As a way of understanding identity, the concept of rootedness hasincreasingly been subjected to acerbic political and theoretical critiques.Politically, roots narratives have been criticized for attempting to policeidentity through a politics of purity-excluding anyone who doesn't sharethe same narrative. Theoretically, a critique of essentialism has led toa suspicion against essence and origins regardless of their politicalimplications. The central argument of Queer Roots for the Diaspora is that, in spiteof these debates around the concept of roots, ultimately the desire forroots contains the "roots" of its own deconstruction. The book considersalternative root narratives that acknowledge the impossibility of returningto origins with any certainty; welcome sexual diversity; acknowledge theirown fictionality; reveal that even a single collective identity can be rootedin multiple ways; and create family trees haunted by the queer otherspatrilineal genealogy seems to marginalize. The roots narratives simultaneously assert and question rooted identitieswithin a number of diasporas-African, Jewish, and Armenian. By lookingat these together, one can discern between the local specificities of anysingle diaspora and the commonalities inherent in diaspora as a globalphenomenon. This comparatist, interdisciplinary study will interestscholars in a diversity of fields, including diaspora studies, postcolonialstudies, LGBTQ studies, French and Francophone studies, Americanstudies, comparative literature, and literary theory.

A fascinating history of marginalized identities in the medieval world While the term "intersectionality" was coined in 1989, the existence of marginalized identities extends back over millennia. Byzantine Intersectionality reveals the fascinating, little-examined conversations in medieval thought and visual culture around sexual and reproductive consent, bullying and slut-shaming, homosocial and homoerotic relationships, trans and nonbinary gender identities, and the depiction of racialized minorities. Roland Betancourt explores these issues in the context of the Byzantine Empire, using sources from late antiquity and early Christianity up to the early modern period. Highlighting nuanced and strikingly modern approaches by medieval writers, philosophers, theologians, and doctors, Betancourt offers a new history of gender, sexuality, and race. Betancourt weaves together art, literature, and an impressive array of texts to investigate depictions of sexual consent in images of the Virgin Mary, tactics of sexual shaming in the story of Empress Theodora, narratives of transgender monks, portrayals of same-gender desire in images of the Doubting Thomas, and stereotypes of gender and ethnicity in representations of the Ethiopian Eunuch. He also gathers evidence from medical manuals detailing everything from surgical practices for late terminations of pregnancy to save a mother's life to a host of procedures used to affirm a person's gender. Showing how understandings of gender, sexuality, and race have long been enmeshed, Byzantine Intersectionality offers a groundbreaking look at the culture of the medieval world.

The gay tourism industrya progressive social force or a pull towards an oppressive status quo? The pink tourism dollar is now recognized as a highly profitable niche of the tourism market. Gay Tourism: Culture and Context critically investigates the emergence of a commercial gay tourism industry for male clients, the way it is organized, and how the tourism industry promotes cities, resorts, and nations as 'gay' destinations. This careful examination critically questions the social, political, and cultural implications regarding relationships between gay tourism, Western gay male culture, the erotic, sexual politics, and sexual diversity. Gay Tourism: Culture and Context begins by detailing how travel often enabled the expression of Western same-sex male desire in the nineteenth century and then charts the emergence of a Western gay tourism industry in the late twentieth century. A critical analysis is given of gay guidebooks and erotic videos that help to establish and maintain destinations as seemingly gay utopias, including Hawaii and the Greek island Mykonos. Carefull consideration as to debates about how the gay tourism industry operates in the context of questions regarding the globalization of sexuality, sexual citizenship and place-marketing of (homo)sexualised cities. The text includes an extensive bibliography plus several photographs, charts, and figures to clearly present concepts and ideas. Topics in Gay Tourism: Culture and Context include: the history of gay travel and tourism the effect of HIV/AIDS on gay tourist destinations gay travel writing sustaining same-sex fantasies about popular gay tourist destinations analysis of the socio-political ramifications of gay tourism the sexual politics of a heterosexual nation gay tourists as an invading force of corruption the economic rationale for the (homo)sexualized city the concept of gay villages the role of special events and festivals in gay tourism and many more! Gay Tourism: Culture and Context is enlightening reading for tourism policymakers, tourism planners, tourism managers, and teachers and students in the fields of tourism studies, gay studies, social and cultural geography, and sociology.

