tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/gay-334/articlesGay – La Conversation2023-10-29T14:00:49Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2161412023-10-29T14:00:49Z2023-10-29T14:00:49ZPup Play: Kink communities can help people build connections and improve their body image<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555438/original/file-20231023-25-o6z8yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=63%2C34%2C3771%2C2701&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pup play has its roots within kink communities and gay BDSM and leather subculture.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/pup-play-kink-communities-can-help-people-build-connections-and-improve-their-body-image" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In recent years, the world of kink lifestyles and subcultures has gained increasing attention. <a href="https://doi.org/10.34296/01011007">Kink is a general term</a> that includes various expressions of unconventional or non-traditional sexual desires. This encompasses a wide array of practices, including power dynamics, intense sensations/stimuli, role-playing and more. </p>
<p>One such form of role-play that is often misunderstood is known as pup play. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0636-8">Pups are consenting adults</a> who roleplay by dressing and acting as young canines, or pups. </p>
<p>We are researchers within nutrition and health research with a focus on diverse gender and sexualities. In this project called <a href="https://phillipjoy.ca/about.html">Puppy Philms</a>, we seek to more deeply understand how meanings ascribed to bodies are socially constructed for gay, bisexual, transgender and queer men within the pup community. </p>
<p>For this project, we used a method called cellphilming. The term <a href="https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789463005739/BP000002.xml">cellphilm</a> was coined to describe films made with cell phones. We worked with pups who created cellphilms to learn more about their community, particularly how being a pup might help people navigate body-image concerns.</p>
<p>We recruited 17 self-identifying gay, bisexual, transgender and queer men who are pups across Canada. They attended three workshops and each of them created a cellphilm in which they talked about being a pup and how their body image is shaped in the pup community. </p>
<h2>What is pup play?</h2>
<p>Pup play has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460719839914">its roots</a> within kink communities and gay BDSM and leather subculture. Alongside the sexual component, pup play is viewed by many to be a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02225-z">social activity</a>.</p>
<p>Studies have demonstrated many reasons why people might participate in kink and BDSM activities. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15538605.2020.1827476">personal development, self-expression</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2023.2239225">overcoming anxiety, relaxation</a>, and to be more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2068180">socially comfortable</a>. Kink play may also improve <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460720944594">interpersonal relationships</a>.</p>
<p>The pup community fosters connections and gathers at various <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/kinky-in-the-digital-age-9780197651513?cc=ca&lang=en&">pup events</a>. These include pup competitions where a designated “play space” allows them to cuddle each other, wag their tails and bark. </p>
<p>Pups often wear pup gear like collars and pup masks or hoods. Some individuals within pup communities take on the role of pup “handlers,” which means they assume a more dominant role within pup play. </p>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/712687870?h=9275b6a350&color=feb500" width="100%" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<h2>Cellphilming</h2>
<p>Cellphilming is an art-based research method and serves as a tool for advocacy that researchers seeking to disrupt traditional roles within research can use. It enables participants to exercise their creativity and <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3VK_DAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=What%E2%80%99sa+cellphilm%3F:+Integrating+mobile+phone+technology+into+participatory+visual+research+and+activism&ots=vvogXRkMd_&sig=L_UFtSHYS_5p6MAVdBz7yVMDbHA#v=onepage&q&f=false">take control and ownership of their narratives</a>, facilitating the expression of ideas that can be more challenging to convey through traditional interviews.</p>
<p>Research becomes an artistic and reflective process. The resulting cellphilms are pieces of art that can create a sense of solidarity among communities while changing social values about gender, sexual orientation and bodies. </p>
<h2>The Puppy Philms Project</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1386/jaah_00101_1">previous work</a> noted that many gay men navigate body-image tensions by identifying within gay subcultures that celebrate bodies that are more diverse than the dominant thin and muscular body standards. We also found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/jbsm.2021.020203">challenging and disrupting</a> dominant ideas about masculinity can be helpful for some men dealing with body-image concerns. </p>
<p>Yet no studies have looked at the relationships between body image and pup communities. With Puppy Philms, we sought to gain a deeper insights into this relationship through <a href="https://phillipjoy.ca/puppyfilms.html">cellphilming</a>. </p>
<h2>Body image and pup play</h2>
<p>Three <a href="https://phillipjoy.ca/puppyfilms-324057.html">findings about pup play</a> and body image emerged from our research. First, participants discussed how the pup community can reinforce body standards for men. As one participant said, “the body expectations for pup communities are not really different from the body expectations from the cis gay man culture.”</p>
<p>However, many participants also felt pup communities were spaces where dominant ideas about men’s body standards and masculinity were changed, lessened or lacking altogether. As another participant noted, “body image doesn’t really matter in the pup community, and that’s sort of the point. Just be a puppy.”</p>
<p>The pup headspace – a state of mindfulness relaxation — has also been associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01476-1">therapeutic benefits</a>. Participants reflected on how the process of becoming a pup helped them change their feelings about their bodies and overcome body image concerns. </p>
<p>One participant noted, “…while I’ve got the [pup] mask on and I’m at the events, I don’t tend to think about it. But soon as the mask comes off then I start to think about my body-image issues again.” </p>
<p>Our study sheds light on the positive aspects of the pup community as a social and accepting space, where identifying as a pup represents a sign of resilience and defiance against social norms.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pow-comics-are-a-way-to-improve-queer-mens-body-image-119582">Pow! Comics are a way to improve queer men's body image</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Unleashing queer activism</h2>
<p>Participants felt inspired to create their cellphilms and saw them as powerful tools for activism. They aimed to inform the public about pup play and break the stigma surrounding it. </p>
<p>This drive for activism took various forms; some participants submitted their cellphilms to <a href="https://internationalcellphilmfestival.com/reimagining-cellphilm-festival/">film festivals</a>, and others travelled to the United States and Europe to showcase their cellphilms and share their experiences. In collaboration with the participants, we organized community screening events (one in Montreal and an <a href="https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/fcc41259-c9a4-4280-aba4-99df455ec7bb">upcoming one in Toronto</a>), furthering the reach of their narratives.</p>
<p>Participants saw the potential to use their cellphilms for a greater purpose than just this research. As one participant said, “just this possibility of spreading out what we were talking about really stimulates me a lot.” </p>
<p>Artistic activists remind us that <a href="https://artofactivismbook.com">“we can ‘queer’ mass culture by making it say things it was never designed to say, and act in ways it was never meant to act</a>.” Perhaps the participants’ cellphilms can help make our culture more open to diverse bodies, genders and sexualities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216141/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phillip Joy receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kinda Wassef 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>Pup play communities can help tackle problematic ideas about masculinity and provide space for personal development and self-expression.Phillip Joy, Assistant Professor, Applied Human Nutrition, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityKinda Wassef, Research Assistant, Applied Human Nutrition, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2130852023-09-24T12:02:25Z2023-09-24T12:02:25ZYoung people with sexual or gender diversity are at higher risk of stopping their HIV treatment because of stigma and harsh laws<p>Ending the AIDS pandemic – particularly in eastern and southern Africa – cannot be achieved unless more resources are channelled to meet the needs of key vulnerable populations.</p>
