This project looks at the mutually imbricated relationship between space, sex, and technology in cultural output from the last fifteen years. Through an examination of sexual cruising cultures in Samuel R. Delany’s essays Times Square Red, Times Square Blue and John Cameron Mitchell’s film Shortbus, I unpack the ways in which technology is represented as a facilitator and barrier to the formation of spaces that foster queer sexual interactions. This thesis is interested in the ability of different technologies and spaces to promote the formation of heterogeneous relationships that cross categories of social difference—including race, class, and sexuality—following the HIV/AIDS crisis. Alongside an investigation of the potential of technologies of affiliation to support these kinds of interpersonal contacts, I argue that representations of technologically mediated intimacy are often limited to a hesitant ambivalence due to a cultural unease about the new types of non-normative relation offered by technology.

This study was designed to examine psychology graduate students' attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women. It was hypothesized that the following variables would predict participants' attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women: participant gender, amount of client contact with gay men and lesbian women, and gender role attitudes. Additionally, a measure of social desirability was included to investigate the validity of responses. Data were analyzed by conducting an independent t-test, a correlated t-test, and hierarchical multiple regression. Results indicated that gay men were viewed more negatively than were lesbian women. As expected, participants' gender role attitudes significantly predicted their attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women. Contrary to predicted outcomes, results indicated that neither participant gender nor client contact predicted attitudes toward homosexuality. Finally, results suggested that participants were not engaging in socially desirable responding. Implications of this study for research, theory, and practice are discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Vis daugiau pasaulio valstybių įteisina tos pačios lyties asmenų santuokas arba partnerystes, homoseksualioms poroms leidžiama ir įsivaikinti. Tai neigiamai paveikia visą visuomenę, bet labiausiai – vaikus, šeimą ir santuoką. Šio licenciato baigiamojo darbo tikslas – atskleisti tos pačios lyties asmenų sąjungų iššūkius santuokos ir šeimos institutams. Pirmojoje darbo dalyje pateikiamas Katalikų Bažnyčios mokymas homoseksualumo klausimu, randamas Šventajame Rašte, Katalikų Bažnyčios katekizme ir Tikėjimo mokslo kongregacijos išleistuose dokumentuose. Antrojoje dalyje atskleidžiama santuokos bei šeimos prigimtis ir esminiai bruožai – kas yra santuoka, kas jos autorius, jos tikslai ir gėriai; taip pat paaiškinama, kodėl tos pačios lyties asmenų sąjunga nėra ir negali būti santuoka. Trečiojoje darbo dalyje pagrindžiama tos pačios lyties asmenų sąjungų įteisinimo keliama grėsmė santuokai, šeimai ir krikščioniškajai civilizacijai, parodoma, kokios pražūtingos yra šio įteisinimo pasekmės. Darbo rezultatai – padarytos išvados, kad homoseksualiõs sąjungos jokiu būdu negalima sulyginti su santuoka ir kad tokių sąjungų įteisinimui negalima pritarti. Tos pačios lyties sąjungos visiškai nepanašios į santuoką: jos nėra nei asmenis jungiančios, nei prokreacinės. Santuoka yra malonės bei šventumo šaltinis abiem sutuoktiniams ir visai šeimai, o tos pačios lyties sąjungos tokios nėra. Tos pačios lyties asmenų sąjungų įteisinimas atneš daug blogų pasekmių. Bus keičiamas žmonių supratimas apie... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / More and more countries in the world legally recognize same-sex marriages or civil partnerships and allow homosexual couples to adopt children. This has a negative impact on society as a whole, but especially on children, family and marriage. The objective of the research is therefore to reveal the challenges of same-sex unions to the institutions of marriage and family. In the first part of this master's thesis the Magisterium of the Catholic Church regarding homosexuality is presented. It is found in Scripture, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and in the documents published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In the second part of the thesis the nature and essential characteristics of marriage and family are revealed: what is marriage, who is its author, what are its objectives and goods; it is also explained why the same-sex union is not and can not be marriage. In the third part of the thesis the danger of legal recognition of same-sex unions to marriage, family and the Christian civilization is reasoned, it is shown that the consequences of this legal recognition are disastrous. The results of the research are the following conclusions: homosexual union in any case can not be compared with the marriage and therefore it is not appropriate to support the legal recognition of such unions. The same-sex unions are entirely different from marriage: they are neither unitive nor procreative. Marriage is a source of grace and holiness for both spouses... [to full text]

