LGBT+ and Public Libraries Hana Bouchalová English Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to define the relations of the Czech LGBT+ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans* with respect to other gender identities and sexual orientations) and Czech public libraries. Focusing on LGBT+ literature and library and information services, the thesis offers both library and LGBT+ community perspective, using following research methods: questionnaires and interviews (executed with the help of LGBT+ groups and organisations), interviews with librarians, mystery shopping and analysis of selected Czech public library collections. Theoretical chapters discussing the existence of Czech queer libraries and the situation of LGBT+ community in the Czech Republic and elsewhere are also included. Final chapter contains suggestions for libraries how to better design and improve their services and offers related topics for further discussion.

[pt] Esta dissertação pleiteia que os efeitos da agenda LGBT normativa favorecem alguns grupos sociais, mas reforçam a marginalização e a expropriação de pessoas e povos queer não-brancos, seja em contextos domésticos, ou na política internacional. Para explicar essa lógica, o trabalho apresenta uma montagem teórica experimental: a perspectiva foucaultiana sobre poder disciplinar e dispositivo de sexualidade (FOUCAULT, 2002; FOUCAULT, 1998) acoplada a uma crítica queer of color (FERGUSON, 2004), que atenta para o disciplinar das formações racializadas não-heteronormativas que surgiram para suprir o mercado de trabalho capitalista nos centros urbanos onde o a burguesia primeiro ascendeu. Com esse primeiro movimento, será mostrada a imbricação entre capital, poder disciplinar e sexualidade, para indicar que tal poder disciplinar atua em favor de uma hegemonia político-sexual branca e burguesa. Posteriormente, para indicar as tendências do período neoliberal recente, o esforço consistirá em refletir sobre as ausências estratégicas do Estado neoliberal e as formas pelas quais a heteronormatividade é reforçada em comunidades racionalizadas, ao passo que a homonormatividade se torna mais acessível a grupos que correspondem a recortes de classe e raça identificados com a branquitude e o alto poder de consumo. Tal montagem teórica permitirá entender, também, como a normatividade sexual, presente na política LGBT e embutida nas noções de atraso e desenvolvimento, reforça as desigualdades internacionais. Por fim, o trabalho indicará como as perspectivas queer contém pontos-chave que permitem a transformação do tecido político, econômico e social nacional, e a desestabilização das hierarquias internacionais de poder. / [en] This Masters thesis claims that the effects of the normative LGBT agenda favor some social groups but reinforce the marginalization and expropriation of nonwhite queer persons and peoples, whether in domestic contexts or in international politics. Following this logic, the work has an experimental set-up: a Foucautian perspective on disciplinary power and the sexuality device (FOUCAULT, 2002; FOUCAULT, 1998) coupled with a queer of color critique (FERGUSON, 2004), which draws attention to the disciplining of the non-heteronormative racial formations that emerged to supply the capitalist labor market in the urban centers where the bourgeoisie first rose. With this first movement, this work will attemp to demonstrate the imbrication between capital, disciplinary power and sexuality, indicating that such disciplinary power acts in favor of white and bourgeois political hegemony. Later on, to indicate the trends of the recent neoliberal period, the argument points to the strategic absencers of the neoliberal State and the ways in which heteronormativity is reinforced in racialized communities, while homonormativity is accessible to groups that correspond to class and racial positions identified with whiteness and high consumption patterns. Such a theoretical set-up willl also allow readers to understand how the sexual normativity present in LGBT politics, and embedded in the notions of backwardness and development, reinforces international inequalities. Finally, the paper will indicate how queer perspectives contain key points that could enable the transfomation of the political, economic and social fabric locally, as well as the destabilization of international hierarchies of power.