In recent years, queer theory appears to have made a materialist turn away from questions of representation and performativity to those of dispossession, precarity, and the differential distribution of life chances. Despite this shift, queer theory finds itself constantly reabsorbed into the liberal project of diversity management. This theoretical and political weakness, Petrus Liu argues, stems from an incomplete understanding of capitalism's contemporary transformations, of which China has been at the center. In The Specter of Materialism Liu challenges key premises of classic queer theory and Marxism, turning to an analysis of the Beijing Consensus-global capitalism's latest mutation-to develop a new theory of the political economy of sexuality. Liu explores how relations of gender and sexuality get reconfigured to meet the needs of capital in new regimes of accumulation and dispossession, demonstrating that evolving US-Asian economic relations shape the emergence of new queer identities and academic theories. In so doing, he offers a new history of collective struggles that provides a transnational framework for understanding the nexus between queerness and material life.

Queer activism and anthropology are both fundamentally concerned with the concept of difference. Yet they are so in fundamentally different ways. The Italian queer activists in this book value difference as something that must be produced, in opposition to the identity politics they find around them. Conversely, anthropologists find difference in the world around them, and seek to produce an identity between anthropological theory and the ethnographic material it elucidates. This book describes problems faced by an activist "politics of difference," and issues concerning the identity of anthropological reflection itself-connecting two conceptions of difference whilst simultaneously holding them apart.

Arriving in New York at the tail end of what has been termed the "Golden Age" of Broadway and the start of the Off Broadway theater movement, Terrence McNally (1938-2020) first established himself as a dramatist of the absurd and a biting social critic. He quickly recognized, however, that one is more likely to change people's minds by first changing their hearts, and-in outrageous farces like The Ritz and It's Only a Play-began using humor more broadly to challenge social biases. By the mid-1980s, as the emerging AIDS pandemic called into question America's treatment of persons isolated by suffering and sickness, he became the theater's great poet of compassion, dramatizing the urgent need of human connection and the consequences when such connections do not take place. Conversations with Terrence McNally collects nineteen interviews with the celebrated playwright. In these interviews, one hears McNally reflect on theater as the most collaborative of the arts, the economic pressures that drive the theater industry, the unique values of music and dance, and the changes in American theater over McNally's fifty-plus year career. The winner of four competitive Tony Awards as the author of the Best Play (Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class) and author of the book for the Best Musical (Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime), McNally holds the distinction of being one of the few writers for the American theater who excelled in straight drama as well as musical comedy. In addition, his canon extends to opera; his collaboration with composer Jake Heggie, Dead Man Walking, has proven the most successful new American opera of the last twenty-five years.

In Strange Natures, Nicole Seymour investigates the ways in which contemporary queer fictions offer insight on environmental issues through their performance of a specifically queer understanding of nature, the nonhuman, and environmental degradation. By drawing upon queer theory and ecocriticism, Seymour examines how contemporary queer fictions extend their critique of "natural" categories of gender and sexuality to the nonhuman natural world, thus constructing a queer environmentalism. Seymour's thoughtful analyses of works such as Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues, Todd Haynes's Safe, and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain illustrate how homophobia, classism, racism, sexism, and xenophobia inform dominant views of the environment and help to justify its exploitation. Calling for a queer environmental ethics, she delineates the discourses that have worked to prevent such an ethics and argues for a concept of queerness that is attuned to environmentalism's urgent futurity, and an environmentalism that is attuned to queer sensibilities.