This study examines how the media reports on the Pride Festival in Stockholm and what news topics and themes it prioritizes. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the media coverage of Pride highlights political questions related to social and societal problems. One of the main focuses of the study is on how the media covers male and female homosexuality. The newspapers examined are the tabloids Aftonbladet and Expressen and the respected dailies Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. The study extends over three periods: 19-07-2010 to 07-08-2010, 25-07-2011 to 14-08-2011, and 24-07-2012 to 11-08-2012. Several key theories and themes frame the study. One of the theoretical bases of this study is agenda theory, which is based on the idea that issues get more media attention when the audience perceives them as important. Another key theory in the study is the theory of news values, which concerns how potential news items are evaluated editorially. The study also looks at the theme of sex and gender as a power aspect and how the representation of the sexes appears in today's media. Using quantitative content analysis, 291 articles have been studied. The results show that media coverage during the Pride festival includes articles that address both serious and non-serious issues. Furthermore, the results show that the coverage of male homosexuals is more frequent than of female homosexuals. However, the majority of the articles focused on the collective concept “LGBT” and not on gender related issues.

The aim of this study has been to examine six books about Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality during the years 1906 – 2003. I have been analyzing their descriptions about his sexual orientation and compared them to each other to see the changes through time. In order to see some clear changes the main focus was to choose time differences between the books. It was clear that the earlier writers had negative opinions and thoughts about his sexual deviation the way they described it. The writers from the older books focus on Oscar Wilde’s achievements more than his sexual orientation. The analysis was made through two theories, Michel Foucault’s theories about sexuality, power and knowledge, and the second Raewyn Connell’s theory about hegemonic masculinity. The theories have been fundamental for this study on the basis of the changes through time and how societies viewed masculinity and sexual orientations. They have also been important for the descriptions of Oscar Wilde’s feminine attitude and his addiction to his looks. My method for the essay has been a conceptual analysis. The choice of this method was not hard because it has been important to the comparison and the analysis for the writers’ usage of word descriptions of Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality. The results showed a large amount of resemblances and differences between the books, which can be seen against the background of the society and its view on homosexuality.

Denna kandidatuppsats undersöker vilka upp­fattningar sjuksköterskor och homo­sexuella män har kring reglerna för blodgivning, med inriktning på att homosexuella män i praktiken inte får donera blod. Studien har genomförts med kvalitativ intervju som metod. Resultatet framhäver att mina informanter klassificerat blod och människor olika, där både utländskt blod och svenskt blod rangordnas efter potentiell risk för smitta. Sjuksköterskorna och de homosexuella männen hanterar även reglerna olika, där sjuksköterskorna lägger ett större fokus på att skydda de som ska få blodet. Samtidigt anser de i likhet med de homosexuella männen att reglerna är diskriminerande och bygger på fördomar om att homosexuella män skulle bete sig mer riskfyllt än andra i samband med smitta. Egentligen går det inte med säkerhet att veta om någon är ärlig när de besvarar hälsodeklarationen som ska hjälpa blodcentralen att sålla bort olämpliga donatorer. Bloddonation från homosexuella män går att se från olika håll och är därför ett komplext ämne utan ett lätt svar, då tekniken inte kan upptäcka smitta omedelbart från smittillfället. Däremot framhäver mina informanter att alla bör bli bedömda efter individuellt beteende istället för kollektivt. Exempelvis bör homosexuella män i monogama förhållanden få donera blod. / This Bachelor Thesis investigates the perceptions nurses and homosexual men, respectively, have concerning the rules for blood donation, focusing on the fact that homosexual men in practice aren't able to donate blood. The study was conducted using qualitative interviews. The results emphasise that my informants classify blood and people differently, where both foreign and Swedish blood are rated on potential risk of infection. Nurses and homosexual men also handle the various rules differently, the nurses placing greater focus on protecting receivers of blood. At the same time nurses, like the homosexual men, find the rules discriminatory and based on the prejudice that homosexual men have a riskier lifestyle than others relating to infection. In reality, there can be no certainty in knowing if someone is honest when answering the health declaration which is meant to help the blood bank weed out unsuitable donors. The issue of blood donation by homosexual men can be approached from different angles and is therefore a complex topic without an easy solution, especially since current testing cannot detect the HIV virus immediately after transmission. In contrast, my informants emphasise that everyone should be judged on individual behaviour instead of collectively; for example, homosexual men in monogamous relationships should also be able to donate blood.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1979. / Bibliography: leaves 198-208. / Microfiche. / viii, 208 leaves 29 cm

