Magister Legum - LLM / The protection of the rights of sexual minorities in Africa is a controversial issue. It is not unusual to find newspaper reports on gross violations suffered by this minority group. Gays and lesbians are victims of violence, sometimes resulting in death. Sexual minorities in Africa are often confronted with government actions such as those of the Nigerian government that recently submitted to the parliament a Bill to make provisions for the prohibition of relationships between persons of the same sex, celebration of marriage, registration of gay clubs and societies and publicity of same sex relationships. The objective of this study was to suggest possible legal protection and recognition of sexual minority rights under the African human rights system. / South Africa

Sexual minority individuals face disparities of treatment from clinical and medical health professionals. In particular, there is a dearth of research and training surrounding human sexuality topics for sexual minorities. Research on sexual minority groups in this area can contribute to reducing treatment disparities. Consequently, the proposed study is a content analysis of social science literature in order to gauge trends in the amount of research focused on the intersection of sexual minorities and sex research. Articles from a database search of relevant keywords were coded for several variables, including overall level of focus on sexual minorities and on human sexuality topics, study sample composition, research funding sources, and whether the article offered any clinical implications. The study aims, with its results, to suggest possible directions for social science and sex research, in the hopes that future research will be better able to assist professionals in meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse population.

Orientador: Ana Cláudia Bortolozzi Maia / Banca: Diego Zilio Alves / Bnnca: Anderson Ferrari / Resumo: A temática de gênero e sexualidade se desenvolve ao longo da história rodeada de preconceitos e explicações que buscam apresentar modelos de suas causas e efeitos. O aspecto da orientação sexual, componente da sexualidade, difere-se conceitualmente a partir da concepção da heterossexualidade como normalidade e homossexualidade como desvio. Tal característica leva ao que se pode compreender como LGBTfobia acarretando em violências, agressões e uma série de outros comportamentos contra o público de Lésbicas, Gays, Bissexuais, Transexuais Travestis (LGBT) e todos aqueles que não expressam sua sexualidade de maneira heterossexual/cisgênera. Atualmente, o Brasil é o signatário de acordos internacionais que estipulam práticas de Estado para a criminalização de comportamentos agressivos direcionados ao público LGBT, contudo o número de vítimas deste grupo se mostra cada vez maior e até o ano de 2019 não foram sancionadas leis que criminalizem ações LGBTfóbicas. Diante disso, esta pesquisa desenvolve uma análise dos Projetos de Lei direcionados a criminalização da LGBTfobia propostos até 2018 nas instâncias da Câmara dos Deputados e no Senado Federal. A partir da Análise do Comportamento, ramo da psicologia fundamentado pela filosofia do Behaviorismo Radical, realiza-se a análise de oito Projetos de Lei direcionados a criminalização de comportamentos LGBTfóbicos buscando destacar e analisar itens de Contextos Antecedentes, Comportamentos, Consequências e Atores Alvo. São analisados t... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The theme of gender and sexuality develops throughout history surrounded by prejudice and explanations that seek to present models of its causes and effects. The aspect of sexual orientation, a component of sexuality, differs conceptually from the conception of heterosexuality as normality and homosexuality as deviance. This feature leads to what can be understood as LGBT phobia leading to violence, assaults and a host of other behaviors against the public of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transsexual, Transvestites (LGBT) and all those who do not express their sexuality in a heterosexual / cisgender manner. Currently, Brazil is the signatory of international agreements that stipulate state practices to criminalize aggressive behavior directed to the LGBT public, however the number of victims of this group is increasing and until 2019 were not sanctioned laws that criminalize LGBT phobic actions. Given this, this research develops an analysis of the Bill directed to criminalization of LGBTphobia proposed until 2018 in the instances of the House of Representatives and the Federal Senate. Based on Behavior Analysis, a branch of psychology based on the philosophy of Radical Behaviorism, eight Laws directed to criminalization of LGBTphobic behaviors are analyzed, seeking to highlight and analyze items from Background, Behavior, Consequences and Target Actors. Also, the legislative opinions referring to three of the Bills identifying contextual elements that possibly influence the leg... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Sexual minorities experience mental and physical health disparities in comparison to heterosexual individuals due to minority stress (Branstrom et al., 2016; Kerridge et al., 2017; Meyer, 2003). Positive psychology interventions have improved mental and physical health (Antoine et al., 2018; Lambert D'raven et al., 2015), and therefore these interventions have potential to address health disparities. The current study tested an identity-specific intervention (n = 30) to a general positive psychology intervention (n = 30) and a control group (n = 30) among sexual minorities. This built on a recent pilot study which tested the efficacy of an identity-specific intervention designed for sexual minorities and showed significant improvements in depressive and anxiety symptoms. Thus, I hypothesized that individuals in intervention conditions would have better mental health, physical health, and substance use outcomes than the control group. Additionally, outcomes of the identity-specific condition were compared to those of the general positive psychology intervention. Participants included 91 sexual minority adults that completed three surveys (baseline, one week after the intervention, one month follow-up) including outcomes measures (depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, problematic drinking, problems associated with drug use, well-being, and self-rated health), potential covariates (anticipated stigma, internalized stigma, concealment) and manipulation checks (self-compassion, forgiveness, optimism, coping using humor, social support seeking). Fifty-three participants completed interventions featuring five intervention tasks eliciting self-compassion, optimism, forgiveness, humor, and social support seeking. Analyses included descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and multilevel modeling. Compared to the control condition, results showed significantly greater improvements in well-being (b = .40, p = .013), self-rated health (b = -.42, p = .006), and problems associated with drug use (b = -.97, p = .004) among participants in the intervention conditions. No significant differences emerged for depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, or problematic drinking. Limitations include lack of power for analyses examining extended follow-up and comparing intervention types, as well as a number of history effects. Despite these limitations, the current study has potential to improve health outcomes and aid clinical practices. More research on positive psychology interventions with sexual minorities is needed.

