This thesis offers a London-based contemporary study of sexuality at home. I draw from architectural history, feminist and queer theory as well as geographies of sexualities to interrogate the stability of domesticity. Highlighting everyday homemaking practices of more than 40 non-heterosexual households in London, I seek to complicate one overarching regime of power that dominates our cultural value system: heteronormativity – the idea that normative heterosexuality is the default sexuality to which everyone must conform or declare themselves against. The project is a response to three decades of academic research that has looked at the spatialised ways in which sexual identity unfolds in, for the most part, peripheral zones in the ‘Western’ metropolis, spaces beyond the domestic realm. This thesis takes a different architectural approach; one where through interviewing 47 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) Londoners, as well as eleven domestic tradespeople that work in these homes, agency is given to small-scale domestic interventions and everyday actions. The concept of ‘queering’ is important to the framework, which, in the context of the thesis, is understood as an on-going process that LGBTQ people are engaged in through homemaking and daily living. Although some participants may not see this as a political act, I argue otherwise and suggest queering at home is a form of political activism. Through mundane domestic actions the overarching structure of heteronormativity might be challenged. I contend that queering the home unfolds in various, complex and conflicting ways. The thesis seeks to provoke both queer theory and politics, by opening up existing approaches and remits to allow room for a domestic method. In addition, the thesis seeks to challenge assumptions within architecture but also in the wider sense. I aim to break down stereotypes surrounding non-heterosexual homemaking practices that architectural studies and media representations problematically reproduce.

The voice of same-sex couple clients has been largely absent from the academic literature. In this thesis, I contribute to this literature by exploring these clients’ experiences of counselling. My aim is to contribute to good practice in counselling and psychotherapy through reflecting on client experiences, and identifying more effective ways of enhancing the therapeutic process. The research in this thesis adopts a predominantly qualitative approach, drawing on three different episodes of data collection: exploratory interviews, an internet survey, and, finally, follow-up interviews with both individuals and couples. I examine the data using thematic analysis, descriptive statistics and discourse analysis. In the exploratory interviews, participants’ narratives showed that they were conscious of, and took the responsibility for managing the potential impact of stigma in their counselling sessions. The internet survey helped to clarify the criteria couples used in their search for counselling, and the ways in which the power of the therapist could both silence the couples and facilitate positive change. In the follow-up interviews, participants positioned their relationships as both the same as, and different from, different-sex relationships, and were sensitised to respond to counsellors’ expressions of power, particularly in relation to the reinforcing of heterosexual norms. Same-sex couple relationships need to be acknowledged by counsellors both as ‘just another relationship’ and as a relationship that is validly different from heterosexual relationships. More specific publicity, stating the extent of the counsellors’ experiences with same-sex couples would enable same-sex couples to make more informed choices in the search for therapy. In addition, counsellors need to develop the knowledge and ease necessary for working with issues of sameness and difference, and to be alert to the impact of power imbalances on clients’ progress in therapy.

Literature Review : A systematic review was conducted to explore the psychological impact of surgical gender realignment procedures. The results appear suggestive of a better psychological adjustment for males-to-females regarding the functional outcomes of surgery, however more difficulty with integrating into society. Females-to-males report greater dissatisfaction with surgical outcomes but experience greater social integration, which in turn impacts positively on their psychological well-being. Contemporary studies appeared more inclusive of social and economic factors influencing successful gender transition. It is suggested that although there remains considerable psychological distress related to a range of factors, surgical intervention may help to alleviate psychological discomfort, though these results are taken as inferential rather than conclusive. A discussion of the clinical implications and future research discuss how research may further address the exploration of transgender psychological experience. Research Report : The present study provides a qualitative exploration of the experiences of transgender individuals who sought one to one psychosocial support through the process of changing their physical appearance to reflect their internal experience of gender. The findings illustrate how internalisation of distal societal attitudes often led to marked psychological distress. The women sought to illustrate their experiences of self and others beyond the borders of their physical appearance, and bring to light both the psychosocial experiences they have been expected to tolerate, and the impact this had on them. The power of being listened to was a valuable source of support for the women. Clinical implications and future recommendations are discussed in relation to further research opportunities and enhancing understanding in a relatively unexplored area of clinical practice. Critical Appraisal : A critical appraisal of the research process and learning outcomes of the researcher are described and discussed.

