This thesis provides a queer analysis of the visuality and visibility of homophobia and homosexuality (i.e. non-heterosexuality) as they are discursively articulated by key stakeholders of English professional men's football: governing bodies, the print media and anti-homophobia campaigns. Against the background of growing public and scholarly attention devoted to this subject, the thesis contributes to existing scholarship in the sociology of sports and queer theory by explaining, and unpacking, how visuality and visibility shape thinking about homophobia and homosexuality in the footballing context. Some of the key discursive sites associated with homophobia and homosexuality in English professional men's football- the figure of the gay footballer, the football stadium and the English Football Association - are largely constructed through visual means such as videos, posters and images. Thus, gay (i.e. non-heterosexual) footballers are made sense of through 'coming out', and consequently being visible as 'gay; homophobia in the stadium is visually made familiar through the individual homophobe; and the FA visually communicate their commitment and ability to address homophobia through institutional spokespeople and the declining visibility of racism. The data material is comprised of semi-structured interview data with individuals affiliated with football governing bodies, anti-homophobia/discrimination campaign groups, journalists/bloggers, as well as campaign documents and print media articles. The data is analysed by drawing on Foucault's writings on discourse and queer theory's analytical concern of destabilising social categories, knowledge, and norms. It is argued that the discursive sites of the gay footballer, the stadium and the FA are constituted through tensions between visibility and invisibility that signify and reveal how existing discourses are continuously challenged by alternative knowledge and subjects. This offers the possibility for thinking about future directions for discourses on homophobia and homosexuality in and beyond football.

This thesis investigates trans-embodiment by outlining diverse forms of understanding of what it means to become trans- through various theoretical frameworks, drawing from queer and transtheory, medical discourse, the philosophical preconditions of their emergence and their interrelation. As such it explores and discusses different discursive positions- often contradictory and conflicting - that I as a transgendering subject have found myself "in between" at various spaces and times, in order to sketch a plethora of perspectives. It offers an alternative to the current deadlock between essentialist theories of the subject and queer appropriations oftransgender experience, by showing both their limitations and their strengths in addressing transgender embodiment. This is accomplished by my writing alongside specific events and their consequences in my understanding and positionality of self. Furthermore, I juxtapose and intertwine this life -writing with an analytics of power that investigates the particularities which usually go unacknowledged, as a response to the homologous positions in which the trans-subject has been traditionally positioned. Using an authoethnographic methodology that is situated within the narrative turn in the social sciences, this project aims to address socio-political issues in relation to embodiment, as these are understood through a range of poststructuralist authors. In effect, it documents and problematises the process of transitioning between genders, by arguing that the 'I' that seems in authority in an investigation of its subject position is instead contingent on the availability of social narratives and spaces that a body transverses. In order to explore such contingency, the thesis employs diverse conceptualizations in a genealogical journey through the various discourses that together form a practice that reflects a rhizomatic sensibility of the parallel movement of entanglement between theory and embodiment. Consequently, by elevating the importance of located knowledges within a terrain monopolised by dominant abstractions, the study concludes in an open-ended manner, whilst remaining firmly situated in the value of local and specific, reflexive and performative accounts.

This study explores the experiences of young women, growing up and coming out as other than heterosexual in contemporary Northern Ireland as a means of examining ways in which sexualities are 'organised through economic, religious, political, familial and social conditions' (Plummer, 2003:515). Informed by an interactionist approach it considers the 'everyday' ways in which young women construct non-conventional sexualities within a hostile social context, and how their interactions with significant others, particularly through processes of coming out, shape constructions of difference. It further explores their experiences with key social institutions and their influence on the construction of personal identity and sense of self in society. In seeking to hear the experiences of those regularly overlooked within LGBT research, a feminist methodology was implemented. The research suggests a number of ways in which young women understand their sexual selves, the categorization used to explain this to others and the range of ways in which these identities are managed and negotiated in everyday life. It demonstrates that age and gender are crucial in the construction of sexual identities. Based on developmental age-related assumptions about sexuality, young women's same-sex attractions are often discredited and demeaned during this period. Further, so closely tied are expectations regarding gender and sexuality that non-heterosexual young women can experience profound feelings of 'difference' and 'failure' growing up as a ‘different kind of girl'. Overall the research demonstrates the prevalence of normative gendered heterosexuality in contemporary Northern Ireland. Such norms conferring status on particular presentations of selfhood were reflected, reproduced and privileged across many institutions with which young women interact. The pervasiveness of this, and the authority of these institutions at a time when young people are so heavily involved in, and monitored by them, it is demonstrated, makes experiences of growing up and 'coming out' complex.