A lively memoir of LGBT activist Steve Endeanone of the most influential political strategists ever to lobby Washington DC! Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is the spirited and provocative memoir that blows the lid off the complex machinations of state and national politics. LGBT activist Steve Endean's autobiographical chronicle, completed shortly before his death in 1993, tells insider stories that are sometimes rousing, other times infuriating, recounting the fight for lesbian and gay rights from the trenches of the Minnesota state capital to the Washington Beltway. Readers get a clear view of the political activism of building grassroots support systems, fundraising efforts, lobbying to rally support for bills, and the election/reelection of sympathetic political representatives. Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress dynamically recounts Endean's activism and instrumental leadership of the LGBT movement from 1973 to just before his death in 1993. From being the first Executive Director of the Gay Rights National Lobby, founder and Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, and founder of the Speak Out mailgram campaigns for grassroots pressure on congresspersons on G/L rights issues, the author discusses with amusing anecdotes and self-effacing humor his strategies, victories, and failures as movement leader. This lively mix of the accomplishments in those crucial years and the dos and don'ts of political activism is peopled with well-known and lesser-known movers and shakers on the political landscape. Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress gives an inside look at the political process, discussing: the political roots of Steve Endeanfrom his activist beginnings in Minnesota his rise from state to national politics the basics of fundraising lobbying representatives the LGBT internal conflicts building grassroots support the hypocrisy and lack of courage inherent in politics protest activities From the book: I began to ge a sense of what a challenge I had ahead when Mayo asked what brought me to DC. Exhausted from a long flight, coping with tons of luggage, and very nervous about such a big move, I mustered the energy to explain earnestly that I'd been hired to be the first director and lobbyist for the Gay Rights National Lobby. To my shock, this distinguished gentleman doubled up with laughter and, in his charming Southern drawl, told me the Gay Rights National Lobby was dead as a doornail. He went on to suggest if that is what really brought me to Washington, DC, I might not want to haul all those boxes upstairs and perhaps I should just pack up and catch a return flight to Minnesota. That was my welcome to Washington, DC. Cold, white Minnesota never looked so appealing. Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is stimulating, eye-opening reading for educators, students, activists in search of guidance in the political process, anyone interested in LGBT history and political history, and anyone who knew the late Steve Endean.

The gay tourism industrya progressive social force or a pull towards an oppressive status quo? The pink tourism dollar is now recognized as a highly profitable niche of the tourism market. Gay Tourism: Culture and Context critically investigates the emergence of a commercial gay tourism industry for male clients, the way it is organized, and how the tourism industry promotes cities, resorts, and nations as 'gay' destinations. This careful examination critically questions the social, political, and cultural implications regarding relationships between gay tourism, Western gay male culture, the erotic, sexual politics, and sexual diversity. Gay Tourism: Culture and Context begins by detailing how travel often enabled the expression of Western same-sex male desire in the nineteenth century and then charts the emergence of a Western gay tourism industry in the late twentieth century. A critical analysis is given of gay guidebooks and erotic videos that help to establish and maintain destinations as seemingly gay utopias, including Hawaii and the Greek island Mykonos. Carefull consideration as to debates about how the gay tourism industry operates in the context of questions regarding the globalization of sexuality, sexual citizenship and place-marketing of (homo)sexualised cities. The text includes an extensive bibliography plus several photographs, charts, and figures to clearly present concepts and ideas. Topics in Gay Tourism: Culture and Context include: the history of gay travel and tourism the effect of HIV/AIDS on gay tourist destinations gay travel writing sustaining same-sex fantasies about popular gay tourist destinations analysis of the socio-political ramifications of gay tourism the sexual politics of a heterosexual nation gay tourists as an invading force of corruption the economic rationale for the (homo)sexualized city the concept of gay villages the role of special events and festivals in gay tourism and many more! Gay Tourism: Culture and Context is enlightening reading for tourism policymakers, tourism planners, tourism managers, and teachers and students in the fields of tourism studies, gay studies, social and cultural geography, and sociology.

How do lesbians and gays negotiate their sexual identities in mental health care contexts? How do they manage the institutional homophobia and heterosexism embedded in health care practice and practitioners? Using interpretive phenomenology, Hazel Platzer overturns limiting dualisms to describe the ways in which lesbians and gays are silenced and pathologized in their mental health care encounters, how they resist, and how their resistance can restrict access to care. She highlights the difficulties of researching a sensitive topic with a relatively ahiddena population, and devises innovative techniques for handling bias and a multi-methods approach to the phenomenological study of experience and identities. She then offers proactive steps toward creating a health care environment in which lesbian and gay identities are normalized, improving both access to and quality of health care.

