Over the last decade, education-focused research/studies on young queers (or same-sex attracted young people) have highlighted the many problems or difficulties they face growing up in a homophobic, heterosexist society. Strategies to address these issues (proposed in numerous research articles and reports) have largely focused on the school setting. I argue that these strategies are limited by heterosexual norms, which regulate and contain in advance what is possible (for queers) within the formal school system. I examine the ways in which these heterosexual norms work to constrain the queer subject in education-focused research and studies on young queers. / Within this field of study, young queers have largely been characterized as victims: of homophobic abuse and harassment, and neglect by families and schools. They’re said to be lonely and isolated, at risk of attempted suicide, unsafe sex, drug and alcohol abuse, and homelessness. I argue that these representations convey a negative portrait of young queers as wounded subjects. I illustrate how the emphasis on the wounded queer subject can work against the interests of young queers. In particular, it obscures those queer perspectives involving agency: first, queer cultures and communities; second, the knowledge and experiences of those who have gained confidence in their queerness, who have queer social and sexual lives. These (agentic) queers can offer us ways of understanding how young queers move beyond isolation and loneliness. / This study highlights the importance, for many young queers, of having opportunities and spaces where they can connect with each other. Socialization and sexualization among young queers involves a certain openness being and doing queer a practice which is unintelligible within most education-focused research/studies on young queers. This is illustrated and explored through comparative analysis of queer subjectivities in two differentiated spheres: on the one hand education-focused research and studies relating to the school context, and on the other gay/lesbian/queer studies and literature relating to queer social and sexual contexts. The key contexts and themes examined here are: early sexual experience and beats, queer cultures and communities, and queer youth support and social groups.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, 2009. / Advisor: Michael W. Ross. Includes bibliographical references.

Zugl.: Hamburg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2003.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--North Carolina State University, 2005. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on May 20, 2006). Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-199).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas A & M University, 2004. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 31, 2005). Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-179).

Thesis (doctoral)--Swinburne University of Technology, 2006. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Nov. 30, 2006). Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-188).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Deakin University, 2003. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 15, 2005). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-225).

Thesis (MPhil (General Linguistics))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / This thesis has been written in partial fulfillment of the requirements of a masters programme in intercultural communication. The study focuses on aspects of linguistic communication, specifically in media discourse, where “cultural boundaries” are determined by sexual difference and where much misunderstanding appears to be founded in different conceptions of homosexuality. I have investigated the theoretical frameworks within which discursive reflection on homosexuality can be studied from an interdisciplinary perspective. The research examines reports in a student newspaper that topicalise homosexuality; it also considers reports that are part of a discourse in which communication takes place between a heterosexual majority and a homosexual minority. Reports that were published across a period of five years were examined, in order to determine whether there has been any development in the discourse. This investigation of a particular kind of intercultural media discourse has been augmented by investigating attitudes towards the minority group by means of a questionnaire, designed by Kite and Deaux (1986: 137). This questionnaire was distributed among 240 students in an attempt to determine whether their reported attitudes coincide with those reported in the media. Despite the fact that homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) more than 30 years ago, reports of homophobic violence and attitudes in news media reveal that a significant percentage of the population still views homosexuality as an illness, a psychological disorder or as sin. The aim of this thesis was to examine the possible (re)enforcement of such homophobic ideologies in news media, as well as the possible (re)enforcement of increasingly tolerant ideologies, by making use of frameworks developed within Critical Discourse Analysis, by van Dijk (1998) and Gelber (2002). While the results of the media analysis indicate a growing acceptance of homosexuality, the survey results reveal that the majority of the heterosexual students surveyed still maintain homophobic attitudes. Furthermore, discrepancies in the survey results reveal the complex nature of such attitudes.