<p>This is one of the themes that emerged during an <a href="https://www.samrc.ac.za/event/11th-sa-aids-conference-2023-20-23-june-2023-durban">AIDS conference in June</a> in South Africa. Prejudice against particular groups – such as men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender communities – interferes with treatment regimes and people’s adherence to treatment. These groups are also at higher risk from HIV due to increased levels of stigma, discrimination, violence and criminalisation. </p>
<p>Our research is part of a three-year <a href="https://www.heard.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/SADC-Symposium-Report_final.pdf">project</a> on HIV-related stigma linked to young people with sexual or gender diversity. The research, conducted in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia, involved 156 participants.</p>
<p>The research identified three main findings:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Criminal laws and strongly negative socio-cultural and religious beliefs produced deeply rooted intolerance around sexual or gender diversity. </p></li>
<li><p>Participants spoke about repeated experiences of verbal harassment, being gossiped about and physical violence.</p></li>
<li><p>Other population groups with HIV said their lives had become more tolerable as social awareness and acceptance of HIV had increased over time. However HIV-related stigma regained its potency when linked to sexual or gender diversity, with adverse effects for adherence to antiretroviral treatment. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Our research provided novel evidence on the deeply rooted fears and anxieties around multiple forms of stigma among young MSM and transgender women in southern Africa. </p>
<h2>Criminalising sex</h2>
<p>Across 13 countries in east and southern Africa, laws and policies criminalise same-sex sexual relations and facilitate the process of stigmatising gay and transgender individuals.</p>
<p>Recently, Uganda passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023, which punishes same-sex conduct with life imprisonment. Several acts considered as “aggravated homosexuality” are liable to the death penalty. </p>
<p>Our study also noted that young people had developed various strategies to manage their lives. For example choosing when to disclose or identify as a person living with HIV or as a member of the sexual minority community in others, but rarely being both at once. </p>
<p>The constant worry and stress of living with HIV, and the fear of being stigmatised, could have a significant impact on health and wellbeing. </p>
<p>The burden of concealing their identities resulted in a range of mental, emotional and physical vulnerabilities. Signs of depression as well as frequent alcohol use were evident.</p>
<p>Overall 42% of participants had contemplated suicide at least once. According to one participant, an 18-year-old:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I feel like I am nothing, I am useless. In the community, looking at HIV, I am a gay, people they isolate me. So, I don’t feel comfortable, even failing to go to work and finding some money, whatever. And, sometimes, I decide if I can die today, I can rest. So, a lot of things come into my mind when I am disturbed … Sometimes my parents try to comfort me but, internally, I am really disturbed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As well as signs of depression, frequent alcohol use was evident. </p>
<p>There were few services available to assist in coping with these multiple stigmas, with those that came closest being provided by “sexual minority friendly” organisations or led by sexual minority peers themselves.</p>
<h2>Fear of being found out</h2>
<p>Being seen taking antiretroviral therapy or having it found in one’s possession signalled that one was living with HIV. Some individuals preferred to miss doses, occasionally or over more prolonged periods, rather than endure actual or feared stigma linked to being “found out” as someone living with HIV.</p>
<p>A 24-year-old told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What made me to delay taking medication is when my partner wants me to visit his home because he stays in Zomba, and I haven’t disclosed my HIV status to my partner yet, and I can’t take the ARVs with me there. As a result, I go there without the ARVs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A 19-year-old said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It affects me sometimes because, if people reject you, you feel like stopping to take the medication. ‘Maybe am just wasting my time, let me just die.’ It affects me a lot.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other findings we made were that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Many participants had had their status disclosed by LGBTIQ+ peers without their consent. HIV-related stigma is still highly prevalent within the LGBTIQ+ community and has many negative impacts. </p></li>
<li><p>Participants continued to experience or fear stigma related to their sexual orientation at health facilities, which also affected their access to healthcare and retention in care.</p></li>
<li><p>Tailored HIV services for key populations, including young MSM and transgender women, were not reaching everyone; rural areas were the least included.</p></li>
<li><p>Through their experiences, gay young men and transgender women were familiar with the harmful consequences of stigma and yet they were often ostracised from planning and decision-making roles. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>Key populations in our study faced inequalities in three main areas: access to HIV services; justice and human rights; and investments in programmes geared towards them.</p>
<p>There were few services available to assist in coping with these multiple stigmas. Those that came closest were provided by “sexual minority friendly” organisations or led by sexual minority peers themselves.</p>
<p>There need to be more community-based organisations that are run by members of these key populations. In Cameroon, for example, the <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/cameroon/health/hiv-aids">CHAMP</a> programme supports grassroots advocacy to mitigate stigma and violence and trains peers to offer counselling, </p>
<p>We can only achieve progress if we treat everyone as equal partners in fighting this pandemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kaymarlin Govender receives funding from the National Research Foundation and Sida</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Nyamaruze receives funding from HIV/AIDS Special Fund Round III initiative of the Southern African Development Community. </span></em></p>Stigmatised people living with HIV often suffer from fear, depression and abuse. It’s sometimes easier to stop a treatment regime than risk being ostracised or assaulted by the community.Kaymarlin Govender, Research Director at The Health Economics and HIV and AIDS Research Division (HEARD), University of KwaZulu-NatalPatrick Nyamaruze, Post-doctoral research fellow, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2048862023-05-31T12:39:02Z2023-05-31T12:39:02ZSummer reading: 5 books that explore LGBTQ teen and young adult life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528449/original/file-20230526-19-zowllg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C38%2C5137%2C3350&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coming of age brings new challenges for central characters who are discovering their own sexuality.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/reading-at-the-beach-royalty-free-image/102491237?phrase=summer+reading&adppopup=true">Chris Hackett via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In recognition of LGBT Pride Month, The Conversation reached out to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uBrR7S0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">Jonathan Alexander</a> – an English professor with a scholarly interest in the interplay between sexuality and literature – for recommendations of young adult fiction books that feature LGBTQ characters. What follows is a list that Alexander, who has just stepped down as the children’s and young adult fiction section editor for the <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/">Los Angeles Review of Books</a>, considers as “must-reads” for this summer.</em></p>
<h2>1. Darius the Great Is Not Okay</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Two boys sitting and looking at an urban landscape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Darius the Great Is Not Okay’ by Adib Khorram.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/573023/darius-the-great-is-not-okay-by-adib-khorram/">Penguin Random House</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Written by Adib Khorram, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/573023/darius-the-great-is-not-okay-by-adib-khorram/">Darius the Great Is Not Okay</a>” is told from the perspective of a Persian American teen battling an anxiety disorder while navigating the complexities of growing up in a culturally mixed household. Darius’ parents – an Iranian immigrant mother and a white father – are kind and sympathetic, even as they are dealing with their own issues, including the dad’s struggle with mental health issues and the mother’s attempt to maintain family relations with relatives in a country that is not only halfway around the world but whose government is viewed with suspicion by many Americans. Still, Darius’ family pulls together, even making a trip to Iran to visit relatives. While there, Darius learns about his cultural background as Persian, makes a lifelong friend in an Iranian cousin, and considers his own sexuality. He might be gay. How will that complicate his life? </p>