Defenders and critics of the controversial Spitzer study analyze its methodologies and findings In 2001, Robert L. Spitzer, MD, presented his study on sexual conversion therapy with its controversial findings that some homosexuals can change their sexual orientation. The resulting media sensation and political firestorm enraged the study's critics and emboldened its supporters. Ex-Gay Research: Analyzing the Spitzer Study and Its Relation to Science, Religion, Politics, and Culture presents leading experts examining Spitzer's research methodology and findings to discern whether the study itself deserves deeper consideration or outright dismissal. Every facet of the study is reviewed to discuss the positive or negative aspects of the results, its significance in political and social terms, and the implications for the future. Dr. Spitzer himself was an instrumental figure in the American Psychiatric Association's decision in 1973 to remove homosexuality as a mental illness listing from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-III. His later study that states that in some individuals, homosexuality may be more fluid than previously thought stirred controversy in the psychiatric community and society at large. His study is presented here to allow the reader to evaluate and consider it for themselves. Leading experts then voice their own pro or con views on the methodology and findings. Ex-Gay Research: Analyzing the Spitzer Study and Its Relation to Science, Religion, Politics, and Culture fearlessly illustrates the sometimes fuzzy boundary between science and politics, courageously spotlighting the culture wars now dividing our society. Ex-Gay Research: Analyzing the Spitzer Study and Its Relation to Science, Religion, Politics, and Culture discusses: the ex-gay movement the nature of scientific inquiry the relationship between science and politics the results of sexual conversion therapies gay and lesbian rights Ex-Gay Research: Analyzing the Spitzer Study and Its Relation to Science, Religion, Politics, and Culture is essential reading for sex researchers, mental health professionals, pastoral counselors, political activists, and any person asking if one can truly change his or her homosexuality.

Written for entry-level survey courses in queer or LGBTQ+ Studies for students from all majors, this engaging text covers a wide range of topics. Early chapters consider the meaning of "queer" and examine identities such as trans, bi, and intersex. Intersections between sexuality/gender expression and other identities such as race, ethnicity, and class are also examined. The book then reviews life experiences such as families, friendship, religion and spirituality, health, and politics through the lens of queerness. Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries: -Engages undergraduates with a narrative that applies key ideas to their own lives and experiences -Questions various binaries ("either/or" pairings) to help students examine their own sexual identity and gender expression -Reviews foundational concepts from queer theory and queer history to create a deeper understanding of the concepts -Emphasizes an intersectionality approach that demonstrates how one's identity is the product of multiple characteristics such as sexuality, gender, race, class, and dis/ability -Uses a multidisciplinary approach drawing from the social and natural sciences, humanities, and arts to provide a broad overview of perspectives -Details an individual or an event in Spotlight on sections to highlight the experiences of queer people. -Provides questions for class discussion or field activities in Issues for Investigation sections that apply the ideas covered in the chapter -Allows instructors to shape the class with different foci using the stand-alone chapters in Part III -Features an Instructor's resource manual available to adopters with 20+ PowerPoint slides for each chapter, sample syllabi for a variety of courses, teaching tips for using the Spotlight On and Issues for Investigation sections and the suggested readings, a test bank with objective and essay questions, and student aids such as keywords, chapter outlines and summaries, and learning objectives Designed for undergraduate courses in queer or LGBT+ Studies requiring no prerequisites, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries also serves as an excellent supplement in courses on queer theory or history, or on sexuality, gender, and women's studies.

A down-to-earth look at the spiritual power of sex Sex and the Sacred examines the spiritual dimension of human sexuality in a way that is free of religious affiliation but still open to traditional religion and belief in God. Dr. Daniel Helminiak, author of the best-selling What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality, looks at the relationship between sexuality and spirituality, first, from a humanistic perspective and, then, a more familiar Christian point of view. In particular, he encourages LGBTI people to reclaim their spiritual heritage without apology. This unique book emphasizes spiritual commitment as an essential facet of LGBTI/queer consciousness and addresses such burning themes as coming out, the importance of self-acceptance, gay marriage, gay bashing, and the ethics of gay sex. Sex and the Sacred combines a psychological approach to spirituality with common sense and compassion, inspiring a break from moralistic religion and an understanding of what true spirituality means. The book applies this understanding to Christian topics such as the Bible, Fundamentalism, and the future of Christianity, and shows how coming out was an issue for Jesus, how homosexual experience relates to the Christian Trinity, and how Western Civilization became so sex-negative. Sex and the Sacred presents in the end a radical vision of Christianity open to all people. Religious leaders of all denominations, educators, counselors, members of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community, non-religious spiritual seekers, and anyone interested in the relationship between spirituality and sexuality will find this book enlightening and uplifting. Sex and the Sacred examines: the spiritual drive that is built into human sexuality the standard religious arguments against gay marriage a sustained argument that Biblical Fundamentalism is not Christian spiritual lessons from the AIDS epidemic the right and wrong of sexqueer and otherwise homosexuality in Catholic teaching and practice sexual ethics without religion a vision for a renewed Christianity within a global community