Une société hétéronormative reconnaît l’hétérosexualité, les sexes et les rôles de genre qui y sont traditionnellement associés comme seuls comportements socialement acceptables. En Martinique, ces rôles de genre sont incarnés par des personnages fictifs auxquels les individus se réfèrent dans leurs interactions. Cette fiction hétéronormative s’écrit autour de personnages légitimes qui respectent des normes assez contradictoires décrites par les études de genre aux Antilles (Réputation, Respectabilité, Matrifocalité) et elle se maintient grâce à la stigmatisation de personnages identifiés comme monstrueux. Dans un contexte où l’essentiel des îles indépendantes des Antilles conserve une législation coloniale hostile à l’homosexualité, le Makoumè est un personnage de sexe mâle au rôle de genre féminin et supposé homosexuel, qui définit en négatif le rôle de genre masculin. Dans un contexte judéo-chrétien et post-colonial, la Walpa structure les rôles de genre féminins en dessinant la limite de comportements incompatibles avec la Respectabilité. La recherche sur la marginalisation de ces personnages met en lumière les violences auxquelles sont exposées les personnes LGBTI en Martinique. Elle révèle aussi les souffrances causées par la stigmatisation du Makoumè et de la Walpa dans l’ensemble de la population, quelle que soit l’identité sexuelle des individus. Déconstruire les axiomes de l’hétéronormativité dans le cadre scolaire pourrait alors participer à la diminution des violences sexistes et homophobes générées par cette fiction. Cette hypothèse a été explorée dans le cadre d’une étude de terrain pionnière sur l’homophobie et le sexisme en milieu scolaire en Martinique. / A heteronormative society recognizes heterosexuality, gender and gender roles traditionally associated with it as the only socially acceptable behavior. In Martinique, these gender roles are embodied by fictional characters to which people refer in their interactions. This heteronormative fiction is written around legitimate characters who respect the quite contradictory norms described by the West Indies gender studies: Reputation, Respectability, Matrifocality. But it is maintained through the stigmatization of characters considered monstrous. In the context of the West Indies where most of the independent islands penalize homosexuality, Makoumè is a male character of feminine gender and supposed homosexual, which defines in negative the masculine gender. In a Judeo-Christian and post-colonial context, the Walpa structures feminine gender roles by drawing the limit of behaviors incompatible with Respectability. Research on the marginalization of these characters highlights the violence faced by LGBTI people in Martinique. It also reveals the suffering caused by the stigmatization of Makoumè and Walpa in the entire population, regardless of the sexual identity of individuals. Deconstructing the axioms of heteronormativity in the school system could then contribute to the reduction of the sexist and homophobic violence generated by this fiction. This hypothesis was explored in a pioneering field study on homophobia and sexism in schools in Martinique.

This study seeks to evaluate how aspects of religion, culture, political context, education and class, amongst others, impact on the manner with which Zimbabwe’s Bulawayo residents make sense of media messages which explore issues of homosexuality, as encountered in the soap opera Generations. This is against the backdrop of Zimbabwean legislation, such as the Sexual Deviancy Act, which criminalises homosexuality and the state victimisation of gays and lesbians in this country. The inclusion of homosexual liberties was rejected by all political parties and both public and private media in the recent drafting of a new rule of law. The legislation, including gay rights exclusion in the new constitution, and state action has perpetuated an impression that Zimbabwe is a deeply homophobic society. As a starting point the study examines the claims of the media imperialism thesis which supposes an all-consuming power of western media and next examines Straubhaar’s thesis of ‘cultural proximity’ which argues that there is often a preference for regional media, which is proximate to viewers’ local culture, language and identity. The study explores the prominence of South Africa as a regional media player and that proximate identities with some cultures in that country have played a role in drawing some Bulawayo viewers to South African television, as they feel slighted by Zimbabwean media. Utilising qualitative research methods, the study explores whether or not the representation of gay images on this South African soap opera provides viewers with opportunities for ‘symbolic distancing’. The concept highlights that when people have insight into lifestyles that are different from their own, they use that as a resource to critically analyse their own lives and cultural understandings. The study evaluates if Bulawayo viewers’ sentiments towards homosexuality has been challenged and changed through their interface with the soap opera, Generations.