tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/homosexual-17709/articleshomosexual – The Conversation2023-12-07T02:48:10Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185072023-12-07T02:48:10Z2023-12-07T02:48:10ZSexual orientation and earnings appear to be linked – but patterns differ for NZ men and women<p>New Zealand has made substantial progress on promoting LGBTQ+ rights over the past 20 years, including legalising same-sex civil unions in 2004, <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/133003/parliament-passes-same-sex-marriage-bill">legalising same-sex marriage</a> in 2013, and <a href="https://www.tengakaukahukura.nz/banning-conversion-practices">banning conversion practices</a> in 2022. </p>
<p>One thing missing, however, is a clear view of the employment prospects and experiences of the LGBTQ+ population.</p>
<p><a href="https://docs.iza.org/dp14496.pdf">Most studies</a> from overseas show varying income patterns, with gay men generally earning less than heterosexual men, and lesbian women paid more than heterosexual women. </p>
<p>Our new research provides the <a href="https://www.aut.ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/824930/working-paper-23_05.pdf">first empirical evidence</a> of the relationship between minority sexual orientation and the labour market earnings of New Zealand adults. And it looks like the patterns seen overseas are being replicated locally.</p>
<h2>Identifying LGBTQ+ couples</h2>
<p>One of the biggest challenges for empirical research such as ours is the lack of relevant data on the LGBTQ+ population. Barring a few <a href="https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/one-third-of-people-who-identify-as-lgbt-plus-hold-a-bachelors-degree-or-higher/">nationally representative surveys</a>, there aren’t many sources of economic data that allow identification of individuals belonging to the Rainbow+ community.</p>
<p>To address this information gap, we used various administrative data sets in Stats NZ’s <a href="https://www.stats.govt.nz/integrated-data/integrated-data-infrastructure/">Integrated Data Infrastructure</a>. Specifically, we used data from the 2013 and 2018 Censuses, which included a household roster with detailed information on relationships among individuals. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-asked-same-gender-couples-how-they-share-the-mental-load-at-home-the-results-might-surprise-you-208667">We asked same-gender couples how they share the 'mental load' at home. The results might surprise you</a>
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<p>This allowed us to identify households with two adults of the same sex, where the second adult is described as the spouse or de-facto partner of the person completing the forms. We compared this with individuals in different-sex relationships (as opposed to heterosexual, as some partners may identify as bisexual). </p>
<p>Additionally, our analysis focused on full-time working adults aged between 25 and 64, who were unlikely to be pursuing further education during the period of our analysis.</p>
<h2>Earning profile by sexual orientation</h2>
<p>We linked our sample to the Inland Revenue’s individual tax records, which have detailed information on labour market earnings. </p>
<p>Individuals in same-sex couples appeared to be younger, more likely to have a bachelor’s degree, more likely to live in the urban areas of Auckland or Wellington, and less likely to be married than individuals in different-sex couples. We accounted for these differences in our main analysis.</p>
<p>We found that women in same-sex couples earn 6-7% more than similarly situated women in different-sex couples. For men, the opposite pattern emerged. Men in same-sex couples earned significantly less than otherwise similar men in different-sex couples by an average difference of 6-7%.</p>
<p>We also looked into different sub-groups, such as the marital status of the couple, the duration of cohabitation, or the location of residence and so on. </p>
<p>Importantly, there was no meaningful change in the earnings differences from 2013 to 2018, despite continued improvement in societal attitudes toward sexual minorities. </p>
<p>We also found the earnings differences were larger for married individuals than for people in de-facto relationships for both men and women in same-sex couples. </p>
<p>The earnings differences were smaller for younger individuals (under 45 years old) for both men and women in same-sex couples, compared to their counterparts in different-sex couples. The earnings deficit for men in same-sex couples was also significantly smaller in major cities like Auckland and Wellington, than in the rest of the country.</p>
<h2>Gaps in the data</h2>
<p>The gaps in available data mean our study has some limitations. Firstly, we do not have direct information about people’s sexual orientation. </p>
<p>Also, we were unable to identify single or non-partnered sexual minorities whose labour market experiences may differ. Hopefully, results from the 2023 Census will provide new insights. For the first time, this year’s census included questions about gender and sexual identity.</p>
<p>Finally, the data used to identify same-sex couples depends on individuals reporting they are in a same-sex romantic relationship, which may be under-reported due to stigma.</p>
<h2>The road ahead</h2>
<p>Empirical research documenting the wellbeing of Aotearoa’s LGBTQ+ population is important from a policy perspective. For example, there is <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bdbb75ccef37259122e59aa/t/629e7d2d64349d3b11b08919/1654553906843/Same+and+Multiple+Sex+Attracted_030622.pdf">ample evidence</a> of significant disparities in the mental health and wellbeing of Aotearoa’s Rainbow+ youth. There have been <a href="https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/2023-census-first-to-collect-gender-and-sexual-identity-from-everyone-in-aotearoa-new-zealand/">recent efforts</a> to address the common data-related challenges that will help inform these policies. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-parenthood-continues-to-cost-women-more-than-men-97243">How parenthood continues to cost women more than men</a>
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<p>Our study is part of a much wider ongoing international collaboration with the <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lgbtq-policy-lab/">LGBTQ+ Policy Lab</a> at Vanderbilt University. </p>
<p>The aim is to understand the experiences and life outcomes of individuals belonging to the Rainbow+ community. We hope to develop a knowledge base that taps into the social, economic, physical and mental wellbeing of sexual and gender minorities in Aotearoa New Zealand. </p>
<p>Understanding the experiences of this community will help us build on the progress of the past two decades to create a more inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218507/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Plum received funding from the Health Research Council (HRC). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The views here are the authors' own and do not reflect those of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Federal
Reserve System, or Statistics New Zealand.</span></em></p>Why do gay men generally earn less than heterosexual men, and lesbian women more than heterosexual women? New research aims to find out why, and how LGBTQ+ inclusivity can be improved.Alexander Plum, Senior Research Fellow in Applied Labour Economics, Auckland University of TechnologyKabir Dasgupta, Research associate, Auckland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2094262023-07-13T14:06:55Z2023-07-13T14:06:55ZMale rhesus macaques often have sex with each other – a trait they have inherited in part from their parents<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536818/original/file-20230711-17-aibxh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=941%2C102%2C3853%2C3154&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Male same-sex sexual behaviour was widespread in a population of rhesus macaques.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sam Edwards</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Homosexual behaviour is not limited to humans. Biologists have reported homosexual behaviour in many species of wild animal, ranging from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166024">bats</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.05.009">birds</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2009.03.014">dolphins</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539X-bja10062">primates</a>. </p>
<p>When animals engage in homosexual behaviour, one might assume that they invest less time and energy on reproduction. This suggests that there may be strong reproductive costs associated with such behaviour, such as having fewer offspring. So it raises the question of how homosexual behaviour manages to evolve and continue to exist within a population.</p>
<p>The underlying presumption is that there is not only a cost associated with engaging in homosexual activity, but also that variation in such behaviour is passed down from one generation to the next. Called heritability, this is essential for any evolution by natural selection to occur. </p>
<p>We set out to investigate these issues by studying 236 male <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/rhesus-monkey">rhesus macaques</a> living freely in a colony of 1,700 monkeys on the tropical island of Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. We observed these monkeys for three years and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02111-y">found that</a> male same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) was widespread. In fact, 72% of the males we observed mounted other males, while only 46% mounted females.</p>
<p>Critically, male SSB is not unique to this population of macaques. We saw similar behaviour in wild rhesus macaque populations in northern Thailand. And there have been <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Primate_Behavior/QingBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">previous reports</a> of SSB in this species from India, too.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A rhesus macaque colony." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536787/original/file-20230711-30-f7j44b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536787/original/file-20230711-30-f7j44b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536787/original/file-20230711-30-f7j44b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536787/original/file-20230711-30-f7j44b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536787/original/file-20230711-30-f7j44b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536787/original/file-20230711-30-f7j44b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536787/original/file-20230711-30-f7j44b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A rhesus macaque colony in Rajasthan, India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rhesus-monkey-colony-alwar-rajasthan-india-159063821">Attila JANDI/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>From one generation to the next</h2>
<p>We also had access to pedigree records that traced the parentage of each macaque back to 1956. This allowed us to explore the effect of relatedness (heritability) on their behaviour, taking into account other factors that could influence the results, such as age and social group structure.</p>
<p>We found that the heritability of male SSB was 6.4%, meaning genetics do account for a small proportion of SSB – the rest is environmental.</p>
<p>We calculated “evolvability” to be 14.9%, giving the potential rate at which the trait can evolve per generation through natural selection. Evolvability is thought to be a more reliable indicator than heritability of the degree to which genetics can respond to evolutionary pressure, and provides us with further evidence that SSB can evolve through selection.</p>
<p>Our estimates align with what we would expect for a behavioural trait that is probably influenced by multiple genetic factors and environmental effects. They are also consistent with heritability values reported in studies of other social behaviour in primate species, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpad066">social grooming in baboons</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-022-00558-6">social proximity in capuchins</a>. </p>
<p>We also found a genetic correlation between the number of times a male was observed mounting another male and the number of times he was mounted by other males. This suggests that different forms of SSB in these monkeys share a common genetic basis.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two grooming chacma baboons on a tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536773/original/file-20230711-25-fgafa9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536773/original/file-20230711-25-fgafa9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536773/original/file-20230711-25-fgafa9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536773/original/file-20230711-25-fgafa9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536773/original/file-20230711-25-fgafa9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536773/original/file-20230711-25-fgafa9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536773/original/file-20230711-25-fgafa9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Two chacma baboons grooming eachother. Caprivi, Namibia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-grooming-chacma-baboons-papio-ursinus-2250991039">Fotografie-Kuhlmann/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>What underpins this behaviour?</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7693">Previous studies</a> on the heritability of SSB have primarily focused on humans. However, these studies often rely on self-reported data, which can introduce complications. The cultural stigma surrounding homosexuality, for instance, could lead to the underreporting of homosexual activity.</p>
<p>Heritability of SSB has also been found in some invertebrate species, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-016-0658-4">seed beetles</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.0429">fruit flies</a>. However, the pathways through which SSB develops in these species are thought to be different from those observed in social vertebrates like primates. For example, factors such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1610-x">imperfect sex recognition</a> are believed to influence the development of SSB in invertebrates.</p>
<p>Demonstrating that SSB is heritable and its potential for evolutionary response to natural selection is an important first step towards understanding the factors that influence variation in this behaviour. </p>
<p>Many evolutionary theories for SSB in animals exist. But they all depend on the behaviour showing a degree of heritability. </p>
<p>One theory suggests that in some species, animals may engage in SSB because it serves a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.02.001">beneficial social function</a>. For example, it may strengthen the bonds between males, ultimately benefiting them during competition for mates and food. </p>
<p>In support of this theory, our research found that male rhesus macaques involved in SSB partnerships were more likely to support each other in conflicts with other individuals. This effect could be a way in which SSB benefits a macaque and its chances of producing offspring, thereby allowing the behaviour and the genes associated with it to persist within a population.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of macaques fighting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536779/original/file-20230711-15-ln4ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536779/original/file-20230711-15-ln4ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536779/original/file-20230711-15-ln4ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536779/original/file-20230711-15-ln4ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536779/original/file-20230711-15-ln4ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536779/original/file-20230711-15-ln4ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536779/original/file-20230711-15-ln4ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rhesus macaques involved in SSB partnerships were more likely to support each other in conflicts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-macaques-fighting-1998316622">Di Qin/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Learning from primates</h2>
<p>So what can we learn from these findings about SSB across primate species, including humans?</p>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7693">previous study</a> examining SSB heritability in humans found significant reproductive costs associated with this behaviour. In contrast, we found no such costs in macaques. </p>
<p>This suggests that the costs associated with human SSB might arise from specific social factors unique to humans. However, more research is needed to explore this idea further.</p>
<p>Today, some people still believe that SSB is rare or the product of extreme and unusual environmental conditions, and selectively look to examples in nature to validate their view. Our results may help to challenge these beliefs and combat prejudice against homosexuality and bisexuality. However, society’s moral obligation to strive for more inclusivity and acceptance of different sexual orientations ultimately does not rely on observations from the natural world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209426/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jackson Clive received funding for this work from the UK Natural Environment Research Council, the American Institute of Bisexuality and the Genetics Society.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ewan Flintham receives funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council
. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vincent Savolainen receives funding from NERC, the American Institute of Bisexuality and the Evolution, Education Trust. </span></em></p>Most of the males in a Puerto Rican monkey colony engaged in homosexual activity, a new study reveals.Jackson Clive, Postdoctoral Researcher, Imperial College LondonEwan Flintham, Postdoctoral Researcher, Université de LausanneVincent Savolainen, Professor of Organismic Biology, Imperial College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1613082021-06-17T15:50:04Z2021-06-17T15:50:04ZPride and prejudice: With only 9 LGBTQ criminal record expungements, what’s to celebrate?<p>This Pride Month marks the third anniversary of the “<a href="https://www.parl.ca/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?Language=E&billId=9273414">Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act</a>,” which allows people to clear their record of past offences involving consensual same-sex activity, convictions now considered unjust.</p>
<p>The act was a centrepiece of the <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2017/11/28/prime-minister-delivers-apology-lgbtq2-canadians">federal government’s apology to LGBTQ2 Canadians</a> in 2017. But figures obtained from the Parole Board of Canada via e-mail indicate that in the three years since the act came into effect, only 41 applications have been received and, of those, only nine people have successfully had their convictions cleared. </p>
<p>The small handful of expungements falls far short of the act’s intent and <a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbtq2-apology-is-a-good-start-but-its-not-enough-88159">calls into question the apology’s substance</a>.</p>
<h2>Problems with the legislation</h2>
<p>In November 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons he was proud to introduce the <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/backgrounders/2017/11/28/expungement-historically-unjust-convictions">Expungement Act</a> as a remedy for past wrongs, including the government’s <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/the-canadian-war-on-queers">purge of queer people from the Canadian military and public service</a>. </p>
<p>The prime minister also said the act was meant to address the ways “<a href="https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/speeches/2017/11/28/remarks-prime-minister-justin-trudeau-apologize-lgbtq2-canadians">discrimination against LGBTQ2 communities was quickly codified in criminal offences like ‘buggery,’ ‘gross indecency,’ and bawdy house provisions</a>.”</p>
<p>There were <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/2547609/6000-canadians-would-be-covered-by-gay-pardon-decision/">over 6,000 Canadians with convictions for “buggery” and “gross indecency”</a> in RCMP databases as of 2016 - so why such a slow uptake of the expungement process? </p>
<p>Back when the bill was before parliamentary committee, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/bill-c-66-political-expediency-is-producing-a-flawed-bill/article37303098/">I</a> was <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/trudeau-apology-1.4422195">part</a> of a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3908846/lgbtq-trudeau-apology-legislation/">group</a> of <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/12/11/news/dont-destroy-gay-sex-records-historians-urge-feds-move-bill-through-commons">historians</a> who pointed to serious problems that persist in the legislation, including onerous requirements for documentation, an unequal age of consent and an overly restrictive schedule of eligible offences. These help explain the low number of expungements to date.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Screen shot of application for an expungement order" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406278/original/file-20210614-130572-1brs3m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406278/original/file-20210614-130572-1brs3m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406278/original/file-20210614-130572-1brs3m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406278/original/file-20210614-130572-1brs3m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406278/original/file-20210614-130572-1brs3m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406278/original/file-20210614-130572-1brs3m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406278/original/file-20210614-130572-1brs3m3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Screen Shot of page one of the application for an expungement order. The document includes onerous requirements.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.canada.ca/en/parole-board/services/expungements/expungement-application-guide.html">(Parole Board of Canada/Expungement Act)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>In the archives</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/parole-board/services/expungements.html">act requires an applicant</a> to obtain, at their own expense, a copy of the court and police records of their conviction, an often-daunting research process. The case <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-meaning-of-everett-klippert">of Everett Klippert</a>, the trigger for <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/no-place-for-the-state">Pierre Trudeau’s 1969 partial decriminalization of buggery and gross indecency</a>, speaks to the challenges. </p>
<p>In 1965, during an investigation by police in the Northwest Territories into a supposed arson, Klippert was asked about and admitted to homosexual relations. Homosexuality was illegal in Canada at the time and Klippert found himself charged with gross indecency, convicted and declared a “dangerous sexual offender.” In 1967 he unsuccessfully appealed this decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.</p>
<p>Like many others with unjust same-sex convictions, <a href="https://calgarygayhistory.ca/2021/03/11/everett-klippert-coda/">Klippert died before benefiting from the Expungement Act</a>. Brian Crane, the lawyer who represented Klippert during his unsuccessful appeal, applied last year on behalf of Klippert’s family for an expungement. </p>
<p>Crane points out in an interview with me, that because Klippert’s case went to the Supreme Court, it generated a thick case file, the contents of which were integral to the successful expungement application.</p>
<p>Most historical convictions for same-sex offences, however, have been dealt with by lower-level courts, the records for which, if they still exist, may or may not have made their way into a public archive. If they have, the backlog of unprocessed court records in many archives would make it very difficult to locate a record. If the documents cannot be found, applicants must produce a letter from the court explaining why. </p>
<p>Even in Klippert’s case, Crane says it took considerable effort, including a second lawyer assigned to the case, to research and assemble the required documentation and to advocate on Klippert’s behalf to the Parole Board.</p>
<h2>The ever-shifting age of consent</h2>
<p>Even after <a href="https://www.radicalhistoryreview.org/abusablepast/1969-and-all-that-age-consent-and-the-myth-of-queer-decriminalization-in-canada/">partial decriminalization in 1969, the age of consent for homosexual sex was set seven years higher than for heterosexuals</a> – 21 instead of 14 (it was later lowered to 18 in 1988). </p>
<p>This was a lesson Cliff Everton told me he learned the hard way.</p>
<p>In 1979, Winnipeg police showed up at Everton’s door, claiming to be conducting a survey of the gay community. Everton, in his 20s, answered police questions, including intimate details about his relationship with his 18-year-old live-in boyfriend. Because the boyfriend was under 21, police charged Everton with buggery. </p>
<p>In the subsequent trial, the judge gave Everton a two-year suspended sentence and criticized the methods used by the police in their investigation.</p>
<p>Four decades after his ordeal, Everton began the expungement process by searching for his record in court archives, but nothing turned up. He eventually found a copy of the court decision in the University of Manitoba Archives and his expungement was granted. </p>
<p>Had the age of consent for homosexuals been made equal to heterosexuals, something that <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-1969-amendment-and-the-de-criminalization-of-homosexuality">only happened two years ago</a>, Everton would not have been charged with this offence in the first place.</p>
<p>When it comes to age, the Expungement Act perpetuates queer injustice. Although concerned with historical convictions, the Act <a href="https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/ResearchPublications/201724E">uses the current age of consent of 16 established in 2008</a>. This means that anyone whose same-sex offence occurred before 2008 will be held to a different standard than straight people for whom the age of consent before 2008 was 14.</p>
<h2>Found-ins and vagrants</h2>
<p>The act allows for the expungement of <a href="https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-21.5/page-3.html#h-16">only a small fraction</a> of <a href="https://anti-69.ca/chart/">offences used historically to police same-sex relations</a>. </p>
