Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 264-292.

Thesis (doctoral)--La Salle University, 2005. / ProQuest dissertations and theses ; AAT 3227735. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-76)

Thesis (Ph. D. (Psychology)) --University of Limpopo, 2019 / South African has constitutional protection for the human rights of all its citizens. However, black lesbians in South Africa suffer physical, emotional and psychological abuse. This qualitative study aimed to elicit the social and emotional experiences of black lesbians living, as same-sex partners, in a township setting. The design of the study was exploratory in nature and used a purposive sample of ten couples (twenty women). The investigation was underpinned by Social domain theory (SDT) which allowed for an understanding of the judgements people make in different social settings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each couple in order to collect data. The data were analysed using thematic content analysis (TCA) which gleaned ten themes namely, age and sexual orientation, suicide, education, lack of support, hate crimes, substance abuse, stigma, mental health, parenting and discrimination. In the discussion it was found that these themes echoed those in other local and international studies. However, corrective rape is peculiar to South Africa and was experienced by some participants in the study. In one case a brother, with the mother’s support raped his sister repeatedly. This took place in a country which has a progressive constitution and laws. Social norms in the township allows black lesbian couples to suffer this type of abuse and have daily experiences of discrimination and stigmatisation. Recommendations included a quantitative more far reaching study (as well as longitudinal studies) and more workshops and campaigns spreading knowledge about sexuality.

Planned parenthood within the lesbian and gay communities attracts considerable attention internationally among researchers, the media, and law and policy-makers. This Australian study situates the phenomenon�also known as the �gayby boom��within the contemporary Australian socio-legal setting and the more international historical and political contexts of Gay and Women�s Liberation. It investigates how beliefs about nature, kinship, the sexed and reproductive body and political ideologies of family intersect in lesbians and gay men�s decision-making and stories of living their lives as parents. Two fields of intellectual enquiry are generative: the interest in families of choice and family practices within sociology and the post-modern anthropological critique of Western kinship in the era of assisted reproduction. This is a qualitative study informed by a critical humanist approach. It is based on in-depth and key informant interviews conducted with 20 lesbians and 15 gay men (parents, �donor/dads� and prospective parents) as well as 7 people engaged in legal, health or therapeutic support to prospective and current parents. Also incorporated into the analysis are a range of other primary sources, including a substantial media debate, submissions to an assisted reproduction law reform process and primary documents supplied by participants such as parenting agreements and letters. The study argues for the need to look beyond unitary concepts such as families of choice when theorising lesbian and gay parenthood. It is important to consider the historical, political and biographical conditions that make some notions of relatedness and decisions about having children seem more feasible, and indeed, natural than others. It explores how various notions of biological relatedness remain important in the formation of parent/child relationships, and the extent to which lesbians and gay men rely on strategic appeals to choice and biology in enacting families. Continuing constraints on who is eligible for clinically assisted reproductive technology in Australia lead to imaginative and harmonious, yet also fraught reproductive relationships.

In this thesis I start by reviewing the theoretical perspectives that have informed the debate around equality rights for gays and lesbians. Next, I will analyze the concept of equality developed by the Supreme Court of Canada under section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In the Andrews case, decided in 1989, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected a model based on formal equality, embracing instead the far-reaching concept of substantive equality as a way to redress historical prejudice and disadvantage of individuals and groups that fall within enumerated or analogous grounds of discrimination. In the last decade, a number of courts have applied this model to equality claims brought under the Charter by same-sex couples. I will explore the details of several of these cases as well as a variety of statutes relating to same-sex couples. Finally, I will discuss recent law reform proposals that recommend that state benefits should be allocated regardless of the relationship status of the beneficiaries, thereby envisaging more radical changes to the legal system. I conclude that the Canadian approach to equality for same-sex couples has followed an interpretive method that seems to apply a definition of family that is shifting and varies on an ad hoc basis, but that the denial of spousal status under marriage laws represents a limitation of equality rights still to be overcome. I also conclude that, in fact, the concept of status may still influence the adjudication process under section 15 of the Charter as far as marriage rights are concerned. This is because the framework of analysis under section 15 calls for an assessment of the claimant's position in the larger socio-political context, and this element, if not properly circumscribed, risks being corrupted by existing prejudices and biases relating to family.