<p>Khorram beautifully handles the challenges – and pleasures – of growing up in a culturally mixed but rich and loving household while also dealing with mental health challenges and identity exploration. And there are a lot of sweet touches throughout, including a love of tea and “Star Trek.” Highly recommended for its sensitivity and authenticity. </p>
<h2>2. Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Two teenagers holding hands and smiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution’ by Kacen Callender.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/lark-kasim-start-a-revolution_9781419756870/">Abrams Books</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kacen Callender, whose groundbreaking “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/felix-ever-after-kacen-callender?variant=32280909578274">Felix Ever After</a>” delighted readers with its tale of a Black trans boy learning how to navigate being in and out of love, returns with a new book just as compellingly real. Lark and Kasim are old friends whose relationship has seen better days. Lark is working hard at being a writer while also trying to help Kasim figure out how to handle the complexities of living at least part of their young lives in the shadows of social media. Ultimately, the book is as much about forging friendships – and learning how to handle their evolution – as about crushes and teen love. </p>
<p>With richly drawn nonbinary and queer characters, “Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution” joins Callender’s previous award-winning books in contributing beautifully written and deeply imagined Black, queer and trans characters that readers of all kinds will come to love. </p>
<h2>3. Last Night at the Telegraph Club</h2>
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<img alt="An empty city street with two people holding hands under a lamppost." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Last Night at the Telegraph Club’ by Malinda Lo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565819/last-night-at-the-telegraph-club-by-malinda-lo/">Penguin Random House</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Malinda Lo’s<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565819/last-night-at-the-telegraph-club-by-malinda-lo/"> National Book Award-winning novel</a> is set in mid-20th-century San Francisco, in a Chinese American immigrant community in which Lily Hu has to learn to deal with racism, the “Red Scare” and the possibility that she might be a lesbian. A masterwork of historical young adult literature, “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” introduces readers to how lesbian communities formed – and thrived – even during some of the most repressive and homophobic moments in U.S. history. </p>
<p>Lo’s novel joins her previous works, such as the groundbreaking “<a href="https://www.malindalo.com/ash">Ash</a>,” a retelling of Cinderella from a lesbian perspective, in creating exciting and affirming work for young queer readers, as well as for anyone who cares for those questioning their sexuality and sense of belonging in the world. </p>
<h2>4. Café Con Lychee</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Two boys making eye contact in front of sugary snacks and drinks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Café Con Lychee’ by Emery Lee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/cafe-con-lychee-emery-lee?variant=40682132668450">Harper Collins Publishers</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Emery Lee’s delicious novel centers on the rivalry between an Asian American café and a Puerto Rican bakery in a small Vermont town – with both eateries facing competition from a new fusion restaurant that has just opened. The families that own the cafés each have a young son working in them – Theo and Gabi, respectively – who have to learn to overcome their own rivalry and help their families survive the precarities of operating a business in a world of cutthroat capitalism.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780063210271/cafe-con-lychee/">Café Con Lychee</a>” shows how love survives economic challenges and family foibles as the two young men move from rivalry to romance. A sweet and nourishing tale, the book offers readers a relatable glimpse into making it – and making out – during a time of economic upheaval.</p>
<h2>5. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A red truck parked on grass at night." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe’ by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Aristotle-and-Dante-Discover-the-Secrets-of-the-Universe/Benjamin-Alire-Saenz/Aristotle-and-Dante/9781665925419">Simon & Schuster</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I want to conclude this year’s summer reading list with an older work – Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s still beautiful, still vital and still very necessary paean to young gay love. Ari and Dante, from two different walks of life, learn to find love and self-acceptance in this beautifully written book. At the start of the book, Ari is dealing with family trouble, including a brother in prison, and Dante is perhaps a bit too smart for his own good. The two meet at a swimming pool one summer, setting the stage for a steamy exploration of friendship that might turn into something more. If you haven’t read “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe,” catch up this summer with this classic of contemporary LGBTQ young adult fiction, and then check out its recently published sequel, “Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World.” Happy reading!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204886/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Alexander 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 scholar of young adult fiction presents a fresh list of LGBTQ ‘must-reads’ for the summer of 2023.Jonathan Alexander, Professor of English and Gender & Sexuality Studies, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1994242023-02-09T09:05:11Z2023-02-09T09:05:11ZWhat does the Bible say about homosexuality? For starters, Jesus wasn’t a homophobe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508641/original/file-20230207-21-ed2xy3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis was recently asked about his views on homosexuality. He <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-francis-says-laws-criminalising-lgbt-people-are-sin-an-injustice-2023-02-05/">reportedly replied</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This (laws around the world criminalising LGBTI people) is not right. Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God loves them. God accompanies them … condemning a person like this is a sin. Criminalising people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This isn’t the first time Pope Francis has shown himself to be a <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html">progressive leader</a> when it comes to, among other things, gay Catholics. </p>
<p>It’s a stance that has <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">drawn the ire</a> of some high-ranking bishops and ordinary Catholics, both on the African continent and elsewhere in the world.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">Pope Francis' visit to Africa comes at a defining moment for the Catholic church</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Some of these Catholics may argue that Pope Francis’s approach to LGBTI matters is a misinterpretation of Scripture (or the Bible). But is it? </p>
<p>Scripture is particularly important for Christians. When church leaders refer to “the Bible” or “the Scriptures”, they usually mean “the Bible as we understand it through our theological doctrines”. The Bible is always interpreted by our churches through their particular theological lenses. </p>
<p>As a biblical scholar, I would suggest that church leaders who use their cultures and theology to exclude homosexuals don’t read Scripture carefully. Instead, they allow their patriarchal fears to distort it, seeking to find in the Bible proof-texts that will support attitudes of exclusion. </p>
<p>There are several instances in the Bible that underscore my point.</p>
<h2>Love of God and neighbour</h2>
<p>Mark’s Gospel, found in the New Testament, records that Jesus entered the Jerusalem temple on three occasions. First, he visited briefly, and “looked around at everything” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.11">11:11</a>). </p>
<p>On the second visit he acted, driving “out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.15">11:15</a>). Jesus specifically targeted those who exploited the poorest of the people coming to the temple. </p>
<p>On his third visit, Jesus spent considerable time in the temple itself (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/MRK.11.NIV">11:27-13:2</a>). He met the full array of temple leadership, including chief priests, teachers of the law and elders. Each of these leadership sectors used their interpretation of Scripture to exclude rather than to include. </p>