The relationship between nationhood and sexuality has been increasingly examined in recent years, both in academia and by activists. This thesis analyses UK discourses on LGBT asylum in this context, focussing on heterogeneous corpora ranging from Home Office directives to media narratives. A first chapter is dedicated to a conceptualisation of LGBT asylum as a social problem; doing so, it conceives of the social problem as a travelling concept that can be applied productively in post-structuralist discourse theory. A threefold argument is built using this methodology. Firstly, the second chapter demonstrates how LGBT asylum is a central part of a larger discursive environment, which articulates human rights with a civilisation-related discourse linking sexual tolerance to modernity and liberalism. This chapter argues that LGBT asylum rights and the asylum seekers themselves bear particular significance in these larger discourses for they provide examples of victims of non-Western sexual intolerance that allow for the repetition of narratives about civilisation. The third chapter examines the consequences of these discursive articulations on how asylum is managed by the state. It proposes that the biopolitics of asylum are based on an apparatus of recognition of LGBT subjects that owes much to homonationalist representations. Finally the fourth and last chapter examines more closely the production of LGBT asylum seekers’ subjectivities by focusing on the testimonial speeches that can be found in news media and NGO discourses. It argues that testimonies are part of a discursive economy in which the testimonies' truthfulness has a value that is used strategically by competing enunciators in public arenas. By engaging with the testimonial production of victims to be saved by the liberal state, this part makes connections between findings from the previous chapters. It concludes by looking at potential subversions of this discursive economy in an art project with lesbian asylum seekers.

Fan Studies aims to de-pathologise fans, their communities and their fannish practices (Jenkins 1992). In doing so, Fan Studies privileges fan voices by interrogating their quotidian on- and offline fan practices (Brooker 2002; Hills 2002), demonstrating the emotional connection these fans have to texts. Much of this fannish engagement revolves around the creation and consumption of slash fiction (Bacon-Smith 1992; Hellekson & Busse 2006), a fan practice occurring in fan fiction communities that has been identified as a ‘queer female space’ (Lothian et al 2007, 103). This work predominantly explores why women create these fan texts with little consideration given to the fan’s source text. In spite of this, little attention has been given to LGBT+ fandom and how self-identifying LGBT+ fans negotiate mediated representations of LGBT+ identity, especially when considering the increasing level of LGBT+ media representations on television and particularly on Teen TV programmes. Therefore, this thesis addresses the ways in which fans negotiate non-normative identities represented in the teen mystery TV series Pretty Little Liars (2010-) by investigating ‘queer’ modes of fan production, namely ‘fan talk’, (fem)slash fiction, digital (fem)slash and fan theory-making created by PLL fans. PLL hosts a range of diverse LGBT+ representations and includes a large number of LGB producers and creative talent. This investigation occurs by employing a reader-guided textual analysis (Ytre-Arne 2011), a method that centralises fan meaning-making by analysing the fan’s source text through these fan interpretations. I argue that reader-guided textual analysis (Ytre-Arne 2011) allows us to better understand how fans negotiate LGBT+ representation, how fans accept or reject these LGBT+ representations and the characters’ relationships. The implications lie not just in Fan Studies methodologies and fan production, but also for Queer Theory’s ‘evaluative paradigm’ (Davis and Needham 2009) or how Queer Theorist assess representations as either positive or negative.