Ce mémoire s'intéresse aux rôles des groupes communautaires LGBT et à leur influence sur le processus de formulation de la Politique québécoise de lutte contre l'homophobie. Il analyse les dynamiques entre les groupes représentant les intérêts des minorités sexuelles et de genres et le Gouvernement du Québec, pendant la période 2000-2011. Notre recherche mobilise un cadre théorique basé sur la théorie de la mobilisation des ressources, ainsi qu'une approche qui combine les outils de l'approche corporatiste et de l'approche pluraliste. Sur la base d'une analyse documentaire et de 6 entrevues menées avec des leaders communautaires LGBT et un.e fonctionnaire du Ministère de la justice, l'analyse révèle comment la question de l'homophobie au Québec a contribué à la création d'une relation corporatiste entre l'État et certains des groupes les mieux dotés en ressources. Elle offre également un regard nouveau sur les relations entre les groupes communautaires et les stratégies d'influences employées en fonction de leurs ressources / This masters thesis is about the roles of LGBT community groups and their influence on the creation of the Politique québécoise de lutte contre l'homophobie (Quebec's national policy against homophobia.) It analyses the dynamics between the groups representing the interests of sexual and gender minorities and the Quebec government, from 2000 to 2011. Our research uses a theoretical framework based on resource mobilization theory as well as an approach that combines the tools of the corporatist and pluralist approaches. On the basis of a documentary analysis and 6 interviews held with LGBT community leaders as well as official from the Ministry of Justice, the analysis reveals how the issue of homophobia in Quebec contributed to the creation of a corporatist relationship between the State and some of the groups controlling the most resources. It also offers a new perspective on the relations between community groups and the strategies they employ, as a function of their resources, to influence the State.

This is a qualitative interview study where 7 transgender people is interviewed about their experiences of treatment from institutions within society. In semi-structured interviews, respondents talk about the treatment they received from health care, education, legal system, employment offices and social services. The study's purpose is to examine the treatment transgender peoples gets based on their own stories and perspectives. The study also discusses the social structures, like binary gender norms, that contribute to a negative attitude and the consequences of this approach. The result shows that there is a great lack of knowledge within institutions and professionals have insufficient training in how to treat people with transgender identities. Respondents have often had to educate professionals and carries their identity as a backpack that they can not get rid of. The results also indicate that the prevailing social structures that divide people in binary gender norms is problematic for transgender people. / Detta är en kvalitativ intervjustudie där 7 transpersoner intervjuats om deras erfarenheter av bemötande från samhällets instanser. I semistrukturerade intervjuer har respondenterna berättat om det bemötande de fått från vården, utbildning, rättsväsendet, arbetsförmedlingen och socialförvaltningen. Studiens syfte är att undersöka bemötande transpersoner får utifrån deras egna berättelser och perspektiv. I studien diskuteras även samhällsstrukturer, såsom tvåkönsnormen, som bidrar till ett negativt bemötande samt konsekvenserna av detta bemötande. Resultatet visar att det råder en stor kunskapsbrist inom samhällets instanser och professionella har bristande utbildning i hur de ska bemöta personer med könsöverskridande identiteter. Respondenterna har ofta fått agera utbildare för professionella och bär med sig sin identitet som en ryggsäck som de inte kan bli av med. Resultatet pekar också på att rådande samhällsstrukturer som delar in personer i en tvåkönsnorm är problematisk för transpersoner.

Drawing from observation, autoethnography, ethnographic research and audio-taped interviews, this thesis explores the complicated and emotionally charged relationship between homosexuality and Christianity. The current culture war being waged in the media between the Religious Right and members of the LGBT community often results in the isolation and rejection of those who would define themselves as gay Christians. This thesis explores the role of the Bible as it informs and catalyzes this war and other foundational beliefs used as weapons in this rhetorical conflict. Additionally, this thesis analyzes the current battle between the church and the social movement for change in light of the historical battles fought over similar movements. The rhetoric of Christianity, specifically Fundamentalist rhetoric, has been emphatically defended and then dramatically changed in every such battle. Is this a possible resolution for today’s current battle? The thesis explores the historical basis and current application of rhetorical effects on this conflict through the author’s insight as a veteran of both worlds, interviews with major players in the battle such as Randy Thomas and Kristin Tremba of Exodus International and interviews with people who step on the battlefield everyday as pastors, congregants or observers in the fight. With each interview or rhetorical analysis, the viability of dialogue between these two groups is questioned and investigated.