Find out how being more LGBT inclusive can increase your organization's productivityand revenues! Workplace diversity can provide creative strength and greater productivity regardless of the organization. Straight Talk About Gays in the Workplace: Creating an Inclusive, Productive Environment for Everyone in Your Organization, Third Edition presents a frank discussion about all the relevant aspects of sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace. The author reveals how to incorporate diversity in your organization to foster greater loyalty, greater understanding, and greater productivity. Straight Talk About Gays in the Workplace: Creating an Inclusive, Productive Environment for Everyone in Your Organization, Third Edition is the latest edition of the National Library Award-winning guide that explains terms, provides strategies for implementation of policies and programs, and gives you practical tools to educate and inform employees about a workplace environment inclusive of diversity. While previous editions concentrated on the diversity of sexual orientation, this edition has been expanded and extensively updated to include the needs and issues of transgender people. Other updated information includes showing the advantages of creating an LGBT inclusive environment, discussing in-depth about the financial rewards of marketing an organization as being open to the LGBT community, and explaining the benefits of presenting these topics in public schools and higher education. Several appendices are included to provide additional resources divided into categories such as workplace education, transgender, marketing, family and the schools, legal, and business. The book also features a useful bibliography, an assessment tool to gauge sexual diversity in your organization, a guide for transitioning transsexuals, and another appendix that presents research and recommendations as to how school campuses can make themselves more inclusive and less discriminatory. Straight Talk About Gays in the Workplace: Creating an Inclusive, Productive Environment for Everyone in Your Organization, Third Edition discusses: updated information on domestic partner benefits educating employees about sexual orientation and gender identity the latest information on non-discrimination policies effective employee networks and alliances sensitive issues that involve transgender people opportunities and benefits of marketing to the LGBT community internal and external outreach programs crucial tax and insurance information new information focused on LGBT youth and academia inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity and much more! Straight Talk About Gays in the Workplace: Creating an Inclusive, Productive Environment for Everyone in Your Organization, Third Edition makes essential reading for human resource professionals; executives of every type of organization; LGBT employees involved with diversity efforts; affinity groups focused on orientation and/or gender identity; educators; students; and anyone interested in studying the role of sexual orientation or gender identification diversity in the workplace.

Understand the challenges from the voices involvedtoday's LGBT youth AND the leading educators and scholars in the field! Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Issues in Education presents LGBT youth issues through the words of the adolescents themselves, along with clear up-to-date essays about LGBT youth programs, policies, and practices around the world. Leading international educators and scholars examine personal experiences of LGBT youth, cutting-edge programs, and research first presented in the international Journal of Gay & Lesbian Issues in Education. Dynamic and thought-provoking, this insightful book brings together ideas and a vision vital for the future of today's LGBT youth. Invaluable for educators, counselors, graduate and undergraduate students, and LGBT youth alike, Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Issues in Education is readily accessible and easy-to-read, yet still provides in-depth, multidimensional examinations of the LGBT youth programs and practices essential for the propagation of social tolerance, acceptance, and safety of our youth. The LGBT youth voices sing clear their views about the urgent need for programs and policies within educational resources to challenge the present dominant intolerant thinking. The editor presents cogent essays that reveal the complex issues of the educational programs and practices, while offering strategies and hope for societal change. The book strives for the ultimate goal of reaching LGBT acceptance within society, to move beyond simple toleration toward becoming completely equal regardless of sexual identity. Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Issues in Education explores: transgender college students bullying and homophobia research on LGBT studies in education teaching elementary preservice teachers multicultural school-based programs for HIV education serving transgender youth successes and deficiencies of gay-straight alliances race and youth programs in urban high schools growing up lesbian in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States growing up gay in Japan and China Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Issues in Education is an essential exploration of LGBT issues and an excellent educational tool for educators, undergraduate and graduate students, counselors, social workers, LGBT youth, and for any professional working with LGBT youth.