This research looks at the emergence of queer and trans people of colour (QTPOC) activist groups in the UK, considering the tensions around inclusion and belonging across lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) and of colour communities for these individuals. The research sought to explore what QTPOC activism means in the UK context, how it operates and for what purpose; the ways QTPOC activisms support the negotiation and affirmation of marginalised sexual, gender, racial identities and/or help navigate racism, queerphobia and transphobia; and in what ways personal involvement with QTPOC activisms impact subjectivity. The research was grounded in a critical psychology approach, firmly situating QTPOC within wider social, political and historical contexts to understand how subjectivities were formed and shaped. Drawing on postcolonial and black feminist theory, the research emphasised coloniality and the postcolonial context of the UK as well as utilising an intersectional lens to explore the intersections of race, gender and sexuality at the macro and micro levels. Inspired by Johnson’s (2015) psychosocial manifesto, the research also focused on ontology and the feeling, embodied experience of being-in-the-world. Knitting together postcolonial, black feminist and queer theory alongside critical psychology a novel phenomenological interpretative framework was developed which attended to both the wider contexts and the everyday lived experience of being a queer and trans person of colour involved in QTPOC activism. Utilising interventions into phenomenology by Fanon (1986) and Ahmed (2006) a queerly raced hermeneutic phenomenological analysis was developed. This was used to analyse the data from focus group and photo elicitation interviews with participants from three different QTPOC groups across the UK. The research highlighted QTPOC experiences of exclusion from mainstream LGBTQ communities and of non-belonging as a racialized, gendered, sexualized Other within the postcolonial British context. Participants shared the difficulties of finding the language to understand their own lived experiences within a society orientated around and towards white (hetero)normativity. QTPOC activist groups were experienced as spaces of belonging; in which to disidentify from white heteronormativity; of affirmation; and in which one could begin to decolonise gender and sexuality. The difficulties of activist organising were also considered; the privileging of paranoid reading and how to manage conflict and abuse, the possibilities of reparative reading (Sedgwick, 2003) and how to relate to histories of politically Black struggle. This is the first research of its kind to explore QTPOC activism in the UK. It will be of interest to critical psychology, psychosocial and gender and sexuality scholars to explore intersectionality and coloniality and the postcolonial further. The development of an original and creative phenomenological interpretative framework will be of interest to researchers exploring the lived experiences of those racialized, and of minoritized gender and sexuality. It provides recommendations for further research and interventions into practice for counsellors, third sector organisations and activists.

The title "Enacting Activism" suggests the idea of activism applied to different fields, at the same time that it highlights the power of social movements in respect to influencing change. Situated at the intersection of new social movement theory and queer studies, this thesis examines the impact of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activism in Portugal since 1995.

Much recent work on bisexual subjectivities has taken a discourse analytic approach to exploring how bisexual identity is discursively produced as paradoxical, and why it is so difficult to articulate a culturally intelligible bisexual subjectivity. This thesis responds to such work by suggesting that a move towards a multi-modal methodological approach, with a focus on the features of the lifeworld, might enable participants to articulate accounts of bisexual subjectivity as experienced in material, spatial, embodied, temporal, and intersubjective, terms. Accordingly, the thesis asks the question ‘how are bisexual subjectivities experienced and produced in bisexual spaces?’ Fieldwork was conducted at a BiCon, UK bisexual convention, in 2008, and the data presented here is based on the results of two studies which used creative and visual methods (photography, mapping, and modelling) to elicit discourse about lived experiences of bisexual subjectivity in a bisexual space, and how these related to everyday life. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was taken to the analysis of the data produced. The study argues that the everyday bisexual subject, as constructed in dominant cultural discourses, can be theorised as a Trickster figure, characterised by excess and inauthenticity. BiCon, meanwhile, can be theorised as a heterotopic place-event, during which bisexuality is held constant as the default sexual identity within the space. This provides BiCon attendees with an opportunity to temporality resolve the paradox of bisexual subjectivity. For some participants, BiCon serves as a carnivalesque space where they can enjoy a brief respite from the contradictions of bisexuality. For others, BiCon is a place to gather resources for personal and social transformation.