Despite growing evidence of their prevalence, clinical and subclinical disordered eating behaviors among men continue to be understudied phenomena. When compared to females, predictors of male disordered eating vary across ethnic groups, suggesting cultural influences on disordered eating. Moreover, gay and bisexual men experience pronounced levels of body dissatisfaction, sensitivity to societal body image standards, and subsequent disordered eating when compared to straight men and gay women. This study investigated possible differences in prediction of disordered eating among intersections of male ethnicity and sexuality. We approached this question through a transtheoretical lens that integrated intersectionality and minority stress theories. Archival data from a sample of African American, Latino, and White college men were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. Predictors of emotional and binge eating behaviors differed across ethnicity, in that body dissatisfaction and media internalization for African American and Latino males exhibit the strongest unique associations with emotional and binge eating behaviors, while the strongest unique predictors of emotional and binge eating behaviors among White males are depressive symptoms and low self-esteem. Moreover, African American sexual identity and depressive symptoms interact, as gay or bisexual men report stronger unique associations between depression symptoms and emotional and binge eating. All predictors (i.e., body dissatisfaction, depression symptoms, low self-esteem, media internalization, and sexual minority identity) were unable to explain sufficient variance in over exercise behaviors in African American men. Results suggest ethnicity and sexual orientation are meaningful to the experience of disordered eating in men, and that underlying mechanisms may exhibit differing associative patterns across ethnic identity. Clinicians working with ethnically and sexually diverse male disordered eating populations may use the results to better inform treatment interventions and conceptualization. These findings also support the value of intersectional quantitative methodology and the limits of relying on single-axis identity as a predictive element.

With more than 75% of its population experiencing poverty, Zimbabwe was in 2012 considered one of the world's poorest countries. The country sits at the centre of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and remains one of the hardest hit countries accounting for 5% of all new infections in sub-Saharan Africa. Zimbabwe's 15% HIV prevalence rate was 19 times the global average by 2012, and the total years of life lost due to premature mortality increased by over 150% between 1990 and 2010 because of HIV/AIDS. This study draws on notions of 'governmentality' to ask how the 'framing' of the value of PLWHA has influenced their treatment by the Zimbabwean government and society. Four questions are posed: first the study asks, in what ways do health policy decision-makers in Zimbabwe frame the value of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)? Secondly, the study questions the ways in which people not infected by HIV (Non-PLWHA) frame the value of PLWHA. Thirdly, the study turns to PLWHA and asks how they frame their own value. Finally, the study investigates the implications of valuing PLWHA, for their lives, or conversely, their deaths. The study draws upon primary research undertaken through interviews, focus group discussions, observations and document review. While there are some contradictions within and between groups of study participants in the ways they frame the value of PLWHA; the study finds consensus within and between these groups in the manner in which they tend to value PLWHA. Analysing these findings, there are five ways people in Zimbabwe frame the value of PLWHA. Firstly, from a 'citizen' perspective, PLWHA are both legal and political citizens who can identify as equal members of society like other citizens. They have social rights; participate, belong and can access HIV treatment that can reduce risks of death. Secondly, from a 'client' standpoint; PLWHA are customers, gaining access to health services through individual monetary payments or social payments such as Government budget allocations. This introduces a degree of 'rationing', forcing the clients (PLWHA) to behave in ways that increase their chances of receiving services. Those with lower purchasing power struggle to access expensive life-saving anti-retrovirals, thus individual wealth confers value on the lives of the wealthy. Thirdly, framing from a Statistical Representation perspective - through statistics, PLWHA can be used as a means of bargaining for government to gain access to international funding, to increase the chances of survival for PLWHA by bringing services such as antiretroviral therapy (ART). Fourthly, the 'Expendable populations' perspective views subgroups of PLWHA who fail to adhere to norms of behaviour prescribed by the government, including those unable to purchase services, such as the poor and homosexuals, sex workers and prisoners, as populations that may be allowed to die. Finally, the study shows that PLWHA lament the discursive space of technocrats with a counter-narrative of their value in which they emerge not as expendable victims but as victors reframed as an indefatigable population - 'Resiliencers'. PLWHA create a narrative of disobedient materiality, challenging totalising notions of governmentality. This study concludes by considering the relevance in the Zimbabwean context of the concept of 'Allowable Death' as a premature, avoidable death despite consciously crafted narratives that the death happened because nothing could have been done under the prevailing conditions to prevent it.

