Black South African men who have sex with men (MSM) face a set of adverse circumstances, including economic hardship and stigmatization, that combine to put them at an elevated risk for hazardous substance use and HIV infection. This creates a context where substance use is normative and high-risk sexual behavior is often engaged in covertly and under the influence of intoxicating substances. The overarching objective of this dissertation was to explore determinants of hazardous drinking and HIV risk behavior among black South African MSM with a particular focus on the role of social networks. In order to achieve this, I used data drawn from the study, “HIV and Sexual Risk in African MSM in South African Townships” (R01-MH083557; PI: Sandfort, PhD). First, I conducted a systematic literature review to identify studies that used social network analysis to evaluate alcohol use among adults in order to answer the question: how have social network characteristics been shown to influence adults’ drinking behaviors, both in terms of characteristics of their network structures and characteristics of their network ties? Results of the review demonstrated that characteristics of one’s peers as well as social network structure influenced egos’ alcohol consumption in a variety of ways and across settings. Second, I described drug and alcohol use among black South African MSM and identified determinants of hazardous drinking, a highly prevalent form of alcohol use identified in the sample. The results showed that hazardous drinking was highly prevalent and multiple indicators of social vulnerability were identified as independent determinants of hazardous drinking. Third, I assessed the relationship between substance use and sexual risk behavior and explored the moderating effects of psychosocial factors. The results showed that there was not a main effect between substance use and sexual risk behavior; however, among men with high intentions to engage in safer sex, substance use was associated with increased risky sexual behavior. Overall, this dissertation increased our understanding of social networks, substance use and HIV risk behavior among black South African MSM. Our results suggest the importance of using pre-existing social networks to deliver potential interventions. The results also suggest that the most vulnerable members of this community are at increased risk of hazardous drinking. Lastly, efforts to reduce HIV risk behavior should focus on both increasing safer sex intentions and negating the impact of substance use on sexual risk behavior. Taken together, these studies provide insight for developing potential interventions, including intervention that use social network data to facilitate behavioral change, as well as undertaking further research among a critical population.

Planned parenthood within the lesbian and gay communities attracts considerable attention internationally among researchers, the media, and law and policy-makers. This Australian study situates the phenomenon�also known as the �gayby boom��within the contemporary Australian socio-legal setting and the more international historical and political contexts of Gay and Women�s Liberation. It investigates how beliefs about nature, kinship, the sexed and reproductive body and political ideologies of family intersect in lesbians and gay men�s decision-making and stories of living their lives as parents. Two fields of intellectual enquiry are generative: the interest in families of choice and family practices within sociology and the post-modern anthropological critique of Western kinship in the era of assisted reproduction. This is a qualitative study informed by a critical humanist approach. It is based on in-depth and key informant interviews conducted with 20 lesbians and 15 gay men (parents, �donor/dads� and prospective parents) as well as 7 people engaged in legal, health or therapeutic support to prospective and current parents. Also incorporated into the analysis are a range of other primary sources, including a substantial media debate, submissions to an assisted reproduction law reform process and primary documents supplied by participants such as parenting agreements and letters. The study argues for the need to look beyond unitary concepts such as families of choice when theorising lesbian and gay parenthood. It is important to consider the historical, political and biographical conditions that make some notions of relatedness and decisions about having children seem more feasible, and indeed, natural than others. It explores how various notions of biological relatedness remain important in the formation of parent/child relationships, and the extent to which lesbians and gay men rely on strategic appeals to choice and biology in enacting families. Continuing constraints on who is eligible for clinically assisted reproductive technology in Australia lead to imaginative and harmonious, yet also fraught reproductive relationships.

The focus of this thesis is the lived experience of 80 Australian gay men in the second half of the twentieth century. The oldest man in the sample was born in 1922 and the youngest in 1980. Their understanding of what it was to be gay is historically contingent, for their lives spanned the greater part of the twentieth century: from when homosexuality was illegal through the less repressive but no less problematic eras of gay liberation and the HIV-AIDS epidemic. Qualitative in approach, the thesis was based on oral history interviews. Interviewees were asked set questions about their social, affective and sexual lives. The sample comprised an old cohort of 22 men, a middle cohort of 30 men, and a young cohort of 28 men. The majority of interviewees were of Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Celtic decent. The exceptions were Aboriginal men, and the children of migrants to Australia from South-east Asia and Southern Europe. Interviewees' personal narratives included their experiences of the repression of the Cold War period, the exuberance, and, for some, personal confusion of gay liberation and the disco culture of the 1970s, and the trauma of the HIV-AIDS epidemic. Through their life stories, the men in this sample illustrated the significant shifts in sexual attitudes and culture that Australia experienced in the latter part of the twentieth century. Aspects of the lives examined included the men's experience of coming out and development of their sexual identity, their social and affective lives, and their involvement in the gay 'scene' and gay community.