When lesbians, as women divert from social norms and reject the compulsory heterosexual norm, they are either punished through legal systems for transgressing patriarchial structures or not recognised at all. As women, lesbians suffer at the hands of a homophobic society which believs that women have stepped out of line through challenging the hegemonic discourses stipulating that they have specific and distinct roles to play - that of wives, mothers, homemakers and sexual partners to men. Because lesbians do not fit into this construct, their behaviour is socially and legally condemned for diverting from the &quot / natural order&quot / . This study aimed to identify and explore the various ways people construct and perceive lesbians and to reveal how sexuality, as a product of history and culture, determines the ways lesbians are treated in their own communities. This study attempted to explore how, despite the democratic stance of the new constitution, South African lesbians still experience discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation.

This thesis presents data on two separate areas relevant to the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) transmission in homosexual men. These data arise from the community-based Health in Men (HIM) cohort of HIV-negative homosexual men in Sydney. First, the association of circumcision status with HIV and STIs was examined. Older age, ethnicity and country of birth were demographic factors independently associated with circumcision status. Self-report was a valid measure of circumcision status in this population. Overall, being circumcised was associated with a non-significant reduced risk of HIV seroconversion in the HIM cohort (HR 0.76, 95% CI 0.41-1.41, p=0.381). Among the one-third of participants predominantly practising the insertive role in anal intercourse (AI), being circumcised was associated with a significantly reduced risk of HIV infection (HR 0.15, 95% CI 0.03-0.80, p=0.026). Circumcised HIM participants also had a lower risk of incident syphilis (HR 0.35, 95% CI 0.15-0.84, p=0.019), however circumcision status had no significant effect on the remainder of prevalent and incident STIs examined. Second, risk factors for pharyngeal gonorrhoea and chlamydia were investigated. The BD ProbeTec nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) had a positive predictive value (PPV) for pharyngeal gonorrhoea diagnosis of only 30.4% (95% CI 25.2-36.1%) when compared to a previously validated NAAT targeting the gonococcal porA pseudogene. Pharyngeal gonorrhoea was common in HIM, mostly occurred without concurrent anogenital infection and may frequently spontaneously resolve. Infection was independently associated with younger age (p-trend=0.001), higher number of male partners (p-trend=0.002), contact with gonorrhoea (p<0.001) and insertive oro-anal sex with casual partners (p-trend=0.044). Pharyngeal chlamydia was less common but a high prevalence/incidence ratio suggested that infection may persist in the pharynx for long periods. Pharyngeal chlamydia was independently associated with receptive penile-oral sex with casual partners (p-trend=0.009). In conclusion, circumcision may have a role as an HIV prevention intervention among the subgroup of homosexual men who predominantly practise insertive rather than receptive AI. Regular screening of the pharynx including a validated supplemental NAAT for gonorrhoea diagnosis may prevent much transmission to anogenital sites, whereas chlamydia occurs too infrequently in the pharynx to recommend routine screening in homosexual men.

