Denna uppsats redogör för hur homosexuella, bisexuella och transsexuella personer har karaktäriserats inom svensk film mellan åren 1916 och 1998. Undersökningens mål har varit att ta reda på hur framställandet av HBT-personer har förändrats under tidsperioden och relatera detta till samhällets lagar och normer kring homosexualitet samt till den internationella utvecklingen. Uppsatsen visar att homosexualitet alls inte diskuterades öppet inom den svenska filmen förrän i slutet av 1940-talet. På 1950 och 1960 framställdes homo- och bisexuella relativt ofta inom den svenska filmen - betydligt oftare än inom hollywoodfilmen. Poträtterandet var ofta negativt men undantag fanns, särskilt när det gällde kvinnlig homosexualitet. Först på 1980-talet kan man se en klar tendens till att homosexualitet framställdes som någonting naturligt och ofarligt. De filmer som tar upp homosexualitet under 1990-talet verkar alla att ha en mycket positiv inställning.

The aim of this study is to examine new interpretations of homosexuality in Islam based on Scott Kugle’s book “Homosexuality in Islam” and the documentary “A Jihad for love” by Parvez Sharma. Through a theological perspective, a critical analysis is performed in order to find new interpretations and compare them with each other and with the Islamic legal tradition. Argumentative analysis is also used for both the book and the documentary for this essay.     Both Kugle and Sharma use new interpretations and arguments about love to find space for homosexuality in Islam. They use a Muslim language to have relevance with their discussions to Muslim readers and viewers. It is obvious that Sharma is aware of the scenes and arguments he chose to show in the documentary. Kugle focuses on unclear verses in the Qur’an, which contribute to that he could find possibilities to interpret homosexuals in the verses to fulfill his purpose and open up a topic for discussion. Their discussion show what Muslim homosexuals have to struggle with and with their new interpretations they both discover ways to find reconciliation between Islam and people’s sexual orientation by questioning the normative society.

The Canadian early childhood landscape is changing substantially, pushing early childhood from a private family responsibility into the greater public policy discourse. New investments in early childhood services, combined with research that defines the importance of early years learning, requires a careful analysis of the professional preparation of early childhood educators. At the same time typical understandings of family and childhood are being challenged through legal and social policy reforms. Although Canadian demographic changes indicate a growing number of queer families with children, the gap in addressing the interests of queer identified parents and their children is exacerbated by the dominance of a heteronormative perspective in early childhood theory, training and practice. My study demonstrates the disparity between the professional preparation of early childhood educators in Ontario and how queer families are understood in the Canadian context. I draw upon queer theory to deconstruct how educators understand child development patterns and family composition including the newly defined family units that can include single or multiple parents of varying sexual identities that may consist of, but are not limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and trans parents. Using qualitative methods, the research is grounded in data sources including text analysis of key early childhood texts, focus groups with early childhood educators who have graduated from ECE training programs in Ontario during the last decade and interviews with queer parents with young children enrolled in early childhood programs. I argue that the inherent heteronormative discourse of developmentally appropriate practice silences queer in early childhood training and is embedded in foundational approaches including standards of practice, curriculum frameworks and textbooks commonly used in the training of early childhood educators. Notions of diversity, equity and inclusion structure this silencing. My study also found that early childhood educators have a narrow understanding of how queer parents may be similar or different from other parents. Educators have a limited capacity to support and engage with parents that do not fit the dominant framework of family identity. The queer parents’ narratives consistently present subtle forms of homophobia and transphobia through the silencing of their family in their child’s early childhood program. The results of the study provide an opportunity to reimagine the professional training of early childhood educators embedding a much richer theoretical grounding and teaching practice of diversity and difference that includes queer parents and their children.