<p>The “ordinary people” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.32">11:32</a> and <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.12.12">12:12</a>) recognised that Jesus proclaimed a gospel of inclusion. They eagerly embraced him as he walked through the temple. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/100/MRK.12.24.NASB1995">Mark 12:24</a>, Jesus addresses the Sadducees, who were the traditional high priests of ancient Israel and played an important role in the temple. Among those who confronted Jesus, they represented the group that held to a conservative theological position and used their interpretation of the Scripture to exclude. Jesus said to them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jesus recognised that they chose to interpret Scripture in a way that prevented it from being understood in non-traditional ways. Thus they limited God’s power to be different from traditional understandings of him. Jesus was saying God refused to be the exclusive property of the Sadducees. The ordinary people who followed Jesus understood that he represented a different understanding of God.</p>
<p>This message of inclusion becomes even clearer when Jesus is later confronted by a single scribe (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/100/mrk.12.28">12:28</a>). In answer to the scribe’s question on the most important laws, Jesus summarised the theological ethic of his gospel: love of God and love of neighbour (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/MRK.12.NIV">12:29-31</a>).</p>
<h2>Inclusion, not exclusion</h2>
<p>Those who would exclude homosexuals from God’s kingdom choose to ignore Jesus, turning instead to the Old Testament – most particularly to <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/GEN.19.NIV">Genesis 19</a>, the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their interpretation of the story is that it is about homosexuality. It isn’t. It relates to hospitality.</p>
<p>The story begins in <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/GEN.18.NIV">Genesis 18</a> when three visitors (God and two angels, appearing as “men”) came before <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham">Abraham</a>, a Hebrew patriarch. What did Abraham and his wife Sarah do? They offered hospitality. </p>
<p>The two angels then left Abraham and the Lord and travelled into <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">Sodom (19:1)</a> where they met Lot, Abraham’s nephew. What did Lot do? He offered hospitality. The two incidents of hospitality are explained in exactly the same language. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">“men of Sodom” (19:4)</a>, as the Bible describes them, didn’t offer the same hospitality to these angels in disguise. Instead they sought to humiliate them (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">and Lot (19:9)</a>) by threatening to rape them. We know they were heterosexual because Lot, in attempting to protect himself and his guests, offered his virgin daughters to them <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">(19:8)</a>. </p>
<p>Heterosexual rape of men by men is a common act of humiliation. This is an extreme form of inhospitality. The story contrasts extreme hospitality (Abraham and Lot) with the extreme inhospitality of the men of Sodom. It is a story of inclusion, not exclusion. Abraham and Lot included the strangers; the men of Sodom excluded them.</p>
<h2>Clothed in Christ</h2>
<p>When confronted by the inclusive gospel of Jesus and a careful reading of the story of Sodom as one about hospitality, those who disavow Pope Francis’s approach will likely jump to other Scriptures. Why? Because they have a patriarchal agenda and are looking for any Scripture that might support their position.</p>
<p>But the other Scriptures they use also require careful reading. <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/lev.18.22">Leviticus 18:22</a> and <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/lev.20.13">20:13</a>, for example, are not about “homosexuality” as we now understand it – as the caring, loving and sexual relationship between people of the same sex. These texts are about relationships that cross boundaries of purity (between clean and unclean) and ethnicity (Israelite and Canaanite). </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%203%3A28&version=NRSVUE">Galatians 3:28</a> in the New Testament, Paul the apostle yearns for a Christian community where:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Paul built his theological argument on the Jew-Greek distinction, but then extended it to the slave-free distinction and the male-female distinction. Christians – no matter which church they belong to – should follow Paul and extend it to the heterosexual-homosexual distinction. </p>
<p>We are all “clothed in Christ” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/gal.3.27">3:27</a>): God only sees Christ, not our different sexualities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerald West 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>Those who exclude any groups of people from God’s kingdom choose to ignore the teaching of Jesus.Gerald West, Senior Professor of Biblical Studies, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1896192022-09-22T12:40:05Z2022-09-22T12:40:05Z‘Men who have sex with men’ originated during the HIV pandemic to focus on behavior rather than identity – but not everyone thinks the term helps<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485710/original/file-20220920-14360-lngmmg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2121%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The monkeypox pandemic has seen an increase in the use of the term "men who have sex with men."</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/rear-view-of-gay-couple-on-lookout-above-the-city-royalty-free-image/1195433903">Westend61/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/08/05/1116036167/talking-about-monkeypox-effectively-without-stigmatizing-men-who-have-sex-with-m">global monkeypox outbreak</a> started to spread this past spring, more people are seeing the term “men who have sex with men,” or MSM, in the news and public health messages. You may have also heard this term in places like HIV prevention campaigns or at the doctor’s office.</p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://cph.osu.edu/people/jricks">behavioral scientist</a> who focuses on reducing health disparities and improving health equity for sexual and gender minority populations at highest risk for poor outcomes. At the most basic level, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499009551551">men who have sex with men</a> is a term that was originally intended to describe the risk of HIV transmission associated with sex between two men. But in reality, MSM describes a diverse group of behaviors and identities, bringing with it a complex web of social, political and cultural considerations about how it’s used.</p>
<h2>Why use MSM?</h2>
<p>HIV researchers have used the term “men who have sex with men” <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01326525">since at least 1988</a> as a way to describe a particular type of sexual behavior that may affect health.</p>
<p>The acronym MSM, however, was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1902/jop.1994.65.5.393">introduced in 1994 as a new concept</a> by some researchers and community advocates in response to public health research and prevention efforts early in the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These efforts almost exclusively targeted men based on their sexual identity as gay. Community advocates <a href="https://prideindex.com/in-touch-with-cleo-manago/">criticized this approach</a> for excluding Black and Latino men who have sex with men who were affected by the pandemic but did not identify as gay, homosexual or bisexual. MSM was considered to be a more inclusive, less stigmatizing term that could be used to reach a broader range of people.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485707/original/file-20220920-11202-cf9dvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Demonstrators holding signs protesting against AIDS discrimination" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485707/original/file-20220920-11202-cf9dvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485707/original/file-20220920-11202-cf9dvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485707/original/file-20220920-11202-cf9dvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485707/original/file-20220920-11202-cf9dvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485707/original/file-20220920-11202-cf9dvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485707/original/file-20220920-11202-cf9dvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485707/original/file-20220920-11202-cf9dvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">During the AIDS epidemic, new terminology arose to focus research and public health interventions on behavior rather than identity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AIDSDiscriminationProtest/96ceaffa64224626b88eae3bd88e7503">AP Photo/Rick Maiman</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From a scientific perspective, using an identity-free term like MSM allows medical providers and public health practitioners to bypass the complexities of the social, cultural and political context of sexual orientation. Instead, they can then focus on the behavior that might put someone at risk for an infection such as HIV or monkeypox. This approach is <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16080458/">intended to help</a> increase the likelihood of screening, diagnosing and treating those at the greatest risk.</p>
