bibliography of resources

Same-sex attracted, and non-gender conforming African-Americans are substantial in number, yet underrepresented in the social and behavioral science literature. This volume addresses the issues of African-American LGBT psychology as a case of indigenous psychology. The authors present the research of scholars who are developing theory, practice, and services that are couched within the specific cultural complexities of this population. Some key topics addressed in AFrican-American Issues in LGBT Psychology are gender, spirituality, family, racism, "coming out," generational differences, health and safety issues, urban vs. rural realities, and implications for researchers.

Between the trials of Oscar Wilde in the 1890s and the beginnings of legal reforms in the 1960s, the West End stage was dominated by the work of gay playwrights. Many of their plays, such as Private Lives, Blithe Spirit and The Deep Blue Sea are established classics and continue to inform our culture. In this fascinating book, covering both familiar and lesser-known works, Sean O'Connor examines the legacy of Wilde as a playwright and as a gay man, and explores in the works of Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward and Terence Rattigan the resonance of Wilde's agenda for tolerance and his creed of individuality. O'Connor contextualises these plays against the enormous social and historical changes of the twentieth century. He also examines the legal restrictions which regulated the personal lives of these writers and required them to evolve sophisticated strategies in order to express on stage, albeit obliquely, their dilemmas as gay men. From the delicate homoerotic frissons of Rattigan's early comedies to Coward's defiantly pro-sex stance, Straight Acting is a provocative and witty insight into the subtly subversive tactics of gay writers working in that apparently most conservative of forms, the 'well-made play'.

This book examines the surge of queer performance produced across Ireland since the first stirrings of the Celtic Tiger in the mid-1990s, up to the passing of the Marriage Equality referendum in the Republic in 2015.

The Wolfenden Report of 1957 has long been recognized as a landmark in moves towards gay law reform. What is less well known is that the testimonials and written statements of the witnesses before the Wolfenden Committee provide by far the most complete and extensive array of perspectives we have on how homosexuality was understood in mid-twentieth century Britain. Those giving evidence, individually or through their professional associations, included a broad cross-section of official, professional and bureaucratic Britain: police chiefs, policemen, magistrates, judges, lawyers and Home Office civil servants; doctors, biologists (including Alfred Kinsey), psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and psychotherapists; prison governors, medical officers and probation officers; representatives of the churches, morality councils and progressive and ethical societies; approved school headteachers and youth organization leaders; representatives of the army, navy and air force; and a small handful of self-described but largely anonymous homosexuals. This volume presents an annotated selection of their voices.