The present portfolio includes a selection of the work submitted for the completion of the PsychD in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology at the University of Sun-ey. It consists of three sections: an academic, a therapeutic practice and a research dossier. The academic dossier contains three essays, one drawn from each year of training. The first essay is a critical evaluation of Pete Sanders' chapter on "Empathy" ., from his book "The person centred counselling primer". The second essay explores some therapeutic avenues on how to work with anxiety, from a psychoanalytic perspective. The third essay examines the extant research on working with psychosis from a CBT framework and the implications of the therapeutic relationship on therapeutic outcomes. This is followed by the therapeutic practice dossier which aims to offer an overview of the clinical experience I obtained throughout the course of my training. It includes descriptions of my three clinical placements that I undertook as part of my training. It also includes my Final Clinical Paper, which outlines some of the key personal and professional experiences that have contributed in my development as a Counselling Psychologist. Finally, the research dossier contains three research projects, each corresponding to the culmination of each year's research work. The Literature Review consists of an examination of the existing literature on the experience of being gay in Turkey and Cyprus. Drawing from that, the first Research Report is an exploration into the subjective experiences of Greek-Cypriot gay men who resident in Cyprus. The second Research Report is a qualitative study, which aimed at constructing an integrative theory which can offer insight into the experience of being a Greek-Cypriot gay woman who lives in Cyprus.

This thesis explores the use and design of New York City (NYC)’s community gardens, and how the social processes that characterise community gardening influence gardeners’ notions of ethnicity. The study examines the dialectical relationship between nature and culture in community gardens from the theoretical perspectives of debates over ethnicity, the social construction of nature, and political ecology. The study’s analytical position directs attention to the rhetoric and behaviours of community gardeners as well as the socio-ecological and political-economic processes operating at broader and multiple scales. The three main aims of this dissertation are: first, to explore the influences of community gardening on how gardeners understand and express their ethnicity, second, to identify the main motivations for (re)configuring nature in gardens, and third, to understand how the elision between nature and culture in gardens shape and is shaped by societal power struggles. This dissertation draws empirically on a cross-case comparison of Puerto Rican gardeners across three community gardens in the South Bronx. Narrative and semi-structured interviews enabled gardeners to directly voice their sentiments of self and community, and in conjunction with active-participant observations and garden-related discourse analysis, the ‘triangulation’ of these qualitative research methods colours a rich picture of the ideological and political markers of ethnicity and nature in NYC. The study also incorporates state and non-state actors active in the community garden movement and in the provision of one or more of the case studies. I argue that community gardeners’ notions of ethnicity and nature are animated by questions of politics, resistance, class, and social positions.

The changing representation of gay politicians in UK newspapers is an area which is under represented in political and media studies. It is an important subject because press representation of gay politicians has personal and public consequences; not only can the politicians concerned have their political and personal lives negatively affected, democracy can be compromised. Indeed, gay politicians may be less inclined to speak out on gay issues and free expression may be constrained. The thesis demonstrates: 1. How gay MPs in the UK are represented in newspapers 2. How representation has changed 3. An overarching frame of representation. Newspaper articles are analysed and politicians and campaigners interviewed. A literature/historical review contextualises analysis, taking into account socio-political factors. The thesis demonstrates that the press representation of gay politicians is governed by three interconnected frames: 1. The move towards recognition According to the premise of 'recognition,' marginalised groups are entitled to equal rights and respect, rather than a grudging tolerance, alongside recognition of their particularity. This thesis suggests society has moved from intolerance, to tolerance, to partial recognition of homosexuality; this process has been a halting one, although it is generally unidirectional. 2. Acceptability over time (in relation to heterosexual public space) Sexuality/sexual acts can be rated in terms of public acceptability (as in the acceptance of society) and heterosexual public space. Generally, public homosexuality has become more acceptable over the last fifty years (again, this has been a halting process), although still has some way to go to reach full acceptability. 3. Mediated personas as 'constructed reality' Gay politicians are represented in the media through the use of binary themes; using these themes, their personas (gradients of negative and positive) are created by and mediated through newspapers. The third frame helps to maintain negative and stereotypical representations of gay politicians.

No description available.

This thesis is an attempt to demonstrate that the discourse of the homosexual community to preserve their sexual identity has survived in Cuba, in spite of the institutionalized homophobia ushered in by Fidel Castro’s regime. I will centre part of my analysis on Reinaldo Arenas’s irreverent discourse on sexuality and national identity as developed in extremis in Cuba and in exile. I will refer to Arenas’s status in terms of visibility and invisibility. These terms are essential to an understanding of Arenas’s struggle to secure the publication of his books abroad since his books have been censored in Cuba where he is considered a persona non grata. I will also tackle Gutiérrez Alea’s allegorical portrait of the issue of homosexuality and homophobia in revolutionary Cuba in his film Fresa y chocolate (1993). I take both Arenas’s discourse on defence of sexual and intellectual freedom and Gutiérrez Alea’s film as indicatives that all attempts to silence the issue of homophobia in Cuba have had the opposite effect since they have increased the discrepancies between dissidents and supporters of the Castro system and made visible the issue for the population in general. In my work it has been essential to consult Arenas’s long correspondence with family, friends and editors, the interviews with him in Cuba and in exile and the manuscripts of his works, which are at the Firestone Library’s Rare Books Collection at Princeton University. My correspondence with the person who seems to have inspired the plot of Fresa y chocolate, the Cuban writer Roger Salas, has been essential in order to approach Gutiérrez Alea’s film. Salas’s own account of the events in his short story ‘Helados de pasión: el cordero, la lluvia y el hombre desnudo’ (1998) offers an alternative meaning to Gutiérrez Alea’s portrait in Fresa y chocolate of how ideological intolerance operated in Cuba during the 1990s.