Sexuality is central to our individual lives, our society, and our evolution, but its etiology is not thoroughly understood. Using data from 4904 Australian twins who completed a questionnaire on sexual attitudes and behaviours, I investigated the genetic and environmental influences underlying variation in and covariation between psychological and behavioural aspects of sexuality. Moreover, I explored the role of sexuality traits in several different contexts: evolution, mental health, public health, personality, and problematic behaviour. Before presenting reports of the four main empirical studies in this thesis, I make the case for the importance of studying human sexuality, outline previous findings on the etiology of individual differences in sexuality, and describe the behavioural genetic principles and techniques that were used in the investigations. I also present an additional fifth paper reporting a behavioural genetic analysis of EEG power, which I undertook in order to learn twin data modelling and complex multivariate techniques. In the first empirical paper I investigated sexual orientation from an evolutionary perspective. As sexual orientation is genetically influenced, it is not known how homosexuality, which tends to lower reproductive success, is maintained in the population at a relatively high frequency. I tested the hypothesis that while genes predisposing to homosexuality reduce homosexuals’ reproductive success, they may confer some advantage for heterosexuals who carry them. Results showed that psychologically masculine females and feminine men are 1) more likely to be nonheterosexual, but 2) when they are heterosexual have more opposite-sex sexual partners. Genetic modelling revealed that both these relationships are partly due to pleiotropic genetic influences common to each trait. Further, heterosexuals with a nonheterosexual twin had more opposite-sex partners than do heterosexual twin pairs. Taken together, these results suggest that genes predisposing to homosexuality may confer a mating advantage in heterosexuals, which could contribute to the evolution and maintenance of homosexuality in the population. In the second empirical paper I investigated sexual orientation from the perspective of mental health risk. Large epidemiological studies have shown that homosexuals are at much greater risk of psychiatric disorder than the general population. This has been assumed, with some supporting evidence, to be because of the prejudice and discrimination experienced by homosexuals in a heterosexist society. Here I tested the viability of alternative explanations, using Eysenck’s Neuroticism and Psychoticism scales as markers for psychiatric vulnerability. Firstly, I tested whether apparent sexual orientation differences in psychiatric vulnerability simply mirror sex differences – for our traits, this would predict nonheterosexual males having elevated Neuroticism scores as females do, and nonheterosexual females having elevated Psychoticism scores as males do. The results contradicted this idea, with nonheterosexual men and women scoring significantly higher on both Neuroticism and Psychoticism than their heterosexual counterparts, suggesting an overall elevation of psychiatric risk in nonheterosexuals. Secondly, I used the genetically informative sample to assess the viability of explanations invoking a common cause of both nonheterosexuality and psychiatric vulnerability. We found significant genetic correlations between sexual orientation and both Neuroticism and Psychoticism, but no corresponding environmental correlations, suggesting that if there is a common cause of both nonheterosexuality and psychiatric vulnerability it is likely to have a genetic basis rather than an environmental basis. The third empirical paper investigated the etiology of risky sexual behaviour, which is relevant to public health and welfare through its role in STD transmission and unwanted pregnancies. Results showed that variation in risky sexual behaviour is due to genetic, shared environmental, and unshared environmental influences to approximately equal degrees. The genetic influences partly overlapped with genetic influences on dispositional factors, with significant genetic correlations between risky sexual behaviour and Eysenck’s Impulsivity, Extraversion, Psychoticism, and Neuroticism. This suggests that the genetic influences that shape our personality may also predispose us to risky sexual behaviour. The fourth empirical paper investigated the etiology of a strong association (r = .50) between risky sexual behaviour and adolescent misconduct. Results indicated that the association is due to overlapping genetic and environmental influences, but that in males genes are the primary source of the association whereas in females shared environment plays the greater role. These findings suggest that a general predisposition to risky behaviour may manifest in different potentially harmful ways in adolescence (misconduct) and adulthood (risky sexual behaviour), and that different processes are involved in male and female etiology. Following the empirical reports, I provide a general discussion of my research findings and the study of human sexuality more generally. After summarising the findings and their implications, I then provide a detailed description of potential limitations of the research and to what extent they qualify the conclusions drawn. I also critically discuss the absence of sexuality traits from the major models of personality, and why this and other shortcomings make the personality models inadequate from an evolutionary perspective. Finally, I suggest directions for future research in light of the research and discussion presented in this thesis.