A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Counseling Psychology Faculty of Art at the University of Zululand, 2007. / The objective of this study was to describe the difficulties faced by homosexual students, their perception and understanding of social discrimination. A phenomenological approach was employed. The sample consisted of 10 participants, 7 males and 3 females. All participants were registered students at the University of Zululand in Kwa- Dlangezwa, Kwazulu-Natal Province. The results were presented in the form of an integrative text, which accounted for all the individual variations of difficulties relating to their sexuality as gay and lesbian students. The findings of this study revealed the following themes : homophobia, discrimination, difficulties in the process of coming out, lack of respect for diversity, violation of their constitutional rights, labeling and the need for conducting workshops geared towards educating students at the university in order to understand diversity and celebrate difference and also challenging a biased heterosexist culture through education.

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<p>Abstract</p><p>The purpose of this study is to investigate how seven homosexual men in the age between 18 and 26 years experience openness with their sexuality in Stockholm. We wish to investigate how these men experience and handle their everyday life in a community characterized by a heteronormative foundation. We will focus on how they handle their openness in an urban environment and if they experience any limitations dependent on the situation or surroundings they live in, and also how they handle these situations. The study is hermeneutically inspired where seven life story interviews are analyzed within the theoretical frameworks provided by Connell, Goffman, Foucault and Queer theory.</p><p>The results show that the respondents’ openness varies depending on a variety of factors where surroundings, situations and previous experiences are influential. In those cases where the openness was limited there appeared to be several different strategies to use. Furthermore feelings of many times being excluded and belonging to a different part of society were clear. These feelings have proven to be constantly present in the minds of the respondents. It is also clear that there is strength and solidarity to be found within their own group.</p>

Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate how seven homosexual men in the age between 18 and 26 years experience openness with their sexuality in Stockholm. We wish to investigate how these men experience and handle their everyday life in a community characterized by a heteronormative foundation. We will focus on how they handle their openness in an urban environment and if they experience any limitations dependent on the situation or surroundings they live in, and also how they handle these situations. The study is hermeneutically inspired where seven life story interviews are analyzed within the theoretical frameworks provided by Connell, Goffman, Foucault and Queer theory. The results show that the respondents’ openness varies depending on a variety of factors where surroundings, situations and previous experiences are influential. In those cases where the openness was limited there appeared to be several different strategies to use. Furthermore feelings of many times being excluded and belonging to a different part of society were clear. These feelings have proven to be constantly present in the minds of the respondents. It is also clear that there is strength and solidarity to be found within their own group.

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This thesis examines the representation of sexuality and identity in six novels written by Edmund White. Issues specifically related to gay male sexuality and homosexual/gay identity politics are discussed in Chapter One. These issues are developed in Chapter Two's exploration of sexuality, coming out, outing, and narrative. However, the first two chapters also facilitate the introduction and critical expansion of key contextual and theoretical concerns. On the one hand, White's output is shaped and informed by the cultural, historical and political circumstances which have conditioned how gay male sexuality has been discursively figured and represented over the last forty years. On the other hand, his work has been inflected by theorisations of sexuality which have called into question the very specificity of a homosexual and/or gay identity. Drawing principally on theorisations of sexuality and identity in the work of ludith Butler, Lee Edelman, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, the first two chapters propose that the relations between sexuality and identity are unstable and discontinuous. Chapter Three's examination of narrative strategies contends that White's Forgetting /;;lena (1973), and Nocturnes for the King (if Naples (1978), excite readings of same-sex desire which are unable to specify an essential or natural difference between heterosexual and homosexual identities. Alert, nevertheless, to the political contexts which compel all sexual identity claims, Chapter Four observes how White's deployment of fantasy enables his novel Caracole (1985) to consider why identities and communities are labelled gay or straight in the first instance. Critical essays on White's work rightly note his novels' apparent preoccupation with gay male self-representation. However, discussing A Boy's Own Story (1982), and The Beautiful Room is Empty (1988), Chapter Five aims to expose the limitations of homosexual and gender definition. Indeed, if the relations between sex, gender and identity are neither clear nor continuous, then perhaps White's novels bring out such gender trouble. The examination of gay sex, sexuality and AIDS in Ihe Farewell Symphony (1997) observes why acts of gay self-nomination are politically necessary in homophobic cultures. However, this final chapter discusses why White's work appears reluctant to determine the meaning of sexuality and identity in any resolute way. Such queer irresolution, this thesis contends, enables the fiction to critique the past. Nevertheless, simply to say farewell to this past is to ignore the conditions of a future.