<p>Toronto resident Ron Rosenes explained to me that he remembers the night in February of 1981 when <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6s9qvctHI0">police raided the city’s bathhouses</a> and charged him with being a “found-in,” meaning he was arrested <a href="https://exhibits.library.utoronto.ca/exhibits/show/bawdy/bathhouse-raids">in a common bawdy house</a>. </p>
<p>Rosenes applied for an expungement but can’t get one because the act does not include bawdy house offences — despite Trudeau’s explicit reference to them during his apology.</p>
<p>The act does allow for other offences deemed unjust or unconstitutional to be added. And yet, even though bawdy house laws were repealed in 2019, they still haven’t been added to the list of expungable offences. Neither has <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/JUST/Brief/BR10002313/br-external/HooperTom-e.pdf">vagrancy</a>, which has been used to police lesbians, sex workers and transgender people. </p>
<p>Historically, police have made liberal use of Criminal Code provisions to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/pride-police-1.4618663">police same-sex relations and gender expression</a>. The government needs to expand the list of expungable offences while easing the documentary requirements and fixing the unequal age of consent. Only then will Trudeau’s apology and the Expungement Act move beyond mere words to a more meaningful response to the historical and ongoing <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-lives-matter-police-and-pride-toronto-activists-spark-a-movement-79089">policing</a> of <a href="https://theconversation.com/queers-and-trans-say-no-to-police-presence-at-pride-parade-108643">queer people</a> in Canada.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Maynard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Expungement Act was a centrepiece of the federal government’s apology to LGBTQ2 Canadians. But figures indicate only nine people have successfully had their convictions cleared.Steven Maynard, Adjunct Associate Professor of History, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1227642019-09-03T13:40:36Z2019-09-03T13:40:36ZStop calling it a choice: Biological factors drive homosexuality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290563/original/file-20190902-175705-15kuqu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Biological factors shape sexual preference.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lgbt-lesbian-couple-moments-happiness-concept-575079754?src=-1-53">Rawpixel.com/SHutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7693">Across cultures, 2% to 10% of people report having same-sex relations</a>. In the U.S., <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/1249/homosexuality/">1% to 2.2% of women and men</a>, respectively, identify as gay. Despite these numbers, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2013/06/04/the-global-divide-on-homosexuality/">many people still consider homosexual behavior to be an anomalous choice</a>. However, biologists have <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312253776">documented homosexual behavior in more than 450 species</a>, arguing that same-sex behavior is not an unnatural choice, and may in fact play a vital role within populations.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7693">a 2019 issue of Science magazine</a>, geneticist Andrea Ganna at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and colleagues, described the largest survey to date for genes associated with same-sex behavior. By analyzing the DNA of nearly half a million people from the U.S. and the U.K., they concluded that genes account for between 8% and 25% of same-sex behavior. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/news/sex-redefined-1.16943">Numerous studies have established that sex is not just male or female</a>. Rather, it is a continuum that emerges from a person’s genetic makeup. Nonetheless, misconceptions persist that same-sex attraction is a choice that warrants condemnation or <a href="https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/just-the-facts">conversion</a>, and leads to discrimination and persecution.</p>
<p><a href="https://wjsulliv.wixsite.com/sullivanlab">I am a molecular biologist</a> and am interested in this new study as it further illuminates the genetic contribution to human behavior. As the author of the book, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608709/pleased-to-meet-me-by-bill-sullivan/9781426220555/">“Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are,”</a> I have done extensive research into the biological forces that conspire to shape human personality and behavior, including the factors influencing sexual attraction.</p>
<h2>The hunt for ‘gay genes’</h2>
<p>The new finding is consistent with multiple earlier studies of twins that indicated same-sex attraction is a heritable trait.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290580/original/file-20190902-175663-baya3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290580/original/file-20190902-175663-baya3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1200&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290580/original/file-20190902-175663-baya3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1200&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290580/original/file-20190902-175663-baya3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1200&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290580/original/file-20190902-175663-baya3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290580/original/file-20190902-175663-baya3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290580/original/file-20190902-175663-baya3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A new study suggests that genes are responsible for between 8% and 25% of same-sex preference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/dna-multi-color-isolated-on-white-717211195?src=-1-47">Guru 3D</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The 2019 study is the latest in a hunt for “gay genes” that began in 1993, when Dean Hamer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.8332896">linked male homosexuality to a section of the X chromosome</a>. As the ease and affordability of genome sequencing increased, additional gene candidates have emerged with potential links to homosexual behavior. So-called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15736-4">genome-wide association studies identified a gene called <em>SLITRK6</em></a>, which is active in a brain region called the diencephalon that differs in size between people who are homosexual or heterosexual.</p>
<p>Genetic studies in mice have uncovered additional gene candidates that could influence sexual preference. A 2010 study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2156-11-62">linked sexual preference to a gene called fucose mutarotase</a>. When the gene was deleted in female mice, they were attracted to female odors and preferred to mount females rather than males. </p>
<p>Other studies have shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06089">disruption of a gene called <em>TRPC2</em></a> can cause female mice to act like males. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1069259">Male mice lacking <em>TRPC2</em></a> no longer display male-male aggression, and they initiate sexual behaviors toward both males and females. Expressed in the brain, <em>TRPC2</em> functions in the recognition of pheromones, chemicals that are released by one member of a species to elicit a response in another.</p>
<p>With multiple gene candidates being linked to homosexuality, it seemed highly unlikely that a single “gay” gene exists. This idea is further supported by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7693">the new study</a>, which identified five new genetic loci (fixed positions on chromosomes) correlating with same-sex activity: two that appeared in men and women, two only in men, and one only in women.</p>
<h2>How might these genes influence same-sex behavior?</h2>
<p>I find it intriguing that some of the genes from men identified in Ganna’s study are associated with olfactory systems, a finding that has parallels to the work in mice. Ganna’s group found other gene variants that may be linked with sex hormone regulation, which other scientists have previously suggested plays a large role in shaping the brain in ways that influence sexual behavior. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290575/original/file-20190902-175691-1l5i9pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290575/original/file-20190902-175691-1l5i9pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290575/original/file-20190902-175691-1l5i9pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290575/original/file-20190902-175691-1l5i9pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290575/original/file-20190902-175691-1l5i9pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290575/original/file-20190902-175691-1l5i9pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290575/original/file-20190902-175691-1l5i9pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Conditions in the uterus during pregnancy are thought to influence the sexual preferences of the child.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-pregnant-woman-shopping-bags-outdoors-503149633?src=-1-18">Anna Om/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Males with a genetic condition called <a href="https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/androgen-insensitivity-syndrome">androgen insensitivity syndrome</a> can develop female genitalia and are usually brought up as girls, despite being genetically male – with an X and Y chromosome – and they are attracted to men. This suggests that testosterone is needed to “masculinize” a prenatal brain; if that doesn’t happen, the child will grow up to desire men. </p>
<p>Similarly, girls who have a genetic condition called <a href="https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/cah">congenital adrenal hyperplasia</a> are exposed to unusually high levels of male hormones like testosterone while in the womb, which may masculinize their brain and increase the odds of lesbianism. </p>
<p>It’s also possible that hormonal shifts during pregnancy could affect how a fetus’ brain is configured. In rats, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1210/en.2011-0277">manipulation of hormones during pregnancy</a> produces offspring that exhibit homosexual behavior.</p>
<h2>Why does homosexual behavior exist?</h2>
<p>Several hypotheses have been advanced to explain how homosexuality can be beneficial in perpetuating familial genes. One idea involves the concept of kin selection, whereby people work to ensure the passage of their family’s genes into subsequent generations. Gay uncles and aunts, for example, are “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797609359623">helpers in the nest</a>” that help raise other family members’ children to nurture the family tree.</p>
<p>Another idea suggests that homosexuality is a “trade-off trait.” For example, certain genes in women help increase their fertility, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2008.00944.x">if these genes are expressed in a male</a>, they predispose him toward homosexuality.</p>
<p>Sexual behavior is widely diverse and governed by sophisticated mechanisms throughout the animal kingdom. As with other complex behaviors, it is not possible to predict sexuality by gazing into a DNA sequence as if it were a crystal ball. Such behaviors emerge from constellations of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of genes, and how they are regulated by the environment.</p>
<p>While there is no single “gay gene,” there is overwhelming evidence of a biological basis for sexual orientation that is programmed into the brain before birth based on a mix of genetics and prenatal conditions, none of which the fetus chooses.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122764/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Sullivan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new study of nearly 500,000 individuals finds that many genes affect same-sex behavior, including newly identified candidates that may regulate smell and sex hormones.Bill Sullivan, Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology, Indiana University School of MedicineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1171102019-05-31T13:48:09Z2019-05-31T13:48:09ZIf your sexual orientation is accepted by society you will be happier and more satisfied with your life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277425/original/file-20190531-69095-1ehye98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Homosexual women are mostly happier with their lives than heterosexual women.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/couple-gay-woman-having-breakfast-together-1267928482?src=L0n4kDoC1Oy2okptAAucNQ-1-18">engagestock/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent years LGBT+ rights have improved dramatically. Same-sex marriage is now legally performed and recognised <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/17/global-snapshot-sex-marriage/">in 28 countries</a>. Equality laws protect LGBT+ people <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents">at work</a> and increased media coverage is improving knowledge and awareness of sexual orientations. More to be done, however, to ensure equality for all, and researchers have been looking into how different factors like these contribute to the happiness and life satisfaction of people with minority sexual identities.</p>
<p>Studies have shown that, on average, homosexuals and bisexuals report <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176519301466">lower levels of life satisfaction</a> than heterosexuals. This has been linked to homosexuals and bisexuals experiencing heteronormativity (the assumption that heterosexual orientation and binary gender identity are “normal”, which has led to the world being built to cater to the needs and desires of heterosexual life), <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2072932/">which leads to stigmatisation</a>. For our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176519301466">new study</a> we looked deeper into the links between sexuality and life satisfaction, and found that people with an “other” sexual identity – such as pansexual, demisexual, or asexual – also experience lower levels of life satisfaction than heterosexuals.</p>
<h2>Well-being differences</h2>
<p>Using 150,000 responses collected over five years as part of the <a href="https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/">Understanding Society survey</a>, we analysed whether the happiest heterosexuals are happier than the happiest sexual minorities, and if the least happy sexual minorities are less happy than the least happy heterosexuals. When looking at the data, we controlled for a number of things – such as age, employment, personality, and location – to make sure our results focused solely on sexual identity.</p>
<p>While other studies have looked at the “average” effect of sexual identity on happiness (where it has been shown that sexual minorities report lower levels of life satisfaction), my colleagues and I considered the whole well-being distribution. That is, we looked at the differences between heterosexuals and sexual minorities at the lowest, average, and highest levels of self-reported life satisfaction.</p>
<p>Our results are clear that sexual identity is correlated with life satisfaction, but it is a nuanced picture. We found that homosexual males are less happy with their lives than heterosexual males, except for at the very top of the well-being distribution (where they are happiest). We also saw that homosexual females are happier with their lives than heterosexual females. Although interestingly that is except for at the lowest levels of well-being. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277202/original/file-20190530-69091-z9xgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277202/original/file-20190530-69091-z9xgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277202/original/file-20190530-69091-z9xgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277202/original/file-20190530-69091-z9xgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277202/original/file-20190530-69091-z9xgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277202/original/file-20190530-69091-z9xgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277202/original/file-20190530-69091-z9xgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Facing ostracisation on the basis of your sexual identity has a large negative impact on how satisfied you are with your life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hands-holding-rainbow-paper-hearts-lgbt-245541811">Yulia Grigoryeva/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bisexuals – irrespective of gender – report the lowest levels of life satisfaction, and the loss to well-being associated with being bisexual (rather than heterosexual) is at least comparable to the effect of being unemployed or having ill-health. In fact, out of all the sexual identities analysed we found that bisexuals are the least satisfied with their lives. </p>
<p>“Other” sexual identities are associated with lower levels of life satisfaction in the bottom half of the distribution, but higher life satisfaction in the top half. This means that the least happy people with an other sexual identity are less happy than their heterosexual counterparts. But the happiest people with an other sex identity are actually happier than their heterosexual counterparts. </p>
<p>While our findings highlight the importance of gender (or more precisely its interaction with sexual identity), this is only relevant for homosexuals. As noted above, the results for homosexual males and homosexual females are drastically different This makes sense considering that other research has highlighted that societal attitudes towards lesbians are <a href="https://academic.oup.com/poq/article-abstract/66/1/40/1866690">more preferential</a> than to gay males. So it is likely that the higher life satisfaction reported by lesbians (compared to heterosexual women) is associated with these more positive societal attitudes. </p>
<h2>Identity and acceptance</h2>
<p>Looking to our findings for other sexual identities, we believe that growing awareness (for example due to <a href="https://www.glaad.org/whereweareontv18">increased representation</a> on television) is likely to have reduced the need for some people to “explain” their identity to others. This will have made reaffirming the validity of their sexuality to themselves easier too. If we couple this with increasing self-awareness of an identity that gives meaning to attractions (or lack thereof), the positive well-being identified for this group is understandable.</p>
<p>While it could be argued that the same should be true of bisexuals, there is a significant difference between bisexuality and “other” identities. Bisexuality is an identity that has existed significantly longer and was part of the original LGBT movement. And yet the greater minority stress experienced by bisexuals is likely a reflection of how they <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4283842/">experience stigmatisation</a> from both heterosexual and homosexual communities through <a href="https://www.bustle.com/p/5-myths-about-bisexuality-that-contribute-to-bi-erasure-2418689">bi-erasure</a> and lack of acceptance of bisexuality.</p>
<p>Overall our research shows that people with a minority sexual identity are on average less satisfied with their lives, but across the distribution of well-being a more positive picture emerges. If we look at other research into the different societal attitudes and growing acceptance towards certain sexual identities, it is clear that being accepted is important. Facing ostracisation on the basis of your sexual identity has a large negative impact on how satisfied you are with your life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117110/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Mann receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Samuel Mann is a PhD Student at Swansea University affiliated with the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods. </span></em></p>Minority sexual identities are on average less satisfied with their lives — but being accepted is crucial to this.Samuel Mann, PhD Researcher in Sexual Orientation and Well-being, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1152112019-05-08T10:13:21Z2019-05-08T10:13:21ZHarsh punishments under Sharia are modern interpretations of an ancient tradition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272565/original/file-20190503-103082-15qu5ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, one of the landmarks in Brunei. Brunei recently announced punishing gay sex by stoning offenders to death.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Brunei-Sharia-Law/b31b0762904e4cc8ae84f741a2335dda/2/0">AP Photo/Vincent Thian</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After Brunei introduced death by stoning for homosexuals under its Islamic law, or Sharia, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/world/asia/brunei-stoning-gay-sex.html">condemnation</a> from human rights organizations and others was swift. Recently, the country backed down under mounting international pressure, saying it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/world/asia/brunei-gays-stoning-execution.html">would not carry out executions</a> under the new law. The sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, said,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“As evident for more than two decades, we have practiced a de facto moratorium on the execution of death penalty for cases under the common law.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And this, he added would also be applied to cases under the Sharia penal code.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, homosexuals in Brunei are still subject to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/05/asia/brunei-lgbt-death-penalty-intl/index.html">penalties</a> such as whipping and amputation. </p>
<p>Is Brunei’s law an accurate reflection of Sharia?</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1057944">scholar</a> of law and religion, I would argue that Sharia is not one thing: It is a complex tradition with multiple interpretations – one that accommodates the celebration of same-sex attraction alongside rulings condemning homosexual intercourse. </p>
<h2>Different views</h2>
<p>Starting in the early medieval period, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=3YvEt3PxmAcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=hallaq+sharia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJy7W0jfvhAhUjMX0KHW6TDZMQ6AEINjAC#v=onepage&q=hallaq%20sharia&f=false">Sharia</a> developed as a sprawling corpus of texts and sources of authority that were often quite independent of the state.</p>
<p>Over the centuries, jurists of Islamic law have reached different decisions about what the tradition mandates in a particular case. Within Sunni Islam, four different <a href="https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/madhhab-SIM_8798?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-of-islam-2&s.q=madhhab">schools</a> have agreed to disagree about everything from criminal law to ritual observance. Shia Muslims have their own school of Islamic law. </p>
<p>Take, for instance, Muslim jurists’ approach to <a href="https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/liwat-SIM_4677?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-of-islam-2&s.q=liwat">anal intercourse</a> between two men. The Quran offers only a general condemnation, with no specific legal consequences. There are some sources in the Hadith – the vast corpus of sayings and actions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad and collected centuries after his death – that are more specific, including condemning those convicted of anal intercourse to death.</p>
<p>Some schools of Islamic law – such as the Shafii school, which is predominant in Brunei – classify sodomy as a type of <a href="https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/zina-or-zina-SIM_8168?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-of-islam-2&s.q=zina">fornication</a>, which requires the death penalty. </p>
<p>But others, such as the Hanafi school, which was the official school of the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=9cTHyUQoTyUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=hanafi+law+ottoman+empire&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjyrvmNkvvhAhXSLH0KHfvrDqgQ6AEIXzAJ#v=onepage&q=hanafi%20law%20ottoman%20empire&f=false">Ottoman Empire</a>, prescribe far lighter penalties for this act. The Hanafi school is still one of the most widespread in the Islamic world, including in Turkey, the Balkans, South Asia and Central Asia.</p>
<p>And even in those schools of Islamic law that prescribe the death penalty for anal intercourse, jurists have made the standard of proof so high as to be nearly impossible to meet. </p>
<p>To condemn someone for sodomy requires four male, Muslim witnesses to have had such an intimate view of the act that they could see the genitals of the offenders. All schools of law require this type of evidence to condemn someone for fornication. Needless to say, such proof was exceedingly hard to come by. </p>
<h2>Celebrating same-sex attraction</h2>
<p>Moreover, as scholar <a href="https://nelc.fas.harvard.edu/people/khaled-el-rouayheb">Khaled El-Rouayheb</a> has <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=undbSDztxVMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=khaled+el-rouayheb+homosexuality&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLnbDYjvvhAhVFlFQKHRmXBMkQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=khaled%20el-rouayheb%20homosexuality&f=false">argued</a>, while jurists might have condemned sodomy, they also celebrated homoeroticism, that is, erotic love between members of the same sex.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272568/original/file-20190503-103082-1ie3ijg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272568/original/file-20190503-103082-1ie3ijg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272568/original/file-20190503-103082-1ie3ijg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272568/original/file-20190503-103082-1ie3ijg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272568/original/file-20190503-103082-1ie3ijg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272568/original/file-20190503-103082-1ie3ijg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272568/original/file-20190503-103082-1ie3ijg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cairo’s Al Azhar Mosque and University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cairo_-_Islamic_district_-_Al_Azhar_Mosque_and_University_front.JPG">Daniel Mayer</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 18th century, Abdallah al-Shabrawi, the rector of al-Azhar in Cairo – then, as now, one of the Islamic world’s most prestigious centers of religious learning – was known both as a scholar and a poet. Al-Shabrawi dedicated a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=undbSDztxVMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=khaled+el-rouayheb+homosexuality&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj36aj34__hAhXo0FQKHXx7DQoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=khaled%20el-rouayheb%20homosexuality&f=false">love poem</a> to his male student, and wrote many others celebrating young men.</p>
