Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wollongong, 2004. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Mar. 6, 2006). Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-323). Also issued as a print manuscript. Print manuscript includes ill. omitted from online version.

While gay male and lesbian spatialisation has been historicised in some of the literature, and it has been determined that distinct gay male and lesbian neighbourhoods do exist i n our inner cities, the processes that are at work i n each case have seldom been compared. In the case of Vancouver, British Columbia, the two neighbourhoods in question are the West End (for men) and Grandview-Woodland, or 'The Drive' (for women). Such a comparative analysis yields a number of useful insights, particularly as concerns cultural differences between gay men and lesbians. For instance, historical gay male sexual marketplaces form the kernel of gay male ghettoisation, while lesbians' feminist politics (an early lesbian cultural signifier) orient them more towards countercultural enclaves. Similarities are also encountered, especially with respect to the central role of housing availability i n determining permanent gay identification. Specifically, the presence of a large number of single-occupancy apartments is a determining factor i n gay male spatialisation, while gay women typically need low-rent, family-oriented housing. A longitudinal perspective on the production of these gay-identified spaces reveals that their reinscription on Vancouver's landscape is also determined by different processes. The gay West End emerges as a landscape that reflects much more openly a gay presence, with gay-specific institutions and businesses, events, and several visual, cultural cues that inform passers-by of its gay identity. By contrast, The Drive is more subtly gay, and spaces are more likely to be lesbian-friendly or semi-lesbian: unable to support lesbian-only institutions, the women carve their own (sometimes fleeting) spaces out of the existing landscape. Changes are perceived, however, that indicate that boundaries — both between these two districts, and between these and 'straight' spaces more generally — are shifting and even blurring. Gay male and lesbian politics and culture are being transformed, and the spaces with which they have historically identified may no longer reflect these changes. Consequently, not only is there increasing fluidity between the West End and The Drive (with men and women moving from one to the other), but many gay households are openly foregoing these spaces altogether, opting instead for traditionally straight-identified spaces such as the suburbs. These spatial changes are seen as being indicative of the emergence of a 'queer' politics, which seeks to expose the constructedness of sexuality, and thus de-privilege heteronormativity. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

This study focuses on a group of homosexual men. The group has been defined as 'Queer' based on the value and pride which they place on their difference to the general norms and values of the wider society. Four of these men were interviewed on their moral structure and the way in which they structure their relationships. The study focused on: the nature of the norms this group has developed; the process by which this has occurred; and the psychological effects of this process. It was found that the research participants have developed new norms and behavioural scripts significantly different to those existing generally in society. These new behavioural scripts relate to the socially mandated scripts in various ways with some mandated scripts being rejected, some being adapted and amended and others being inverted. These differences seem to originate from individuals being rejected and stigmatised. The changes these queer men have made were moves to bring a greater sense of congruence between their experience, their morality and their behavioural scripts. The initial period of divergence between the socially mandated behavioural scripts and their sexual behaviour was marked by psychological distress while the move to greater congruence between behaviour and behavioural scripts was characterised by increased psychological empowerment and sense of self-worth. The study also showed that during these processes other differences developed between the way these individuals act in their world and the general norm of society. These differences included a greater self-awareness; an increased ability to operate at a meta-level; a conscious effort to create the life that one wants; differences in gender behaviour which incorporated behavioural aspects of both genders and new forms of establishing and maintaining relationships. Homosexuality is an historic opportunity to open up new relational and affective potentialities, not in virtue of qualities intrinsic to the homosexual, but because of the position of the homosexual 'offcenter', somehow, together with the diagonal lines which the homosexual can draw through the social fabric, makes it possible to bring to light these potentialities - a famous homosexual Queer (M. Foucault) / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Since the current policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was adopted in the early 1990s, several changes have taken place which call into question the policy's validity. Firstly, the argument proponents of the ban use to justify it, namely that cohesion would suffer if admitted homosexuals were allowed to serve, has been undercut by social science analyses on the correlation between cohesion and performance. Their argument has also been undercut by empirical evidence from several nations that have lifted all restrictions on homosexual service, yet have suffered no decrease in cohesion or performance, despite the reticence of their respective militaries to lift the bans. At the same time, the US public has moved toward a greater acceptance of the notion of admitted homosexuals serving in the military, with 79% approving in a December 2003 Gallup Poll, including 91% of all Americans age 18 - 29. Evidence also indicates the current policy costs at least $40 million per year just to replace those who have been discharged due to their sexual orientation. Other costs include wasted human resources at a time of critical shortfalls in many specialties essential to the ongoing Global War on Terror, and the immeasurable cost of sanctioned unjustifiable discrimination by the US Government. The time to lift all restrictions on homosexual service in the US Armed Forces has come. / Major, United States Air Force