<p>Prevention strategies that target people based on “what you do” rather than “who you are” reach more people who may be affected by a public health concern, including heterosexual men who have sex with men, rather than limiting outreach just to those who identify as gay or bisexual. They offer a larger number of men the opportunity to understand their risk and take the steps necessary for protection or treatment. They also help <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2004.046714">decrease stigma</a> for those who identify as gay or bisexual.</p>
<h2>Limitations of MSM</h2>
<p>Despite its usefulness in some contexts, the term MSM has been hotly debated by scholars and community advocates since it was coined. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2004.046714">Disagreement</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305870">on its use</a> is usually grounded in three arguments.</p>
<p>The first is that the term is ambiguous. Some researchers argue that distilling MSM down to “sex between two men” is too simplistic. For one, there are a number of nuances and factors that <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/msm/msm-content/prevention-challenges.html">influence the amount of risk</a> associated with sex between two men, such as how sex is performed and who and how many partners are in their sexual network. There is also confusion about how frequently or recently someone must have sex in order to be considered MSM. And there is <a href="https://doi.org/10.7448/IAS.19.3.20779">no consensus</a> about whether transgender men who have sex with men should be considered MSM. </p>
<p>The second critique is that the term <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2004.046714">undermines the identities</a> of sexual minority group members, particularly people of color. Many public health researchers use MSM as a neutral term to push back against the idea that there is only one legitimate gay identity. However, some have criticized the term for erasing other sexual identities such as queer, two-spirited and same-gender loving by being the default term used in research, despite participants describing themselves as otherwise.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JOSN1bKG3zQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">While HIV cases are largely decreasing across the U.S., high infection rates remain in Southern states.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, the third argument is that the term conceals the social, political and cultural dimensions of health important for public health research and intervention. One of the greatest advantages of MSM is that it is grounded in tangible behaviors that researchers can target for health promotion and prevention efforts. But sexual health is influenced by a constellation of factors, and focusing on behavior alone is often not enough to completely protect against illness. </p>
<p>Beyond sexual behavior, <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/25877">discrimination and social marginalization</a> put sexual minorities at significant risk of poor health outcomes. These can take the form of structural factors, such as anti-gay legislation, and community factors, such as discrimination and stigma. Interpersonal factors like relationship abuse and individual factors like internalized stigma also play a role. These factors <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mhp.2016.10.002">increase the risk of mental illness</a>, such as depression and suicidal thoughts, as well as risky health behaviors, such as sex without a condom or while under the influence of drugs.</p>
<p>Almost 30 years since it was introduced, the term MSM is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in both medical and public health spaces. But it does have limitations. Considering the sociopolitical context of whether MSM should be used, rather than using it by default, can help support the self-determination of those who belong to historically marginalized communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>JaNelle Ricks 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>The term ‘MSM’ allows public health interventions to gloss over the social, political and cultural complexities of identity. But it’s not without its limitations.JaNelle Ricks, Assistant Professor of Health Behavior and Health Promotion, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1861692022-08-14T13:14:54Z2022-08-14T13:14:54ZWhy it’s important to tell people that monkeypox is predominately affecting gay and bisexual men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478989/original/file-20220812-2527-jwfwgd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=444%2C22%2C2550%2C2097&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People inquire about receiving a monkeypox vaccine at an outdoor walk-in clinic in Montréal on July 23, 2022. The World Health Organization has declared the virus a global health emergency.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/why-it-s-important-to-tell-people-that-monkeypox-is-predominately-affecting-gay-and-bisexual-men" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Monkeypox virus, or MPXV, is an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010141">emerging threat</a> to public health. The World Health Organization recently declared the current outbreak a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.12513">global public health emergency</a>.</p>
<p>For decades, several African countries have experienced ongoing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007791">outbreaks of MPXV</a>, driven primarily by contact with animals and transmission within households. However, before last year, most people in Europe and North America had never even heard of the disease. That was until the current outbreak among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.</p>
<h2>Debates over the epidemiology of MPXV</h2>
<p>Over the past several months, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/reducing-stigma.html">a controversy</a> has raged about whether it’s OK to say that the current MPXV outbreak is primarily affecting gay and bisexual men, and that it is primarily being spread through close personal contact, such as sex. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/metaphors-matter-why-changing-the-name-monkeypox-may-help-curb-the-discriminatory-language-used-to-discuss-it-185343">Metaphors matter: Why changing the name 'monkeypox' may help curb the discriminatory language used to discuss it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As a social and behavioural epidemiologist working with marginalized populations, including gay and bisexual men, I believe it’s important that people know that sexual and gender minority men are the primary victims of this MPXV outbreak. I believe this knowledge will help us end the outbreak before it bridges into other communities. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478988/original/file-20220812-1300-s3i976.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Yellow ovals (monkeypox virus particles) spread over a blue cell background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478988/original/file-20220812-1300-s3i976.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478988/original/file-20220812-1300-s3i976.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478988/original/file-20220812-1300-s3i976.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478988/original/file-20220812-1300-s3i976.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478988/original/file-20220812-1300-s3i976.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=740&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478988/original/file-20220812-1300-s3i976.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=740&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478988/original/file-20220812-1300-s3i976.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=740&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monkeypox particles in an infected cell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(NIAID)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For reference, more than <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMe2210673">90 per cent of cases in non-endemic countries</a> have been transmitted through intimate sexual contact, and the vast majority of cases are among gay men. Very few cases are linked to community transmission. </p>
<p>While these statistics are undisputed, some have feared that identifying sexual behaviour as the primary cause of current MPXV transmission <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2022/08/04/monkeypox-cases-spread-sti-std-stigma/10172342002/">would dampen the public health response</a>. Others have warned that connecting MPXV to an already stigmatized community will <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/26/1113713684/monkeypox-stigma-gay-community">worsen stigma towards gay sex</a>. </p>
<h2>Non-sexual transmission is possible, and a considerable threat</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/transmission.html">It is true that MPXV can transmit through more</a> casual contact and through fomites (<a href="https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-are-Fomites.aspx">inanimate objects</a> on which some microbes can survive, such as bed linens, towels or tables). </p>
