Gay men

We propose a communication analogue to Allport's (1954) Contact Hypothesis called the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis (PCH). If people process mass-mediated parasocial interaction in a manner similar to interpersonal interaction, then the socially beneficial functions of intergroup contact may result from parasocial contact. We describe and test the PCH with respect to majority group members' level of prejudice in three studies, two involving parasocial contact with gay men (Six Feet Under and Queer Eye for the Straight ...

This article analyses the laws that govern the allocation of parental responsibility for children conceived through non-coital reproduction by lesbians and gay men in England/Wales and Australia. In 2008 both jurisdictions introduced important reforms affecting this area of law, providing new options for the legal recognition of parent–child relationships in lesbian and gay households. However, the practical usefulness or effectiveness

We tested hypotheses drawn from three theoretical perspectives—gender belief system, authoritarianism, and social dominance—concerning heterosexuals' attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. Data from 122 male and 131 female heterosexual college students with mostly White, middle-class backgrounds indicated that constructs postulated by all three perspectives played important roles in predicting attitudes: Gender differences in attitudes toward lesbians and gay men were mediated by social dominance orientation and gender-role beliefs, indicating that gender role beliefs may act as legitimizing myths to justify antigay attitudes. Authoritarianism had both a direct relationship to attitudes toward lesbians and gay men and an indirect relationship mediated by gender-role beliefs.

Gay men utilise psychotherapy at a higher rate than heterosexual men due to increased societal stressors. However, even though homosexuality has been depathologised since 1973, some therapists still seem to approach it from a pathological perspective. In Greece, societal attitudes towards homosexuality are highly negative, and issues of homosexuality and psychotherapy are absent from research literature. Overall, the existent literature on the psychotherapeutic experiences of gay men is sparse, and limited within the US and the UK. This paper explores the psychotherapeutic experiences of five gay men in Greece. Three narrative forms of therapy were identified: progression, tragedy, and dialectic conflict. Also, two commonalities were identified: 'therapy as the only way out' and 'the only gay in the room'.

Despite growing attention to occupational justice issues, there has been very little research examining the everyday occupations of those marginalised by sexual orientation or gender identity. Building on a small body of literature concerning the occupations of gay men and lesbians, this paper explores the occupations of five transgendered persons. Qualitative interview data are used to examine both how participants' gender identities shaped their occupational engagements, and how their occupations were used to convey or express gender identities. The occupational focus tended to change over time. While in their early years participants faced occupational barriers and deprivation, during transition they were centrally involved with occupations concerning the health care system and financing bodily transitions. Later the most significant occupations centred on managing disclosure, self-care, managing relationships, and navigating employment. All participants faced occupational losses and adaptations, but also gained new, meaningful occupations.

Little scientific attention has been paid to bisexuality or to societal attitudes about bisexual people. Often, biphobia has been assumed to be identical to homophobia. In this study, 229 heterosexual undergraduate students rated their degree of agreement to stereotypical statements about bisexuality and provided information on their attitudes about the acceptability of bisexual, gay, and lesbian people. Although there was a high degree of correlation between biphobia and homophobia, negative attitudes about bisexuals, men in particular, were more prevalent than negative attitudes about lesbians or gay men. Biphobia and homophobia should be considered related, but distinct, phenomena.

Homosexuality is viewed by many as a social problem. As such, there is a keen interest in elucidating the origins of homosexuality among many scholars, from anthropologists to zoologists, from psychologists to theologians. Research has shown that those who believe sexual orientation is inborn are more likely to have tolerant attitudes toward gay men and lesbians, whereas those who believe it is a choice have less tolerant attitudes. The current qualitative study used in-depth, open-ended telephone interviews with 42 White and 44 Black Americans to gain insight into the public's beliefs about the possible genetic origins of homosexuality. Along with etiological beliefs (and the sources of information used to develop these beliefs), we asked respondents to describe the benefits and dangers of scientists discovering the possible genetic basis for homosexuality. We found that although limited understanding and biased perspectives likely led to simplistic reasoning concerning the origins and genetic basis of homosexuality, many individuals appreciated the complex and interactive etiological perspectives. These interactive perspectives often included recognition of some type of inherent aspect, such as a genetic factor(s), that served as an underlying predisposition that would be manifested after being influenced by other factors such as choice or environmental exposures. We also found that beliefs in a genetic basis for homosexuality could be used to support very diverse opinions including those in accordance with negative eugenic agendas.

... This paper aims to look at these people and their lives and lifestyles, by surveying firstly the place of the rural within gay cultural products (novels, poetry, film), then the lives of lesbians and gay men born and raised in rural areas, and lastly rural communal living experiments ...

Harter’s work is like a passport to a culture that I have dubbed “gay chauvinism,” when you felt that being gay, secret as it was, gave you a special insight into humanity that the non-gay world did not have. We were significant—and everyone was starting to get a whiff of it. Harter's work is serious with an often mellow sadness to it. This was also part of life in New Orleans; the city’s preoccupation with death (basically in a swamp, it had been the epicenter of many plagues), and overcoming it. Harter who had come from a repressed, but wealthy background, did not fully give himself over to art until the last decade of his life, and even then the homoerotic aspects of his work worried him. He wrote, “I have been turning out works of gay-oriented art for 30 years, most of which almost no one has ever seen. These paintings are ghosts to me . . . I am very conscious that art which touches on the sexual of whatever stamp is at the greatest risk against survival. It is the first to be discarded by the fanatical, the shortsighted . . . by the well-intentioned who would protect a reputation or a history, by sanitizing the inheritance.”