The study used a pre-/post-test design within a secondary analysis of existing de identified data obtained from a major Northeastern hospital for use by permission, in order to evaluate the impact of a communication cultural competency training of hospital registration personnel focused on teaching the collection of gender identity and sexual orientation data (SOGI). The study’s convenience sample (N=240) was diverse, given 34.6% (N=83) identified as White/Caucasian, 28.3% (N=68) as Hispanic/Latino, 27.1% (N=65) as Black /African American, and 10.0% (N=24) as Asian. For gender identity, 74.6% (N=179) identified as female, and 15.8% (N=37) as male. Those who identified their sexual orientation as heterosexual comprised 79.6% (N=191) of the sample. The mean time in current role for the sample was 3.97 years (Min = 1-1 to 6 months, Max = 6-over 10 years, SD = 1.547). For example, 18.3% (N=44) indicated being in their current role for between 5-10 years. Some 74.2% (N=178) indicated that they know someone who is LGBTQ+. Of note, 16.7% (N=38) indicated that they had other training in the last three months. Cronbach’s Alphas ranged from .858-.978 for the 11 new study scales, as very good to excellent internal consistency. As main study findings, paired t-tests for all five global scale scores (knowledge, self-efficacy, skill/ability level, and personal preparation for collecting SOGI data—and engagement in recommended SOGI data collection behavior) demonstrated significant differences from pre- to post- training in this sample (p˂.000; Bonferroni Significance level, p<.007). This suggested that participation in the training was associated with statistically significant improvements from pre- to post-training for knowledge, self-efficacy, skill/ability level, personal, and engagement in recommended SOGI data collection behavior. Through backward stepwise regression, having higher post-training self-efficacy was significantly predicted by: higher pre-training personal skill/ability (B=.589, SEB=.468, p=.000); and, higher post-training overall evaluation (B=.244, SEB=.305, p=.000). The adjusted R-squared value for this model was 0.346, meaning that 34.6% of the variance for higher post-training self-efficacy for collecting for collecting patients’ sexual orientation and gender identity data was explained by this model. Findings suggest the need for further dissemination, implementation and evaluation of the new communication cultural competence training.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T18:15:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 William Hanke 1.pdf: 7659110 bytes, checksum: 9a9fb078a6e4e39bc26b4f7286915c1a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-29 / This research of thought brings how the spaces can make the daily living of gay men in the city of Ponta Grossa – Paraná, between oppression situations to relief. To achievement this research, were interviewees eight people who self-identify as gay men, with ages between 19 to 33 years. For this, we use both the concept of space and intersectionality, relating them based on the daily life of people which are being discussed here. Moreover, the systematization of the dates that are presented was done from the semistructured interviews, which has been posted in a database of the free application suite for desktop, BrOffice. The research showed that spaces such as the home of the parents and the school have been or was spaces in their oppression of existences. It is the fact that the relationships that constitute them have been substantiated by hegemonic identities constructed. This trajectory of research also showed that public spaces that make their experiences to become of neutrality, according to the behaviors that are colluding to their normativities. Already spatiality church was represented by the majority of interviewees while a space of controversial intersection, this because the constitutions of their relations are contradictory, that is, at the same time oppression and relief. Finally, the relief areas were represented by the own home, house of a friends and the LGBT party scene. The results show that the relief spaces have relation with that what is built by the people themselves and their relations of affectivity. The results of this collective analysis showed that even people have different spatial experiences by sharing them certain identities they start to connect through of a process of solidarity for had also experienced relations of oppression or privilege in their lives. Thus, we understand that all the spaces that make up the daily living of gay men analyzed here, are spaces that have in their constitutions power relations, the result of identity hegemony, result of several power mechanisms, including the gender. / Essa pesquisa evidencia como os espaços podem compor a vivência cotidiana de homens gays na cidade de Ponta Grossa - Paraná, entre situações de opressão ao alívio. Para a realização dessa pesquisa, foram entrevistados oito sujeitos que se autoidentificam enquanto homens gays, apresentando idade entre 19 a 33 anos. Para isso, utilizamos tanto o conceito de espaço quanto o de interseccionalidade, relacionando-os a partir das vivências cotidianas das pessoas que aqui foram analisadas. Além disso, a sistematização dos dados que são apresentados foi feita a partir de entrevistas semiestruturadas, as quais foram lançadas em um banco de dados do suíte de aplicativos livre para escritório BrOffice. A pesquisa apontou que espaços como a casa dos pais e a escola têm sido ou foram espaços em suas vivências de opressão. Isso está no fato de que as relações que as constituem têm se fundamentado por identidades hegemonicamente construídas. Esta trajetória de pesquisa também evidenciou que os espaços públicos que compõem suas vivências passam a ser de neutralidade, de acordo com comportamentos que são coniventes às suas normatividades. Já a espacialidade igreja foi representada pela maioria dos entrevistados enquanto um espaço de intersecção controversa, isso porque as constituições de suas relações são contraditórias, ou seja, ao mesmo tempo de opressão e alívio. Por fim, os espaços de alívio foram representados pela casa própria, casa dos amigos e a balada LGBT. Os resultados apontaram que os espaços de alívio têm relação com aquilo que é construído pelos próprios sujeitos e suas relações de afetividade. Os resultados da análise coletiva das vivências espaciais destes homens gays evidenciaram que mesmo as pessoas tendo vivências espaciais diferentes, ao compartilharem de determinadas identidades passam a se conectar através de um processo de solidariedade por terem também vivenciado relações de opressão ou de privilégio em suas vidas. Assim, entendemos que todos os espaços que compõem a vivência dos homens gays aqui analisados são espaços que têm em suas constituições relações de poder, fruto de hegemonias identitárias, resultado de diversos mecanismos de poder, dentre eles o de gênero.