For six decades, consumer researchers have relied heavily on Goffman's (1963) seminal work on stigma, often limiting themselves to a one-dimensional treatment of it as a static variable that determines the behaviour of homogenous groups. Such views, however, stand at odds with wider paradigm shifts away from modernity, and with feminist considerations about intersectionality. Most importantly, the dearth of studies examining the interplay between structural macro-dynamics and micro-level experiences has meant that rapid changes in societal attitudes have received insufficient attention. Considering the rise of minority portrayals in the past few years and importance of the media in dispersing and ameliorating stigma, there is a need to understand how media experiences differ across generations, sociocultural categories, and individual life-courses. Focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and other (LGBTQ+) individuals, and building on Bauman's (2000) concept of liquid modernity as well as Bourdieu's (1994) theory of practice, this thesis explores how stigma experiences of two generations of LGBTQ+ consumers have changed, how this relates to their experiences of LGBTQ+ media portrayals, as well as what this tells us about how (marginalised) consumers navigate their lives and particularly the fragmentation of identity politics through (media) consumption. I followed an intersectional phenomenological enquiry, employing a meaning-based model of media experience that contributes to the literature by extending Mick and Buhl's (1992) work to account for considerations of intersectionality and intertextuality. Life story- and subsequent media experience interviews were analysed individually and across cases. The sample consisted of eight LGBTQ+ members of the Boomer- and ten of the Millennial generation. This study develops a theoretical framework of stigma as viscous instead of static: in constant flux due to the dynamic interplay between the doxic attitudes in social fields, as well as individual embodied dispositions, the stigma habitus. This provides a richer understanding of how it is enacted in consumer culture, enabling a critical analysis of the dialectic relationship between individuals and their environment. Through this framework, my study challenges generational accounts of difference, which are found to be too simplistic to account for diverging (media) experiences. Instead, it is the dialectic between context and (stigma) habitus that shapes dynamic experiences. For participants facing high levels of stigma viscosity, for example, LGBTQ+ portrayals seemed particularly important and experiences revolved around social acceptance. Moreover, lived experiences, as well as doxic beliefs about media, advertising, and a text's 'author' formed an intertextual frame of reference used to evaluate portrayals' authenticity and harmfulness. Importantly, participants' preference for or rejection of 'radical' vs heteronormative portrayals was shaped by tastes that have become naturalised in their habitus, with disparate doxic beliefs generating reflexive guilt and ambivalence. My findings suggest that stigma amelioration may ultimately lead to symbolic violence within the LGBTQ+ community against those who do not adhere to accepted consumption standards. This study also has implications for consumers more broadly as changes in viscosity affect consumption practices. Adhering to a critical approach, I describe a range of recommendations for practitioners and reflexive practices I engaged in following this study.

