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Options and possibilities for lesbian parents have changed fundamentally since the turn of the millennium. A legal change in 2003 enabled a same-sex couple  to share legal parenthood of the same child. An additional legal change, in 2005, gave lesbian couples access to fertility treatment within public healthcare in Sweden. The present thesis focuses on families where two women share legal parenthood of their children. It aims to provide knowledge about lesbian parenting couples and their children, and to focus on the interplay between family members within lesbian families, and between family members and their surroundings. Furthermore, the thesis aims to visualize and analyse notions of heteronormativity and homonormativity in contemporary Sweden. The thesis draws on interviews with 118 parents in 61 families, and 12 children in 11 families. The participants’ stories, descriptions, reflections and discourses have been analysed using discursive psychology and thematic analysis. The thesis includes five empirical papers. Paper I focuses on encounters with healthcare professionals prior to and during pregnancy, at childbirth and during the early stages of parenthood. Paper II deals with the participants’ experiences of second-parent adoption processes. Paper III focuses on equality in parenting relations. Paper IV focuses on encounters with fertility clinics within public healthcare. Paper V highlights the children’s reflections and shows how the children talk about fathers and donors. / För lesbiska par har förutsättningarna för föräldraskap förändrats i grunden sedan millennieskiftet. År 2003 möjliggjorde en lagändring att ett barn kan ha två rättsliga föräldrar av samma kön. Ytterligare en lagändring öppnade år 2005 möjligheten för lesbiska par att få barn genom assisterad befruktning inom svensk sjukvård. I avhandlingen fokuseras familjer där två kvinnor delar det rättsliga föräldraskapet om sina gemensamma barn. Studien syftar till att bredda kunskaper om lesbiska familjeliv och fokuserar samspelet mellan familjemedlemmar såväl som samspelet mellan familjen och dess omgivning. Vidare syftar studien till att synliggöra och analysera uttryck för heteronormativitet och homonormativitet i dagens Sverige. Studien bygger på intervjuer med 118 föräldrar i 61 familjer och 12 barn i 11 familjer. Deltagarnas berättelser, beskrivningar, reflektioner och diskurser analyseras med diskursiv psykologi och tematisk analys. Avhandlingen består av fem empiriska artiklar och en kappa. I Artikel I analyseras föräldrarnas berättelser om att möta sjukvården i samband med graviditet och förlossning. Artikel II belyser deltagarnas berättelser om att genomgå en närståendeadoption. I Artikel III fokuseras hur föräldrarna pratar om jämställdhet i sina föräldraroller. Artikel IV analyserar intervjuer med föräldrar som vänt sig till svensk sjukvård för fertilitetsbehandling. I Artikel V, är det barnen som står i fokus. Studien bygger på intervjuer med tolv barn som var mellan 5 och 8 år gamla och växte upp i familjer med två mammor. I artikeln analyseras barnens beskrivningar av pappor och spermadonatorer.

With this essay, I’m reviewing with a narrative analysis, describing in what way the standards of feminism, bisexuality and non-monogomy is being represented in the movie Puccini for beginners. I’m reviewing this in support of a queer and straight time. As a complement for queer and straight time, I’m presenting different theoretical concepts, which are useful for the analyze of feminism, bisexuality and non-monogamy. The analyze is based on the categories of Labov. In which way the narritve is constructed, as well as in what way feminism, bisexuality and non-monogamy are being represented. Finally I’m summing-up how I answered my questions regarding straight and queer time in perspective of feminism, bisexuality and non-monogamy.

Syftet med min deduktiva och kvalitativa studie är att skapa förståelse för visuell representation av HBTQIA+ personer i ett kommersiellt tv-program. Hur historiska subjektspositioner kan tänkas vidhålla gamla normer inom en subkultur. Genom en kritisk diskursanalys kommer jag att titta på både det som visas och det som saknar i bilden. Resultatet blev fyra olika teman som fick representera olika delar av mina observationer utifrån hierarki, privata berättelser, en nedärvd kultur och extrem objektifiering. Slutsatsen är att där finns en komplexitet i att göra kommersiell tv av en historisk händelse som ballroom-kulturen, som hade som syfte att skapa aktivistisk förändring. Representationen av deltagarna bygger på en förlegad och stereotyp bild från en historisk tid. För att lyckas förändra samhällsnormer måste vi alla, oavsett sexualitet vara villiga att bidra till dem. / The purpose of my deductive and qualitative study is to create an understanding of visual representation of LGBTQIA + people in a commercial television program. How historical subject positions can be thought to maintain old norms within a subculture. Through a critical discourse analysis, I will look at both what is shown and what is missing in the picture. The result was four different themes that could represent different parts of my observations based on hierarchy, private stories, an inherited culture, and extreme objectification. The conclusion is that there is a complexity in making commercial television of a historical event such as the ballroom culture, which aimed to create activist change. The representation of the participants is based on an outdated and stereotypical image from a historical time. To succeed in changing societal norms, we must all, regardless of sexuality, be willing to contribute to them

Working alongside five queer-identified theatre artists, using critical arts-based participatory action research, this research project worked through a creative process in which the research team identified, deconstructed, and disrupted normative queer discourses on the video-sharing website YouTube. Using notions from queer theory, cultural studies, and anti-oppression education, along with embodied analysis as a deconstructive strategy, the research team used collective theorizing and performance to facilitate an analysis of the online videos. In this thesis, I discuss embodied knowing by analyzing performative moments in the creative workshop undertaken by the research team. I then provide a thematic analysis of the online videos, followed by an analysis of how the research team used collective creation and personal narrative to produce a counter-hegemonic response video. Finally, I conclude with a discussion on how to engage video creation as a form of anti-oppression education that queers public pedagogy.