Planned parenthood within the lesbian and gay communities attracts considerable attention internationally among researchers, the media, and law and policy-makers. This Australian study situates the phenomenon�also known as the �gayby boom��within the contemporary Australian socio-legal setting and the more international historical and political contexts of Gay and Women�s Liberation. It investigates how beliefs about nature, kinship, the sexed and reproductive body and political ideologies of family intersect in lesbians and gay men�s decision-making and stories of living their lives as parents. Two fields of intellectual enquiry are generative: the interest in families of choice and family practices within sociology and the post-modern anthropological critique of Western kinship in the era of assisted reproduction. This is a qualitative study informed by a critical humanist approach. It is based on in-depth and key informant interviews conducted with 20 lesbians and 15 gay men (parents, �donor/dads� and prospective parents) as well as 7 people engaged in legal, health or therapeutic support to prospective and current parents. Also incorporated into the analysis are a range of other primary sources, including a substantial media debate, submissions to an assisted reproduction law reform process and primary documents supplied by participants such as parenting agreements and letters. The study argues for the need to look beyond unitary concepts such as families of choice when theorising lesbian and gay parenthood. It is important to consider the historical, political and biographical conditions that make some notions of relatedness and decisions about having children seem more feasible, and indeed, natural than others. It explores how various notions of biological relatedness remain important in the formation of parent/child relationships, and the extent to which lesbians and gay men rely on strategic appeals to choice and biology in enacting families. Continuing constraints on who is eligible for clinically assisted reproductive technology in Australia lead to imaginative and harmonious, yet also fraught reproductive relationships.

In this thesis I start by reviewing the theoretical perspectives that have informed the debate around equality rights for gays and lesbians. Next, I will analyze the concept of equality developed by the Supreme Court of Canada under section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In the Andrews case, decided in 1989, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected a model based on formal equality, embracing instead the far-reaching concept of substantive equality as a way to redress historical prejudice and disadvantage of individuals and groups that fall within enumerated or analogous grounds of discrimination. In the last decade, a number of courts have applied this model to equality claims brought under the Charter by same-sex couples. I will explore the details of several of these cases as well as a variety of statutes relating to same-sex couples. Finally, I will discuss recent law reform proposals that recommend that state benefits should be allocated regardless of the relationship status of the beneficiaries, thereby envisaging more radical changes to the legal system. I conclude that the Canadian approach to equality for same-sex couples has followed an interpretive method that seems to apply a definition of family that is shifting and varies on an ad hoc basis, but that the denial of spousal status under marriage laws represents a limitation of equality rights still to be overcome. I also conclude that, in fact, the concept of status may still influence the adjudication process under section 15 of the Charter as far as marriage rights are concerned. This is because the framework of analysis under section 15 calls for an assessment of the claimant's position in the larger socio-political context, and this element, if not properly circumscribed, risks being corrupted by existing prejudices and biases relating to family. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