<p>However, months into the current outbreak, we have not seen these routes emerge as important pathways of transmission. This may be due to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/monkeypox-transmission-has-changed-scientists-dont-know-why-airborne-1715276">changes in the fundamental transmission dynamic of MPXV</a> or due to enhanced cleaning procedures implemented in response to COVID-19 in places such as gyms and restrooms. </p>
<h2>Why it’s crucial to know MPXV affects gay and bisexual men</h2>
<p>Informing the public about MPXV is important because public opinion plays an important role in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.11623">shaping public health policies</a>, such as who gets access to vaccines and what interventions are used to stop disease transmission. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13539-5">recent study</a> conducted by my team aimed to demonstrate the importance of public health education by asking Canadians to participate in a discrete choice experiment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An arm with a tattoo of a flower and leaves being injected with a syringe" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478993/original/file-20220812-3855-u3hkeu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478993/original/file-20220812-3855-u3hkeu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478993/original/file-20220812-3855-u3hkeu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478993/original/file-20220812-3855-u3hkeu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478993/original/file-20220812-3855-u3hkeu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478993/original/file-20220812-3855-u3hkeu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478993/original/file-20220812-3855-u3hkeu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man receives a monkeypox vaccine at an outdoor walk-in clinic in Montréal on July 23, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We asked participants to choose between two hypothetical public health programs across eight head-to-head comparisons. Descriptions for each hypothetical program identified the number of years of life gained by patients, the health condition it addressed and the population it was tailored for. </p>
<p>From our analyses of this data, we learned a lot about how the public wants public health dollars to be spent and how their knowledge and bias shapes these preferences. There were five major takeaways:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.11.022">People preferred interventions that added more years to participants’ life expectancy</a>. In fact, for one year of marginal life gained, there was a 15 per cent increase in the odds that participants chose that program. </p></li>
<li><p>We found that people tended to favour interventions that focused on treatment rather than prevention. While this approach is emotionally intuitive, large bodies of evidence suggest that <a href="https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2009/09/cost-savings-and-cost-effectiveness-of-clinical-preventive-care.html">it is more cost-effective to prevent disease than to treat it</a>. As the old saying goes: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. </p></li>
<li><p>People generally preferred interventions for common chronic diseases — such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer — and were <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029747">less likely to favour interventions for behaviour-related conditions</a>, such as sexually transmitted infections. </p></li>
<li><p>People generally preferred programs focused on the general population as opposed to those tailored for key <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vhri.2018.05.004">marginalized populations</a>. In fact, people were least likely to prefer interventions tailored for sexual and gender minorities. </p></li>
<li><p>The bias against behavioural interventions and those tailored for key populations was overcome when the programs addressed a health condition that was widely understood to be linked to the population the program was tailored to. For example, people were more likely to support interventions for sexually transmitted infections when these interventions were tailored for people engaged in sex work or for gay and bisexual men.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>This study highlights why it is important to educate the public about health inequities. People are smarter, more pragmatic, and more compassionate than we give them credit for. If we take the time to share evidence with them about the challenges that stigmatized communities face, they will be more willing to support policies and efforts to address these challenges. </p>
<p>Ending MPXV quickly is critical, especially since the virus <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01907-y">has the potential to evolve</a> in ways that could make the disease more infectious. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s40249-022-01007-6">Protecting gay and bisexual men first, protects everyone</a>.</p>
<p>We should, of course, always be aware of the potential harms and the corrosive effects of stigma. However, in public health, honesty really is the best policy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kiffer George Card receives funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Canadian Research Coordinating Committee, Michael Smith Health Research BC, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. He is affiliated with Simon Fraser University's Faculty of Health Sciences, The Institute for Social Connection, The Community-based Research Centre, the GenWell Project, The Island Sexual Health Society, and the Mental Health and Climate Change Alliance.</span></em></p>Engaging in open and honest dialogue with the public to increase understanding of health inequities has never been more important.Kiffer George Card, Assistant Professor in Health Sciences, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1875092022-08-02T12:59:43Z2022-08-02T12:59:43ZCongress is considering making same-sex marriage federal law – a political scientist explains how this issue became less polarized over time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476974/original/file-20220801-24-y51nxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A same-sex marriage supporter waves a rainbow flag outside the Supreme Court in 2015.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/samesex-marriage-supporter-vin-testa-of-washington-dc-waves-a-rainbow-picture-id471417652?s=2048x2048">Drew Angerer/Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/how-abortion-became-divisive-issue-us-politics-2022-06-24/">public opinion</a> and <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/overview-abortion-laws">different state laws</a> on abortion rights are sharply dividing the country, there’s growing indication that most people agree on another once-controversial topic – protecting same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>The U.S. House of Representatives voted on July 19, 2022, to <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/8404/text?r=1&s=1">enshrine same-sex marriage </a> into law with a bipartisan vote – all 220 Democratic representatives voted in favor, joined by 47 Republican colleagues. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/8404">Respect for Marriage Act</a>, as it is called, would repeal the 1996 <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/defense_of_marriage_act_(doma)">Defense of Marriage Act,</a> a federal law that defines marriage as the legal union between a man and a woman.</p>
<p>The bill faces an <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republicans-split-sex-marriage-bill-faces-uncertainty-senate-rcna39574">uncertain fate</a> in the closely divided Senate – so far, five Republicans out of 50 have said they would vote for it. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer <a href="https://www.vox.com/23274491/senate-republicans-same-sex-marriage-bill-respect-for-marriage-act">has said</a> the Senate will vote on the bill once it has 10 Republican votes. </p>
<p><a href="https://academics.morris.umn.edu/tim-lindberg">I am a scholar</a> of political behavior and history in the U.S. I believe that it’s important to understand that the bipartisan support for this bill marks a significant political transformation on same-sex marriage, which was used as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096505056295">contentious point</a> separating Democrats and Republicans roughly 15 to 20 years ago.</p>
<p>But over the past several years, same-sex marriage has become less politically divisive and gained more public approval, driven in part by former President Donald Trump’s general <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/16/republicans-gay-marriage-wars-505041">acceptance of the practice</a>. This environment made it politically safe for nearly a quarter of Republican House members to vote to protect this right under federal law. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476967/original/file-20220801-24-s4g4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men wearing suits stand with their backs to the camera and signs that say Just Married on their backs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476967/original/file-20220801-24-s4g4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476967/original/file-20220801-24-s4g4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476967/original/file-20220801-24-s4g4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476967/original/file-20220801-24-s4g4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476967/original/file-20220801-24-s4g4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476967/original/file-20220801-24-s4g4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476967/original/file-20220801-24-s4g4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A same-sex couple are shown after they married at San Francisco City Hall in June 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/samesex-couple-ariel-owens-and-his-spouse-joseph-barham-walk-arm-in-picture-id81601297?s=2048x2048">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What makes opinions change?</h2>