<p>As scholars of Ottoman history and literature <a href="http://faculty.washington.edu/walter/">Walter Andrews</a> and <a href="http://mehmetkalpakli.com/">Mehmet Kalpaklı</a> have shown, Ottoman sexuality was in many ways like that of ancient Greece and Rome. Far from stigmatizing men who sexually desired other men, young boys were often considered <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=jID6Z1l0IfEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=andrews+kalpakli+age+of+beloveds&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwidlNrh5v_hAhVLs1QKHT9jA04Q6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=andrews%20kalpakli%20age%20of%20beloveds&f=false">more perfect objects of desire and love</a> than women.</p>
<p>Celebrations of same-sex love did not flout Islamic law. Rather, love for another man was considered widely acceptable even by jurists, as long as one avoided the sin of sodomy.</p>
<h2>Islamism and Sharia</h2>
<p>The interpretation of Sharia that originally guided the recent laws in Brunei is not a straightforward revival of an ancient tradition. </p>
<p>On the contrary, this interpretation is related to a particularly modern approach to Islamic law, one that is typical of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=2hxmm2N6jOgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=introduction+to+islamism&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1osCHkPvhAhUcJzQIHez0CBkQ6AEIPDAD#v=onepage&q=introduction%20to%20islamism&f=false">Islamism</a>. Islamism is an approach to Islam and the Sharia that arose in the 20th century across the Muslim world. Among its best-known example is the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ltVtj3Kh7IIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Richard+P.+Mitchell,+The+Society+of+the+Muslim+Brothers&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj18-rI5ofiAhUHsFQKHeB3AjAQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=Richard%20P.%20Mitchell%2C%20The%20Society%20of%20the%20Muslim%20Brothers&f=false">Muslim Brotherhood</a>, which originated in Egypt and argued, for instance, that Sharia was indispensable to a vibrant Muslim community.</p>
<p>Today, many Islamist political parties point to a revival of the Sharia as a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=CE_sgHj4k0EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=noah+feldman+the+fall+and+rise+of+the+islamic+state&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivtajQ5__hAhWmwFQKHZ7BDBoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=noah%20feldman%20the%20fall%20and%20rise%20of%20the%20islamic%20state&f=false">political solution</a> to the problems plaguing Muslim-majority societies, including corruption and inequality. </p>
<p>However, there are many different viewpoints even among those linked with Islamism. For example, the Egyptian Islamist group al-Gama'ah al-Islamiyah <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ieflBQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=jackson,+S.+A.+(2015).+Initiative+to+Stop+the+Violence:+Sadat%27s+Assassins+and+the+Renunciation+of+Political+Violence&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiwpq6M5IfiAhXIr1QKHbDnDPgQ6AEINDAC#v=onepage&q&f=false">renounces violence</a>. On the other end of the spectrum is the Islamic State, which has taken up perhaps the most extreme version of a violent interpretation of Islamism. </p>
<p>In spite of these differences, many Islamists share the belief that Sharia is a way to harken back to an authentic Islam free of the corruption that is perceived to come from the West. </p>
<h2>Pre-colonial Sharia</h2>
<p>In fact, Sharia was not usually the primary source of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7EAsmttzXjcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=criminal+law+islamic+world&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiDr96ukPvhAhXNIzQIHbkcAqwQ6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=criminal%20law%20islamic%20world&f=false">criminal law</a> in the pre-modern period.</p>
<p>Rather, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=3YvEt3PxmAcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=hallaq+sharia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJy7W0jfvhAhUjMX0KHW6TDZMQ6AEINjAC#v=onepage&q=hallaq%20sharia&f=false">Sharia courts</a> focused more on regulating issues such as contracts, debts, marriage, divorce, mortgages and other everyday matters of civil law. This was in part because the Sharia required such high standards of proof for crimes as to make conviction nearly impossible.</p>
<p>My own <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=WqIqDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=marglin+across+legal+lines&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjuqqGuj_vhAhXLwlQKHUIUBmMQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=marglin%20across%20legal%20lines&f=false">research</a> on law in pre-colonial Morocco shows that everyone – Muslims and Jews alike – used Sharia courts, which were mostly concerned with making sure that debtors paid their debts.</p>
<h2>Sharia stereotypes</h2>
<p>The way in which Sharia is codified and enforced by the state in a place like Brunei bears little resemblance to the way it functioned when al-Shabrawi was rector of al-Azhar.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272570/original/file-20190503-103057-142gr37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272570/original/file-20190503-103057-142gr37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272570/original/file-20190503-103057-142gr37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272570/original/file-20190503-103057-142gr37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272570/original/file-20190503-103057-142gr37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272570/original/file-20190503-103057-142gr37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272570/original/file-20190503-103057-142gr37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some countries use a harsh interpretation of Sharia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Indonesia-Aceh-Islamic-Law/59b08543977f4195b246cd0048ee9f65/2/0">AP Photo/Heri Juanda, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To many Americans, Sharia has become synonymous with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-sharia/2016/06/24/7e3efb7a-31ef-11e6-8758-d58e76e11b12_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.962edfb45af4">harsh punishments</a> and intolerance. This is a misunderstanding of Islamic law, both as it functioned historically and as it informs the daily lives of millions of Muslims today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115211/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Marglin is affiliated with the Democratic party. </span></em></p>Some Islamic nations, including Brunei, have harsh punishments under Sharia. In pre-modern times, Sharia was rarely used as criminal law, and standard of proof for any prosecution was very high.Jessica Marglin, Associate Professor of Religion, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1155172019-04-22T19:13:34Z2019-04-22T19:13:34ZHow pop culture has become a refuge for queer children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269348/original/file-20190415-147522-k5w7pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C11%2C1595%2C1046&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A still from Xavier Dolan's film _The Death and Life of John F. Donovan._</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-229189/photos/detail/?cmediafile=21593012">Shayne Laverdière/Allociné</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2013, during the French protests against marriage equality, queer philosopher Paul Préciado asked, in an article for <a href="https://www.liberation.fr/societe/2013/01/14/qui-defend-l-enfant-queer_873947"><em>Libération</em></a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Who will defend the rights of children who are different? The rights of the little boy who likes to wear pink? Of the little girl who dreams of marrying her best girlfriend? Of queer, fag, dyke, transsexual and transgender children? Who will defend the right of a child to switch genders if they want to? The right for children to freely determine their own sexuality and gender? Who will defend children’s right to grow up in a world without sexual or gendered violence?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Xavier Dolan’s 2019 film, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPmS8Iu432E"><em>The Death and Life of John F. Donovan</em></a>, released mid-March in France, reminded me of these words. The film talks about the importance of popular culture and its impact on queer youth, those who feel excluded by society’s rigidly defined gender norms.</p>
<p>Victims of <a href="https://www.cjcmh.com/doi/abs/10.7870/cjcmh-2011-0014">physical violence and verbal harassment</a> (bullying), such youth often find escape from the un-amiable world in popular culture – series, music, magazines, comics and more.</p>
<h2>The story of Rupert Turner</h2>
<p>The film revolves around the correspondence between John F. Donovan, an actor in a hit American series, and Rupert Turner, a young student who has just moved to the suburbs of London with his mother after his parents’ divorce.</p>
<p>The story is set in the early 2000s, a time when American TV series began to exert great influence over youth culture worldwide.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HPmS8Iu432E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer, <em>The Death and Life of John F. Donovan</em>.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This unorthodox friendship is shown largely through the eyes of young Rupert, who is bullied by his peers at school but holds fast. He finds resilience in his friendship with the actor, and in the series. But he also finds strength in his outlandish hope of, one day, acting side by side with Donovan. While it is never explicitly stated that he is in love with Donovan (and does it really matter?), Rupert finds the strength to subvert the gender norms that imprison boys and girls in stereotyped roles.</p>
<p>Rupert is a fugitive from reality. For years he maintained an active correspondence with a Hollywood actor, which is no small feat. His overactive imagination stimulates the real world. He lives differently; he’s not like other children. Rupert is a queer child.</p>
<h2>A poetic world</h2>
<p>Queer children show us the way; they break through boundaries. They are imagining a new world, different from the gender and sexual conformity all children are subjected to – a poetic world, <a href="http://knowledgepublic.pbworks.com/w/page/13684599/Michael%20Warner">in the words of Michael Warner</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267587/original/file-20190404-123400-lo5txc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267587/original/file-20190404-123400-lo5txc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267587/original/file-20190404-123400-lo5txc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267587/original/file-20190404-123400-lo5txc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267587/original/file-20190404-123400-lo5txc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267587/original/file-20190404-123400-lo5txc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267587/original/file-20190404-123400-lo5txc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A still from <em>My Life in Pink</em> by Alain Berliner.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the beginning of the film, when Rupert starts to watch the latest season of Donovan’s series, his euphoria recalls the outpouring of longing experienced by all children who do not fit in. To paraphrase Judith Butler, it is the performative act of an <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/mots/736">alternative masculinity</a>.</p>
<p>Oppressed in the ordinary institutional contexts that govern their lives (school, family, religion, peer socialization, etc.), queer children create imaginary worlds, fantasize, invent new languages and imaginary friends, rebuild the world and come up with their own ideal society. They are able to do so precisely because of their own excesses, the ways in which they transgress gender norms.</p>
<h2>Anna Vissi, Greek pop star, guardian angel</h2>
<p>I too was once like Rupert. At six, I idolized Greek pop icon Anna Vissi. She introduced her country to new <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-b6axWgZzg">musical styles, mixing western pop with eastern rhythms</a>, and gave spectacular concerts in Athens. She was <em>the</em> pop super star of the 1990s and early 2000s. I bought her CDs, danced to her clips, imagined myself singing her songs – alone or with her, for her. Vissi enabled me to live, helped heal my psychological wounds when my classmates called me a “fag”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4lMMQvW6xKg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>I went as far as to apply for a game show that granted viewers’ wishes, asking to meet her. When sexist rumors began to circulate about her, accusing her of “perverted” sexual practices, I stood up for her, knowing that, one day, those same words would be applied to me.</p>
<p>During my school years, I suffered casual abuse for reasons that were never explained (though I knew very well). My parents and friends turned a blind eye – even though my mother taught at my school – but Anna Vissi was always there for me. She was my companion and support through those years.</p>
<p>When I began moving in other circles, and rubbing shoulders with the <a href="http://socio.ens-lyon.fr/cours/methodes/methodes_fiches_bourdieu_passeron_1964_benquet.pdf">intellectual “inheritors”</a>, students of the universities where I studied – private school students all, and well versed in “real” musical culture – I hid my admiration for Vissi. She was too commercial, too lowbrow, too different from the artistic icons recognised by the standard-bearers of heterocentric bourgeois culture who dictated what I should be listening to be one of them.</p>
<p>But I didn’t want to be one of them. I wanted to get away from them just as I wanted to get away from my family. There was no place for me in my family or in the “hetero intellectual bourgeoisie”. Anna Vissi showed me the way, without speechifying, without taboos or limits. She was always there for me: when I went to the opera, when I started amateur theatre, when I read Genet. I may have turned my back on her, but she never did.</p>
<h2>Imagining new roles to survive</h2>
<p>Dolan’s film speaks to all queer people, to all those who do not fit into predefined, imposed gender roles, to those who dream of a different world and want to make it a reality. More than simple dreamers, queer children are actually <a href="https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789462982741/queer-festivals">building the world they want to live in, here and now</a>.</p>
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<p>In a world where culture crosses national borders, we can dream up new kinds of masculinity and femininity through new hybrid models, and fall in love with new pop icons who open the way for new constructions of desire and new possibilities.</p>
<p>Rupert eventually grows up and finds his way. Unfortunately, such is not always the case for queer youth. To become adults, children – queer or not – must first survive, using strategies and alliances, occasionally with friends or family members, but sometimes with their own John F. Donovan or Anna Vissi.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Konstantinos Eleftheriadis is the author of the book “Queer festivals: Challenging collective identities in a transnational Europe” (Amsterdam University Press, 2018).</em></p>
<p><em>Translated from the French by Alice Heathwood for <a href="http://www.fastforword.fr/en/">Fast ForWord</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115517/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Konstantinos Eleftheriadis received funding from the Greek Scholarship Foundation (IKY) between 2010 and 2013, and another doctoral scholarship from the European University Institute (2013-2014)</span></em></p>In pop culture such as series, music, magazines and comics, queer children often find ways out of a world that cannot contain them.Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, Teaching fellow en sociologie, Sciences Po Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1152102019-04-17T10:55:38Z2019-04-17T10:55:38ZWhy Pete Buttigieg may be reviving progressive ideals of the Social Gospel Movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269607/original/file-20190416-147502-1tdhy4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg announces that he will seek the Democratic presidential nomination.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Election-2020-Pete-Buttigieg/fce9b8a35bfd45efbbfb31baedbfd2f4/1/0">AP Photo/Darron Cummings</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent weeks, Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/4/3/18282638/pete-buttigieg-mayor-pete-pronounce-explained">has captured</a> wide media attention.</p>
<p>One reason is that Buttigieg is the first <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/newsbeat-47937424/pete-buttigieg-gay-mayor-launches-us-presidential-bid">openly gay</a> presidential candidate. Another is that he has been unguarded in speaking about his religious beliefs, arguing that his faith shapes his politics.</p>
<p>In a recent interview, Buttigieg <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/04/03/mayor-pete-buttigieg-christian-right-2020-democratic-primary-trump-column/3342767002/">said</a> that “Christian faith” can lead one “in a progressive direction.” He has also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/03/29/evangelicals-helped-get-trump-into-white-house-pete-buttigieg-believes-religious-left-will-get-him-out/?utm_term=.a02e763ea95a">argued</a> that Christianity teaches “skepticism of the wealthy and the powerful and the established” while elsewhere <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/12/2020-candidate-pete-buttigieg-on-taxing-the-rich-future-of-us-capitalism.html">expressing concern</a> that in the U.S. “concentrated wealth has begun to turn into concentrated power.”</p>
<p>These arguments are all the more striking since Buttigieg is from Indiana. According to a <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/state/indiana/political-ideology/">2014 Pew survey</a>, twice as many of the state’s voters identify as conservative than as liberal. Moreover, self-identified conservatives significantly outnumber liberals among Indiana Christians. It might seem that Buttigieg’s convictions are at odds with the beliefs of many people in his state. </p>
<p>A century ago, however, views such as Buttigieg’s flourished in the Midwest.</p>
<h2>A progressive religious movement</h2>
<p>As a historian of U.S. religion, I have <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100411860">studied</a> the vibrant period for religious liberalism in the early 1900s. Indiana and nearby Midwestern states were at the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=n3Xn7jMx1RYC&lpg=PA727&dq=midwest%20social%20gospel&pg=PA727#v=onepage&q&f=false">center of a movement</a> – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-social-gospel-movement-explains-the-roots-of-todays-religious-left-78895">Social Gospel movement</a> – that linked Christianity with progressive politics. </p>
<p>The movement gained wide popularity in American Protestantism at the beginning of the 20th century. Its proponents proclaimed the need to improve the world rather than focusing on being saved in the next life, which was the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/263132">common message</a> espoused in most U.S. churches.</p>
<p>One exemplar of the Midwestern roots of the Social Gospel was the Methodist clergyman Francis J. McConnell, who became known as an advocate for progressive policies.</p>
<p>McConnell <a href="https://library.depauw.edu/library/archives/news_exhibits/presidents/mcconnell.asp">grew up</a> in a small-town in Ohio before attending Ohio Wesleyan University. From 1909 to 1912, he served as president of DePauw University in central Indiana. </p>
<p>While there, he published a book that made arguments similar to Buttigieg’s belief that faith should inspire social action. McConnell <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=SLsOAAAAIAAJ&dq=inauthor%3A%22Francis%20John%20McConnell%22&pg=PA75#v=onepage&q&f=false">insisted</a>, “The moral impulse calls for the betterment of all the conditions of human living.”</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269610/original/file-20190416-147522-7z7kr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269610/original/file-20190416-147522-7z7kr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269610/original/file-20190416-147522-7z7kr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269610/original/file-20190416-147522-7z7kr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269610/original/file-20190416-147522-7z7kr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269610/original/file-20190416-147522-7z7kr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269610/original/file-20190416-147522-7z7kr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Washington Gladden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/WashingtonGladden.jpg">Ohio History Central</a></span>
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<p>Historian <a href="https://www.cla.purdue.edu/history/directory/?p=Susan_Curtis">Susan Curtis</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=qmgIzBotLagC&lpg=PP3&pg=PA167#v=onepage&q&f=false">writes</a> that McConnell “participated in the promotion of an evolving welfare state.” </p>
<p>There were other prominent Social Gospel proponents who lived and worked across the Midwest at the time. From his Columbus, Ohio, church, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/263132/summary">Washington Gladden</a> became famous for urging greater protection for workers and the poor. Further west, in Kansas, the minister <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20058181">Charles Sheldon</a> published the book, “In His Steps,” in 1896. It urged Christians to improve the lives of those around them. </p>
<h1>A religious challenge to big business</h1>
<p>It wasn’t just the presence of these leaders in the region – more important was the resonance of the message of the Social Gospel there. Small cities and towns in the Midwest were the heartland of the Social Gospel. </p>
<p>The Social Gospel’s critique of big business resonated in communities throughout the Midwest. </p>
<p>The movement emerged in response to the development of massive <a href="http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3166">national corporations</a> in the late 19th century. These companies consolidated wealth and power in large cities, often quite distant from Midwestern communities.</p>
<p>Demands for a social safety net for workers were <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/263132/summary">rising in places</a> like Columbus and Indianapolis as much as in larger metropolises like New York or Philadelphia. </p>
<p>These leaders urged the creation of a social safety net to provide a “<a href="http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/common-witness/1908/social-creed.php">living wage</a>” for all workers. They also <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=LaSTIZ0mf2cC&dq=gladden%20social%20facts&pg=PA104#v=onepage&q&f=false">advocated</a> increased government oversight of corporations, which they believed had grown too large. At a time when many <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=N-SrCQAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=Carter%20union%20made&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false">churches supported big business</a>, this was a counter-cultural position.</p>
<p>Lecturing back in his home state of Ohio in 1912, McConnell <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=CxosAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor%3A%22Francis%20John%20McConnell%22%20corporation&pg=PA139#v=onepage&q&f=false">likened modern “corporate kings”</a> to the absolute monarchs of previous centuries. Similar to rulers of earlier times, corporate titans exerted great power at a distance and could inflict harm. </p>
<p>McConnell believed organized Christianity could inspire people to challenge big business. “Corporations thrive best morally when they enjoy the full light of publicity,” he <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=5BksAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor%3A%22Francis%20John%20McConnell%22%20corporations&pg=PA235#v=onepage&q=corporations&f=false">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>Like Buttigieg, who argues that his Christian belief makes him skeptical of the effects of concentrated wealth, these Midwesterners saw Christianity as the antidote to distant corporate power. </p>
<h1>New life for an old message</h1>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269612/original/file-20190416-147511-1qjp1kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269612/original/file-20190416-147511-1qjp1kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269612/original/file-20190416-147511-1qjp1kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269612/original/file-20190416-147511-1qjp1kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269612/original/file-20190416-147511-1qjp1kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269612/original/file-20190416-147511-1qjp1kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269612/original/file-20190416-147511-1qjp1kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Pete Buttigieg speaking about his presidential run.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Election-2020-Pete-Buttigieg/ace7f5d308334609b778e709a4570dae/12/1">AP Photo/Richard Shiro</a></span>
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<p>Over the last few years, observers have <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-religion-idUSKBN16Y114">noted</a> the resurgence of a religious left <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-social-gospel-movement-explains-the-roots-of-todays-religious-left-78895">inspired</a> by the ideals of the Social Gospel.</p>
