This article examines early twentieth-century British "Uranian" same-sex sexualities as a distinct entity from other labels for homosexuality. British sexologists, feminists, and other radical socialist/anarchist reformers invoked scientized versions of mysticism and Asian religions to conceptualize different, though intersecting, meanings for the Uranian. Historians of sexuality, however, tend to conflate the term "Uranian" with the other various and conflicting medico-scientific concepts circulating at the time, such as "homosexual," "sexual invert," and "intermediate sex." Overstating the slippage between terms, however, obscures the significance of Uranianism in the history of same-sex eroticism, and reinforces a dichotomy between spirituality and modernity. The Uranian discourses examined here epitomize a "progressive" historical moment that elaborated the scientific origins for the spirit, soul, and a divine will in the constitution of modern sexual/spiritual subjects. In many ways, Uranianism challenged the late nineteenth-century medical-sexological discourses that demarcated the homosexual as a pathological "type" by creating a more fluid understanding of sexuality through the interplay of Edwardian critiques of scientific materialism with New Age ideas about the mind, psyche, and spirituality. That is not to suggest that Uranianism offered an "alternative" (homo)sexuality that was disentangled from pathological discourses; on the contrary, the Uranian discourses implicitly consolidated the "homosexual type." Tracing the genealogy of Uranian sexuality through three case studies illuminates a modern moment when reformers attempted to create fluid sexualities. We find that Uranianism complicates our understandings about the supposedly dominant role of medical-scientific discourses in the construction of early twentieth-century British (homo)sexuality. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Heterosexuality often appears as a monolithic way of being that has been disciplinarily defined as right and natural for all sexual subjects (Foucault, 1979). However, it may also be viewed as a social construction, subject to alteration and variation according to social and historical context. In the following research, the stories of ten couples and from the South African soap opera Isidingo reveal the ways that heteronorms shape togetherness between men and women. In the research a queer stance is used to interrogate the ways that togetherness appears as natural and normal, such that the contingency of such togetherness is revealed. The queer stance was used to unsettle the unquestioned assumption of heteronormativity by interrogating the construction from a political position not included by the norm (Stein & Plummer, 1994). Within the general queer stance the concept of performance has been used to account for the ways in which subjects are able to unsettle normative constraints: Butler’s (1993) conception of repetition, Holzman’s (1991) account of the revolutionary developmental potential of performance, Billig’s (1991) understanding of the rhetorical constructions of everyday philosophers. Further Bakhtin’s (1994) dialogic ontology suggests that utterances, performances and/or narratives Using these theoretical underpinnings, the narratives show how stories of togetherness collude with heteronorms while at the same time existing alongside alternative forms of togetherness. Possibly because norms are broad, overarching constructions, they do not define the entirety of the couples’ tales. Rather moments of resistance and alteration are interwoven with normative themes. This unpredictable ambivalence appears in the couples narratives as the assertion that all relationships are the same, and that all relationships are unique. Couples position themselves within a social network, and this network instructs the couple on heteronormative ways of being together. They also witness normative performances in a way that is similar to the observation of disciplines, suggested by Foucault (1979). Although couples often go with their social network’s observations, the manner in which couples position themselves within this network assists them in arguing for alternatives to heteronorms. Spatial expressions also at times serve to fix togetherness. Homes are structured in line with social constructions of heteronorms. However, couples can and do mould their understandings of their homes, such space is reveal as an intersection between social and individual concerns. Narratives of work again reveal that heteronorms structure but can also be ignored within heterosexual relationships. Couples tell of receiving particular benefits from normative performances, and it is likely that these dividends make it difficult to opt for an altered version of togetherness. At the same time, the gender dualism of a heteronormative division of labour inserts oppression into togetherness, and this may lead couples to seek an unusual way of being together. In these ways, heterosexuality can be read as a multiple and contingent performance, rather than an immovable, unchangeable imperative.

The purpose of this research is to examine women‟s attitudes toward homosexuality by religiosity, and how these attitudes may vary across denominations. To examine this, I will use the General Social Survey to analyze the extent to which women‟s attitudes toward same-sex relations vary by denominational affiliation, religious participation, and spirituality. Based on the current literature, women are generally considered to be more tolerant than men regarding homosexuality. However, research has not examined the extent to which their attitudes vary across denominational affiliation. This research will contribute to the current literature by examining variations by denomination, religiosity, and spirituality in regards to women‟s attitudes on a controversial, hot-button issue in our society. Following the analysis and explanation of the results, directions for future research are discussed.