Die Diplomarbeit untersucht die Gestaltung von Hochzeitsfeiern lesbischer Paare vor dem Hintergrund ritualtheoretischer Konzepte und dem Wandel der gesellschaftlichen Bedeutung des Heiratens. Es werden sechs lesbische Paare mithilfe leidfadengestützter Interviews zu Vorbereitung, Ablauf und Nachwirkungen ihrer Hochzeitsfeiern befragt. Schwerpunkt der durch Verfahren der Grounded Theory geleiteten Analyse sind der Umgang mit dem kulturellen Konzept „Hochzeit“ und die Gestaltung der Hochzeitsfeiern in Auseinandersetzung mit heteronormativen Erwartungen. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass lesbische Paare bei der Gestaltung ihrer Hochzeitsfeiern eine Inklusion von eigenem Paarverständnis und kulturellen Anforderungen an Hochzeitsfeiern anstreben. Dabei knüpfen sie an kulturell tradierte Bräuche an, sodass nicht von einer eigenständigen lesbischen Hochzeitskultur gesprochen werden kann.:1. Einleitung 2. Lesbische Paare in er soziologischen Forschung 2.1 Zur Geschichte der Lesbenforschung 2.2 Forschungsstand 3. Die Eingetragene Lebenspartnerschaft 3.1 Anforderunge und Wünsche von Lesben und Schwulen 3.2 Geschichte des Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetzes 3.3 Gesezliche Bestimmungen des Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetzes 3.4 Kritik und Diskussion zum Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetz 3.5 Verbreitung der Eingetragenen Lebenspartnerschaft 4. Hochzeitsfeiern als (Übergangs-)Rituale 4.1 Ritualbegriff in der Soziologie 4.2 Übergangsrituale 4.3 Hochzeiten als Übergangsrituale 4.4 Veränderungen in der rituellen Gestaltung von Hochzeiten 4.5 Heutige Hochzeiten und ihr Status als Übergangsritual 5. Empirische Untersuchung 5.1 Auswahl der Erhebungsmethode 5.2 Entwicklung des Interviewleitfadens 5.3 Durchführung der Untersuchung 5.4 Transkription 5.5 Auswertungsmethode 6. Wie lesbische Paare ihre Eingetragene Lebenspartnerschaft feiern 6.1 Beschreibung der Hochzeitsfeiern 6.2 Fallübergreifende Betrachtung 6.3 Analyse der Hauptkategorien 6.4 Entwicklung der Schlüsselkategorie 7. Die Ergebnisse im Kontext des Forschungsstandes Literaturverzeichnis / The thesis studies lesbian weddings against the background of ritual theory and the changing social significance of getting married. Six lesbian couples are interviewed on planning, realization and aftereffects of their weddings. The analysis is based on grounded theory procedures and focuses on dealing with the cultural concept of “wedding” and the arrangement of weddings against the background of heteronormative expectations. Results suggest that lesbian couples strive for an inclusion of their own understanding of being a couple with cultural standards for weddings. They build on traditional customs, so that there appears to be no independent lesbian wedding culture.:1. Einleitung 2. Lesbische Paare in er soziologischen Forschung 2.1 Zur Geschichte der Lesbenforschung 2.2 Forschungsstand 3. Die Eingetragene Lebenspartnerschaft 3.1 Anforderunge und Wünsche von Lesben und Schwulen 3.2 Geschichte des Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetzes 3.3 Gesezliche Bestimmungen des Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetzes 3.4 Kritik und Diskussion zum Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetz 3.5 Verbreitung der Eingetragenen Lebenspartnerschaft 4. Hochzeitsfeiern als (Übergangs-)Rituale 4.1 Ritualbegriff in der Soziologie 4.2 Übergangsrituale 4.3 Hochzeiten als Übergangsrituale 4.4 Veränderungen in der rituellen Gestaltung von Hochzeiten 4.5 Heutige Hochzeiten und ihr Status als Übergangsritual 5. Empirische Untersuchung 5.1 Auswahl der Erhebungsmethode 5.2 Entwicklung des Interviewleitfadens 5.3 Durchführung der Untersuchung 5.4 Transkription 5.5 Auswertungsmethode 6. Wie lesbische Paare ihre Eingetragene Lebenspartnerschaft feiern 6.1 Beschreibung der Hochzeitsfeiern 6.2 Fallübergreifende Betrachtung 6.3 Analyse der Hauptkategorien 6.4 Entwicklung der Schlüsselkategorie 7. Die Ergebnisse im Kontext des Forschungsstandes Literaturverzeichnis

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This short dissertation is an appraisal of same-sex marriages. The traditional arguments against same-sex unions are examined and rejected as being circular, unconvincing and baseless. Some of the international developments on the subject of same-sex unions are examined and it is noted that a slow but distinct change in attitude towards same-sex marriages is beginning to emerge from international judiciaries. The legal position of people with same-sex orientation in the South African legal system is examined with special reference to our Constitution. It is submitted that our Constitution is the foremost vehicle for legal change in this regard and that the equality clause of our Constitution is authority for the recognition by the law of same-sex marriages. This dissertation concludes that same-sex marriages ought to be fully accepted and recognised by the law for reasons, inter alia, of fairness and equality for people of same-sex orientation. / Constitutional, International & Indigenous Law / LL. M.