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Thesis (MA (Public and Development Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / Sexual orientation (discrimination) as a part of diversity management in organisations is a controversial issue and people in management positions are not always comfortable to address issues relating to gay employees. This is evident from the lack of adequate policies and processes that exist within public organs. Ignorance and prejudice, heterosexism and homophobia, religious and moral beliefs and stigmatisation contribute to why employees discriminate against their co-workers based on sexual orientation. The following measures can be taken by the organisation in combating this phenomenon: • Writing anti-discriminatory statements. • Re-evaluating the current state of the organisational culture and whether it is supportive of gay employees disclosing their sexual orientation at work. • Developing an employee assistance programme. The success of these measures will largely depend on the capacity of the Human Resource department in making the organisation more inclusive. Therefore, the Integrated Development Plan of Stellenbosch Municipality as its organisational strategy plays a vital role in this entire process, as it cannot be separated from the Human Resource management strategy of this organisation. These initiatives will only be effective and efficient if there is commitment from top management as well as the employees to ensure a safe work environment for lesbian, gay and bisexual employees.

This thesis consists of five essays on the economic outcomes of immigrants and homosexuals on the labour and housing market. Essay I evaluates the effect of an in-work benefit on the labour supply of single immigrant women by means of simulation. Although, on average, there is no significant effect, we find that the in-work benefit increases the working hours of single women with low incomes and slightly decreases the working hours of those with high incomes. The increase in working hours is primarily a result of increased participation. As expected, the positive effect is largest for the immigrant groups with the lowest participation rates and lowest labour incomes. Essay II studies intergenerational transmissions in self-employment. The results show that immigrants transfer general human capital over three generations in the sense that individuals whose fathers and grandfathers are self-employed have a higher self-employment propensity. For natives, only the father’s self-employment affects the son’s probability of becoming self-employed. Furthermore, the results show that natives transfer specific human capital from father to son, which increases the probability of sons becoming self-employed in the industry in which their fathers are self-employed. Essay III explores the effect of self-employment experience on subsequent earnings and the employment of male and female immigrant wage earners. We find that, relative to continued wage employment, self-employment is associated with lower earnings and difficulties in returning to paid employment for both immigrant men and women. The effect is less severe for natives. Among immigrant groups, the results give little support that self-employment experience improves earnings and employment prospects compared to experience from wage employment.  Essay IV applies a field experiment to investigate how increasing the information about applicants affects discrimination against male Arab/Muslim applicants on the rental housing market. The Arab/Muslim applicants received fewer responses from the landlords than did the Swedish applicants. All of the applicants gained by providing more information about themselves, but the magnitude of discrimination against the Arab/Muslim applicants remained unchanged, indicating that increasing the amount of applicant information will not reduce discrimination. Essay V studies possible discrimination against lesbians in the rental housing market using a field experiment. We let two fictitious couples, one heterosexual and one homosexual, apply for vacant apartments on the Internet. We then explored if there were differences in callbacks, invitations to further contact and/or showings. The results show no indication of differential treatment of lesbians by landlords.

Pansexualität leitet sich aus dem griechischen Wort παν (gesamt, ganz, alles) ab und beschreibt eine sexuelle Orientierung, die eine Offenheit in der Partner_innenwahl beinhaltet. In Abgrenzung zu psychiatrischen Verwendungsweisen, die in pansexuellem Verhalten und Denken eine Persönlichkeitsstörung sehen, wird Pansexualität in queer-feministischen Debatten als subversiver Handlungsraum in heteronormierten Umwelten verstanden. In einem sozialwissenschaftlichen Kontext ist das Konzept der Pansexualität bisher deutlich unterbelichtet. Die im Konzept selbst angelegte Unmöglichkeit einer eindeutigen Definition führt zu ethischen und wissenschaftlichen Herausforderungen.