<p>Seventy-one percent of Americans say they support legal same-sex marriage, according to a <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/393197/same-sex-marriage-support-inches-new-high.aspx">July 2022 Gallup poll</a>. In 1996, when Gallup first polled about same-sex marriage, 27% supported legalization of same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>This shift in public opinion has happened despite increasing polarization in the U.S. <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/12/17/in-a-politically-polarized-era-sharp-divides-in-both-partisan-coalitions/">about gun control, racial justice</a> and climate change.</p>
<p>What becomes, remains or ceases to be a divisive political issue in the U.S. over time depends on many factors. Changes to laws, shifting cultural norms and technological progress can all shape political controversies.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030619000277">My research, for example, explores</a> how Mormons in Utah territory – what would later become Utah state – were denied statehood by Congress until they gave up their religious belief in polygamy. Polygamy was outlawed under U.S. law, and known polygamists were excluded from voting and holding office. In the 1880s, <a href="https://theconversation.com/explaining-polygamy-and-its-history-in-the-mormon-church-81384">an estimated 20% to 30%</a> of Mormons practiced polygamy. Yet, political pressure led the Mormon Church president in 1890 to <a href="https://theconversation.com/explaining-polygamy-and-its-history-in-the-mormon-church-81384">announce</a> that polygamy would no longer be sanctioned. </p>
<p>In 2011, <a href="https://www.deseret.com/2012/1/15/20244382/mormons-say-polygamy-morally-wrong-pew-poll-shows">86% of Mormon adults reported that they consider polygamy morally wrong</a>, nearly in line with <a href="https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/214601/moral-acceptance-polygamy-record-high-why.aspx">general public opinion</a>. </p>
<p>Many political leaders, both on the left and right, were also largely hostile to same-sex marriage <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/high-profile-politicians-changed-positions-gay-marriage/story?id=18740293">until the early 2010s.</a> </p>
<h2>A rising controversy</h2>
<p>In 1993, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/05/31/issenberg-book-excerpt-bill-woods-honolulu-doma-491401">state must have a compelling reason to ban same-sex marriage</a>, after a gay male couple and two lesbian couples <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/07/us/in-hawaii-step-toward-legalized-gay-marriage.html">filed a suit</a> that a state ban on same-sex marriage violated their privacy and equal protection rights. </p>
<p>Concern among conservatives that this legal reasoning would lead the Supreme Court to acknowledge a right to same-sex marriage led to a <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/how-and-why-doma-became-law-1996-msna20387">Republican Senator and Congressman</a> introducing the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/defense_of_marriage_act_(doma)">Defense of Marriage Act</a>.</p>
<p>President Bill Clinton signed the bill in 1996 after <a href="https://law.jrank.org/pages/6038/Defense-Marriage-Act-1996.html">342 – or 78% – of House members and 85 senators</a> voted for it. Polling at the time showed support among the general population for same-sex marriage was <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/210566/support-gay-marriage-edges-new-high.aspx">27% overall, including just 33% among Democrats</a>. </p>
<p>Seven years later, in 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Court struck down a <a href="http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/440/440mass309.html">state ban on same-sex marriage</a>. With a <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/311672/support-sex-marriage-matches-record-high.aspx">strong majority nationally of Republicans and independents opposed to same-sex marriage</a>, former President George W. Bush used conservative reactions to that decision to encourage voter turnout in 2004. <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/GAY-MARRIAGE-Did-issue-help-re-elect-Bush-2677003.php">Bush’s campaign highlighted state amendments to ban same-sex marriage</a>, all of which easily passed. </p>
<p>Although voters prioritized <a href="https://doi.org/10.2202/1540-8884.1056">other issues</a> in the 2004 elections, the opposition to same-sex marriage <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2202/1540-8884.1058/html">helped Bush win reelection</a>, while Republicans picked up seats in both the House and Senate.</p>
<h2>A political change</h2>
<p>The legal and political landscape on same-sex marriage <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/06/24/same-sex-marriage-timeline/29173703/">became much more liberal</a> in the years following 2004. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/prop-8-passed-california-gay-marriage">In 2008,</a> state courts in California and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/nyregion/11marriage.html">Connecticut struck down</a> bans on same-sex marriage. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gaymarriage-vermont/vermont-becomes-4th-u-s-state-to-allow-gay-marriage-idUSTRE53648V20090407">Vermont became</a> the first state in 2009 to pass legislation and legalize same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>A major national shift occurred in 2012 <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-biden-forced-hand-on-same-sex-marriage-but-alls-well/">when then-Vice President Joe Biden</a> and President Barack Obama openly supported same-sex marriage. This was a major change for both men. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/22/politics/marriage-equality-congress-evolution/index.html">Biden had voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act</a>in 1996. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/dissecting-president-obamas-evolution-gay-marriage/story?id=18792720">Obama publicly supported</a> marriage as being between a man and a woman in his 2004 senatorial campaign.</p>
<p>In 2015, the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/14-556">struck down</a> all national and state restrictions on same-sex marriage, making same-sex marriage the law of the land.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476966/original/file-20220801-67954-kemfwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The White House is shown at night, light up with rainbow colors." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476966/original/file-20220801-67954-kemfwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476966/original/file-20220801-67954-kemfwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476966/original/file-20220801-67954-kemfwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476966/original/file-20220801-67954-kemfwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476966/original/file-20220801-67954-kemfwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476966/original/file-20220801-67954-kemfwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476966/original/file-20220801-67954-kemfwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rainbow-colored lights shine on the White House after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in June 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/rainbowcolored-lights-shine-on-the-white-house-to-celebrate-todays-us-picture-id478678270?s=2048x2048">Mark Wilson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Trump effect</h2>
<p>The lack of attention Trump paid to same-sex marriage is one factor that contributed to it becoming a less divisive issue. While Trump’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/24/absurb-claim-that-trump-is-most-pro-gay-president-american-history/">actual record on LBGTQ rights</a> generally aligns with conservative Christian values, Trump had said in 2016 that he was <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/donald-trump-same-sex-marriage-231310">“fine” with legalizing same-sex marriage</a>. </p>
<p>Still, despite the legality of same-sex marriage, many conservative Midwestern and Southern states <a href="https://www.hrc.org/resources/state-maps">deny other legal protections</a> to LBGTQ persons. Twenty-nine states still allow licensed professionals to conduct youth gay-conversion therapy, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/07/health/conversion-therapy-personal-and-financial-harm/index.html">a discredited process to convert LGBTQ people into no longer being queer</a>. </p>