The intersection of homosexuality and faith values, a very controversial topic in the United States, has generated both social accommodation as well as “culture war.” In the past forty years this nation has witnessed the establishment of predominantly gay congregations, gay “welcoming” and “affirming” mainstream congregations, as well as virulently anti-gay religious organizations. This study investigates the origins and evolving history of gay and gay-affirming religious traditions in America with an emphasis on Atlanta and Georgia. Primarily an oral history, this project draws from eighty-two interviews as well as primary and secondary documents to construct this history. Several conclusions unfold: 1) Southern culture, though uniquely religious, has been more accommodating of gays and lesbians than heretofore appreciated; 2) citizens of Atlanta and the state of Georgia have been primary historical producers of gay and gay-affirming religious culture and institutions in America; 3) gay religious history pre-dates the Stonewall Rebellion, thus troubling and adding nuance to the traditional metanarrative of LGBTQ history; and 4) the paths of and to gay-affirming religious activism and institution building follows several distinct patterns.

Planned parenthood within the lesbian and gay communities attracts considerable attention internationally among researchers, the media, and law and policy-makers. This Australian study situates the phenomenon�also known as the �gayby boom��within the contemporary Australian socio-legal setting and the more international historical and political contexts of Gay and Women�s Liberation. It investigates how beliefs about nature, kinship, the sexed and reproductive body and political ideologies of family intersect in lesbians and gay men�s decision-making and stories of living their lives as parents. Two fields of intellectual enquiry are generative: the interest in families of choice and family practices within sociology and the post-modern anthropological critique of Western kinship in the era of assisted reproduction. This is a qualitative study informed by a critical humanist approach. It is based on in-depth and key informant interviews conducted with 20 lesbians and 15 gay men (parents, �donor/dads� and prospective parents) as well as 7 people engaged in legal, health or therapeutic support to prospective and current parents. Also incorporated into the analysis are a range of other primary sources, including a substantial media debate, submissions to an assisted reproduction law reform process and primary documents supplied by participants such as parenting agreements and letters. The study argues for the need to look beyond unitary concepts such as families of choice when theorising lesbian and gay parenthood. It is important to consider the historical, political and biographical conditions that make some notions of relatedness and decisions about having children seem more feasible, and indeed, natural than others. It explores how various notions of biological relatedness remain important in the formation of parent/child relationships, and the extent to which lesbians and gay men rely on strategic appeals to choice and biology in enacting families. Continuing constraints on who is eligible for clinically assisted reproductive technology in Australia lead to imaginative and harmonious, yet also fraught reproductive relationships.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Melbourne, 2002. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Apr. 30, 2005). Includes bibliographical references (p. 337-363).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2002. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 18, 2005). Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-281).

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2005. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Apr. 30, 2006). Includes bibliographical references (p. 66-68).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Deakin University, 2002. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Dec. 25, 2005). Includes bibliographical references (p. 286-307).

This study aims to understand homophobia amongst gays, considering the reproduction of heteronormative discourse in groups of men who self-identify as gay. Initially, a systematic review of the literature on gay identity in studies on homophobia was held. Then an empirical study has been proposed. It used a form provided virtually answered by 254 men from all over Brazil , who noted the psychosocial characteristics ; representation of gay identities; intragroup relationships; belonging and recognition of gay identity and the internalization of homophobia. Data were analyzed by SPSS Software (IBM SPSS). The main findings showed the importance of the opening of sexuality in the reproduction of prejudice amongst gay men, especially as non - normative gender identities, age, socioeconomic status, beauty standard. / Esse estudo objetivou compreender a homofobia entre gays, considerando a reprodução do discurso heteronormativo nos grupos de homens que se autoidentificam como gays. Inicialmente, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática da literatura sobre a identidade gay nos estudos sobre homofobia. Em seguida, um estudo empírico foi proposto. Utilizou-se de um formulário disponibilizado virtualmente, respondidos por 254 homens autoidentificados homossexuais, brasileiros com média de 27,17 anos de idade com desvio padrão de 7,94, que observou as características psicossociais; representação acerca das identidades gays; relacionamento intragrupal; pertencimento e reconhecimento da identidade gay e a internalização da homofobia. Os dados foram analisados pelo Software SPSS. Os principais achados revelaram a relevância da abertura da sexualidade na reprodução do preconceito entre gays, especialmente quanto às identidades não-normativas de gênero, idade, classe socioeconômica, padrão de beleza. Concluiu-se que existe uma padronização da experiência de ser gay que possibilita a reprodução do preconceito homofóbico nas relações sociais entre gays, principalmente no que se refere às representações acerca das identidades gays e aos relacionamentos estabelecidos entre gays.