幽默，是把雙面刃。其雙面性來自於其所具有的四個功能：認同、澄清、強化、區隔(Meyer, 2000)。現場喜劇演員在設計表演橋段時，為求笑聲的回饋，往往會忽略幽默的後兩種功能：強化和區隔，使得笑點中蘊含的歧視再度被加深。在面對性別和性傾向主題時，這樣的現象更是無可避免。 本篇研究將以《卡米地喜劇俱樂部》的站立喜劇為例，選擇切合性別與性傾向主題的表演橋段進行質化研究，將主題分為四類：男性、女性、男同性戀、女同性戀，以幽默的三個理論：優越論、不一致論、紓解論，以及佛洛伊德對笑的觀察為分析基礎。我們想要知道幽默的呈現手法選擇和幽默的主題，是否有一定程度的相關性？在這四大主題內的歧視，是針對整個族群，又或者是針對特定的次族群進行？最重要的是，這樣的歧視背後的意涵為何？又可能造成怎麼樣的傷害？我們旨在透過詮釋幽默形成的脈絡，帶領大家看見幽默下潛藏的性別和性傾向歧視，並加以反思。 研究結果顯示，相較於幽默主題，幽默的手法和站立喜劇演員自身的性別具有更加顯著的關聯性。男性演員較常使用優越論和有意圖的笑話，女性演員則更常運用不一致論和紓解論中的降階不一致感。以男性為主題時，男性演員表面上看起來是在嘲笑特定族群的男性，但本質上都還是建立在父權對女性的偏見之上；男性演員在貶低地位較自己高的男性時，最常見的作法，就是將對方說成男同性戀。這也顯示了男性演員不單是將男同性戀貶低到男性異性戀之下，更將無能跟男同性戀劃上等號。女性演員在攻擊男性的時候，由於父權主義作祟，男性在上位、女性在下位，難以鬆動兩者的階層，其殺傷力往往小的多。以女性為主題時，男性演員多從外貌或身材進行攻擊，將其獨立於女性主體之外，並反向以局部決定了一個女性的好壞。但由於反映了觀眾不敢講的話，男性演員在紓解論的庇護下，得以免於責難。男性演員針對特定族群女性的表演，不但反映了社會對其的刻板印象，更反映了更深層、父權下對女性的厭女情結。女性演員在談論女性主題時，即使嘗試實踐幽默中的認同、澄清功能 (Meyer, 2000)，卻很有可能再度落入父權刻板印象。兩難的是，由於男性地位在父權框架裡是較高的，一旦女性演員以攻擊男性的方式為女性發聲，可能會因為反抗父權而沒了笑聲。女性演員提到己身婚姻狀況時反映了社會對未婚男女的差別待遇。相較於未婚的男性，未婚女性容易被視為是「有問題」的，這也反映了父權下的社會期望值裡，女性是被設定成「適當年齡時結婚走入家庭」的刻板角色。面對男同性戀主題時，男性演員對男同性戀的再現反映了「男同性戀很陰柔」的刻板印象，並錯將性別氣質和性傾向劃上等號。這同時也反映了男同性戀跟陰柔的特質，在父權之下都是個可以被嘲笑的錯誤。以女同性戀為主題時，女性演員也同樣反映了「女同性戀很陽剛」的刻板印象，並反映了同性戀在異性戀主流下的出櫃困境。 / The four main functions of humor, a double-edged sword, are: identification, clarification, enforcement, differentiation (Meyer, 2000). While planning their performances, live stand-up comedians, to pursue laughter, tend to neglect the latter two functions of humor: enforcement and differentiation. This makes prejudices beneath punch lines to be rooted deeper, which are even more inevitable when comedians deal with gender and sexual orientation topics. This study takes as examples stand-up comedies from Live Comedy Club Taipei and we choose performances that touch upon the gender and sexual orientation topics to conduct qualitative research. Based on the nature of the topics, we divide the performances selected into four categories: male, female, gay, and lesbian. We take the three main theories of humor, namely, superiority theories, incongruity theories, and relief theories, and also Humor in Freud as our basis to analyze these performances. We set out to explore the following questions. Is there a connection between the way humor is delivered and the specific topic of humor? Are the underlying prejudices in these four major topics against the target group as a whole or a specific sub-group? Most important of all, what lies beneath these prejudices, and what damage do they cause? Through interpreting how humor comes into existence, we aim to reveal the gender and sexual orientation prejudices in humor, and further reflect upon such phenomena. The result shows, in terms of the four topics, how humor is delivered is more relevant to the gender of the comedian. Male comedians favor the superiority strategy and tendentious jokes, while female comedians tend to use the strategies of incongruity and descending incongruity of relief strategy. In male topics, male comedians seem to target specific subgroups of males, while their performances are in fact based on prejudices against women rooted in patriarchy. If male comedians want to degrade males in higher position, the most common way for them to do so is to insinuate the homosexuality of the target. This suggests that male comedians degrade homosexual men and view them as incompetents. Female comedians' attacks on males are weaker due to patriarchy, in which males are in higher positions and females in lower ones. In female topics, male comedians attack women on their appearance or figure, isolate these characteristics from women's entity, and evaluate females by parts. Since male comedians say what the audience dares not to say aloud, they can escape blame, as suggested by the Relief Theory. Performances against specific groups of women by male comedians reflect not only social stereotypes but also misogyny from patriarchy. Besides prejudices from male comedians, even female comedians may fall into the patriarchy trap as well while trying to identify and clarify themselves, which are two of humor’s functions (Meyer, 2000). Female comedians are in a dilemma due to the higher position of men in patriarchy. If female comedians voice for females by attacking males and thus rebel against patriarchy, consequences are that they may lose laughter from the audience. The discrimination between unmarried men and unmarried women appears while a female comedian mentions her marital status. Compared to unmarried men, unmarried women are more easily to be seen as deficient, which reflects that under the expectation from patriarchy, women are expected to get married and form a family at the proper ages. In gay topics, a recurrent theme from the male comedians’ performances is that gay are born to be feminine and confuses gender with sexual orientation. This also shows that under patriarchy, gay and femininity are mistakes that can be laughed at. In lesbian topics, the female comedian also shows the stereotype that lesbians are born to be masculine, and reflects the dilemma for homosexuals to come out under the world of heterosexuals.