<p>With Pete Buttigieg, the religious left has its most <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/04/buttigieg-democrats-religious-left/586492/">prominent political leader</a> to date – and from the part of the country that was historically important for its emergence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115210/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Mislin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pete Buttigieg’s recent comments on Christian values, have drawn much attention. They might be quite similar to the ideals espoused by the Midwestern progressive Social Gospel Movement.David Mislin, Assistant Professor of Intellectual Heritage, Temple UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1123172019-02-22T12:31:57Z2019-02-22T12:31:57ZExplainer: what’s at stake in Kenyan court case on gay rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260401/original/file-20190222-39858-1xt1d4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Churchgoers in Nairobi who support gay rights lit candles ahead of the court ruling.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Dai Kurokawa</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The much-awaited court ruling on a petition seeking to decriminalise homosexuality in Kenya has been <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/ea/Kenya-court-postpones-ruling-on-gay-sex/4552908-4993956-db67e6/index.html">delayed for at least a further two months</a>. The petition currently before the High Court argues that two sections of the Penal Code contravene several rights enshrined in the Constitution. For instance, they deny lesbian, gay and bisexual people the right to privacy. Julius Maina asked Adriaan van Klinken to provide some context to the ruling</em></p>
<p><strong>What legal restrictions do Kenyan LGBTI people face?</strong></p>
<p>The two petitions that the High Court is dealing with are concerned with Sections 162 (a) and (c) and 165 of the <a href="http://www.kenyalaw.org/lex/actview.xql?actid=CAP.%2063">Kenyan Penal Code</a>. Section 162 sets out categories of “unnatural offences”, defined as “carnal knowledge against the order of nature”. This is a term that has historically referred to anal sexual intercourse. </p>
<p>The penalty for this is 14 years imprisonment. Although this law is not explicitly and exclusively about homosexuality – it would equally apply to heterosexual couples engaged in anal sex – it’s mostly been used to prosecute men involved in same-sex relationships.</p>
<p>Section 165 is concerned with “indecent practices between males”, either committed in private or in public. This carries a penalty of five years imprisonment. The law doesn’t provide a definition of what counts as “indecency”. However, historically it’s referred to non-penetrative sexual acts between men.</p>
<p>Both laws criminalise male homosexual relationships. But there’s room to interpret Section 162 to cover female same-sex relationships as “unnatural” too. This means that both men and women involved in same-sex relationships in Kenya fear the possibility of legal prosecution. </p>
<p><strong>How many of these laws date back to colonial times?</strong></p>
<p>Kenya’s <a href="http://www.kenyalaw.org/lex/actview.xql?actid=CAP.%2063">Penal Code</a> was originally <a href="https://theconversation.com/kenyans-are-still-oppressed-by-archaic-colonial-laws-73880">introduced in 1930 when the country was a British colony</a>. </p>
<p>The British Empire first introduced laws against “unnatural offences” and “indecent practices among males” to <a href="http://www.advocatekhoj.com/library/bareacts/indianpenalcode/index.php?Title=Indian%20Penal%20Code,%201860">India’s Penal Code in 1860</a>. It then copied these to its colonies in Africa. </p>
<p>Human Rights Watch produced a report in 2008 entitled “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/lgbt1208_webwcover.pdf">This Alien Legacy</a>”. The report traced the origins of “sodomy” laws in the British colonial empire, pointing out that their introduction was inspired by a “mission of moral reform—to correct and Christianize ‘native’ custom”. </p>
<p>When Kenya became independent from Britain in 1964 it retained the Penal Code. In other words, it’s laws were never decolonised. The irony is that these laws are often now defended as reflecting “African values”. </p>
<p>As the Human Rights Watch report explains, the scope of the laws has expanded over the decades to include the penalisation of sex between two women which was never part of the British law.</p>
<p><strong>Are Kenya’s laws more restrictive than other countries in the region?</strong></p>
<p>The relevant sections of the Kenyan Penal Code are similar to laws in most other African countries, in particular former British colonies. Some countries, such as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-26331660/ugandan-president-yoweri-museveni-signs-anti-gay-bill">Uganda</a> and <a href="http://www.lawnigeria.com/LawsoftheFederation/Same-Sex-Marriage-Prohibition-Act,-2014.html">Nigeria</a> have sought to introduce even more wide-ranging laws targeting LGBTI people in recent years. </p>
<p>In Kenya, on the other hand, the introduction of the new Constitution in 2010 has given growing impetus to the recognition of the rights of LGBTI people.</p>
<p>The Constitution doesn’t explicitly mention sexual orientation or gender identity. But, as prominent gay activist and lawyer Eric Gitari points out, it “<a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/04/01/kenya-leads-in-lgbt-equality-in-the-region_c1317474">nonetheless possessed golden threads of equality, dignity and freedom</a>”. </p>
<p>Indeed, various legal successes have been achieved in Kenyan courts in recent years. In 2014 the High Court ruled that the transgender organisation, <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000129302/kenyan-transgender-allowed-to-register-a-lobby-group">Transgender Education and Advocacy</a>, should be allowed to register as an NGO, and in 2015 a similar ruling was made for the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/04/28/kenya-high-court-orders-lgbt-group-registration">National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission</a>. Thus the right to freedom of association was effectively applied to LGBT groups, and the right to protection against discrimination was applied to sexual orientation and gender identity. </p>
<p>In 2018 a Court of Appeal in Mombasa ruled that <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/03/22/kenya-court-finds-forced-anal-exams-unconstitutional">forced anal examination</a> of people accused of same-sex activity was unconstitutional as it violated the right to privacy. </p>
<p><strong>Are attitudes towards gay rights changing in the country?</strong></p>
<p>During the campaign towards the referendum about the new constitution, conservative forces – including the current Deputy President, <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/kenyareferendum/No-team-launch-secretariat--confident-of-win/926046-935284-1x8p7hz/index.html">William Ruto</a> – called on citizens to vote against it. One of their arguments for taking this stance was that it would lead to the legalisation of homosexuality. </p>
<p>Despite this, the majority of Kenyans voters (67%) came out in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10876635">support of the new constitution</a>, which, at the very least, suggests that homosexuality was not their top priority.</p>
<p>Many prominent political and religious leaders in Kenya are vocal on issues of homosexuality. And the Kenyan Film Classification Board has <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/tiffany-kagure-mugo/state-sanctioned-erasure-queer-stories-africa">banned several gay-themed films</a> in recent years because they would promote “immorality”. </p>
<p>But it seems that attitudes might be changing slowly.</p>
<p>One example of this is that the Kenyan media reflect a wide range of opinions on LGBTI related matters and don’t hesitate to challenge and criticise politicians using homophobic rhetoric. This isn’t echoed in the media of some other countries in the region. </p>
<p>There is also a growing visibility of LGBTI people in Kenya, which has helped to give a face to an issue that was previously rather abstract to most Kenyans.</p>
<p>President Uhuru Kenyatta’s repeated statement that for most Kenyans today <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Gay-rights-non-issue-Uhuru-Obama/1056-2801274-10eqhyx/index.html">homosexuality is a “non-issue”</a> is also interesting, because it leaves open the possibility of future social and political change on the subject.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112317/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adriaan van Klinken does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Kenya’s LGBTI community will have to wait a while longer for the High Court’s ruling on whether it will decriminalise homosexual relationships.Adriaan van Klinken, Associate Professor of Religion and African Studies, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1114322019-02-14T14:05:30Z2019-02-14T14:05:30ZAbolition of Angola’s anti-gay laws may pave the way for regional reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258690/original/file-20190213-90485-eqs4qk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The change in leadership is one of the factors that led to the decriminalisation of homosexual relationships in Angola. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Angola has <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/01/23/angola-decriminalizes-same-sex-conduct">decriminalised</a> consensual same-sex acts between adults in private. </p>
<p>An erstwhile <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Angola">Portuguese colony</a>, Angola inherited an ancient colonial statute – <a href="https://www.plataformamedia.com/en-uk/news/politics/interior/new-angolan-criminal-code-decriminalizes-homosexuality-10484571.html">dating back to 1886</a> – that criminalised “indecent acts” and persons habitually engaging in “acts against nature”. These formulations have widely been interpreted as a ban on homosexual conduct.</p>
<p>Punishment upon conviction included confinement in an asylum for the “mentally insane”. It could also lead to jail time with hard labour, and disqualification from <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/criminal-laws-on-homosexuality/homosexuality-laws-in-african-nations.pdf">practising a profession</a>. Portugal abolished a similar offence in 1983. It then adopted far-reaching constitutional protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Its former colony has taken a long time to reach this point.</p>
<p>The Angolan National Assembly voted of 155 to 1 to abolish the provision criminalising homosexual relationships <a href="https://www.angop.ao/angola/en_us/noticias/politica/2019/0/4/Members-Parliament-approve-new-Angolan-Criminal-Code,462e956d-0b3f-4a1d-8f9b-ee9b5b81ae1e.html">on January 23</a>. It went further, making a criminal act against another person because of their “sexual orientation” an aggravating <a href="http://www.parlamento.ao/documents/506145/0/PROP.+LEI+C%C3%93DIGO+PENAL.pdf">factor in sentencing</a>. The new <a href="http://www.parlamento.ao/documents/506145/0/PROP.+LEI+C%C3%93DIGO+PENAL.pdf">Penal Code</a> (in article 214(1) also made discrimination against people on the basis of sexual orientation an offence, with punishment of up to two years’ imprisonment. It is homophobia, not homosexual acts, that will be punished in future. </p>
<p>This is a great step forward for Angola’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) community. And the decision could have tremendous significance beyond the country’s borders – by spurring change in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), of which Angola is a member. </p>
<p>That’s because Angola’s move means those SADC states which actively criminalise same sex activity are officially in the minority. And <a href="http://afrobarometer.org/sites/default/files/publications/Dispatches/ab_r6_dispatchno74_tolerance_in_africa_eng1.pdf">data shows</a> that attitudes towards homosexuality in the region are becoming less negative.</p>
<h2>Tipping point in SADC?</h2>
<p>Decriminalisation in Angola brings SADC, which has 16 member states, to a tipping point. Two countries in the region – the Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar – never made same-sex conduct <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/criminal-laws-on-homosexuality/homosexuality-laws-in-african-nations.pdf">criminal</a>.</p>
<p>Three others have unequivocally abolished such laws in the last two decades or so - South Africa in 1998, invalidating all <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/1998/15.html">convictions since 1994</a>; Mozambique in <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2015-06-29-mozambique-scraps-colonial-era-homosexuality-and-abortion-bans">2015</a>; and Seychelles in <a href="http://www.seychellesnewsagency.com/articles/5198/Seychelles+parliament+passes+bill+to+decriminalize+sodomy">2016</a>. In a fourth, Malawi, the situation is ambivalent. In 2012 then President Joyce Banda committed to <a href="https://76crimes.com/2012/05/18/malawi-president-aims-to-repeal-anti-homosexuality-law/">repeal</a> all laws that criminalised same-sex sexual relations. But, a 2012 moratorium on arrests and prosecutions was <a href="https://www.nyasatimes.com/malawi-court-rejects-moratorium-on-gays-police-can-arrest-homosexuals/">suspended in 2016</a>. A court ordered review of the constitutionality of “sodomy laws” is <a href="https://76crimes.com/2014/06/16/3-in-malawi-prisons-await-ruling-on-sodomy-law/">ongoing</a>.</p>
<p>In Lesotho and Namibia, the situation is not very clear. There is no explicit legal prohibition. But it’s assumed that same sex sexual acts remain a <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/criminal-laws-on-homosexuality/homosexuality-laws-in-african-nations.pdf">common law crime</a>. This leaves a minority of seven states – Botswana, Comoros, Mauritius, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe – in which the legal prohibition is clear. People are prosecuted for same sex relations in these countries. But, cases are infrequent these days.</p>
<p>But, litigation is underway to challenge these laws in <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/group-challenges-criminalisation-of-same-sex-relationships-in-botswana-20180530">Botswana</a>. And, in Mauritius, the Law Reform Commission already in 2007 recommended that “sodomy laws” be <a href="http://lrc.govmu.org/English/Documents/Reports%20and%20Papers/53%20iss-hum-071009.pdf">abolished</a>.</p>
<p>There is evidence to suggest that southern Africa is relatively fertile ground for legal reform in this domain. In <a href="http://afrobarometer.org/sites/default/files/publications/Dispatches/ab_r6_dispatchno74_tolerance_in_africa_eng1.pdf">its 2016 survey</a> independent African research network Afrobarometer found that tolerance towards homosexual persons in the region was higher than in any other part of the continent. In the survey, an average of 32% respondents in southern African countries expressed a favourable view towards having neighbours who are homosexual. This contrasts with an average of 21% across Africa. </p>
<p>Although there will be many obstacles to achieving region-wide decriminalisation, there is also much to build on in terms of popular support and lessons learned from Angola’s experience. </p>
<h2>How Angola got here</h2>
<p>Various factors contributed to decriminalisation in Angola. The most important was the change in political leadership <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-01-16-angola-president-lourencos-grace-period-is-over">in September 2017</a>. This led to the political will to take on an issue that doesn’t necessarily enjoy popular support.</p>
<p>Angola’s new <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/who-is-angolas-new-president-joao-lourenco/a-40218458">President João Lourenço</a> has shown some willingness to engage in a <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/angola-president-holds-unprecedented-talks-with-civic-groups-20181205">more inclusive politics</a>. Since he took over power in September 2017, an openly LGBT organisation was for the first time officially registered. And, Parliament all-but-unanimously <a href="https://portugalinews.eu/new-angolan-criminal-code-decriminalizes-homosexuality">decriminalised same-sex acts</a>.</p>
<p>Organised civil society, including Angola’s first ever LGBT organisation <a href="https://www.mambaonline.com/2018/06/21/angola-registers-its-first-lgbt-affirming-civil-rights-group/">Iris Angola</a>, also played an important role. National efforts were supported by pan-African NGOs such as <a href="https://www.hivsharespace.net/organization/african-men-sexual-health-and-rights-amsher">African Men for Sexual Health and Rights</a>.</p>
<p>The close relationship between Angola and other states in the <a href="http://www.sussex-academic.com/sa/titles/politics_ir/Ashby.htm">Lusophone world </a> also contributed. Brazil, for example, is a major socio-cultural influence – and its sexual minorities have traditionally enjoyed high levels of acceptance, to the extent that <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/p/pod/dod-idx/recent-supreme-court-ruling-on-same-sex-unions-in-brazil.pdf?c=iij;idno=11645653.0001.103;format=pdf">same sex unions are recognised</a>. In all likelihood, Angolans also closely followed the abolition of similar offences in Mozambique. </p>
<h2>More than just decriminalisation</h2>
<p>While decriminalisation is an important part of securing a world in which LGBTQ people coexist on an equal footing with others, the mere absence of criminal sanction is not enough. </p>
<p>In 2014 the African Union’s major human rights body, the <a href="http://www.achpr.org/about/">African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights</a>, adopted <a href="http://www.achpr.org/sessions/55th/resolutions/275">Resolution 275</a>. This called on state parties to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to refrain from, investigate and punish acts of violence and discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. Angola’s legal reforms are in line with this resolution.</p>
<p>Other SADC states should draw on Angola’s example by not only abolishing same-sex prohibitions (where they still exist). But, they must also adopt anti-discrimination legislation. A good starting point is the context of employment law. South Africa, Mozambique, Mauritius and Botswana have already explicitly prohibited discrimination in the workplace.</p>
<p>This is an area of human rights protection in which Southern Africa is well placed to take a firm lead, and achieve region-wide decriminalisation and anti-discrimination laws. Closer collaborative links should be forged between states and non-state actors to work towards this goal. And, greater openness and genuinely inclusive politics should be cultivated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111432/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frans Viljoen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Angola’s new President João Lourenço has shown some willingness to engage in more inclusive politics.Frans Viljoen, Director and Professor of International Human Rights Law, Centre for Human Rights, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1010872018-09-12T08:52:27Z2018-09-12T08:52:27ZOn gender diversity in Indonesia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231864/original/file-20180814-2903-1o6r8re.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5955%2C3278&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indonesian traditional dance performance _Reog Ponorogo_ depicts intimate same-sex relationships between two characters, _warok_ (men) and _gemblak_ (boys).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indonesian people often perceive gender and sexuality in a binary way – male and female, masculine and feminine – without considering other genders and sexuality. </p>
<p>Heterosexuality is deemed as the “normal” sexual orientation, if not compulsory. Homosexuality and bisexuality are considered unacceptable. Hence, the massive <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/indonesia-grapples-with-renewed-anti-lgbt-campaign/3212396.html">recent onslaught</a> against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people is not surprising, particularly in the media. </p>
<p>However, people should understand that gender and sexual diversity are inherent in Indonesian societies. </p>
<h2>Gender diversity in Indonesia</h2>
<p>Culturally, Indonesians have recognised sexual and gender diversity as part of their daily lives. </p>
<p>Indonesia has a <a href="https://www.4shared.com/office/QWGUvCAt/Homoseksualitas_di_indonesia-O.html">rich history</a> of homosexuality and transgenders. This fact contradicts the common belief that they are Western imports. </p>
<p>It is time that people stopped considering homosexuality and transgender as products of Western culture. Indonesia’s <a href="https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/51151-EN-homosexuality-in-indonesia-banality-prohibition-and-migration-the-case-of-indone.pdf">culture</a> has long been accustomed to gender diversity before colonialism and modernity exerted their strong influence in the society.</p>
<p>Let’s take a look at the Bugis people in South Sulawesi with their gender flexibility. Since the pre-Islamic era, the Bugis people have recognised <a href="http://www.insideindonesia.org/sulawesis-fifth-gender-2">five genders</a>. They divide the society into <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-we-can-learn-from-an-indonesian-ethnicity-that-recognizes-five-genders-60775">man (<em>oroane</em>), woman (<em>makkunrai</em>), male woman (<em>calabai</em>), female man (<em>calalai</em>) and androgynous priest (<em>bissu</em>)</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, in the same province, Torajan people also recognised <a href="http://www.oxis.org/books/verhandelingen/nooy-palm-1-1979.pdf">a third gender</a>, or <em>to burake tambolang</em>. </p>
<p>Anthropologist Hetty Nooy-Palm said the Torajan people believed the most important religious leaders in their culture are a woman, or <em>burake tattiku</em>, and a man dressed as a woman, or <em>burake tambolang</em>. </p>
<p>In the past, transgender religious leaders in both Toraja and Bugis played important roles in their communities. <em>Bissu</em> and <em>to burake</em> led spiritual ceremonies or harvest rituals in villages. The people <a href="http://www.oxis.org/books/verhandelingen/nooy-palm-1-1979.pdf">would admire and honour</a> a village with a <em>to burake</em>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, this tradition has diminished due to modern values and education brought by colonialism.</p>
<p>Same-sex practices have also long existed in Indonesia.</p>
<p>Some tribes in the southeast of Papua – similar to tribes in the eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea – practised “ritualised homosexuality”. This <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1525/ae.1984.11.1.02a00330">practice</a> required young men to perform oral sex on elder males as part of their rites of passage to manhood. They believed that <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3630601">semen</a> was the source of life and the essence of masculinity, important for boys to become real men. </p>
<p>In East Java, the traditional dance performance <em>Reog Ponorogo</em> depicts intimate relationships between two characters, <em>warok</em> and <em>gemblak</em>. The main male dancer, or <em>warok</em>, must follow strict physical and spiritual rules and rituals. </p>
<p>Under these rules, a <em>warok</em> was prohibited from engaging in a sexual relationship with a woman. But he was allowed to have intimate relationships with young boys’ characters, or <em>gemblak</em>, in the performance. Although <em>warok</em> and <em>gemblak</em> were engaged in same-sex acts, <a href="http://lib.ui.ac.id/file?file=pdf/abstrak-81330.pdf">they did not identify themselves as homosexuals</a>. Nowadays, women have begun to play the <em>gemblak</em> character.</p>
<p>In other Javanese traditional drama performances like <em>ludruk</em> and <em>wayang orang</em>, a man playing a woman’s character or vice versa <a href="https://books.google.co.id/books/about/Rites_of_modernization_symbolic_and_soci.html?id=g0G1AAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">is not unusual</a>. </p>
<h2>Changing genders in the global context</h2>
<p>These rich and intricate traditions of gender diversity in Indonesia have diminished due to colonialism. Colonialism redefined the concepts of gender and sexuality according to modern religions and values. </p>
<p>Modern religions strongly emphasise heterosexuality within marriage. Sex is considered a moral issue, so sex that happens outside marriage or between a non-heterosexual couple is immoral. </p>
<p>Homosexuality was <a href="https://historia.id/budaya/articles/memberangus-seksualitas-P1mMP">prohibited</a> under Dutch colonialism. Although Indonesia has no specific law on homosexuality, homosexuality is generally viewed as unacceptable. </p>
<p>However, globalisation has brought new dimensions of gender and sexual identities. New categories like lesbian, gay, transgender, queer and inter-sex have entered our vocabulary. The term <a href="https://theconversation.com/onslaughts-against-gays-and-lesbians-challenge-indonesias-lgbt-rights-movement-54639">LGBT</a> is quite popular in recent years, despite its pros and cons. </p>
<p>Vast information through the internet and social media provides a relatively dynamic discourse on gender identities in Indonesia. </p>
<p>On the internet, we can find different terms to accommodate gender flexibility. People introduce terms like <em>lesbi</em>, which refers to lesbian, and <em>tomboi</em>, or masculine women, from West Sumatra. They develop terms like butch, <em>femme</em>, and <em>andro</em> that refer to urban lesbians. There are also terms like hunter (masculine lesbian) and <em>lines</em> or feminine lesbian from South Sulawesi. Other terms include <em>waria</em> (transgender woman), <em>priawan</em> (transgender man), <em>transmen</em> (trans men) and <em>transpuan</em> (trans women). </p>
<p>These new terms show that people’s reactions to gender diversity vary. The dynamic discussions surrounding the topic also indicate “<a href="https://books.google.co.id/books?id=JWq2BQAAQBAJ&pg=PT317&lpg=PT317&dq=evelyn+blackwood,+butch+femme+andro,&source=bl&ots=5wFJf_ISrG&sig=ky3wH_a6zvKHmeoy4sWgRh63s5g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiXlqG7pevcAhXabn0KHQ85Bq4Q6AEwDXoECAEQAQ#v=onepage&q=evelyn%20blackwood%2C%20butch%20femme%20andro%2C&f=false">sexual desires that exceed simple categorisation</a>”.</p>
<p>The lively debates on the internet show how technology and globalisation have managed to raise awareness of gender and sexual identities which intertwines with local cultural contexts. </p>
