This collection brings together leading scholars to explore the doing and making of identities. Drawing on the highly innovative ESRC Identities and Social Action Programme, the chapters take core social actions such as performing, excluding, mixing, bonding and demonstrate how social practices and identities unfold together.

This book provides the first full-length study of Jean Genet's homoerotic writing but also makes an important intervention in wider queer criticism. Stephens explores Genet's reflections on the difficulties of writing homoerotically within an inherently heteronormative language to formulate a new theory of queer writing.

2013 Finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards, LGBT Studies category Barton argues that conventional Southern manners and religious institutions provide a foundation for homophobia in the Bible Belt In the Bible Belt, it's common to see bumper stickers that claim One Man + One Woman = Marriage, church billboards that command one to "Get right with Jesus," letters to the editor comparing gay marriage to marrying one's dog, and nightly news about homophobic attacks from the Family Foundation. While some areas of the Unites States have made tremendous progress in securing rights for gay people, Bible Belt states lag behind. Not only do most Bible Belt gays lack domestic partner benefits, lesbians and gay men can still be fired from some places of employment in many regions of the Bible Belt for being a homosexual. In Pray the Gay Away, Bernadette Barton argues that conventions of small town life, rules which govern Southern manners, and the power wielded by Christian institutions serve as a foundation for both passive and active homophobia in the Bible Belt. She explores how conservative Christian ideology reproduces homophobic attitudes and shares how Bible Belt gays negotiate these attitudes in their daily lives. Drawing on the remarkable stories of Bible Belt gays, Barton brings to the fore their thoughts, experiences and hard-won insights to explore the front lines of our national culture war over marriage, family, hate crimes, and equal rights. Pray the Gay Away illuminates their lives as both foot soldiers and casualties in the battle for gay rights.

This book covers the scope of current knowledge of cancer in the LGBT community across the entire cancer continuum, from understanding risk and prevention strategies in LGBT groups, across issues of diagnosis and treatment of LGBT patients, to unique aspects of survivorship and death and dying in these communities. Each chapter includes an in depth analysis of the state of the science, discusses the many remaining challenges and unanswered questions and makes recommendations for research, policy and programmatic strategies required to address these. Focus is also placed on the diversity of the LGBT communities. Issues that are unique to cancer in LGBT populations are addressed including the social, economic and cultural factors that affect cancer risk behaviors, barriers to screening, utilization of health care services, and legislation that directly impacts the health care of LGBT patients, healthcare settings that are heterosexist and unique aspects of patient-provider relationships such as disclosure of sexual orientation and the need for inclusion of expanded definition of family to include families of choice. The implications of policy change, its impact on healthcare for LGBT patients are highlighted, as are the remaining challenges that need to be addressed. A roadmap for LGBT cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, survivorship, including treatment and end of life care is offered for future researchers, policy makers, advocates and health care providers.

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.

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.

"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.

This book, written by a pastoral theologian with years of experience in counseling gay and lesbian individuals and their families, assist both pastoral caregivers and congregations in examining and enhancing their pastoral care of homosexuals and their families. This thoughtful book provides factual information, theological and biblical insight, and practical counseling skills to help congregations become caring communities for gays and lesbians.

"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.

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.

'On the bookshelves, there was plenty of stuff on being gay, and much needed, joyous accounts of what it is to be trans, but nothing really that encapsulates what is it to be both - to exist in the hazy terrain between.' After his relationship with his girlfriend of 5 years ended, Harry realised he was a single adult for the first time - not only that, but a single, transmasculine and newly out gay man. Despite knowing it was the right decision, the reality of his new situation was terrifying. How could he be a gay man, when he was still learning what it was to be a man? Would the gay community embrace him or reject him? What would gay sex be like? And most importantly, would finding love again be possible? In this raw, intimate and unflinchingly honest book, we follow Harry as he navigates the sometimes fraught and contradictory worlds of contemporary gay culture as a trans gay man, from Grindr, dating and gay bars, to saunas, sex and ultimately, falling in love. Harry's brave and uplifting journey will show you there is joy in finding who you are.

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.

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.

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.

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.

An overview of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) students in our schools-what they endure, their special needs, and the programs and groups that support them. Diverse Sexuality and Schools: A Reference Handbook is an eye-opening report on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth in our schools-the isolation they feel, the hostilities they face, their unique developmental and emotional needs, and the innovative ways schools, communities, and organizations are working to support them. Author David Campos offers a compelling, often harrowing, tour of the lives of GLBT students, including what researchers have learned over the past half-century and what the schools, the courts, and the government are doing to keep them safe regardless of their sexual orientation. But perhaps the book's greatest impact comes from the way Campos gives voice to this often neglected population, providing a forum for these students' painful testimonies of harassment, violence, and despair. Directory of organizations, associations, and government agencies associated with GLBT youth Comprehensive introductory chapter providing an overview of terms and definitions, historical and legal perspectives, and demographics of the GLBT youth population

This bibliography pulls together a scattered literature of popular periodical articles, monographs, and sources from the legal press to create a picture of the treatment of the homosexual in both contemporary and past societies. Subject coverage has been limited to eight areas of society in which homophobic attitudes have been frequently expressed: the military, child custody, adoption and foster care, religion, censorship, employment, and police-community relations. This arrangement facilitates access to information on the desired topics. Sources cited in this work are those which are most accessible. Annotations expand the scope of entries and are cross-referenced. Both legal and alternative press sources are included for greater scope. A pioneering work, The Homosexual and Society opens up a subfield of research in the social sciences that has been neglected and merits wider consideration. This bibliography is suitable for college and research libraries, state historical associations, public libraries of all sizes, law libraries and specialized research facilities in the social sciences.

These cutting-edge international essays challenge dominant narratives of queer youth predicated on oppression and victimization. As school systems address the emergence of Gay-Straight Alliances and calls to provide equal educational access, researchers, educators and youth workers are paying increasing attention to sexuality, gender and schooling. Yet present discourses are limited to liberal understandings of tolerance, safety, and equity that are defined by a separation of "queer" and "normal." This text documents and offers radical interpretations of the creativity of queer youth in challenging existing practices. Interdisciplinary analyses offer multiple vantage points for reconceptualizing adolescent sexual subjectivities and institutional and cultural practices.