The dissertation is an autoethnographic exploration of some of the meanings available, from within a contemporary British urban context, in naming and locating male same-sex genital relations (Moran, 1996). In particular, the dissertation analyses some of the dynamics at stake in locating male samesex genital relations under the sign ‘gay’. An argument is made for the pervasiveness of this nomenclature in contemporary liberal western contexts in describing male same-sex desire/attraction/activity and, concomitantly, what might be lost in consigning male same-sex sexuality thus. Autoethnography is adopted as a methodological approach in (re)tracing some elements of my biography in order to disrupt the potentially assimilationist impulse attaching to ‘gay’ as a way of normativising male same-sex relations. I adopt this approach given the uneases by which I recognise my own same-sex sexual proclivities as fitting (or not) within the homonormative (Duggan, 2004) excesses of ‘gay’. The autoethnographic approach allows me to reflect on previous experience as a means of que(e)r(y)ing the seeming ease with which ‘gay’ might be seen as accounting for all those who labour under its sign. In particular, I explore (my) Irishness, (my) queered relation to gender, (my) in/disciplined engagements with psychology, (my) Class location and (my) early childhood sexuality in an attempt to explore how these might locate me more queerly in a contemporary socios that has a tendency to render (me as a) males with same-sex inclinations as identifiable and knowable. Alongside this autoethnographic work I explore how writing creative fictions might complement/supplement the impulse to queer ‘gay’. This aspect of the work is borne out of an interest in how Humanities-inspired academic discourses might be brought to bear in bending those Social Science discourses through which I became academic and through which I have come to understand (my) (homo)sexuality. Ultimately, the dissertation is an attempt to find a writing voice that speaks to and for the multiply queered (dis)locations that I have become subject to in ‘becoming’ (academic). It is an attempt to (re)write (my) (homo)sexuality into social science discourse without recourse to those discursive frames that tolerate and/or pathologise. This is my journey into doctoring myself.

This thesis presents investigations of Male-To-Female (MTF) transgender people, mostly those who are cross-dressers/transvestites, socialising in Manchester’s Gay Village. A systematic review of the academic literature related to transgender issues indicates that no previous extensive research has been presented which analyses contemporary gender divergent (trans*) people in Manchester. The incomplete academic knowledge on current transgenderism, particularly transvestic identities, has been recognised by representatives of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the UK Government Home Office. These deficient understandings comprise transphobic discriminations. Therefore, this thesis enhances academic information of contemporary transgenderism. This thesis includes findings and developed theories, deriving from aspects of Grounded Theory and Template Analysis, which reflect the deconstructive methodologies developed in postmodern theory. Postmodernism rejects the ‘grand narratives' of truth and science, with a greater emphasis upon the lived experience and expertise of those studied. The investigations undertaken for this study include a reflective/reflexive ethnographic analysis of the assistance to trans* people in Manchester by individuals and support organisations. Thirty-seven interviews with key informants were conducted. This thesis also deploys digital ethnography to examine Internet trans* supportive discourses, which either relate to or emerge from social circles linked to the Gay Village. Additionally, related quantitative information concerning trans* matters is re-presented which is drawn from 390,227 international online data inputs. Moreover, this study documents the annual transgender Sparkle celebrations in Manchester from 2005 to 2012, which attracts thousands of MTF transgender people (trans* women). The analysis is further sustained by critical explorations of transgender supportive political actions by agents of trans* organisations, the Manchester City Council and the UK national Government. The thesis employs a mix of methods and critical methodology. It challenges conceptual hierarchies in which the trans* person is low down the scale of social acceptance, and instead deconstructs contemporary ‘scientific knowledge’ to provide innovative insights into the actual experiences of present-day trans* identities. The research contributes to knowledge concerning transgenderism and highlights the potentially harmful impacts from inadequate medical, legal and academic recognitions of trans* people.