<p><em>Bimo Alim has contributed to this writing</em></p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: The article has been updated to correct information on five genders in Bugis culture.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101087/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Irwan Martua Hidayana has received funding from the National Committee for AIDS Eradication </span></em></p>Culturally, Indonesians have long recognised sexual and gender diversity as part of their daily lives.Irwan Martua Hidayana, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Universitas IndonesiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/878902017-12-05T12:06:03Z2017-12-05T12:06:03ZNigeria set to pass a law against mob lynching. Will it make a difference?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197149/original/file-20171130-30912-1oofw4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigerians don't trust the police and often resort to mob justice. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Ole, ole!” (thief, thief!) is all that needs to be shouted in Nigeria before large crowds gather to beat, and often burn, the accused to death. Although there are no official statistics on the prevalence of mob lynching in Nigeria – referred to as jungle justice – media reports suggest it’s a regular occurrence. A 2014 <a href="http://www.noi-polls.com/root/index.php?pid=293&ptid=1&parentid=66">survey </a>revealed that 43% of Nigerians had personally witnessed a lynch mob attack.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/vigilantism-is-flourishing-in-nigeria-with-official-support-86867">some Nigerian vigilante groups</a> holding the potential for success, execution style jungle justice clearly poses a threat to the rule of law and due process. The brutality of the methods used, and the fact that victims may be innocent and merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, has led to <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/12/jungle-justice-disregard-rule-law/">widespread condemnation</a>. But the perpetrators are rarely arrested and prosecuted. In fact, security officials themselves are sometimes implicated in <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/08/nigeria-recorded-40-extra-judicial-killings-2016-rights-group/">extrajudicial killings</a>.</p>
<p>A new bill being put through the Nigerian parliament aims to change this. The anti-mob lynching act recently <a href="http://www.nassnig.org/document/download/9065">passed its second reading in the Senate</a>. It now needs to clear a third reading before being signed off and passed into law. This is expected to happen in the new year.</p>
<h2>The extent of jungle justice</h2>
<p>Alleged offences that draw mob lynching in Nigeria range from serious crimes such as murder, armed robbery, rape and kidnapping, to petty theft, homosexuality, blasphemy and even witchcraft. </p>
<p>A case that shocked the country involved the necklacing of four male students from the University of Port Harcourt - known as the <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/26/world/africa/nigeria-mob-justice-duthiers/index.html">Aluu four</a> - in 2012. After being falsely accused of theft, the four had tyres doused in gasoline thrown around them and set on fire. The incident took place in Aluu, Rivers State in south Nigeria. </p>
<p>The brutal attack was filmed and circulated on social media, drawing widespread condemnation from the public. This led to the arrest of 12 people, and three, including a police officer, were subsequently <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/aluu-four-police-sergeant-2-others-sentenced-death/">sentenced to death</a>.</p>
<p>More recently, in 2016, a homosexual was <a href="https://www.nigerianbulletin.com/threads/7-most-gruesome-jungle-justice-cases-in-2016-photos.226510/">beaten to death</a> in the south west Ondo State, and nine people were <a href="https://www.nigerianbulletin.com/threads/7-most-gruesome-jungle-justice-cases-in-2016-photos.226510/">burnt alive</a> in Zamfara State in the north west for insulting Prophet Muhammad. A man was <a href="http://dailypost.ng/2016/11/08/man-lynched-stealing-motorcycle-ebonyi/">lynched in Ebonyi State</a>, south east Nigeria, over the theft of a motorcycle.</p>
<p>Mob lynchings have continued to appear in the news this year. Lagos has been featured regularly, with <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21712099-why-criminals-prefer-cops-mob-suspects-are-beaten-and-burned-jungle">several incidents</a> linked to alleged theft and kidnapping. Widespread fear over the Badoo cult saw numerous accusations of witchcraft <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/ikorodu-residents-on-edge-over-attack-by-badoo-gang/">resulting in deadly jungle justice</a>.</p>
<p>Children are not excluded from the horrors of mob lynching. In 2015, a child said to be <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/11/lynching-7-yr-old-boy-residents-fume-want-perpetrators-brought-book/">as young as 7 </a> was necklaced, again in Lagos, for attempting to steal garri (cassava flour) from a trader. Young children <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooXBMU_06vg">accused of witchcraft</a> are also often targeted, sometimes by their own families.</p>
<p>This is not a complete list; Nigerians often resort to mob lynching as they view the police and judicial system as <a href="http://www.noi-polls.com/root/index.php?pid=293&ptid=1&parentid=66">corrupt and inefficient</a>.</p>
<h2>So what does the new bill aim to do?</h2>
<p>The nature of mob violence can make it difficult to charge offenders under the laws that cover murder and assault. The <a href="http://www.placbillstrack.org/upload/SB109.pdf">new bill</a> seeks to change that. It defines lynching as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Three or more persons acting in concert for the purpose of depriving any person of his life without authority of law as a punishment for or to prevent the commission of some actual or supposed public offence. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Alongside lynching, the bill covers mob action that results in severe bodily harm, and riotous assembly causing destruction of property. A person found guilty of instigating any of these three criminal offences will be punished by imprisonment for life or not less than 25 years. </p>
<p>The bill stipulates that a security officer who fails to make reasonable efforts to prevent an attack, or to apprehend a perpetrator, will be punished by up to five years imprisonment or face a fine of up to N500,000 (USD$1400). A security officer who takes part in, or conspires to an extrajudicial attack, would be guilty of a capital offence. Those who have failed at prevention would be subject to dismissal and 15 years imprisonment.</p>
<p>These punishments could act as an excellent deterrent. However, the success of the bill will depend on police and judicial implementation. A legal system unable to deal with crime resulting in jungle justice may be unable or unwilling to prosecute the latter. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the emphasis on security officer complicity is promising, and formal recognition will allow tracking and prevention.</p>
<h2>A global problem</h2>
<p>Mob lynching is not unique to Nigeria, nor to Africa. Nigeria is also not the first country to try and pass an anti-lynching bill. </p>
<p>Up until the mid-1900’s, <a href="https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/">African-Americans</a> were commonly lynched in southern USA. Attempts were made to pass the <a href="http://www.naacp.org/oldest-and-boldest/naacp-history-anti-lynching-bill/">Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill</a>, but it was always halted by Southern congressmen in the Senate. In 2005, the Senate <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/14/politics/senate-issues-apology-over-failure-on-lynching-law.html">formally apologised</a> for this failure.</p>
<p>More recently, after a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/27/india-cow-protection-spurs-vigilante-violence">spate of vigilantism</a> in India, the country has pushed for an a new <a href="http://stopmoblynching.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Masuka-05072017-PK.pdf">Protection from Lynching Act</a>, referred to as MaSuKa. This would make lynching a specific, non-bailable offence, punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment and a fine of 5 lakh (USD$7770).</p>
<p>The MaSuKa also compels security officers to preemptively identify attacks and to intervene without delay. Failure to do so would result in discharge and punishment for dereliction of duty. When a lynching does happen, a charge must be laid within three months or a review committee will investigate, and the respective state must compensate the victim’s family.</p>
<p>Although the proposed new law has support from 11 of India’s political parties, the ruling <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/07/india-epidemic-mob-lynching-170706113733914.html">Bharatiya Janata Party has complicated its passing</a> in parliament.</p>
<p>Conversely, there is little doubt that Nigeria’s anti-mob lynching bill will be passed. With police and judicial support, it could provide an important precedent for countries struggling with mob lynching and official indifference.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nigeria is on the verge of passing a law to criminalise rampant mob lynching. Other countries have tried to do this and failed.Leighann Spencer, PhD Candidate in Criminology, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/742732017-03-17T10:47:57Z2017-03-17T10:47:57ZWhy LGBTQ inclusivity still matters in higher education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161211/original/image-20170316-10898-1jrtrw4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you don’t identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, asexual, pansexual, queer or questioning, the chances are you almost certainly know someone who does – it might be a friend, a cousin, a niece, an uncle or a colleague. And you might even consider yourself an “ally” to the LGBTQ community – someone who speaks out if they witness discrimination or derogatory remarks.</p>
<p>In the UK, we have made great legal strides towards equality, but culturally we are still playing catch up – and higher education is just one of the places where LGBTQ people are being failed.</p>
<p>To put it bluntly, UK universities are still difficult places for people who aren’t heterosexual or cisgender – where a person’s gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth. And LGBTQ students continue to experience extremely <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/lgbt-staff-and-students-in-he/">high levels of discrimination</a>. All of which can be significantly damaging. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Sexual-Orientation-at-Work-Contemporary-Issues-and-Perspectives/Colgan-Rumens/p/book/9780415536493">Research</a> has shown how both interpersonal and institutional discrimination (as well as fears of discrimination) can cause people to stay “in the closet” – because of worries about negative responses to their sexual orientation or gender identity. This causes chronically high levels of stress, known as “<a href="http://www.apa.org/pi/aids/resources/exchange/2012/04/minority-stress.aspx">minority stress</a>” – which is essentially stress experienced by stigmatised minority groups. </p>
<p>It has been shown that minority stress contributes to higher levels of <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=2003-99991-002">mental</a> and <a href="http://diversityhealthcare.imedpub.com/lesbian-gay-and-bisexual-peoples-health-in-the-uk-a-theoretical-critique-and-systematic-review.php?aid=1826">physical</a> health problems within the LGBTQ community. </p>
<p>Higher than average numbers of LGBTQ students are also estranged from their families – with all the <a href="https://www.nus.org.uk/global/lgbt-research.pdf">financial</a> and emotional support implications that come with this. </p>
<p>This combination of factors probably goes some way in explaining why LGBTQ students are much <a href="https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/teaching-academy/documents/public/lgbt-best-practice-guide.PDF">more likely to drop out</a> of university than their heterosexual or cisgendered peers.</p>
<h2>Unsafe on campus?</h2>
<p><a href="https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/teaching-academy/documents/public/lgbt-best-practice-guide.PDF">Our research</a> also suggests that the university teaching and learning environment is seen as one of the least safe places to be “out” at university, even more so than halls of residence or sports clubs, which have traditional been seen as most problematic.</p>
<p>We found that although staff members are not necessary homo, bi or transphobic in attitude, they do not have the <a href="https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/teaching-academy/documents/public/lgbt-best-practice-guide.PDF">confidence</a> to explore and challenge discriminatory comments or attitudes in the classroom. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161213/original/image-20170316-10911-16pyxru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161213/original/image-20170316-10911-16pyxru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161213/original/image-20170316-10911-16pyxru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161213/original/image-20170316-10911-16pyxru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161213/original/image-20170316-10911-16pyxru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161213/original/image-20170316-10911-16pyxru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161213/original/image-20170316-10911-16pyxru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Classroom politics: a tangled web?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This can leave many lecturers feeling they might “get it wrong” – and so they do nothing. The students we spoke to expressed disappointment in this, noting that the failure to call out these kinds of situations <a href="http://www.stonewall.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/nobystanders">amounted to complicity</a> in this type of discrimination.</p>
<h2>The right support</h2>
<p>There are of course many things that a university can do to <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/welcome/diversity/lgbtq.aspx">support LGBTQ students</a> who are experiencing difficulties at university. This can include counselling services that are LGBTQ friendly, chaplaincy services where chaplains are able to work with LGBTQ students of faith, as well as <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/generic/internships/mentoring/lgbt.aspx">careers services</a> that acknowledge the concerns students may have about being “out” at work and welfare tutors specifically trained to support these students. </p>
<p>But while this support is all well and good, for real change to happen, there needs to be increased “visibility” rather than “erasure” of LGBTQ identities in the higher education environment. This includes visibility within the curriculum, as well as outside of it.</p>
<p>This is important, because erasure isn’t always malicious in intent. It could be something as seemingly simple as only using binary gender categories, or assuming that a student has or wants a partner – along with what gender that partner might be. </p>
<h2>Full inclusion</h2>
<p>Creating a more inclusive environment on campus and in higher education can come from many different places – both from staff who identify as LGBTQ and are prepared to be “out” in the lecture halls or laboratories. Along with those cisgender or straight “allies” who might “call out” a derogatory or dismissive comment from a colleague or student.</p>
<p>Inclusivity can also come from the student population, where strong <a href="https://www.nus.org.uk/global/lgbt-research.pdf">student societies</a> or <a href="https://www.guildofstudents.com/representation/officerteam/part-time-officerteam/">LGBTQ officers</a> can be a powerful influence on the culture of an organisation. </p>
<p>This is why, as part of our research, we have developed <a href="https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/teaching-academy/documents/public/lgbt-best-practice-guide.PDF">a specific model</a> to help make teaching and learning environments more inclusive at universities. The model covers three domains – “inclusive language”, “positive role models” and “diverse curriculum content”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161218/original/image-20170316-10892-15v3tq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161218/original/image-20170316-10892-15v3tq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161218/original/image-20170316-10892-15v3tq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161218/original/image-20170316-10892-15v3tq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161218/original/image-20170316-10892-15v3tq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161218/original/image-20170316-10892-15v3tq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161218/original/image-20170316-10892-15v3tq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Because everyone needs to be represented on campus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course, inclusivity will look different in different disciplines. For instance computer science may be able to do “role models” effectively – thanks in part to <a href="http://www.turing.org.uk/">Alan Turing</a> – but history may be better placed to work on inclusive “curriculum content”. This could be done by challenging the social construction of texts or artworks. Vocational subjects on the other hand – such as medicine, nursing or social work – could use the model to prioritise their students’ understanding of “inclusive language” as this will help them to build trust and rapport with future clients or patients.</p>
<p>As part of the project, we are also working with other universities in the sector to create a development programme for higher and further education institutions who are keen to explore and critique their cultures. The programme will allow institutions to identify and share ways to create a more inclusive and diverse learning environment for students. And it will, of course, also help to ensure opportunities to make LGBTQ identities and voices more visible in higher education are not missed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74273/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicki Ward is affiliated with the Labour Party, as an ordinary member</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicola K Gale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How to make campus safer for LGBTQ students.Nicola K Gale, Senior Lecturer in Health Sociology, University of BirminghamNicki Ward, Social Work Lecturer, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/546242016-02-12T16:38:50Z2016-02-12T16:38:50ZBernie Sanders isn’t a woman, but is he a better feminist than Hillary Clinton?<p>Pundits in the U.S. see Hillary Clinton in deep trouble with women voters after her spectacular loss to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire. </p>
<p>While Clinton’s <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/election/primaries/polls/ia/Dem">three percent lead among women voters in Iowa</a> helped give her a whisper-thin win in the nation’s first caucus, her 11 percent deficit among women voters in New Hampshire helped Bernie Sanders to a landslide victory in the nation’s first primary. Clearly, the votes of women are playing a pivotal role this primary season.</p>
<p>Add to that the recent controversies over Clinton supporters <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/06/madeleine-albright-campaigns-for-hillary-clinton">Madeleine Albright,</a> who claimed “there is a special place in hell for women who don’t support women,” and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/06/bernie-sanders-gloria-steinem-women-voters-men-hillary-clinton">Gloria Steinem</a>, who suggested young women were supporting Sanders because “the boys are with Bernie,” and the Clinton campaign is less sure than ever that it can win the woman’s vote – even among feminists. </p>
<p>In last night’s debate, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2016/feb/11/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-milwaukee-2016-presidential-election?page=with:block-56bd469de4b0bef6d53d3a7f">Clinton acknowledged this</a>, saying
“I have spent my entire adult life making sure that women are empowered to make their own choices – even if that choice is not to vote for me.”</p>
<p>As a woman, a Democrat and a feminist, Clinton has been counting on women’s votes to help sweep her into the Oval Office because <a href="http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p20-577.pdf">women comprise 52 percent of the national electorate</a>, <a href="http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/resources/ggprtyid.pdf">more woman identify as Democrats than Republicans</a> and more women than men are assumed to be feminists.</p>
<p>So why aren’t Democratic women and feminists more eager to vote for the country’s first female president? </p>
<p>Yes, Clinton’s and Sanders’ support among women voters tends to divide along <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2016/02/01/iowa-intv-amanpour-lizza-weber.cnn">age lines</a>. But what also accounts for this split is how voters respond to and formulate their positions in relation to the three “I’s”: Identity, Ideology and Issues. </p>
<h2>1. Identity</h2>
<p>Identity refers to the unique characteristics voters believe distinguish their candidate from the opposition. </p>
<p>“Woman” is often understood as an identity category, as is “feminist”. Those voters who believe that – above all else – what the United States needs now is a woman president prefer Clinton. Those voters who identify as feminists could choose either Clinton or Sanders, as both candidates have declared themselves to be feminists. </p>
<p>Which candidate feminist voters will select depends on where they stand on ideology and issues.</p>
<h2>2. Ideology</h2>
<p>Ideology refers to the system of ideas and ideals that motivate social and political action. </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/International_Relations_Theory.html?id=vzsVAgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">Feminism itself is an ideology.</a> Yet there are many ideological strands of feminism. In this election, Clinton represents a liberal corporate feminism, while Sanders represents a democratic socialist feminism. </p>
<p>Feminists who believe that equality of opportunity for women should be pursued within the existing political and economic system favor Clinton’s feminism. Feminists who believe that women’s equality requires a democratic revolution against political and corporate power that drives economic inequality favor Sanders’ feminism.</p>
<p>Feminist ideologies differ not only by ideological strand but also by ideological stretch. All feminist ideologies consider how gender and sexuality privilege some people and disadvantage others, but not all feminist ideologies stretch as far as others. Some look only at how gender and sexuality affect women and/or heterosexuals, while others stretch the categories of gender and sexuality to include men, homosexuals and trans people. </p>
<h2>3. Issues</h2>
<p>Both Clinton and Sanders stretch their respective brands of feminism, but Sanders claims to have been stretching his feminism for far longer than has Clinton. This is evident in how each candidate presents their record on the issue of LGBT rights and marriage equality.</p>
<p>As secretary of state, Clinton famously declared <a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2011/12/178368.htm">“gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights”</a> in her 2011 Human Rights Day speech. While a long-time supporter of partnership benefits and civil unions for same-sex couples, Clinton said in 2000 had she been a senator in 1996, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/03/18/how-hillary-clinton-evolved-on-gay-marriage">she would have voted for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)</a>, which denied federal benefits and marriage equality to same-sex couples. In 2013, Clinton announced her position had <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/15/hillary-clinton-gay-marriage-presidential-campaign">evolved in support of marriage equality</a>. </p>
<p>Sanders, on the other hand, voted against DOMA in 1996. Whether Sanders’ opposition to DOMA was because he is a strong states’ rights advocate or a strong LGBT advocate is <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-gay-marriage_us_569fcc4de4b0a7026bf9e06f">debated</a>. What is not debated is that when Sanders (like Clinton) urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn DOMA in 2013, he did so as one of the few consistent legislative opponents of this law. </p>
<p>Identity, ideology and issues combine differently for different voters – individually, as demographic groups and in relation to specific types of contests like caucuses and primaries versus national elections.</p>
<p>In Iowa, their combination helped Sanders win the youth vote, even among women and feminists. In New Hampshire, their combination gave Sanders <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/new-hampshire-women-chose-bernie-sanders_b_9200174.html">69 percent of women’s votes from the under 45 age group</a>. For these Sanders voters, the kind of feminist Sanders is was more important than Clinton’s gender. Ideology and issues prevailed over the identity category of woman.</p>
<p>Whether Clinton can stretch her feminism to capture women and feminists supporting Sanders matters not just in the current contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. </p>
<p>If Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee, her ability to appeal to women and feminists will matter in the general election as well. It will be among the factors that determine whether the <a href="http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/resources/ggpresvote.pdf">Democrats continue to win the national women’s vote</a> or concede more of that vote to the Republicans, whether because women and feminists are not motivated enough to vote at all or because they dislike Clinton so much that they would <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06yjthj">vote for the Republican candidate before they would vote for her</a>. In a tight race, that could be enough to decide the presidency.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54624/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cynthia Weber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Both Democratic candidates are strong feminists, which makes it harder for Hillary to claim women’s votes as her birthright.Cynthia Weber, Professor of International Relations, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/514202015-12-10T14:25:24Z2015-12-10T14:25:24ZScotland leads Europe on LGBT rights, but shouldn’t forget its past<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103461/original/image-20151127-11618-52ky92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The progressive present came after many years of struggle.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=iC4uEJOwFc4ysMCJtx7aCg&searchterm=doctor%20prescription&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=242795671">Tata Chen</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>LGBT citizens in Scotland today can marry, be in civil partnerships, adopt children and have careers knowing their right to work is protected. Political leaders identify as gay or bisexual – and Scotland <a href="http://www.ilga-europe.org/resources/rainbow-europe/2015">recently topped</a> a European league table measuring legal protections offered to LGBTI people.</p>
<p>But all this marks a radical shift. For many years Scotland lagged behind England and Wales in recognising sexual diversity. Gay and bisexual men and women were starved of acceptance and recognition and subjected to intense homophobia – as recorded in a new BBC Scotland/Hopscotch Films <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06qsv9r/coming-oot-a-fabulous-history-of-gay-scotland">documentary</a>, Coming Oot: A Fabulous History of Gay Scotland, for which I was a historical consultant.</p>