This study is based on a content analysis of two primary sources: 1) literature published on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth in professional journals for school providers (school counselors, nurses, psychologists and social workers) over more than a 30-year period; and 2) materials developed for school providers on LGBT youth by states with laws, regulations and professional policies related to sexual orientation and/or gender identity in schools. Fifteen professional journals were identified that serve as primary and secondary journals for school providers. A total of 41 articles were published in these journals on LGBT youth between 1937 and 2005. Journal articles were coded by the investigator and a second coder, with an inter-rater reliability rate of .97. Most articles focused on identity development, and a majority provided information on developing a supportive school environment for LGB youth. Few focused on issues of salience for contemporary generations of LGBT adolescents, such as resiliency and strength or positive youth development. Only one article focused on youth of color, one on lesbian youth and none on transgender youth. Less than one-third included HIV/AIDS, only 7% mentioned HIV counseling and testing, and 2% mentioned lesbians' risk for STDs. Nearly three-fourths of articles (71%) focused on interventions with LGB youth (few included transgender youth), including the need to promote a safe school environment. Few empirical articles (19.5%), a handful of training articles (7.3%) no theoretical and very few review articles (2.2%) were published during this period. Although nearly one-third of the states had adopted laws, regulations or professional standards to prohibit discrimination of students on the basis of sexual orientation (and 4 included gender identity), no states other than Massachusetts had developed training materials for school providers on LGBT youth. However, Massachusetts' materials were never used since their program was defunded in 2002. Several states made training on LGBT adolescents available to school providers through professional and community organizations. Coupled with limited and outdated content in professional journals, school providers lack access to current multidisciplinary research, theoretical literature and information reviews needed to inform their work with LGBT students and their families.

The focus of this work is to bring the idea of mindfulness closer, in terms of connection with other personality traits. Additionally it highlights the use of mindfulness in psychotherapy practice, specifically in regard to homosexually orientated clients. The study summarizes the main findings on the mindfulness phenomenon, highlighting the important aspects of adopting a new identity within this demographic. The study also monitors the connection of coming out process with particular aspects of mindfulness. In the empirical section the results of the FFMQ questionnaire, in which participated 294 persons of both male and female gender and of both heterosexual and homosexual orientation are compared using quantitative methods. By means of statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) it was determined that the homosexually orientated do not differ significantly from those of heterosexual orientation. Furthermore there was no significant statistical difference in mindfulness between genders within the research sample. Keywords: mindfulness, psychotherapy, mindfulness definitions, Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, sexual orientation, coming out, homosexual identity, personality

In 2006 a new law in Sweden let refugees apply for asylum on the grounds of them being in need of protection due to their gender or sexual orientation. Due to this law, the Swedish migration authority are the ones who decide whether or not a person has made it likely to be of a certain gender or sexual preference and whether or not they are in need of protection in Sweden due to this. The asylum process thus becomes a clear example of how norms for gender and sexuality are constructed and reproduced by the government. The limited research about sexual orientation, gender and asylum in Sweden, which in itself was a reason for this paper, stated that there were limited definitions and guidelines on the subject which made decision-making depend on the person in authority. The aim of this study were to understand how the construction of gender and sexuality are made within asylum-cases through analyzing two cases from the Swedish Supreme Court of Migration (Migrationsöverdomstolen) and the government-proposition of the 2006 migration-law. To meet the purpose of the study’s aim, the research questions used were, what constructs of gender and sexuality could be found in asylum-cases and which discourse of gender and sexuality could be seen as ruling in legislations and judgements. To understand this we used a social constructivist approach and Judith Butlers theory about the heterosexual matrix. The main findings were that constructions of sexuality is categorized in terms of homo-, bi- and heterosexual orientation. Hence, the Swedish government produces and reproduces western designations of sexuality as valid, while leaving non-western designations invalid. Further more, our study shows that this is all done under a heterosexual norm that produces and reproduces a binary perception of gender, consisting of male and female as opposites. Hence, the discourse links gender and sexuality together under the heterosexual matrix. While previous reports and research show that decisions are depending on individual decision-makers, this study shows that both the decisions and the decision-makers are depending on the judicial and societal discourse.