Gain an in-depth understanding of the unique struggles of the bisexual community! To me the gay and straight worlds are exactly the same; equally limited, judgmental, and bourgeois . . . just mirror images of each other. I truly like and overlap with some of the gay world, but my roots refuse to take hold there and grow. Unfortunately, my well-established roots in the straight world are simultaneously shriveling and dying too, leaving me feeling extremely unstable. Cool, a bisexual woman involved in a support group There are at least five million bisexual people in America, generally invisible to straight society, the gay community, and even to each other. While the vast majority of these five million live within the straight or gay world, there are a few who have formed a community of their own. Bi America: Myths, Truths, and Struggles of an Invisible Community offers an inside look at the American bisexual community and gives an understanding of the special circumstances unique to being bisexual. The book takes the reader to bi community events from picnics, to conferences, to support groups, to performances in order to expose the everyday trials of the bisexual community. Bi America includes very personal stories that let the voice of everyday bisexuals be heard through interviews, the Bisexual History Project, in which ten bisexual people tell their life stories, and the Online Support Group, a group of about 75 people who meet in cyberspace to talk about their lives and challenges. The book also includes the findings of a 2002 survey of about 300 bisexual people conducted via the Internet, an appendix that offers a concise list of resources for further study and personal enrichment, and an unabridged transcript of the Bisexual History Project. Get the answers to these questions in Bi America: What is bisexuality? Is there a bisexual community? What is the culture of the bisexual community? What are commonalities and differences between the experiences of bi men and bi women? What is the special relationship between the bisexual and the transgender community? How have bisexuals and the bi community been affected by HIV/AIDS? What is the future of bisexual activism, if any? and many more! Bi America is a fascinating resource that exposes the challenges, struggles, and triumphs of bisexuals in America. Bisexuals, especially those newly coming out, can use this book to help understand their identity, and family members and friends seeking some insight into the unique circumstances faced by their loved ones will also find it helpful. This book will interest those concerned with the sociology of deviance or with subcultures in general. It is also appropriate for undergraduate sociology and cultural anthropology, as well as feminist studies and LGBT studies classes. This book offers one of the few accessible, nonacademic looks at this unique and interesting community. Visit the book's Web site at http://www.bi101.org

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. With an increasingly diverse ageing population, we need to expand our understanding of how social divisions intersect to affect outcomes in later life. This edited collection examines ageing, gender, and sexualities from multidisciplinary and geographically diverse perspectives and looks at how these factors combine with other social divisions to affect experiences of ageing. It draws on theory and empirical data to provide both conceptual knowledge and clear 'real-world' illustrations. The book includes section introductions to guide the reader through the debates and ideas and a glossary offering clear definitions of key terms and concepts.