This thesis explores the relationship between discourses of nationhood and homosexuality in the context of Polish “post-communist transformations” that have taken place over the last decade. It begins with the hypothesis that there must be a more complex relationship between the two discourses than a situation where nationhood simply and straightforwardly rejects the homosexuality. As such, the thesis explores possibilities for going beyond (or further into) the dialectics of the same/other, as a way to develop understandings about the relationship between the nation and homosexuality. The focus is on undercurrents and internal dynamics, constantly negotiating and re-working mutual dependencies between the two discourses. In this context, the thesis is especially geared to exploring the “unforeseen” (or possible), the “wilful”, “unintended” (or hoped for) in the two discourses. The thesis is organised around three major research problems: (1) How is homosexuality framed by national discourse (when performed by the nationstate)? (2) How do discourses of homosexuality relate to nationhood (in times of national distress)? (3) How might national/ist rhetoric be present in discourses of LGBT organisations? Methodologically, the thesis is grounded in a case study approach and discourse analysis. Overall, I argue that we may map out the relations between the nationhood and homosexuality through discourses of rejection as well as dependency, oscillating on the continuum between “sameness” and “otherness”. These relations are best described via the concepts of “dis-location”, “be-longing”, “attachment”, and “dis-identification”. This research is important for at least three reasons. There is a scarcity of work about sexualities in Central and Eastern Europe and a need for more work in this area. Additionally, we have recently witnessed a rise of concern with “homonationalism” in queer studies. Attention to Poland is a valuable addition to this scholarship, which so far is about only the “West” and “Islam”. Finally, it also contributes to nationalism studies, where sexuality is still an under-explored topic, and it offers new insights for scholars interested in Polish nationalism studies.

This thesis is a critical analysis of individual and collective aspects of same-sex sexuality between women in post-millennial Beijing. I argue that sexual subjectivity ('lala'), rather than being a stable core constituent of self, is continually being produced by, and produces, social aspects of personhood, including bonds of kinship and national belonging. In particular, the fundamental interrelationship between gender and sexual difference in producing subjectivity is probed. I argue that transformations in gender norms in the domain of family, marriage, and alongside national socio-economic development, have enabled lala subjectivity to emerge. I demonstrate the Chinese-specific anchoring of lala, and thereby I critique globalization, sexuality, and China scholarship that predict inevitable Westernization and progress-oriented modernity, including Western-like queer life. My thesis is based on twenty months' anthropological fieldwork, mainly utilizing the methods of participant observation, semi-structured and informal conversations. The core group of informants numbers ninety-five. Chapters 1 and 2 develop an ethnographically informed theoretical framework for the study of sexuality and gender in China. Chapters 3 and 4 present social geographies and narratives to demonstrate the interrelationship between gendered sexual subjectivity and social factors that together constitute selfhood, including age/generation, socio-economic background, marital status, motherhood, and residency. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss the enduring importance of kinship and marriage, and present ethnographies of marital strategies including same-sex, lala-gay contract marriages, 'conventional' marriages, and resistance. Chapter 7 discusses lala community and social activism. It compares post-millennial initiatives with those in the 1990s, and with regional and global activism. The extensive ethnographic material and critical analysis of kinship, marriage, relationships, and community demonstrate that non-normative sexuality is not inherently transgressive. Conforming is a strongly felt personal desire, not simply an imposed duty. Strategies which ensure the appearance of hetero-feminine and marital conformity and normative national belonging ('Chineseness') are being creatively and continually combined with growing possibilities for lala ways of life in Beijing.