<p>Scotland did not decriminalise gay sex between consenting men <a href="http://www.gayinthe80s.com/2012/07/1980-and-1982-the-1967-sexual-offences-act/">until 1980</a>, 13 years after England and Wales. Where change in England and Wales was precipitated by the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/4/newsid_3007000/3007686.stm">1957 Wolfenden report</a>, in Scotland there was a fly in the ointment: James Adair, a former procurator fiscal and religious conservative who <a href="http://queerscotland.com/2013/06/06/james-adair-lord-protector-of-scottish-morality/">produced</a> a minority report against decriminalisation. He claimed open homosexuality would elicit public “disgust”, promote male prostitution and enable “perverts to practise sinning for the sake of sinning”.</p>
<p>The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland also opposed change, as did most of the press. Yet the biggest obstacle was a legal one. Because Scottish criminal convictions require the corroboration of two different pieces of evidence, homosexual acts behind closed doors were rarely prosecuted. The law instead focused on acts in parks, toilets, and tenement closes. The Scottish consensus seemed to be that if private male sex wasn’t prosecuted, why go to the trouble and expense of changing the law?</p>
<h2>Hard times</h2>
<p>Of course, this ignored the civil liberties of Scottish LGB men and women, who were largely unaware of the selective application of the law. Coming Oot captures the pressures of men and women desperately trying to look, or even be, heterosexual. When <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/queer-voices-in-postwar-scotland-jeffrey-meek/?isb=9781137444097">I interviewed</a> 24 gay and bisexual men active in that era, a quarter had married in an attempt to think or become “straight”. Other men presented a heterosexual facade to family and work colleagues while secretively visiting bars where gay men met. </p>
<p>Physical threats, robberies and police intimidation were all common. “Stephen” recalled being harassed by two undercover police officers in the 1960s who encouraged him to end his miserable “queer” life by jumping from Glasgow Bridge.</p>
<p>Some doctors even offered “treatments”. “Morris” was prescribed female hormonal treatment, which little affected his desires but made him grow breasts and lose his facial hair. Others sought help from psychiatrists, only some of whom were supportive. During the 1960s “Frankie” was sent to a child psychiatrist, only to be psychologically scarred by warnings of paedophilia, and the devastation that homosexuality would wreak upon his life and career.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103460/original/image-20151127-11631-1ewhtf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103460/original/image-20151127-11631-1ewhtf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103460/original/image-20151127-11631-1ewhtf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103460/original/image-20151127-11631-1ewhtf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103460/original/image-20151127-11631-1ewhtf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103460/original/image-20151127-11631-1ewhtf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103460/original/image-20151127-11631-1ewhtf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103460/original/image-20151127-11631-1ewhtf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Doctor’s orders: medics often made things worse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=iC4uEJOwFc4ysMCJtx7aCg&searchterm=doctor%20prescription&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=242795671">Georgil Shipin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Coming Oot also highlights the invisibility of lesbians in Scotland, untouched by legal sanctions but subject to the same stigma. They occupied a strange hinterland where their rights to pleasure were either ignored or viewed with passive distaste. A 1970 letter from the Crown Office in Scotland makes a short but telling comment: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>As far as female perverts are concerned, they have never been a problem to this office. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Small steps</h2>
<p>Yet as the period progressed, so did some attitudes. The Church of Scotland offered premises to Scotland’s first homosexual law reform organisation after its establishment in 1969. The arrangement ended in the early 1970s when the group sought to start discos and social events and encourage an Edinburgh LGBT commercial scene, but it found an unlikely saviour in the Roman Catholic Church, which supplied premises and priests to speak at its meetings. In a society still dominated by the two main churches, both institutions actively engaged with the law reform group, albeit at a pastoral level.</p>
<p>Police in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee were meanwhile still allegedly harassing gay men, and lacked discretion when investigating homophobic crimes. Complaints about this to chief constables received short shrift. “Chris”, a former bartender at Vintners in Glasgow, one of the first gay-friendly bars in Scotland, recalled: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[The police] would come in for their drink at the end of the night. They would expect their drinks to be on the bar, it was horrible, horrible. There was this sense you were the scum of the earth, but they still came in and caused that feeling of intimidation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As recently as 1980, Grampian Police was issuing the following commentary in handbooks to officers: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The terms ‘sodomy’, ‘lewd and libidinous practices’ etc where used in law give little indication of the nature of these offences, the manner in which they are usually committed, and the evils they are liable to bring in their train … </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>English progress</h2>
<p>In England, high-profile trials such as those involving <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/nov/16/guardianobituaries">Peter Wildeblood</a>, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3217558/Dandy-peer-sex-trial-changed-Britain-Lord-Montagu-s-died-88-pinnacle-society-jailed-homosexuality.html">Lord Montagu</a> and <a href="http://lgbthistoryuk.org/wiki/index.php?title=Michael_Pitt-Rivers">Michael Pitt-Rivers</a> in the 1950s encouraged debate about the legal status of homosexuals. Scotland lacked such platforms to engage with homosexuality. And while the London of the 1960s and 1970s presented the likes of Quentin Crisp to Tom Robinson, there were few Scottish “role models”. Those who were LGB tended to migrate south.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
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<span class="caption">Pitt-Rivers, Montagu and Wildeblood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw225969/Michael-Fox-Pitt-Rivers-Edward-Douglas-Scott-Montagu-3rd-Baron-Montagu-of-Beaulieu-Peter-Wildeblood">Keystone Press</a></span>
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<p>Yet the experiences of many LGB Scots were not simply narratives of struggle. They forged careers and continued to seek romantic fulfilment in spite of social opprobrium. In doing so, they helped to change attitudes. My interviewees spoke of a growing sense of solidarity by the mid-1970s. “Chris” said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was a different bond, a commonality, and you stuck together. It was like another family.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Where change was institutionally inspired in England, the drive for legal reform in Scotland came from LGBT citizens like these, keen to invoke a lost radical tradition and reshape dogmatic stereotypes. Scots now live in a society where young LGBT people no longer need to hide a hugely important part of themselves away. It is important to appreciate that the path to an “enlightened” Scotland was filled with many obstacles.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51420/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeff Meek was a consultant for the BBC/Hopscotch films documentary Coming Oot.</span></em></p>When it comes to queer rights, a new BBC documentary demonstrates that it is not so long since Scotland was the UK’s regressive laggard.Jeff Meek, Research Assistant, Economic and Social History, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/480542015-09-23T14:57:43Z2015-09-23T14:57:43ZNo longer niche: how LGBTI film festivals came of age<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95904/original/image-20150923-2623-h0ci4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Opening the Scottish Queer International Film Festival: Dyke Hard</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">SQIFF</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The first <a href="http://www.sqiff.org">Scottish Queer International Film Festival</a> (SQIFF) kicks off on the evening of Thursday September 24 with the UK premiere of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJrhaOPc7FI">Dyke Hard</a>. It is a Swedish musical-action-horror-sci-fi-comedy about a failed lesbian rock group hoping that a battle of the bands contest will set them on the road to success. Followed by a Q&A with director Bitte Anderson, it will raise the curtain on a four-day festival in Glasgow that includes more than 30 features, documentaries, shorts, workshops and, of course, parties. </p>
<p>SQIFF is actually the second LGBTI film festival to be taking place in Scotland this year. It follows <a href="http://www.digitaldesperados.org/glitch/">Glitch 2015</a>, another inaugural event in Glasgow over ten days in March that billed itself as Scotland’s first “queer, trans, intersex, people of colour” film festival. With two similar events getting underway at almost the same time in a country that previously had none, it begs the questions: why Scotland and why now?</p>
<p>Scotland has both a rich cinematic history and a strong appetite for film. Attendances at cinemas and film festivals <a href="http://www.creativescotland.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/25245/Review_of_the_Film_Sector_in_Scotland_-_Jan_2014.pdf">have risen substantially</a> in recent decades, with cinema attendance per head the second highest in Europe after France. The <a href="http://www.creativescotland.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/25245/Review_of_the_Film_Sector_in_Scotland_-_Jan_2014.pdf">country hosts</a> more than 30 film festivals each year, ranging from industry-focused international events like the <a href="http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk">Edinburgh International Film Festival</a> to community-focused boutique festivals. </p>
<p>With this vibrant film culture and a fairly liberal cultural climate, it’s astonishing that Scotland has until now been conspicuous by its absence on the <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=zUo8fuQTvQHs.kVf_ZFrvaxCQ">global map</a> of more than 300 LGBTI film festivals. </p>
<p>Until now Scotland has made do with a number of films of LGBTI content at the two premier film events, the Edinburgh International Film Festival and <a href="http://visitgff.glasgowfilm.org">Glasgow Film Festival</a>. Last year’s Glasgow Film Festival programmed a number of films that were also screened on the global queer film-festival circuit, for example, including <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3077108/">Appropriate Behaviour</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3294200/">The Falling</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3655522/">Girlhood</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3100636/">52 Tuesdays</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3184934/">The New Girlfriend</a>. </p>
<p>The broader context is that LGBTI culture has gained considerable mainstream visibility in recent years. We might think of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/movies/todd-hayness-film-carol-draws-attention-at-cannes.html?_r=0">Todd Haynes’s Carol</a> making a splash at Cannes this year and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Iula9_dSKc">Blue is the Warmest Colour</a> winning the Palm D’Or in 2013. We have also seen high-profile US TV series <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2372162/">Orange is the New Black</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3502262/">Transparent</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2581458/">Looking</a>, along with Channel 4’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/cucumber-banana-and-tofu-are-queer-in-many-more-ways-than-one-38629">Cucumber</a> in the UK. </p>
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<p>Yet leading queer film scholar and critic B Ruby Rich criticised these kinds of programmes at a <a href="http://queerfilmculture.org">recent conference</a> in Hamburg. She argued that while they do help LGBTI culture to be more visible, the fact that they are mainly available through online streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon means they tend to be watched on a very individual basis rather than helping build any shared sense of community. And this is not only the case for TV programmes, but for the majority of LGBTI-themed films as well. In this context, queer film festivals become a way of filling the gap that this creates. </p>
<h2>LGBTI film festivals in five stages</h2>
<p>To understand where the new Scottish film festivals fit into this picture, it is worth explaining the five relatively distinct phases through which queer film festivals <a href="https://www.academia.edu/4925136/_The_Queer_Film_Festival_Phenomenon_in_a_Global_Historical_Perspective._2013_">have developed</a>:</p>
<p><strong>1. Late 1970s and 1980s</strong>
Queer film festivals were established as oppositional, grassroots and identity-based “gay & lesbian” film events – first in the US and then in western Europe. This took place as part of the wider socio-political movement against minority oppression that led to women’s and black film festivals in the same era.</p>
<p><strong>2. Early to mid-1990s</strong>
Queer cinema became a credible cinematic movement with the rise of <a href="http://www.filmlinc.org/series/origins-revisiting-the-beginnings-of-new-queer-cinema/">“new queer cinema”</a> through films like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102687/">Poison</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103312/">Young Soul Rebels</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105508/">Swoon</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118125/">The Watermelon Woman</a>. This led to the growth of a queer film festival circuit in north America and western Europe, and to closer relationships between festivals and the commercial film industry.</p>
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<p><strong>3. Late 1990s to early 2000s</strong>
Queer film festivals spread to eastern Europe and Asia in the late 1990s and early 2000s in a sort of queer globalisation.</p>
<p><strong>4. Mid-2000s</strong>
Queer film festivals started attracting larger corporate sponsorship deals and began to have more financial interests in common with the mainstream media – television in particular, where programmes featuring LGBTI characters such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157246/">Will & Grace</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185102/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Queer as Folk</a> were being produced. We also saw the growth of queer film festivals in Latin America. </p>
<p><strong>5. Late 2000s to present</strong>
Since 2007 the number of queer film festivals has been steadily growing to include a greater number of smaller “niche” festivals – Glitch’s focus on people of colour would be a good example. This differentiation has coincided with a period of greater and more diverse representation of LGBTI culture in the mainstream. </p>
<p>It is in response to these developments that both SQIFF and Glitch have come into being. Both festivals position themselves very much against the mainstreaming and commercialisation of LGBTI cinema and culture. They are more than just spaces that provide representations. In a world where the mainstream is threatening to fragment the community, they provide viewing spaces where LGBTI people can come together and celebrate their diversity – as well as offering opportunity to stay true to the political and activist roots from which such film festivals emerged in the first place. </p>
<p>In this context, both SQIFF and Glitch represent a desire for an alternative to what was once itself alternative. So let the credits roll.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48054/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katharina is a member of the SQIFF organising committee</span></em></p>At a time when queer culture is big business in mainstream film and television, two dedicated film festivals have appeared in Scotland this year. Here’s an explanation.Katharina Lindner, Lecturer in Film and Media, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/474072015-09-13T20:17:30Z2015-09-13T20:17:30ZGood news and bad in latest annual report on HIV, hepatitis and STI rates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94473/original/image-20150911-1551-tm9k8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The biggest growth in sexually transmitted infections is for chlamydia and gonorrhoea.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lazyartist/15141070532/">J. Michel (aka: Mitch) Carriere/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The latest instalment of Australia’s annual report card on HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections has been released this morning. Here’s what experts who work in these areas make of the results.</p>
<hr>
<h2>HIV</h2>
<p>The number of newly diagnosed HIV infections in Australia has been stable over the past three years, with 1,081 HIV infections newly diagnosed in 2014. This represents an important deflection from previous trends showing year-on-year increases in new HIV diagnoses since 1999, when 714 HIV infections were newly diagnosed (the lowest annual number to date). In Australia, gay men and other men who have sex with men remain most affected by HIV; in 2014, 70% of HIV diagnoses were in men who had sex with men.</p>
<p>Condomless anal intercourse is a main risk factor for HIV infection among men who have sex with men. Previously, increases in such sex coincided with an increasing number of HIV cases being reported to the authorities. But HIV notifications are now stable, despite continuing increases in condomless anal intercourse. </p>
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<p>In 2014, <a href="http://kirby.unsw.edu.au/projects/gay-community-periodic-surveys">Gay Community Periodic Surveys</a> in the main urban areas across Australia found 39% of participants had condomless anal intercourse with casual partners. The stable number of new HIV cases notified to health authorities despite decreasing condom use reflects that HIV risk is being offset by other prevention strategies, such as the well-established “serosorting”, whereby men have condomless sex only with a partner of the same HIV-status. Other new HIV-prevention strategies may also be having effect.</p>
<p>These’s strong evidence that combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) reduces HIV transmission to an uninfected partner by as much as 96%. Early initiation of cART is now recommended as it also benefits the health outcomes of people with HIV. </p>
<p>In Australia, uptake of cART has increased substantially. In 2014, 84% of HIV-positive Gay Community Periodic Survey participants were taking ART, up from 60% in 2005. This increased treatment uptake has resulted in a decrease in the HIV viral load at the individual and community level, and reduced the likelihood of HIV transmission. It may have also offset the risks of increased rates of condomless anal intercourse. </p>
<p>The current stable number of newly diagnosed HIV infections in Australia is encouraging and highlights the success of a continued HIV response that remains one of the best in the world. Evidence is emerging that the increase in treatment uptake may also benefit prevention of HIV infections in Australia. </p>
<p>There’s now a real possibility of reducing new HIV infections through a combination of established and new HIV prevention tools. </p>
<h2>Chlamydia and gonorrhoea</h2>
<p>Chlamydia remains the most frequently reported notifiable sexually transmissible infection in Australia with 86,136 diagnoses in 2014. The majority (78%) of cases occurred among 15- to 29-year-olds. </p>
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<p>Increases in testing – 91% in the past seven years – likely account for the steady increases in chlamydia diagnoses. But the vast majority of infections (76%) remain undiagnosed and hence untreated. This emphasises the need for testing to be routinely offered to sexually active adolescents, young adults and other at-risk populations. </p>
<p>New gonorrhoea infections have been detected more frequently in the past five years, with 15,786 cases notified in 2014. Gonorrhoea in Australia continues to be an infection primarily of men who have sex with men, and of young Aboriginal people living in remote areas of Australia. The rate of diagnosis of gonorrhoea in the Aboriginal population was 18 times that in the non‑Indigenous population. </p>
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<p>Increased testing for this infection may explain much of this increase in gonorrhoea diagnoses, but whether transmission itself has increased remains unclear. Over the past five years, most pathology laboratories in Australia have adopted dual testing, whereby if a clinician orders a test for either chlamydia or gonorrhoea, both tests are automatically performed. </p>
<p>The emphasis on testing for chlamydia in young people has therefore led to a substantial rise in the number of tests conducted for gonorrhoea. That may explain the increase in diagnoses.</p>
<h2>Hepatitis C</h2>
<p>The hepatitis C epidemic in Australia has reached a crucial crossroads. The age of people with chronic hepatitis C means that thousands of Australians each year are now progressing to advanced liver disease, with a risk of liver failure, primary liver cancer and liver-related death. </p>
<p>Current interferon-containing hepatitis C treatments have had minimal impact on the rising burden of hepatitis C-related liver disease. This is due to low uptake rates and sub-optimal response rates. The advent of interferon-free hepatitis C treatments, with simple delivery (some are one pill per day for 12 weeks), minimal side effects and high cure rates (above 90%), provides one of the greatest advances in clinical medicine in recent decades.</p>
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<p>The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee has <a href="http://www.pbs.gov.au/industry/listing/elements/pbac-meetings/pbac-outcomes/2015-07/web-outcomes-july-2015-positive-recommendations.pdf">recommended that these new hepatitis C treatments be listed</a> on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which means they will be subsidised by the government. But price negotiations have not been completed and federal cabinet approval will be required before the medicines are subsidised. </p>
<p>The listing of these drugs would increase treatment rates several-fold and turn around the enormous and rising burden of hepatitis C liver disease in Australia. Australia has the potential to be an international leader in its response to hepatitis C, if these treatments are made broadly available. </p>
<h2>Syphilis</h2>
<p>Syphilis is a less common sexually transmissible infection compared with chlamydia and gonorrhoea. It continues to be an infection primarily of men who have sex with men and of young Aboriginal people. At 1,999 cases in 2014, the number of syphilis notifications has reached its highest level since recording began in 2004. The vast majority (92%) of cases are among men. </p>
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<p>There were 235 infectious syphilis diagnoses in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in 2014. A roughly equal number of diagnoses among males and females indicates predominantly heterosexual transmission. About half (46%) resided in remote or very remote areas and 38% in outer regional areas. Notifications of congenital syphilis declined from 16 in 2005 to three in 2009, then increased to five in 2014. </p>
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<p>Efforts to increase syphilis testing and treatment in men who have sex with men need to be strengthened. The resurgence of infection in young Aboriginal people in remote communities after years of declining rates, bringing with it cases of congenital syphilis, emphasises the need for testing and treatment in this population, particularly in antenatal settings so we can prevent more cases of congenital syphilis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47407/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John de Wit is one of the authors of the Annual Report of Trends in Behaviour (ARTB) 2015.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory Dore is an advisory board member and receives honorarium from Gilead, Merck, Abbvie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen. He has received research grant funding from Gilead, Merck, Abbvie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen, and travel sponsorship from Gilead, Merck, Abbvie, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Gilead, Bristol-Myers Squibbe, and Abbvie manufacture hepatitis drugs currently in price negotiations for being listed on the PBS.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Guy receives funding from the NHMRC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Skye McGregor receives funding from the Department of Health.</span></em></p>The latest instalment of Australia’s annual report card on HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections has been released this morning. Here’s what experts make of the results.John de Wit, Professor and Director of the Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW SydneyGregory Dore, Professor of Medicine, Clinical Researcher and Epidemiologist, UNSW SydneyRebecca Guy, Associate Professor of Epidemiology & Program Head of Surveillance Evaluation and Research, UNSW SydneySkye McGregor, Epidemiologist, The Kirby Institute, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/430502015-06-12T04:26:44Z2015-06-12T04:26:44ZAfrican scientists recognise that diverse sexuality is the norm<p><em>This article is part of a series The Conversation Africa is running on issues related to LGBTI in Africa. You can read the rest of the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/lgbti-africa">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>The Academy of Science in South Africa (ASSAf), in collaboration with the Uganda National Academy of Sciences, has just released a comprehensive <a href="http://www.assaf.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/8-June-Diversity-in-human-sexuality1.pdf">“consensus report”</a> on human sexual diversity. </p>
<p>This is a significant contribution in a continent in which gay relationships are criminalised in 38 out of 55 countries, four of which impose the death penalty. </p>