A unique, multifaceted look at the meaning (and the specifics) of gay male pornography Open any gay lifestyle magazine (even the serious ones) or go to any gay bar, and you're likely to encounter something related to pornography, be it an image of a porn superstar or advertisements for pornographic magazines, DVDs, calendars, etc. Eclectic Views on Gay Male Pornography Pornucopia examines this phenomenon with a series of provocative essays, in which experts in history, law, media studies, and psychology, as well as laypeople and gay porn insiders explore the complex world of male pornography and the various ways in which it has permeated gay culturefrom the 1970s until today. This first-of-its-kind book examines the phenomenon of self-writing and performance for gay men in the last century, specifically looking at the lives of modern-day performance artist Tim Miller, who has received national recognition for his one-man shows portraying his struggles as a gay man; Wakefield Poole (born 1936), the first producer of gay pornography (Bijou, Boys in the Sand) in the era accompanying the emergence of the gay rights movement; gay adult film icon Scott Spunk O'Hara (born 1961); and Aaron Lawrence (born 1971), who worked as a gay escort, actor, and producer/director of his own sexually explicit amateur videos. In this groundbreaking analysis of gay men's relationship with pornography, you'll also learn about: gay pornography and the messages it carries about intimacy, body image, and hegemonic masculinity representations of ethnicity in gay pornography gay pornography and safer sex gay pornography and censorship viewers' perceptions of gay pornography gay pornography and internalized homophobia, misogyny, and body fascism changes in the way gay pornography is produced and performedfrom the 1970s through the 1990s the meaning of the recurring settings in American gay pornographic videos: prison, the military, and other all-male environments; and recurring themes: leather, S/M, dissatisfaction with heterosexual life, initiation into gay life, etc. In addition, Eclectic Views on Gay Male Pornography presents two fascinating chapters about the case of Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium in Vancouver. In this landmark case, the Canadian Supreme Court was asked to determine whether gay male pornography violated the sex equality protections guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court also examined the way that Canada Customs treats international shipments to gay and lesbian bookstores. In addition, the book provides a revealing insider's perspective on the gay adult video industry that contrasts the workaday reality of making porn with the glamorous mythology of the skin trade.

For decades, Singapore's gay activists have sought equality and justice in a state where law is used to stifle basic civil and political liberties. In her groundbreaking book, Mobilizing Gay Singapore, Lynette Chua asks, what does a social movement look like in an authoritarian state? She takes an expansive view of the gay movement to examine its emergence, development, strategies, and tactics, as well as the roles of law and rights in social processes. Chua tells this important story using in-depth interviews with gay activists, observations of the movement's activities-including "Pink Dot" events, where thousands of Singaporeans gather in annual celebrations of gay pride-movement documents, government statements, and media reports. She shows how activists deploy "pragmatic resistance" to gain visibility and support, tackle political norms that suppress dissent, and deal with police harassment, while avoiding direct confrontations with the law. Mobilizing Gay Singapore also addresses how these brave, locally engaged citizens come out into the open as gay activists and expand and diversify their efforts in the global queer political movement.

Sexuality Matters brings together scholars from a variety of epistemological perspectives to explore the multiple ways in which sexuality does indeed matter in the arena of public education. This book is arranged into three main thematic areas: Policy and Activism, Curriculum and Pedagogy, and Identity and Lived Experiences, each of which explores specific ideas and challenges found within the corresponding topic. The special features of this collection include a focus on the implications of sexuality for educational leadership as well as a multi-perspectival approach to the exploration of these concerns. This text will prove to be especially useful both to scholars who prepare future educational leaders and to practitioners who are seeking ways to deal with the complex social realities of their communities.

Explore the common groundand the important differencesbetween bisexuality and transgenderism! This book, guaranteed to provoke debate and discussion of sexuality and gender, is the first devoted exclusively to the relationship between transgenderism and bisexuality. Combining the work of scholars and activists, professional writers and lay people, Bisexuality and Transgenderism: InterSEXions of the Others proesents ideas, thoughts, feelings, and insights from a variety of contributors who are committed to understandingand deepening our understanding ofgender and sexuality. You'll find scholarly essays, narratives, poetry, and a revealing interview with four male-to-female transsexuals, two of whom are married to women who also participate in the discussion. In addition, the book includes insightful chapters by well-known advocates of transgenderism, including Jamison James Green, Coralee Drechsler, and Matthew Kailey. The editors of Bisexuality and Transgenderism: InterSEXions of the Others make the provocative but crucial claim that the larger queer community looks at B and T lives as mere add-ons to L and G. In this book they focus attention on bisexuality and transgenderismmoving the margins to center stage and exploring how sexuality, gender, desire, and intimacy are constructed and circulate in our society. The book's inclusion of voices and scholarship from Eastern cultures challenges our understanding of sexuality and gender constructions all the more, giving this collection a global scope. Here is a sample of what Bisexuality and Transgenderism: InterSEXions of the Others examines: biphobia and transphobia within the United States' gay and lesbian community the bi/trans and subversive aspects of the works and images of cultural icons Angelina Jolie and Sandra Bernhardt how bisexual and transgendered identities are socially constructed through relationships the false promise of pomosexual playwhy the concepts of postmodern sexuality fail to rewrite the construction of gender why swingers who practice bisexual and transgender behavior are often disdained and marginalized by other GLBT people suicidal thoughts and other mental health concerns of bisexual males and females, as well as transgender people Eastern perspectives on sexual/gender identitieswith revealing chapters on gender identity in Japan and Indonesia