Submitted by Irvana Coutinho (irvana@ufpa.br) on 2017-05-15T14:53:11Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Tese_RepresentacoesSociasUniversitarios.pdf: 5214846 bytes, checksum: a18b91ba2e513b779daa8af26f705831 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Irvana Coutinho (irvana@ufpa.br) on 2017-05-15T14:53:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Tese_RepresentacoesSociasUniversitarios.pdf: 5214846 bytes, checksum: a18b91ba2e513b779daa8af26f705831 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-15T14:53:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Tese_RepresentacoesSociasUniversitarios.pdf: 5214846 bytes, checksum: a18b91ba2e513b779daa8af26f705831 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-25 / Este estudo tem como objetivo discutir e analisar as representações sociais de universitários de sexualidades LGBT (Lésbicas, Gays, Bissexuais, Travestis, Transexuais e Transgêneros) sobre os seus processos de escolarização e as implicações deste percurso em seus projetos de vida. Para tanto, foram escolhidos quatro sujeitos que se autodeclararam com as identidades sexuais de acordo com a disposição da sigla LGBT, ou seja, uma mulher lésbica, um jovem gay, um bissexual e uma mulher transexual. Inicialmente situamos a questão LGBT no panorama atual, bem como sua origem e especificidades. Em seguida questões sobre educação, diferença e escolarização são problematizadas por todo o estudo assim como apresentamos individualmente as principais características da Teoria das Representações Sociais e da Teoria Queer, para depois tentar aproximá-las teórica e metodologicamente. Buscamos entender primeiramente as suas trajetórias escolares dividindo-as em três etapas: ensino fundamental, médio e superior, as quais chamamos de primeira, segunda e terceira escolarização, respectivamente. Suas trajetórias escolares foram analisadas a partir do referencial teórico e epistemológico da Teoria das Representações Sociais com base em Moscovici (2003; 2002) e Jodelet (1989) e o referencial teórico metodológico da Teoria Queer a partir dos estudos de Butler (2014; 1993). Nosso estudo é uma pesquisa descritiva, qualitativa e interpretativa e como método de pesquisa nos utilizamos parcialmente do referencial de análise do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo (DSC) proposto por Lefevre e Lefevre (2012; 2005) bem como a própria Teoria Queer também enquanto referencial metodológico. Como resultado, percebemos que os sujeitos analisados possuem consensos e partilhas sobre as imagens e os sentidos atribuídos à escola e à sua sexualidade, buscando na escolarização uma forma de legitimação de si e empoderamento como compensação dos enfrentamentos que impactaram em seus projetos de vida. / This study aims at discussing and analyzing the social representations of LGBT university students (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Transgender) on their educational processes and the implications of this trajetory in their life projects. In order to do this, four people were chosen based on their specific sexual identities according to the terms of LGBT acronym, i.e. a lesbian woman, a young gay man, a bisexual and a transsexual woman. Initially we situate the LGBT issues in the current scenario as well as their origin and basic characteristics. Then, questions about education, difference and schooling are problematized throughout the study as well as we present specifically the main features of the Social Representation Theory and Queer Theory, and then we try to compare both in terms of theoretical and methodological backgrounds. We firstly intend to comprehend their learning paths dividing them into three stages: basic, secondary and higher formal education, which we call the first, the second and the third schooling process, respectively. Their school trajectories were analyzed from the theoretical and epistemological framework of Social Representation Theory based on Moscovici (2003; 2002) and Jodelet (1989) and methodological theoretical framework of Queer Theory from Butler's studies (2014; 1993). This study can be considered a descriptive, qualitative and interpretative research, and concerning to the research method in use, part of the analytical framework of the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD) proposed by Lefevre and Lefevre (2012; 2005) is taken into account as well as the Queer Theory as methodological framework. As a result, we realize that the analyzed students are consensual by the sharing of images and meanings attributed to school and to their sexual identities, and they also try to reach ways of being legitimised by themselves, looking for in education a significant empowerment as a compensation for the school clashes which surely impacted on their life projects.

We’re often warned that the internet will hasten the dating apocalypse. The internet (it is posited) is depriving us of the elusive in-person magic, and modern courtship is now little more than love at first byte. There remains uncertainty, however, about what the independent impact of the internet on the dating market has been. Similar to the internet, the telephone also changed the way we communicate, but its effect on the dating market was mostly complementary to the 'traditional' ways of meeting – i.e. calling your school crush at home. So the question remains: Is the effect of the internet on the dating market complementary (adding your school crush on Facebook) or substitutionary (matching with a stranger on Tinder)? Is the internet any better than the telephone? If all that was known about a random couple is that they met after 2015, I find that there is a 1 in 3 chance that the couple met as strangers online. Lesbian couples who met after 2015 have a 1 in 2 chance of meeting online, whereas gay male couples have a 63% probability of meeting online as strangers. This increased likelihood of same-sex couples meeting online (as opposed to heterosexual couples) confirms the thin-market hypothesis. The key value proposition of the internet is that it reduces search frictions in the dating market – effectively making it easier for individuals to seek out their optimal matching. I find that the internet is primarily displacing only ‘social circles’ as a dating venue – the probability of meeting partners in public or at institutions (like college) is unchanged. In other words – individuals are essentially replacing their friends with Wi-Fi when it comes to mate search.