<p>The study used a panel of non-partisan volunteer experts to assess the considerable and often contradictory literature on biological, social and environmental factors in sexual diversity. It is one of the most clear-sighted evaluations that I have encountered, and it deserves to be taken very seriously in Africa and elsewhere.</p>
<h2>A range of sexuality</h2>
<p>The nub of the report is its conclusion that diversity in human sexuality is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… a range of human variation, very little of which can justifiably be termed abnormal.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The source of this variation has been contentious for decades, despite the accumulating evidence that nature (“born gay”) is overwhelmingly more significant than nurture (“lifestyle choice”). </p>
<p>The report has a large and readable section on biological factors in homosexuality, including neurohormone effects on the fetus, and “epigenetic” influence on the activity of genes by chemical modifications that can be modified by the environment and are transmitted to all the cells of the individual, and sometimes even between generations.</p>
<p>As the report summarises, family studies over decades show that gay men are more likely than average to have gay brothers, and lesbian women more likely to have lesbian sisters. </p>
<p>Many twin studies showing that identical twins are twice as likely as non-identical twins to be concordant (both straight or both gay) imply a clear genetic component, but the 70% concordance leaves room for considerable non-genetic effect. This is true whether or not the twins were raised together. </p>
<p>A 1993 report of a gay gene on the X chromosome has been recently confirmed by a larger study, with the addition of another one or two gay genes.</p>
<p>To me, the most compelling argument that homosexuality is just one end of a normal spectrum is its prediction by evolutionary theory, which I have <a href="https://theconversation.com/born-this-way-an-evolutionary-view-of-gay-genes-26051">explored in detail previously</a>. </p>
<p>Knowing about the wide variety of sexual behaviours in the animal kingdom, we can understand human sexuality in a broader context than our own society. It would be truly remarkable if humans had evolved without strong selection for mate choice genes. </p>
<p>Mate choice is one of the most highly selected traits in any animal. Just ask a fruitfly, which devotes a large share of its genes to choosing and attracting a mate.</p>
<h2>Not gay genes, but male-loving variants</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://theconversation.com/born-this-way-an-evolutionary-view-of-gay-genes-26051">I wrote previously</a>, I think there will turn out to be many – maybe hundreds – of gay genes. But these should be considered “male-loving” variants of mate choice genes. In a female, a male-loving variant will induce her to mate earlier and have more children, making up for her gay brother. Makes sense. </p>
<p>I was happy to see in the report a discussion of data showing that the female relatives of gay males have more children than average women, thus preventing the gay gene from extincting itself. </p>
<p>There is so far no evidence for a “female-loving” variant that induces the brothers of lesbians to have more children, but it would be surprising if there weren’t many of them too. </p>
<p>We know of many “sexually antagonistic” genetic variants like this, which have opposite effects on the “genetic fitness” (that is, numbers of children) of males and females.</p>
<p>So, everyone has a grand mixture of male- and female-loving variants. This explains why there is such a broad spectrum of mate preference among both males and females. </p>
<p>It’s a bit like height, in which there are variants of many genes (estimates of more than 1000) predisposing to tall or short stature. Everyone – males and females – has a mixture. Some males and some females will be either very short or very tall, but most will be somewhere in the middle.</p>
<p>In the same way, I propose that there is a distribution from the very male-loving to the very female-loving among both males and females. Gays and lesbian people simply represent one extremes at one end of this distribution. Hypersexualised heterosexual males and females represent the other end.</p>
<p>Perhaps even more importantly, the report rejects the concepts that homosexuality is learned from, or results from behaviour of parents or peers, that it can rub off on others, and that it can be “treated”. </p>
<p>The report concludes that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Contemporary science increasingly recognises the wide range of natural variation in human sexuality, sexual orientations and gender identities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The report argues that it is important for countries to accept that sexual diversity is normal. There are severe consequences of persecuting and criminalising LGBTI, and not just directly for individuals and particular communities. </p>
<p>By persecuting, marginalising and criminalising whole sets of sexual behaviour, societies as a whole may quickly lose the public health battle against HIV-AIDS and other sexual health scourges, experience higher levels of social violence, and ignore other serious issues like violence against women and children.</p>
<h2>The politics of homosexuality and role of science academies</h2>
<p>It could be said that ASSAf has gone way beyond its scientific limitations by summarising its findings as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sexual diversity has always been part of a normal society and there is no justification for attempts to eliminate people who are not heterosexual from society. Efforts should rather be focused on countering the stigmatisation that creates hostile and violent environments. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Alternatively, this report may be criticised for not going far enough down the political path to removing criminal sanctions, stigma and persecution. However, every academy – including the Australian Academy of Science – must jealously guard its non-partisan reputation in order to be taken seriously. </p>
<p>ASSAf’s mandate is “to provide evidence-based science advice to government and other stakeholders on matters of critical national importance”. I believe ASSAf has done this. It is now up to other bodies to use the clearly stated scientific conclusions as a sharp-edged weapon to dispel myths and repel bigots. </p>
<p>It is often said that it is ineffective to fight illogical fears and hatreds with facts and logic, and it is sadly true that common sense and respect for data don’t always win out – think climate change and vaccination. But academies of science would risk their reputations, and mortgage their influence with governments of any persuasion, were they to go down the track of fighting irrational fear with emotive appeals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Graves works at La Trobe University and is affiliated with the University of Canberra, ANU and the University of Melbourne. She has received funding from ARC and NHMRC. She is a Fellow and past office-bearer of the Australian Academy of Science.</span></em></p>Mate choice is one of the most highly selected traits in any animal. Just ask a fruitfly, which devotes a large share of its genes to choosing and attracting a mate.Jenny Graves, Distinguished Professor of Genetics, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/426762015-06-10T17:16:52Z2015-06-10T17:16:52ZExplainer: tackling the stigma and myths around sexuality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84565/original/image-20150610-6793-1q4r8q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Activists attend Uganda's first gay pride parade at the Entebbe Botanical Gardens in Kampala, Uganda, in August 2012.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rachel Adams/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of a series The Conversation Africa is running on issues related to LGBTI in Africa. You can read the rest of the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/lgbti-africa">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Increasing anti-homosexuality sentiment across Africa has been based on the belief that homosexuality is “contagious” or that people can be “recruited” to it.</p>
<p>These sentiments are reflected by 38 countries in Africa outlawing same-sex relationships. Several others are thinking about new laws against “promoting homosexuality”.</p>
<p>These views are dispelled as baseless by a <a href="http://www.assaf.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/8-June-Diversity-in-human-sexuality1.pdf">report</a> from the Academy of Science South Africa released this week. The report, Diversity in Human Sexuality: Implications for Policy in Africa, is based on a consensus study of research from across the world. </p>
<p>The study set out to establish if there was scientific backing to same-sex orientation. The academy also looked at the negative impact of prejudices against gender diversity and human sexuality on broader communities.</p>
<p>The panel looked for evidence whether homosexuality was contagious and whether parenting determined someone’s sexual orientation. They reviewed therapeutic interventions such as corrective therapy and looked at whether same-sex orientations posed a threat to society. The panel also evaluated the public health consequences of criminalising same-sex orientations.</p>
<h2>How the study was done</h2>
<p>The study was done in collaboration with the Uganda National Academy of Sciences and followed discussions with the American Institute of Medicine of the Academy of Sciences and the Network of African Science Academies. </p>
<p>The panel was set up following Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s decision <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2014-02-22-uganda-mps-falsified-gay-report">last year</a> to sign the Anti-Homosexuality Act into law. This prescribed life in prison for anyone found in a same-sex relationship in Uganda. </p>
<p>An ad-hoc panel of 13 scientists and scholars were chosen from several different disciplines including genetics, embryology, anthropology, psychology, public health, history, gender diversity, epidemiology and medical ethics. They evaluated the scientific understanding of gender and sexual diversity, reviewing more than 300 published and peer-reviewed scientific articles written over the last 50 years. </p>
<p>The report should contribute to a more informed debate about same-sex orientation, particularly in Africa. The hope is that this will lead to a change in attitudes as well as a review of policies, laws and health practices.</p>
<h2>Answers to the toughest questions</h2>
<p>The panel examined all the evidence through the lens of seven questions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>What is the evidence that biological factors contribute to sexual and gender diversity?</p></li>
<li><p>Do environmental factors, such as upbringing, explain diversity?</p></li>
<li><p>Is there evidence of same-sex orientation being “acquired”?</p></li>
<li><p>What evidence is there that therapy can change sexual orientation?</p></li>
<li><p>What evidence is there that same-sex orientation poses a threat?</p></li>
<li><p>What are the public health consequences of criminalising same-sex orientation?</p></li>
<li><p>What are the critical unanswered scientific research questions about diversity of human sexualities and sexual orientations in Africa?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In the preface to the report, the panel expresses deep concern about the considerable challenges against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals in Africa, including social stigma and homophobic violence such as corrective rape. This is targeted at lesbian women and includes a “gang” rape to “teach” them that heterosexuality is the preferred sexual mode.</p>
<p>After examining the biological factors, the panel found science did not support thinking of sexuality in a binary fashion of hetero/homosexual or normal/abnormal. Science has evolved and there is now substantial biological evidence for the diversity of human sexuality and sexual orientations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84576/original/image-20150610-6804-12xtieo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84576/original/image-20150610-6804-12xtieo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84576/original/image-20150610-6804-12xtieo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84576/original/image-20150610-6804-12xtieo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84576/original/image-20150610-6804-12xtieo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84576/original/image-20150610-6804-12xtieo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84576/original/image-20150610-6804-12xtieo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An explanation of the diversity of human sexuality and sexual orientation.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research also shows that the number of LGBTI people as a percentage of the population varies little between countries. African countries are no different. </p>
<p>The panel found no evidence that upbringing or socialisation influences sexual orientation. Parents cannot be “blamed” for their children’s sexual orientation although family environments can shape elements of sexuality, such as how it is expressed. There are also social and cultural factors in the construction of gender and sexual identities. </p>
<p>Therapeutic interventions or “sexual orientation change efforts” do not work. Instead, interventions – such as conversion therapy – have negative consequences, are ineffective, have questionable medical ethics and result in depression and suicide. They are also in direct conflict with medical ethics. </p>
<h2>Impact on public health</h2>
<p>There is also evidence that more repressive environments increase stress and have a negative impact on the health of LGBTI people. They are less likely to access health care for fear of using health services. They also lack educational material and access to community support channels. </p>
<p>The net effect of the repressive environments on a country’s health care system is that it reduces the effectiveness of campaigns around HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections. Infectious diseases spread more quickly and community solidarity is lost.</p>
<p>In many African countries, LGBTI people often suffer socioeconomic
discrimination. Adolescents and young adults face intense pressure to conform to gender roles and identities in school, at home, in places of worship and from their peers. Many also suffer from stress caused by social alienation, rejection by their family and community, bullying, violence and potential incarceration. </p>
<h2>The unanswered questions</h2>
<p>The academy’s study shows that there are still critical unanswered questions in science around gender and sexual diversity. Research across the continent is needed to analyse the prevalence and genetic patterns of gender and sexual diversity.</p>
<p>Research also needs to explore the effect that chemicals, insecticides and other toxins have on physical sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. One such insecticide is DDT (<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9143718">dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane</a>), which is used for malaria prevention. It has been implicated in the high incidence of intersex individuals in South Africa’s <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1464-410X.2009.09003.x/pdf">Limpopo province</a>. </p>
<p>The linguistic and cultural distinctiveness of sexual and gender minorities in Africa need to be documented. And policy research must be done on birth certification and gender, especially intersex. </p>
<p>It is hoped that the report will trigger this research. More importantly, it is hoped that it is instrumental in normalising sexual diversity in Africa.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article draws from the <a href="http://www.assaf.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/8-June-Diversity-in-human-sexuality1.pdf">ASSAf report</a> which says that 38 African countries have laws that criminalise same-sex relationships. This figure was taken from the 2014 report by the International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA). In its 2015 report released in May, the association has <a href="http://old.ilga.org/Statehomophobia/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2015.pdf">revised the number to 35</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenda Gray is of the co-chairs on the Academy of Science South Africa's health committee and was the co-chair of the panel for the Diversity in Human Sexuality: Policy Implications for Africa study. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hoosen Jerry Coovadia receives funding from the Wellcome Trust in UK, the NIH in US and SAMRC in South Africa. He is on the National Research Health Committee, on the board of K-Rith and co-chair of the health committee at the ASSAf.
He was the co-chair of the panel for the Diversity in Human Sexuality: Policy Implications for Africa study.
</span></em></p>Science shows that thinking about sexuality in a binary fashion of hetero/homosexual is no longer accurate. Rather, evidence shows that there is a diversity of human sexuality and sexual orientations.Glenda Gray, President of the SAMRC and Research Professor, Perinatal HIV Research Unit, University of the WitwatersrandHoosen Jerry Coovadia, Director of the Maternal, Adolescent and Child Health Systems (Match) at the School of Public Health, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/426412015-06-10T17:16:42Z2015-06-10T17:16:42ZThe science behind a more meaningful understanding of sexual orientation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84574/original/image-20150610-6817-1lmdhs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sexual orientation is more complicated than X and Y chromosome. Epigenetics has a greater role to play. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of a series The Conversation Africa is running on issues related to LGBTI in Africa. You can read the rest of the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/lgbti-africa">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>People who are attracted to others of the same sex develop their orientation before they are born. This is not a choice. And scientific evidence shows their parents cannot be blamed. </p>
<p>Research proving that there is biological evidence for sexual orientation has been available since the 1980s. The links have been emphasised by new scientific research. </p>
<p>In 2014, researchers confirmed the association between same-sex orientation in men and a <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/11/study-gay-brothers-may-confirm-x-chromosome-link-homosexuality">specific chromosomal region</a>. This is similar to findings originally published in the 1990s, which, at that time, gave rise to the idea that a “gay gene” must exist. But this argument has never been substantiated, despite the fact that studies have shown that homosexuality is a heritable trait.</p>
<p>Evidence points towards the existence of a complex interaction between genes and environment, which are responsible for the heritable nature of sexual orientation.</p>
<p>These findings are part of a <a href="http://www.assaf.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/8-June-Diversity-in-human-sexuality1.pdf">report</a> released by the Academy of Science South Africa. The report is the outcome of work conducted by a panel put together in 2014 to evaluate all research on the subject of sexual orientation done over the last 50 years. </p>
<p>It did this against the backdrop of a growing number of new laws in Africa which discriminate against people attracted to others of the same sex. The work was conducted in conjunction with the Ugandan Academy of Science. </p>
<h2>Existing research</h2>
<p>The academy looked at several scientific studies with different focus areas that have all provided converging findings. These include family and twin studies. The studies have shown that homosexuality has both a heritable and an environmental component. </p>
<p>Family studies have shown that homosexual men have more older brothers than heterosexual men. Homosexual men are also more likely to have brothers that are also homosexual. Similarly, family studies show that lesbian women have more lesbian sisters than heterosexual women. </p>
<p>Studies on identical twins are important as identical twins inherit the same genes. This can shed light on a possible genetic cause. Studies on twins have established that homosexuality is more common in identical (monozygotic) twins than in non-identical (dizygotic) twins. This proves that homosexuality can be inherited. </p>
<p>However, the extent of the inheritance between twins was lower than expected. These findings contribute to the notion that although homosexuality can be inherited, this does not occur according to the rules of classical genetics. Rather, it occurs through another mechanism, known as <a href="http://www.whatisepigenetics.com/fundamentals/">epigenetics</a>.</p>
<h2>Epigenetics likely to be an important factor</h2>
<p>Epigenetics relates to the influence of environmental factors on genes, either in the uterus or after birth. The field of epigenetics was developed after new methods were found that identify the molecular mechanisms (epi-marks) that mediate the effect of the environment on gene expression. </p>
<p>Epi-marks are usually erased from generation to generation. But under certain circumstances, they may be passed on to the next generation.</p>
<p>Normally all females have two X-chromosomes, one of which is inactive or “switched off” in a random manner. Researchers have observed that in some mothers who have homosexual sons there is an extreme “skewing” of inactivation of these <a href="http://gaystudies.genetics.ucla.edu/UCLA%20Twin%20Sexual%20Orientation%20Study/Read%20More_files/Extreme%20Skewing%20Bocklandt%20et%20al.pdf">X-chromosomes</a>. The process is no longer random and the same X-chromosome is inactivated in these mothers.</p>
<p>This suggests that a region on the X-chromosome may be implicated in determining sexual orientation. The epigenetics hypothesis suggests that one develops a predisposition to homosexuality by inheriting these epi-marks across generations. </p>
<p>External environmental factors such as medicinal drugs, chemicals, toxic compounds, pesticides and substances such as plasticisers can also have an impact on DNA by creating epi-marks. </p>
<p>These environmental factors can also interfere with a pregnant woman’s hormonal system. This affects the levels of sex hormones in the developing foetus and may influence the activity of these hormones. </p>
<p>Future studies will determine whether these factors may have a direct impact on areas of the developing brain associated with the establishment of sexual orientation. </p>
<h2>Looking to evolution</h2>
<p>From an evolutionary perspective, same-sex relationships are said to constitute a “Darwinian paradox” because they do not contribute to human reproduction. This argument posits that because same-sex relationships do not contribute to the continuation of the species, they would be selected against.</p>
<p>If this suggestion were correct same-sex orientations would decrease and disappear with time. Yet non-heterosexual orientations are consistently maintained in most human populations and in the animal kingdom over time. </p>
<p>There also appear to be compensating factors in what is known as the “balancing selection hypothesis”, which accounts for reproduction and survival of the species. In this context, it has been demonstrated that the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/why-are-there-gay-men_n_1590501.html">female relatives</a> of homosexual men have more children on average than women who do not have homosexual relatives.</p>
<h2>Future studies</h2>
<p>The academy found that a multitude of scientific studies have shown sexual orientation is biologically determined. There is not a single gene or environmental factor that is responsible for this – but rather a set of complex interactions between the two that determines one’s sexual orientation. </p>
<p>However, more evidence is leading investigators to a specific region on the X-chromosome, and possibly a region on <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/largest-ever-study-into-the-gay-gene-erodes-the-notion-that-sexual-orientation-is-a-choice-9875855.html">another chromosome</a>. </p>
<p>The identification of these chromosomal regions does not imply that homosexuality is a disorder – nor does it imply that there are mutations in the genes in these regions, which still remain to be identified. Rather, for the first time, it suggests that there is a specific region on a chromosome that determines sexual orientation. </p>
<p>Although research has not yet found what the precise mechanisms are that determine sexual orientation – which may be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or asexual – the answers are likely to come to the fore through continued research. These findings will be important for the field of genetics and, more importantly, for those attracted to others of the same sex and society as a whole.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article draws from the <a href="http://www.assaf.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/8-June-Diversity-in-human-sexuality1.pdf">ASSAf report</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42641/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Pepper was a member of the ASSAf panel that undertook the study which forms the basis of the Diversity in Human Sexuality report. He receives funding from the South African Medical Research Council, the National Research Foundation of South Africa and the National Health Laboratory Services Research Trust.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beverley Kramer was a member of Academy of Science South Africa panel that undertook the study which form the basis of the Diversity in Human Sexuality report.</span></em></p>Scientific evidence shows that same-sex orientation is determined before you are born.Michael Sean Pepper, Director of the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of PretoriaBeverley Kramer, Assistant Dean: Research and Postgraduate Support in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/426772015-06-10T17:16:27Z2015-06-10T17:16:27ZWhy anti-gay sentiment remains strong in much of Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84399/original/image-20150609-10726-12ejedk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of a breakaway faction of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe protest against homosexuality.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of a series The Conversation Africa is running on issues related to LGBTI in Africa. You can read the rest of the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/lgbti-africa">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Of the 76 countries that still criminalise same-sex relationships and behaviour, 38 are <a href="http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/njihr/vol11/iss2/3/">African</a>.