The purpose of this study was a qualitative exploration of how gay men experienced the spiritual base of a substance abuse treatment program. The specific clientele are gay men who completed at least sixty days participation in an intensive LGBT outpatient treatment program and were living in a sober residence known as The Studios of Palm Springs, CA. The research question asked whether this program worked to develop spirituality for gay men.

Abstract not available

AIMS: HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) in New Zealand increased from the year 2001. The aim of the thesis was to improve understandings of the causes of the increase, in order to inform HIV prevention and identify further research needs. METHODS: Epidemiological data on HIV and AIDS diagnoses among MSM in New Zealand were examined using information from the AIDS Epidemiology Group. A programme of regular behavioural surveillance among MSM was also designed and conducted. RESULTS: Between 1996-2005, HIV diagnoses among MSM by antibody testing where HIV infection was acquired in New Zealand revealed two distinct phases: A very low period between 1997 to 2000 in which around 21 diagnoses were recorded annually; and a resurgent period from 2001 to 2005 where annual HIV diagnoses experienced a sustained rise to 66 at the end of 2005. New adjusted estimates indicated that known prevalent HIV cases among MSM in New Zealand increased from 437 to 588 between 1995 and 2000 (35%), and from 588 to 965 (64%) between 2000 and 2005. This reflected diverging trends from the mid-1990s: Ongoing new HIV infections among MSM which accelerated from the year 2000; and decreased deaths from AIDS due to improved antiretroviral treatments. Unless the growing number of MSM with HIV is counterbalanced by a decrease in the rate of secondary transmission from positive individuals, it will increase the number of new HIV infections. Contrary to this, when expressed as diagnosed incidence-to-prevalence pool ratios (IPRs), the average annual rate of secondary transmission was found to be increasing over time. The behavioural surveillance programme in Auckland surveyed 812 MSM in 2002, 1220 in 2004, and 1228 in 2006. An online module in 2006 additionally surveyed 2141 MSM, 647 of whom lived in Auckland. There were no overall changes in HIV testing over the three offline surveys, suggesting that the increase in HIV diagnoses was not an artefact of testing patterns. There were also no widespread changes in the rate of unprotected anal sex with casual sex partners, or partners described as a "fuckbuddy" or a "boyfriend", among the overall offline samples. However, the proportion of MSM recruited offline who had recently engaged in sex with a man met through the Internet increased significantly from 2002 to 2004 (from 26.6% to 44.8%). When MSM surveyed online in 2006 were examined, they exhibited riskier behaviours compared to offline-recruited respondents. For example, rates of non-condom use and sexual partner concurrency were especially high, and testing rates were lower. CONCLUSION: It is likely that moderate changes involving increases in unprotected sex for some MSM, and alterations to sexual networks and sexual connectivity, have combined to push the reproductive rate of HIV beyond the new epidemic threshold set by the increase in longevity from the mid-1990s. These changes need not have been great if the reproductive rate of HIV was already situated close to the epidemic tipping point. In this case, a resurgent outbreak of HIV may even have been triggered by apparently small and subtle shifts in factors influencing HIV spread.

Thesis (MA(Counselling Psychology)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-75).