In the Tokyo neighborhood of Shinjuku Ni-Chome, the number of women's gay bars has more than tripled over the past five years. Focusing on a neighborhood dance party called Girlfriend, this thesis explores the manner in which patrons and organizers of Girlfriend approach and negotiate with contemporary dance events. Taking place once a month, Girlfriend draws hundreds of young Japanese women who identify as queer, lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual, offering a variety of activities based on themes that challenge conventional norms about sexuality and gender. I conducted original qualitative research over the summer of 2011, including a series of open-ended interviews with patrons and organizers of Girlfriend. The information gathered from the interviews is analyzed along five key themes: observation of the tachi/neko binary (a dyadic system of masculine and feminine gender performativity), fantasy, safety and escape, the Other and contingency. This study demonstrates that the values and perceptions of women involved in these events are complex, and deeply ambiguous. This thesis argues that the event, and others like it, can serve as both a refuge for attendees, and a vehicle to reinforce homogenizing images of the mainstream, within a context of global capitalism. This research will contribute to a more advanced understanding of marginalized individuals in contemporary Japanese society. / Graduate / 0733 / 0332 / 0326 / foxnatasha@yahoo.com

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Australia had the world’s first gay film festival at the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op in June 1976, part of a larger commemoration of the Stonewall Riots in New York City of 1969. In 1994, South Africa became the first country in the world to prohibit discrimination in its constitution on the basis of sexual orientation, whilst allowing for positive discrimination to benefit persons disadvantaged by unfair discrimination. South Africa and Australia, both ex-British colonies, are used in this analysis to explore the way local Queer Cinematic Cultures have negotiated and continue to negotiate dominant social forces in post-colonial settings. It is rare to have analyses of Queer Cinematic Cultures and even rarer to have texts dealing with cultures outside those of Euro-America. This study offers a unique window into the formations of Queer Cinematic Cultures of two nations of the ‘South’. It reveals important new information on how sexual minorities from nations outside the Euro-American sphere have dealt with and continue to deal with longstanding Queer cinematic oppressions. A pro-active relationship between Queer representation in film and social-political action is considered by academics such as Dennis Altman to be essential for significant social and judicial change. The existence of Queer and other independent films in Sydney from the 1960s onward, impacted directly on sexuality, race and gender activism. In South Africa, the first major Queer film festival, The Out In Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in 1994, was instrumental in developing and maintaining a post-Apartheid Queer public sphere which fostered further legal change. Given the significant histories of activism through Queer Cinematic Cultures in both Australia and South Africa, I propose in this thesis the existence of a new genus of cinema, which I term Fifth Cinema. Fifth Cinema includes Feminist Cinema, Queer Cinema and Immigrant/Multicultural Cinema and deals with the oppressions which cultures engage with within their own cultural boundaries. It can be informed by First Cinema (classical, Hollywood), Second Cinema (Art House or dual national cinemas), Third and Fourth Cinema (cinemas dealing with the decolonisation of Third World and Fourth World people), but it develops its unique characteristics by countering internal cultural colonisation. Fifth Cinema functions as a heterognosis, where multi-dimensional representations around sexuality, race and gender are used to assist in broader cultural liberation.

This thesis uses the theory of abjection to understand differentiations in non-heterosexual identity performances in two distinct spaces - the 2005 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) parade and its associated press coverage, and latrinalia (graffiti found inside public toilets). At the same time, this thesis also presents evidence for a new concept of neo-normativity, where the stereotypical is normalised, both internally and externally, and actively reproduced. Neo-normativity, in turn, succeeds in explaining the many abjected relationships that between non-heterosexual communities and the stereotypical and quintessentialised performances. At the 2005 SGLMG parade such quintessentialised (or neo-normalised) performances were treated with both contempt - for being stereotypical and narrowly representative of the very diversity of non-heterosexual communities - as well as a tool for attracting commercial sponsorships which have growingly become an integral part to the continued survival of the annual parade. On a different level, another expression of abject was also revealed when these neo-normalised performances are persistently criticised by academics, news reporting and official photography for being stereotypical and non-representative which in itself are both a recognition as well as an ejection of the non-normative aspects of non-heterosexualities. Such an expression of abject was also evident in latrinalia found in several public toilet facilities throughout Greater Sydney were the interplay of desire and ejection were played out in a more covert manner, all the while highlighting the marginality of non-heterosexualities in these presumably heteronormative spaces. This application of abject theory emphasises neo-normative performances as permanently peripheral, a marginality of which makes these performances (and identities) intrinsically Queer.

Thesis of (Ph.D)--University of Alberta, 2009. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on October 7th, 2009). "Fall, 2009." At head of title: University of Alberta. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduates Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2008. / Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Creative Technologies and Media. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 277-296).

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2009. Graduate Programme in Interdisciplinary Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-179). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR51556