This research focuses on the complex meaning and role of the city in American and French rural gay men’s imaginary and life experience. It explores how gay men who grew up in the country build their sense of self through back-and-forth movement from rural to urban spaces. Therefore, it questions traditional gay migration studies, which have often equated gay migration and rural–urban migration, positing a unidirectional pattern. After contextualizing rural male homosexuality, this paper presents four life itineraries which highlight the central role the city has for rural gay men when exploring their same-sex desires and attractions. Based on the analysis of their life narratives, we show that for most of them, their coming out, their first same-sex experience, and coming to terms with their sexuality happens “far from home” in a city or a college town. However, this research suggests that the city has a more ambivalent role for rural gay men. While the city exists as a space of social practices where alternative sexualities can be experienced and explored, at the same time for many rural gay men the city remains substantially unattractive. In their view, the perceived “effeminizing power” of the city questions and challenges their attraction for this space. Therefore, the experience of the city becomes both liberating and disciplinary – liberating because it allows the exploration of their same-sex desires and attractions, disciplinary because it (re)presents a gay identity in which they find no resonance. Thus this research indicates that rural gay migration to the urban spaces, which is key to identity formation, includes not only departure to the city but also a necessary return to the country to maintain rural gay men’s understanding of themselves.► We discuss the role of the city in French and US rural gay men’s life experience. ► We question gay migration studies equating gay migration and rural–urban migration. ► We show that the city is both perceived as an attractive and repulsive space. ► We show that the experience of the city becomes both liberating and disciplinary.

The purpose of the study was to develop a short measure of internalized homophobia (IH), one that reflected contemporary attitudes toward homosexuality and included items designed to assess the domain of sexual comfort with gay men, a domain that has been notably absent from other measures of IH. The Short Internalized Homonegativity Scale (SIHS) was informed by the Reactions to Homosexuality Scale (RHS) and the contention that currently available measures of IH were outdated in their assessment of the construct and/or failed to assess its covert manifestations. A geographically diverse sample of gay men completed an online questionnaire ( N = 1,307), and the 677 respondents from the United States formed the sample for the study. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a single higher order construct of IH comprising the lower order factors of Public Identification as Gay, Sexual Comfort With Gay Men, and Social Comfort With Gay Men.

This dissertation examines the process of parental acceptance for gay men in India and the US. In academic literature and public discourse, this acceptance is often seen as a linear, albeit often gradual, process. However, interviews with gay men conducted for this study show that this acceptance waxes and wanes in patterned ways. It is found that gay men often experience *contextual* parental acceptance. Acceptance becomes weaker or stronger at different points and stages in the life course and in different interactional settings. Parental acceptance becomes stronger or diminished in these contexts depending on how gay men’s parents respond to the forces of heteronormativity and homonormativity, and whether American gay men align with the racial normativity while experiencing their sexuality, in these time and spatial contexts. Finally, this study incorporates the experiences of gay men from India to show that the understanding of parental acceptance through the lenses of homonormativity is more exclusive to the US. Parental acceptance in India can be better understood through how queerness, in addition to homonormativity, shapes gay men’s perceptions of parental acceptance.

This study reports on a survey of 166 gay men in Sydney, Australia, that explores the links between internalized shame, internalized homophobia, and attachment style. These variables were linked to the age of coming out, family and peer acceptance of their sexuality, relationship status, and previous marriage. Findings suggest a strong relationship between shame, internalized homophobia, and anxious and avoidant attachment style. Shame was predicted by internalized homophobia and anxious and avoidant attachment style. A significant proportion of gay men reported that they were not easily accepted when they first came out. There was a significant relationship between coming out and internalized homophobia but not with shame and attachment style. Furthermore, men who had never come out to family and friends reported higher levels of internalized homophobia but not higher levels of shame and attachment style. Of particular significance was the connection between previous marriage and h...

... and police officers that were interviewed as part of this study described a significant overlap between the gay scene and the `rent boy' scene (prostitution) with wealthy ... The lesbian and gay `scene' as a paradoxical space ... International Journal of Urban and Regional Research ...

Despite many gaps in the research on substance abuse and sexual orientation, recent data suggest that, overall, substance use among lesbians and gay men—particularly alcohol use—has declined over the past two decades. However, both heavy drinking and use of drugs other than alcohol appear to be prevalent among young lesbians and gay men. Much less is known about bisexual and transgender women and men, but these groups appear to be at heightened risk for substance abuse. This paper describes current research on prevalence and patterns of substance use and abuse in LGBT populations, examines potential risk and protective factors associated with substance abuse in these populations, and discusses implications for prevention, including prevention research.

Based on life narratives, this article explores rural gay men's subjectivity in France and the United States. After growing up in rural cultures, these gay men tend to adopt similar hetero-centered ideas about masculinity. We show that these “conventional” ideas impact their sense of self as they express feelings of “effeminophobia.” They differentiate themselves from effeminate gay men and emphasize their similarities with straight men. These ideas are both coercive and disciplinary as they homogenize rural gay men's discourse and masculine identities.

Examining the relationship between neoliberalism, race, and gender performance, this article provides an analysis of Noah's Arc, a popular LOGO television series in the United States. More specifically, it focuses on the intricate relationship between specific forms of racialized masculinities and the new homonormativity in this show. This article is divided into six sections. First, an overview of the LOGO series is provided. Next, gay, lesbian, and queer visibility in mainstream U.S. popular culture and the new homonormativity are examined. Third, the relationship between race and masculinity is discussed. Next, a close reading and analysis of the show is provided. Fifth, an exploration of how representations of Noah's Arc queers and “quares” Black masculinity in U.S. culture is undertaken. Finally, some concluding thoughts on representations of racialized masculinities and homonormativity in this popular television series are offered.