LGBT people, in Uganda, have since the colonial time been in a vulnerable situation. When the President signed the “Anti-Homosexuality Act” into law 2014 all forms of same-sex relationships became criminalized. The time after the law passed have been characterized by an increased homophobia and further violence against LGBT people. These are seen as deviants since they do not live according to the social norms, that the right thing to be is heterosexual. They are considered “non-African” and by some an “infectious agent” that will destroy the traditional African family, which is one of society’s most important functions. Except from the fact that LGBT people are persecuted and mistreated they are also denied access to health care and information. The purpose of this study is to explain LGBT persons’ situation and rights in Uganda, mainly based on the “Anti-Homosexuality Act”. This law is reviewed against the ratified conventions, charters and similar laws. This is then related to the theory of heteronormativity, which seems to dominate the Ugandan society. The used methods are case study and conceptual analysis, that provided a deeper and surveying understanding of what this study intended to process.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This thesis will examine how gay men are depicted in mainstream Japanese pop culture. To be discussed are: gay-themed comics for girls, mainstream movies in which the protagonists are gay, and finally, gay men's magazines which are gay authored and consumed. In examining how fantasies in these texts respond to the needs of various readerships, it is possible to understand how important and challenging it is for gay Japanese men to create identities of their own, identities which will allow them more possibilities than the prevailing facade of compulsory heterosexuality, complete with marriage and children.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Dec. 19, 2005). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-148). Also issued as print manuscript.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / Eurocentric literature has contributed towards the understanding of homosexuality for centuries. However, there is very little literature on perceptions of homosexuality from an African perspective. Based on this historical gap, the aim of the current study was to explore Northern Sotho traditional healers’ perceptions of homosexuality in the Capricorn District in Limpopo Province, South Africa. This was with the intention of documenting themes pertinent to Northern Sotho culture regarding homosexuality. Ten (10) participants (7 females and 3 males) were interviewed in the current study and they were selected using snowball sampling. Data was collected using individual face-to-face interviews guided by semi-structured questions and analysed using Thematic content analysis (TCA). The study was underpinned by Afrocentricity. The main themes and sub-themes which emerged from the data analysis were: homosexuality threatens family structure and values; homosexuality is regarded as a taboo and a disgrace; homosexuality and ancestral calling; historical evidence of homosexuality; homosexuality is confusing; homosexuality and western culture; homosexuality and cleansing (mourning process); homosexuality, traditional healing and ancestral calling; homosexuality and initiation schools as well as proposed interventions to curb homosexuality. The results of the study suggest that understanding homosexuality is not consistent with Northern Sotho culture. The study contributes to knowledge and information within Northern Sotho culture and offers suggestions for indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), academic training, policy development and legislation in terms of homosexuality and the indigenous culture. The study also offers guidelines, which health care workers and any other relevant personnel who work closely with homosexuals, should be cognisant of. Furthermore, valuable lessons were also reasoned from the current study in terms of homosexuality and Northern Sotho culture in the area where the research took place.

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In the short period between 1931 and 1934 a flurry of gay-themed novels was published which were blatantly marketed as novels exploring the "twilight world" of homosexual men. In the subsequent seventy-odd years these titles have received very little attention, being entirely forgotten or sometimes erroneously grouped with postwar gay pulp fiction. Furthermore, almost without exception, the 1930s novels portray a concept of homosexuality which does not quite fit into the postwar view of sexual orientation or gay isolation. Section I explores how titles like A Scarlet Pansy, Strange Brother, and Twilight Men, all show a view of homosexuality that was immersed in gender norms and class differences much more than psychology or the modern concept of sexual orientation. In many cases, masculine or feminine behavior denotes status more than does the actual gender of one's sexual partner. Words like "homosexual" and "heterosexual" had a "highly clinical" sound to most 1930s ears (to quote a character in Better Angel). That is not to say, however, the readership of these novels were unfamiliar with "the love that dare not speak its name". In fact, it seems many novels took for granted their readers' knowledge of urban, working-class "fairy culture" and were seeking either to shock or, conversely, elicit sympathy by depicting non-flamboyant protagonists as well as stock pansies. In contrast to postwar treatments, the novels of the 1930s never depict gay men as existing in confused isolation. Section II explores how the novels oflen treat the gay shadow world as an elite, artistic club-albeit one filled with sinful excesses and potential dangers. Finally, after 1935 the tone of gay-themed novels changed abruptly, as the public's "pansy craze" abated. Older notions of"gender inversion" and ''Nature's intermediates" faded and homosexuality became more associated with psychological affliction with societal implications / History / M.A.