Working alongside five queer-identified theatre artists, using critical arts-based participatory action research, this research project worked through a creative process in which the research team identified, deconstructed, and disrupted normative queer discourses on the video-sharing website YouTube. Using notions from queer theory, cultural studies, and anti-oppression education, along with embodied analysis as a deconstructive strategy, the research team used collective theorizing and performance to facilitate an analysis of the online videos. In this thesis, I discuss embodied knowing by analyzing performative moments in the creative workshop undertaken by the research team. I then provide a thematic analysis of the online videos, followed by an analysis of how the research team used collective creation and personal narrative to produce a counter-hegemonic response video. Finally, I conclude with a discussion on how to engage video creation as a form of anti-oppression education that queers public pedagogy.

Sport is an inherently hegemonic hyper masculinity-building project. Therefore, tensions exist when non-hegemonic groups reclaim sport. This thesis questions how normativity is constructed and resisted in non-normative sporting spaces. Drawing from semi-structured interviews, participant observations, self-reflection qualitative methods and post-structural, spatial and post-colonial theory, I problematize how sportsmanship (sportspersonship) is “cultivated” in a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (lgbtq) soccer league . Specifically, I interrogate how queer sporting bodies negotiate (homo/hetero)normativity by either contesting or confirming neoliberal values of ‘sportsmanship.’ Five interlocking themes that emerged from my data suggest that ‘a queer muscularity’ and ‘a normative queer nationhood’ is being (re)produced by and through queer sporting bodies and sports spaces. I argue that we need to be vigilant of queer sporting spaces that claim to be or are assumed to have greater inclusivity because these spaces may actually facilitate the (re)production of dominant discourses and norms.

Sport is an inherently hegemonic hyper masculinity-building project. Therefore, tensions exist when non-hegemonic groups reclaim sport. This thesis questions how normativity is constructed and resisted in non-normative sporting spaces. Drawing from semi-structured interviews, participant observations, self-reflection qualitative methods and post-structural, spatial and post-colonial theory, I problematize how sportsmanship (sportspersonship) is “cultivated” in a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (lgbtq) soccer league . Specifically, I interrogate how queer sporting bodies negotiate (homo/hetero)normativity by either contesting or confirming neoliberal values of ‘sportsmanship.’ Five interlocking themes that emerged from my data suggest that ‘a queer muscularity’ and ‘a normative queer nationhood’ is being (re)produced by and through queer sporting bodies and sports spaces. I argue that we need to be vigilant of queer sporting spaces that claim to be or are assumed to have greater inclusivity because these spaces may actually facilitate the (re)production of dominant discourses and norms.

Bibliography: leaves 235-261 / Queer studies have not adequately considered gay men seeking sexual exclusivity within longterm relationships. In contrast, the emphasis has been on understanding evolving queer norms. Homonormativity has been informing sexual permissiveness. In accordance, and contrasting gay men seeking sexual exclusivity, gay, male couples tended to use relationship agreements to stipulate guidelines for extradyadic sex. This study was inspired by my inability—as a counsellor of gay men seeking sexual exclusivity—to provide them with credible insights to better understand their goals. Representing an initial step in generating practical knowledge, it was anticipated that my counselling clients could benefit from an exploration of lived experiences rather than having to rely on theoretical inferences and opinions. “How” and “why” participants maintained sexual exclusivity were the main targets of discovery. Eleven gay, Canadian men aged thirty-three and older, in relationships of five years or longer, participated in semistructured interviews in-person or via video chat. Using Kleiman’s (2004) protocol for phenomenological analysis, common units of meaning were coded, from interview responses, so that distinct subthemes, contributing to six themes, were identified. These findings included content concerning “seeking positive affects,” “avoiding negative affects,” “factors supporting sexual exclusivity,” “threats to sexual exclusivity,” “rigidity in beliefs,” and “decision-making toward sexual exclusivity.” The first two themes integrated innately to form a meta-theme, “emotional optimization.” An essential insight into how participants maintained sexual exclusivity was their awareness of, and restraint in using, sexually tantalizing, visual stimuli, which was the primary risk to sexual exclusivity. Suggestions for gay men desiring sexual exclusivity included discontinued utility of pornography and cybersex. Varied implications for prospective research, clinical practice and support groups were delineated. / Psychology / D. Phil. (Psychology)

[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.