Fear of contagion, isolated patients, a surge of overwhelming and unpreventable deaths, and the frontline healthcare workers who shouldered the responsibility of seeing us through a deadly epidemic: as we continue to confront the global pandemic caused by COVID-19, Taking Turns reminds us that we've been through this before. Only a few decades ago, the world faced another terrifying and deadly health crisis: HIV/AIDS. Nurse MK Czerwiec began working at the Illinois Masonic Medical Center's HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 in the 1990s-a pivotal time in the history of AIDS. Deaths from the disease in the United States peaked in 1995 and then dropped drastically in the following years, with the release of effective drug treatments. In this graphic memoir, Czerwiec provides an insider's view of the lives of healthcare workers, patients, and loved ones from Unit 371. With humor, insight, and emotion, MK shows how the patients and staff cared for one another, how the sick faced their deaths, and how the survivors looked for hope in what seemed, at times, like a hopeless situation. Drawn in a restrained, inviting style, Taking Turns is an open, honest look at suffering, grief, and resilience among a community of medical professionals and patients at the heart of the AIDS epidemic.

Drawn from the life narratives of more than seventy African American queer women who were born, raised, and continue to reside in the American South, this book powerfully reveals the way these women experience and express racial, sexual, gender, and class identities-all linked by a place where such identities have generally placed them on the margins of society. Using methods of oral history and performance ethnography, E. Patrick Johnson's work vividly enriches the historical record of racialized sexual minorities in the South and brings to light the realities of the region's thriving black lesbian communities. At once transcendent and grounded in place and time, these narratives raise important questions about queer identity formation, community building, and power relations as they are negotiated within the context of southern history. Johnson uses individual stories to reveal the embedded political and cultural ideologies of the self but also of the listener and society as a whole. These breathtakingly rich life histories show afresh how black female sexuality is and always has been an integral part of the patchwork quilt that is southern culture.

Gay spirituality represents a hidden strand in Western thought that was only publically declared from the Gay Liberation of the 1970s. Since "coming out", expressions of gay spirituality have proliferated in both number and diversity. Beginning with gay theology within Christianity, the phenomenon has now reached as far as Buddhism and neo-paganism. But, so far, critical analysis of the movement has been very limited largely because gay spirituality has been treated as a political and social movement arguing for rights and acceptance within religious circles. 'A Special Illumination' offers an indepth analysis and argues that gay spirituality should be placed at the heart of religion.

The variety of gay life in Chicago is too abundant and too diverse, to be contained in a single place. But since 1981, the Gerbert/Hart Library & Archives on the city's North Side has strived to do just that, amassing and cataloging a wealth of records related to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identified people and organizations in the city. In Queer Legacies, John D'Emilio--a pioneering scholar of gay and lesbian studies--digs deep into the collection at the Gerbert/Hart Library to unearth a kaleidoscopic look at the community built by generations of gay men and women in Chicago. Excavated from one of the country's most important, yet overlooked, LGBTQ archives, the stories included in his book are populated by athletes, lawyers, publishers, artists, performers, and organizers, each offering their own fascinating contribution to Chicago's historically vibrant scene . The breezy and enthusiastic essays that make up Queer Legacies range in focus from politics, culture, social life, and the history of institutions like Dignity--the foremost organization for LGBTQ Catholics--and the Gay Academic Union. Though the book is anchored in Chicago, many of the essays reach farther revealing the connections to events and issues of national import. Queer Legacies illuminates how archives can be more than musty spaces far from the urgent concerns of the present day, and shows that institutions like the Gerbert/Hart are a life-giving resource for the historically marginalized communities they serve. This book gives readers an inclusive and personal look at fifty years of a national fight for visibility, recognition, and equality led by LGBTQ Americans who, quite literally, made history. In these troubled times, it will surely inspire a new generation of scholars and activists.