Recent <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/06/04/the-global-divide-on-homosexuality/">surveys</a> also show that the overwhelming majority of people who live in Africa strongly disapprove of homosexuality. This is even the case in South Africa, the only country on the continent that has legalised same-sex marriage. </p>
<p>Last month, socially conservative Ireland <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/23/gay-marriage-ireland-yes-vote">voted convincingly</a> to legalise same-sex marriage. It became the first country where the people, as opposed to the courts or parliament, decided to legalise same-sex marriage. Ireland is now one of 20 countries globally that permit gay marriage. Fifteen years ago, such marriage was not legal anywhere in the world. </p>
<h2>What the science is saying</h2>
<p>Africa’s strong anti-homosexuality sentiment, harsh laws and active discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people warrant exploration.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.assaf.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/8-June-Diversity-in-human-sexuality1.pdf">A report</a> by the Academy of Science of South Africa reviews recent science about human sexuality and sexual orientation and challenges attitudes that are common in many African countries. The report also provides some explanation about the attitudes and laws prevalent in Africa.</p>
<p>It outlines how global science has steadily demonstrated that gay people are not “sick” nor do they have “conditions” needing treatment. This research, from the 1950s to the 1990s in particular, encouraged professional organisations to remove homosexuality <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jack_Drescher/publication/38019926_Queer_diagnoses_parallels_and_contrasts_in_the_history_of_homosexuality_gender_variance_and_the_diagnostic_and_statistical_manual/links/53e8cfeb0cf2fb74872467eb.pdf">from diagnostic manuals</a>.</p>
<p>Contemporary science does not support thinking about sexuality in a “binary opposition” of hetero/homosexual and normal/abnormal. Rather, it favours thinking about a wide range of variations in human sexuality.</p>
<p>The report finds that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Variation in sexual identities and orientations has always been part of a normal society, [and] there can be no justification for attempts to ‘eliminate’ LGBTI from society.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A growing public appreciation of this new science has been important in shifting public attitudes and laws globally.</p>
<h2>The effect of colonialism</h2>
<p>An understanding of the moralities that appeared in 19th-century Europe, entailing missionary-driven assaults on African social and sexual customs and practices such as polygamy, and sex before or outside of marriage, is key to unpacking the current state of affairs in Africa.</p>
<p>Dozens of studies show that same-sex practices in pre-colonial Africa <a href="http://www.ahrlj.up.ac.za/tamale-s">were not generally taboo</a> in the way that colonial administrations codified them. Many traditional societies in Africa, and elsewhere, developed ways of ordering and tolerating [same-sex attractions and behaviour](http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/making-love-a-crime-criminalization-of-same-sex-conduct-in-sub-saharan-africa “).</p>
<p>Many tolerated <a href="http://76crimes.com/2014/01/30/21-varieties-of-traditional-african-homosexuality/">some same-sex relationships</a> among men, particularly in age-related cohorts or military units. Large numbers of men practised some same-sex activities while asserting their heterosexuality in other spheres of life.</p>
<p>Among women, many different African societies record <a href="http://nai.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:460914/FULLTEXT01.pdf">marriage</a> or other kinds of <a href="http://www.osisa.org/buwa/regional/female-husbands-without-male-wives-women-culture-and-marriage-africa">recognised relationships</a> between women, as well as different forms of cross-dressing and role-swapping. These include societies and cultures in Kenya, Sudan, Cameroon, Nigeria, Lesotho, South Africa and many others.</p>
<p>Only during the height of colonisation were precise definitions of sexual orientations developed and proscribed behaviours punished. The <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/12/17/alien-legacy-0">British</a> in particular brought in legislation because they thought "native” cultures did not punish “perverse” sex enough. </p>
<p>Like so many other colonial era laws based on Victorian prejudices, these laws should have been repealed as part of the decolonisation process. But, on liberation, most English-speaking colonies did not repeal colonial-era “sodomy” or “crime/vice against nature” laws. </p>
<p>There has been some progress. For example, Mozambique, which celebrates 40 years of independence this month, will officially rescind “vice against nature” <a href="http://www.mambaonline.com/2015/06/01/homosexuality-become-legal-mozambique-problems-remain/">legislation</a> in a few weeks time. </p>
<h2>In more recent times</h2>
<p>But attitudes and laws about homosexuality are not purely a colonial import. Since independence, other factors, including political populism, have driven anti-LGBTI attitudes. More recently, some of the impetus behind new laws has come from conservative and often racist organisations <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/153723/how_deep_is_the_republican_christian_right%27s_connection_to_the_anti-gay_bills_sweeping_sub-saharan_africa">based in the US</a>. </p>
<p>In the last 15 years, the Christian right, primarily charismatic right-wing churches from the US, has been <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/24/evangelical-christians-homophobia-africa">very active</a> in driving anti-homosexuality sentiment in parts of Africa, like Uganda.</p>
<p>These groups have supplied their African allies with discredited junk science to bolster what is ultimately a narrow, imported set of ultra-conservative values. Similarly, the growth of a more <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2010/04/15/executive-summary-islam-and-christianity-in-sub-saharan-africa/">conservative set of Islamic customs</a> in some parts of Africa has seen the erosion of indigenous belief systems that have been historically more tolerant of non-heterosexual orientations. </p>
<p>Attempts in Uganda to impose new, tougher laws has drawn global attention and opprobrium. In 2014, President Yoweri Museveni ordered the establishment of a <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2014-02-22-uganda-mps-falsified-gay-report">Presidential Scientific Committee on Homosexuality</a> to advise his government on whether on not to pass a controversial anti homosexuality law.</p>
<p>The medical academics involved <a href="http://cdn.mg.co.za/content/documents/2014/02/22/scientistconsensusstatementonhomosexuality.pdf">concluded</a> that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Homosexuality “is not a disease”;</p></li>
<li><p>Homosexuality is not an “abnormality”;</p></li>
<li><p>Specifically that “homosexual behaviour has existed throughout human history, including in Africa”; and</p></li>
<li><p>Homosexuality existed in Africa way “before the coming of the white man”.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Despite receiving this report, Museveni signed a law that contained harsh new punishments for “homosexual acts” and for what it calls the “promotion” of homosexuality. Implementation of that law is currently suspended by the Ugandan Constitutional Court.</p>
<p>There are also new laws in <a href="http://76crimes.com/anti-lgbt-laws-nigeria/">Nigeria</a>, homophobic changes to the constitution in <a href="http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_2_No_13_July_2012/24.pdf">Zimbabwe</a> and discussion about possible new laws in a number of countries, including Kenya. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84579/original/image-20150610-6810-1xyn18k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84579/original/image-20150610-6810-1xyn18k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84579/original/image-20150610-6810-1xyn18k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84579/original/image-20150610-6810-1xyn18k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84579/original/image-20150610-6810-1xyn18k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84579/original/image-20150610-6810-1xyn18k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84579/original/image-20150610-6810-1xyn18k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84579/original/image-20150610-6810-1xyn18k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Countries where same-sex acts are criminalised.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">assaf</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Negative impacts</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4068984/">impact</a> of this type of legislation is severe on LGBTI individuals and communities as well as on public health services.</p>
<p>A particularly dangerous aspect of new laws in some parts of Africa is that they are designed to <a href="http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/njihr/vol11/iss2/3/">criminalise</a> those who advocate for LGBTI rights or campaign for better access to public health facilities. This impedes the work of NGOs and activists and wider dissemination of new science about sexual orientation.</p>
<p>The report aims to make recent science more accessible to African policymakers so that policy can be based on good evidence, not social prejudices. Same-sex attraction is neither “un-African” nor a colonial import. Between 350 million and 400 million people globally are not heterosexual, about 50 million of whom live in African countries.</p>
<p>It is time to transform the continent’s laws, and its societies, informed by a rapidly evolving, and ever more convincing, science of sexual orientation.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article draws from the <a href="http://www.assaf.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/8-June-Diversity-in-human-sexuality1.pdf">ASSAf report</a>, which says that 38 African countries have laws that criminalise same-sex relationships. This figure was taken from the 2014 report by the International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA). In its 2015 report released in May, the association has <a href="http://old.ilga.org/Statehomophobia/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2015.pdf">revised the number to 35</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Harry Dugmore was the research coordinator and co-author, with the research panel, that produced the Academy of Science South Africa's report on Diversity in Human Sexuality: Implications for Policy in Africa.</span></em></p>Attitudes and laws about homosexuality are not purely a colonial import. Since independence, other factors, including right-wing evangelism, have driven anti-LGBTI attitudes.Harry Dugmore, Professor and Director of the Centre for Health Journalism, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/428872015-06-10T04:20:26Z2015-06-10T04:20:26ZWhy criminalising homosexuality is a public health hazard<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84328/original/image-20150609-27119-f5gz2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Criminalisation does little to change behaviour, while actively contributing to increased stigma.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-190933592/stock-photo-couple-holding-hands-by-the-sea-love-concept.html?src=vSAWitxpxKsQikLEkshr3A-1-23">KieferPix/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Homosexuality remains <a href="http://www.loc.gov/law/help/criminal-laws-on-homosexuality/african-nations-laws.php">illegal</a> in 38 of 55 African nations. Such a stance against homosexuality is concerning from ethical and human rights perspectives. It also poses serious risks from a public health perspective, not least of all because of the significant rates of <a href="http://www.avert.org/impact-hiv-and-aids-sub-saharan-africa.htm">HIV across Africa</a>.</p>
<p>Men who have sex with men account for a substantial minority of those affected by HIV, with their risk of infection more than double that of the <a href="http://www.aidsmap.com/HIV-prevalence-among-South-African-MSM-twice-as-high-as-general-population/page/1323795/">general population</a>. Many African countries also harbour homophobic cultures and attitudes. Together, this creates an environment where homosexuality is highly stigmatised, with homosexual people socially isolated and marginalised. </p>
<p>We know from decades of research across stigmatised and socially excluded groups, such as <a href="http://www.scarletalliance.org.au/library/unjust-counterproductive/file_view">sex workers</a>, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17981451">injecting drug users</a> and men who have sex with men, that criminalisation does little to change behaviour, while actively contributing to increased stigma and marginalisation of these groups. This amplifies the health risks by driving stigmatised communities underground, isolating them from health or support initiatives.</p>
<p>What does this mean for homosexual people across Africa?</p>
<h2>HIV</h2>
<p>One of the greatest health risks created through the criminalisation of homosexuality relates to the treatment and prevention of HIV. </p>
<p>The current situation in <a href="http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-uganda.htm">Uganda</a> provides a striking case study of how the law can affect responses to HIV. Uganda was once considered a regional leader in HIV prevention. Just over 7% of the Ugandan population are HIV positive. This is significantly lower than the rate of 15%, which was projected two decades ago. <a href="http://pmj.bmj.com/content/81/960/615.full">Uganda’s success</a> in preventing HIV transmission is often attributed to an early, progressive, and ambitious government response.</p>
<p>However, in recent years the Ugandan government has taken an <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/03/29/less-they-know-better">increasingly conservative approach</a> to HIV-prevention, supporting abstinence-only programs and refusing to promote condom use. </p>
<p>This has been accompanied by a major crack down on homosexuality in the form of the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/.../afr590032010en.pdf">Anti-Homosexuality Bill</a>, signed into law in 2014, although it was later annulled. The Ugandan government plans to introduce further <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29994678">anti-gay legislation</a>, and homosexuality remains illegal. Similar legislation has also been introduced in <a href="https://theconversation.com/gambia-becomes-the-latest-african-country-to-enact-hateful-anti-gay-laws-34617">The Gambia</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84329/original/image-20150609-27130-1awoagt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84329/original/image-20150609-27130-1awoagt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84329/original/image-20150609-27130-1awoagt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84329/original/image-20150609-27130-1awoagt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84329/original/image-20150609-27130-1awoagt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84329/original/image-20150609-27130-1awoagt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84329/original/image-20150609-27130-1awoagt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Where homosexuality has been criminalised, men are likely to avoid HIV testing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-251585581/stock-photo-african-nurse-is-drawing-blood-from-an-african-male-for-blood-tests.html?src=Bu_4rpqBLm1f-g6UbZuXsA-1-59">Leonie Pauw/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Criminalisation of same-sex sexual practice cripples any initiatives aimed to prevent HIV transmission among this group or to provide treatment to HIV-positive men. Men are rightly afraid of disclosing their sexuality to service providers – who are required by law to report same-sex sexual practices. Anyone trying to organise a program around HIV prevention for men who have sex with men could be charged with “<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17290376.2012.744177">promoting homosexuality</a>”. </p>
<p><a href="http://journals.lww.com/aidsonline/Fulltext/2015/06190/Hidden_from_health___structural_stigma,_sexual.15.aspx">Research has shown</a> that where homosexuality has been criminalised, men are likely to avoid HIV testing or seeking knowledge about safer sex if it risks exposing their sexual activities.</p>
<p>But beyond this, increased levels of stigma – which inevitably results from criminalisation – mean gay and bisexual men are actually <a href="http://journals.lww.com/aidsonline/Fulltext/2015/06190/Hidden_from_health___structural_stigma,_sexual.15.aspx">more likely</a> to engage in risky sexual behavior.</p>
<p>Criminalisation also decimates gay networks and communities. Gay and bisexual men in Western countries such as <a href="http://press.anu.edu.au//apps/bookworm/view/Movement,+Knowledge,+Emotion:+Gay+activism+and+HIV-AIDS+in+Australia/6291/Text/upfront.html">Australia</a> and the United States had the social capital needed to mobilise the community to initiate HIV information and prevention programs. Community-led prevention – and government support for community led prevention – has long been acknowledged as the most important element of <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HE13078.htm">Australia’s successful efforts</a> to reduce HIV transmission. </p>
<p>Criminalising homosexuality removes the capacity for gay communities to organise and to mobilise around HIV prevention by effectively making such initiatives a criminal offence. </p>
<h2>Mental health and well-being</h2>
<p>The decimation of homosexual communities and stigmatisation of homosexuality has further implications for health and well-being. </p>
<p>The criminalisation of homosexuality entrenches the stigma associated with it. There is a great deal of <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/8/70/">evidence</a> that many individuals who experience stigma or marginalisation also experience considerable stress. </p>
<p>Worldwide, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) men and women experience far higher rates of depression, anxiety, and other stress-related disorders compared to the rest of the population. Such stress may come from discrimination, rejection, and concealment, as well as internalised stigma that leads to feelings of shame and low self-worth. In countries where homosexuality is a criminal offence, a fear of persecution and living in secrecy only adds further stress. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84330/original/image-20150609-27084-1jna7rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84330/original/image-20150609-27084-1jna7rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84330/original/image-20150609-27084-1jna7rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84330/original/image-20150609-27084-1jna7rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84330/original/image-20150609-27084-1jna7rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84330/original/image-20150609-27084-1jna7rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84330/original/image-20150609-27084-1jna7rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Criminalising homosexuality removes the capacity for gay communities to organise and to mobilise around HIV prevention.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-205401436/stock-photo-rainbow-flag.html?src=ztyN8zLxJYA2-DAebCnfmQ-1-9">oceanfishing/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.apa.org/pi/aids/resources/exchange/2012/04/minority-stress.aspx">Minority Stress Theory</a>, living with stigma-related stress has direct repercussions on health. Not only does it place individuals at greater risk of mental health problems, but chronic stress is also linked with physical health outcomes, such as heart disease. </p>
<p>Self-medication through substance abuse is also a risk, with LGB populations also tending to have <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/msmhealth/substance-abuse.htm">higher rates</a> of alcohol consumption and drug dependence.</p>
<p>Conversely, LGB people with strong social networks and support tend to have <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623730.2014.903621">better mental and physical health outcomes</a>.</p>
<h2>The law as harm</h2>
<p>Criminalisation forces LGB men and women to live in stressful circumstances, and amplifies the stigma and marginalisation these groups experience. It renders LGB people invisible and creates significant barriers to openly accessing relevant health services and treatment. </p>
<p>In a continent that withstands the worst of the global HIV epidemic, the criminal regulation of homosexuality can only be viewed as an affront to the health of homosexual communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42887/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Lyons has previously received funding from beyondblue and the Movember Foundation. He currently receives funding from the Australian Research Council and works on projects funded by the Australian Commonwealth Government. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Power has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council, Relationships Australia, VicHealth and ACON. She currently works on a project funded by the Australian Commonwealth Government. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bianca Fileborn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Homosexuality remains illegal in 38 of 55 African nations. This is concerning from ethical and human rights perspectives. It’s also a serious public health risk.Bianca Fileborn, Research Officer at the Australian Research Centre for Sex, Health & Society, La Trobe UniversityAnthony Lyons, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe UniversityJennifer Power, Research Fellow at Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/427782015-06-09T04:18:34Z2015-06-09T04:18:34ZGay students still not welcome at South African universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84191/original/image-20150608-8704-wmvshx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C307%2C2182%2C1545&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young LGBTI students go to university hoping that they would be accepted, but are discriminated against instead. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex are more likely to hide their sexual orientation until they <a href="http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=97226">graduate from high school</a> and leave home to study at university or other institutions. In most African countries, these institutions are invariably located in urban centres. </p>
<p>Leaving their homes before “coming out”, these young people hope their orientation would be less conspicuous in the urban cities and people will be more tolerant. In this way, they will be able to express their <a href="http://www.genderandeducation.com/issues/what-is-heteronormativity/">non-heteronormative identities</a> as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender or intersex (LGBTI). </p>
<p>But they find that their tickets to freedom are not as they envisioned.</p>
<h2>Is it really freedom at last?</h2>
<p>Gay students see universities as spaces of intellectual freedom and believe these institutions are progressive and inclusive spaces – unlike their communities back home. This rural-urban migration of <a href="http://www.feministafrica.org/index.php/the-women-s-movement-and-lesbian-and-gay-struggles-in-south-africa">“going out-before coming out”</a> has benefits and pitfalls. </p>
<p>Research shows institutions are often an extension of some of the <a href="https://www.sbp-journal.com/index.php/sbp/article/view/1887">general population’s</a> homophobic attitudes. Their fellow students are homophobic and discriminate against them in their residences, on the sport fields, during lectures and when they access other support services <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/240543430_Sexual_Identity_and_Transformation_at_a_South_African_University">on campus</a>. </p>
<p>During sports activities or physical education, the LGBTI students are harassed, bullied or assaulted based on <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17908102">their sexual orientation</a>. And during lectures, their lecturers create a hostile environment by calling them names and verbalising their hatred and disapproval of homosexuality. </p>
<p>Their dormitories are hostile with heterosexual students often violently attacking, ridiculing and forcing them out of <a href="http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/15783182/coming-out-south-african-university-campus-adaptations-gay-men-lesbians">residences</a>. University administration dismiss complaints of harassment, prejudice and <a href="http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/15783182/coming-out-south-african-university-campus-adaptations-gay-men-lesbians">discrimination from students</a> and campus-based health care workers perpetuate discrimination by denying the students services.
Health care workers also offer <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25732232">“corrective counselling”</a>. </p>
<p>In one South African university, the negative attitudes even come from students who attend the anti-stigma and <a href="http://www.unisa.ac.za/contents/colleges/col_humanities_social_sciences_education/docs/THE-EXPERIENCE-OF-LGBTI-STUDENTS-IN-A-RURAL-BASED-UNIVERSITY-A-CASE-STUDY-OF-A-UNIVERSITY-IN-LIMPOPO-PROVINCE.pdf">discrimination campaigns</a>. Research shows the homophobic practices are influenced by selective readings of religious scriptures and particular interpretations of African culture.</p>
<h2>Survival strategies</h2>
<p>To avert stigma and discrimination, LGBTI students have found several ways to protect themselves. One is to live double lives, where they publicly engage in heterosexual relationships during the day and privately enjoy the partner of their choice. </p>
<p>Students at South African universities such as <a href="http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/15783182/coming-out-south-african-university-campus-adaptations-gay-men-lesbians">Stellenbosch University</a>, <a href="http://repository.uwc.ac.za/xmlui/handle/10566/614">University of the Western Cape</a>, <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S0256-01002013000400011&script=sci_arttext">University of Kwa-Zulu Natal</a> seek acceptance by “acting straight” to pass as heterosexual. </p>
<p>This is by no means exclusive to these universities, But involving themselves in concurrent sexual relationships puts them at risk of contracting or transmitting HIV. Their so-called “public partners” are also at risk of being infected with HIV. </p>
<p>Apart from the increased risk of HIV infection, both the students and their “trophy partners” are at risk of emotional trauma. In some cases, some end up impregnating their partners without any commitment. This, at the end, affects the child, who is conceived as an act of “convenience”</p>
<p>Other LGBTI students try to avert stigma by avoiding public spaces and their classes. But this leads to poor academic performance, and them dropping out of university. Or they resort to drug and alcohol abuse. </p>
<p>Studies conducted in 14 South African universities show that men who have sex with men and LGBTI students have increased level of drug and alcohol abuse <a href="http://www.unisa.ac.za/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Finalised-MSM-publicatiion-28042015.pdf">compared to other university students</a>. </p>
<p>Continuous exposure to homophobic and transphobic attacks has a negative impact on the LGBTI students’ mental and social health in general. Some end up being depressed while others commit suicide. Their academic performance suffers and the continued stigma contributes to increased student drop-outs.</p>
<p>However, there are LGBTI students that are tired of being in the closet and end up “coming out” publicly, displaying “exaggerated behaviour” so that their sexual orientation can be openly seen instead of them being asked. Feminine gays or transgender males dress up to surpass as females. Similarly, masculine lesbians and transgender females dress to surpass as males. </p>
<p>Most of the students end up advocating for the rights of other LGBTI students. They do, however, also become easy targets for further homophobic and transphobic attacks. </p>
<h2>How to normalise homosexuality</h2>
<p>Apart from belonging to LGBTI community, these students deserve equal rights like all other students. Their treatment shows that university administrations, the government and civil society need to rise in defence of LGBTI students’ rights.</p>
<p>To address the hatred towards LGBTI persons, the AIDS Accountability International has a campaign to break down the hierarchies within sexual orientation and <a href="http://www.aidsaccountability.org/?page_id=13153">normalise homosexuality in Africa</a>. </p>
<p>As part of this campaign, several universities in the Southern Africa Development Community are planning research into LGBTI challenges in institutions of higher learning. Research reports from various researchers in the region will be published in special edition journals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mzi Nduna receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) and AIDS Accountability International (AAI) to conduct research on sexual and reproductive health right. Mzi is also a research partner with AIDS Foundation of South Africa (AFSA).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Azwihangwisi Helen Mavhandu-Mudzusi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>LGBTI students at South Africa’s universities are living double lives to protect themselves from heterosexual students who ridicule and attack them.Mzi Nduna, Associate Professor in Public Health, University of the WitwatersrandAzwihangwisi Helen Mavhandu-Mudzusi, Associate Professor, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.