En Chine contemporaine, dans le cadre de la construction d’une société harmonieuse, il s’agit de bien encourager le vivre ensemble de toutes les cultures dans le respect de la différence de chacun. C’est alors, que les hommes homosexuels, véritablement minoritaires, peuvent peu à peu faire partie de la vie publique dans la société. Gagneront-ils assez d’espace de liberté pour exister pleinement? Cette question ne peut pas être ignorée.Cette étude se penche sur les techniques de survie adoptées par des hommes homosexuels à Beijing en Chine. Plus particulièrement, elle concerne les relations entre l’internet et la construction de l’identité des hommes homosexuels. Elle aborde aussi les problèmes d’une famille composée d’un homme homosexuel ayant une épouse hétérosexuelle.La théorie que cette thèse s'efforce à démontrer est le fait que le contexte culturel et la structure sociale en Chine limitent l’expansion du cadre de vie pour les hommes homosexuels . Comme nouveau média, l’internet a les caractéristiques d’un espace hétérogène. Il satisfait aux demandes des hommes « homosexuels » qui veulent construire leurs identités de genre, individuelles et collectives. Cependant, l’internet réduit aussi la possibilité de faire évoluer les choses dans la société, et de demander les mêmes droits et intérêts pour les hommes homosexuels . En passant d'un cadre à un autre leurs identités deviennent fragiles et instables. Par conséquent, on peut dire que sans bien construire cette culture, les hommes homosexuels chinois ne peuvent pas créer un « western-style gay mouvement » [mouvement homosexuel à l'occidentale] à court terme. / In contemporary China, “homosexuals,” a true minority group, emerge gradually into the public view. In the context of the construction of a harmonious society in China, whether “homosexuals” obtain enough space to develop their culture or not becomes a question that we cannot overlook. The themes of this dissertation are the survival tactics of male “homosexuals” both within and outside of the internet environment. It discusses the construction of “homosexual” identity in different spaces and examines marriages between “homosexuals” and “heterosexuals.”The author holds that the special cultural context and social structure in China limits the expansion of the “homosexuals’” living space. Internet, a new medium, offers them a comparatively free space and fills their requirement of accessing individual and collective identities. Nonetheless, at the same time, internet keeps the “homosexuals” from fighting for their rights in real society. Survival tactics, which are carried out in the different spaces, make the collective consciousness of “homosexual” identity instable and vulnerable, and reduces the possibility of starting a western-style “gay movement” in China.

Memoria para optar al título de Periodista / 389 son los casos de discriminación homofóbica denunciados desde el 2002 hasta el 2008. Estos atropellos se producen cuando el entorno de un joven gay o una chica lesbiana se enteran de esa orientación sexual y comienzan los malos tratos por parte de familiares, compañeros y amigos. Para efectos de este reportaje, entenderemos como orientación sexual la definición entregada por la organización no gubernamental Movimiento de Minorías Sexuales (Mums), que afirma en su segundo cuadernillo de formación “Sexualidad, Género y Otras Cosas” que la orientación sexual, cualquiera sea esta, se determina por seis elementos: la fantasía, el deseo, el erotismo, la afectividad, la genitalidad y la conciencia de si mismo; es hacia donde una persona se dirige, no importando el sexo biológico.

This study examines differences in quality of life measures between heterosexual and homosexual respondents using General Social Survey data from 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. Analyses of quality of life are performed in an effort to compare the heterosexual and homosexual population of the United States. The three main areas which are explored in the analysis are physical health, general happiness, and life excitement. Few differences were found in subjective life satisfaction between heterosexuals and homosexuals; however, some control variables differed. Directions for future research regarding homosexuality and quality of life are discussed.