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A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art by Research in Linguistics / Wits Pride is an initiative spearheaded by the Transformation and Gender Equity Office, at the University of the Witwatersrand. Beginning in 2010, the event has been held annually and has grown from a week-long event to a two-week long event which focuses on “creating a non-heterosexist, non-cissexist, non-homophobic and non-transphobic university environment”. Prior to 2010, it happened as part of the events of the campus LGBTQIA+ society Activate, and was not explicitly supported by the university as it is now, under the name “Wits Pride”. With the university’s name attached to it, Wits Pride gained institutional support and that came with more visibility. Wits Pride was now able to advertise widely, producing posters for campus use, t-shirts to give freely to students, as well as issuing press releases to the general public. As a result, journalists came to campus to report on Wits Pride and these reports, along with the texts produced by the Wits Pride Office are the focus of this paper. The paper analyses newspaper articles, posters and t-shirts, with the aim of explicating the discursive strategies used by Wits Pride and external media to represent Wits Pride. These representations are analysed diachronically, to see if and how they have changed over time, by espousing a Queer Linguistic approach which uses Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis to analyse the various texts. Keywords: Wits Pride, MMCDA, Queer Linguistics, Sexuality, Space / GR2018

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Stigma is a multi-facetted construct that permeates the daily lives of sexual minorities including perceptions of self and social interactions. While research findings are ubiquitous on the negative mental health outcomes of living with a stigmatized identity (Link & Phelan, 2001), little is known about how perceived stigma may influence relationship satisfaction among sexual minorities. The present study investigated the relationship between perceived stigma and relationship satisfaction and whether psychological distress served as a mediating mechanism. Furthermore, a unique aspect of this study is its examination of multiple domains of stigma. Results indicated that sexual minorities experienced more perceived discrimination, public stigma, and self-stigma than heterosexuals as well as were less out about their sexuality. Main results did not support psychological distress as mediator but did reveal that self-stigma was significantly related to decreased relationship satisfaction among sexual minorities. Future research should focus on further elucidating the relationship between self-stigma and relationship satisfaction.