<p>More than 20 states allow discrimination in <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/non_discrimination_laws">both housing</a> and public accommodations based on sexual orientation. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476998/original/file-20220801-70473-f142qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman holds up a sign that says 'every child deserves a mom and dad'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476998/original/file-20220801-70473-f142qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476998/original/file-20220801-70473-f142qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476998/original/file-20220801-70473-f142qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476998/original/file-20220801-70473-f142qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476998/original/file-20220801-70473-f142qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476998/original/file-20220801-70473-f142qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476998/original/file-20220801-70473-f142qs.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">A woman participates in a protest in Washington after the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/opponents-of-samesex-marriage-demonstrate-near-the-supreme-court-28-picture-id471432028?s=2048x2048">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Respect for marriage</h2>
<p>Some Republican leaders have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/22/us/politics/after-roe-republicans-sharpen-attacks-on-gay-and-transgender-rights.html">grown bolder </a>in their opposition to same-sex marriage since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. </p>
<p>Other Republicans have said that codifying federal law same-sex marriage is <a href="https://www.vox.com/23274491/senate-republicans-same-sex-marriage-bill-respect-for-marriage-act">not necessary</a> since they don’t believe the Supreme Court is likely to overturn federal protections for same-sex marriage. </p>
<p>Democrats first moved to protect same-sex marriage in federal law because Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion in the Dobbs case that the court <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/24/thomas-constitutional-rights-00042256">should reconsider,</a> “all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” the latter being the case that legalized same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>But despite public opinion polls showing that most people favor legalizing same-sex marriage – including <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/311672/support-sex-marriage-matches-record-high.aspx">nearly half</a> of Republicans – the issue could still be a liability for Republican politicians. They have to answer to their core conservative constituents who largely oppose the practice. <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3570528-same-sex-marriage-debate-poses-problems-for-republicans/">This could mean</a> that Senate Republicans may have to consider splitting from their own base, or stepping away from moderate voters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Lindberg 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>The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted for a bill that would federally protect same-sex marriage – and 47 Republicans signed on, too. Same-sex marriage isn’t the partisan issue it once was.Tim Lindberg, Assistant professor, political science , University of MinnesotaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1734332021-12-10T10:09:22Z2021-12-10T10:09:22ZWhen academics become anti-LGBT activists: fear and hate in Indonesian academia<p>In Western academia, it seems common sense that discrimination should have no place in society, including against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual/transgender) people.</p>
<p>This achievement is the result of decades of struggle and bitter experiences of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/13/being-gay-in-america-is-still-a-radical-act/">LGBT-phobia in Western societies</a>.</p>
<p>Indonesian society, on the other hand, has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-gender-diversity-in-indonesia-101087">historically quite tolerant</a> with people of different gender expression and sexual orientation. But the country has experienced <a href="https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/interactive/2016/08/10/2016-indonesias-lgbt-crisis-words">an increasing wave of homophobia in politics and society</a> in the past few years.</p>
<p>This is also the case in Indonesian academia.</p>
<p>I compiled <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mYSN2CVb-euuIhe3R0K2o6-uFWMIFbABvbaFgFckd_U/edit?usp=sharing">a list of incidents throughout 2016-2021</a>. Though probably incomplete, the list involves many institutions and reveals an intense LGBT-hostile atmosphere among Indonesian universities.</p>
<p>These incidents include, among others, the <a href="https://www.tribunnews.com/video/2015/12/04/rektor-hasriadi-akan-pecat-penyebar-virus-lgbt">dismissal of students and staff</a> who share “the LGBT virus”, <a href="http://www.riaubook.com/berita/7899/terungkap-ternyata-ada-komunitas-lgbt-di-kampus-kampus-di-riau-ini-buktinya.html">university-sponsored rallies</a> against LGBT students, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/teror-akademik-masih-membungkam-wacana-keragaman-gender-dan-seksual-di-kampus-indonesia-167202">crackdowns on queer-themed academic discussions</a>.</p>
<p>As Western and Indonesian academia continue to engage in co-operation, we should find common ways of counteracting discrimination, including discrimination against people with non-heteronormative gender expressions and identities.</p>
<h2>Amplifying state-sponsored homophobia</h2>
<p>Over the years, Indonesian universities have joined the state-sponsored homophobia – including <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/09/05/police-lambasted-for-targeting-lgbt-community-in-raid-in-jakarta.html">law enforcement</a> and <a href="https://news.detik.com/berita/d-3125654/menristek-saya-larang-lgbt-di-semua-kampus-itu-tak-sesuai-nilai-kesusilaan">statements by politicians</a> fuelling hatred of LGBT people.</p>
<p>Academics often work hand-in-hand with these institutions and rely on statements from religious authorities, while at the same time providing anti-LGBT activists with seemingly scientific arguments.</p>
<p>Within the academic discourse, for instance, some Indonesian scholars (and also students) reproduce the state’s argument that LGBTs are a threat to an imagined national harmony.</p>
<p>In 2016, the then minister of research, Muhammad Nasir, declared LGBT individuals were <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/25/lgbt-not-welcome-university-minister.html">not welcome at Indonesian universities</a>. He said they “corrupt the morals of the nation”. The then minister of defence, Ryamizard Ryacudu, even said the LGBT movement was <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2016/12/22/a-case-against-the-militarys-newfound-proxy-war-obsession.html">part of a proxy war</a> to weaken the nation.</p>
<p>Academics usually refrain from such dramatic statements. But there are some who maintain the idea of LGBTs as a threat.</p>
<p>Indonesian terms for queer gender expressions, both nationally (such as <em>waria</em> or <em>transpuan</em>) and in local cultures (such as <em>bissu</em> in South Sulawesi or <em>tayu</em> in Bengkulu) have increasingly been superseded by the term “LGBT”, which has Western and foreign associations.</p>
<p>Moreover, “LGBT” is linked in both public and academic discourses to derogatory connotations.</p>
<p>Negative stigmas attached to LGBTs in global discourses typically involve pedophilia, Western intervention, pornography and prostitution. However, statements by Indonesian scholars often highlight <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13552074.2018.1429103">health issues (LGBTs as a threat that spreads STDs)</a> as well as <a href="https://www.e-ir.info/2016/03/21/against-state-straightism-five-principles-for-including-lgbt-indonesians/">religious stances</a>.</p>
<p>It is therefore not surprising that anti-LGBT proponents in academia often have a conservative Islamic background.</p>
<p>However, they effectively link their moral claims not only to religion, but also to Indonesian nationalism.</p>
<p>A common example is the use of the phrase, “the young generation of the Indonesian people” (<em>generasi muda bangsa</em>), which is seemingly threatened by sexually transmitted diseases and immoral activities.</p>
<p>Applying the term “<em>bangsa</em>” is an effective tool to connect religious morality with Indonesian nationalism. LGBTs thus emerge as the embodiment of an otherwise vague and abstract threat. </p>
<h2>Academics as anti-LGBT activists</h2>
<p>Conservative Indonesian scholars <a href="https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/ailas-unsuccessful-petition-a-narrow-escape-from-overcriminalisation/">gained public attention in 2017</a> when the Indonesian Family Love Alliance (Aliansi Cinta Keluarga or AILA) sought a judicial review at the Constitutional Court.</p>
<p>They demanded the criminalisation of homosexual activities and LGBT activism, with punishment of up to five years in prison. As usual, these academics argued that LGBTs contribute to the spread of HIV-AIDS.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.detik.com/berita/d-3266050/sidang-mk-kasus-homoseks-ahli-sebut-lgbt-picu-angka-kenaikan-hivaids">They also claimed it is unethical</a> that such people get expensive medicine paid for by public health insurance, making ordinary Indonesians pay for them.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the language they used referred not only to empirical findings but also moral stances.</p>
<p>Euis Sunarti, a professor at the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), for instance, is an AILA scholar. She teaches in the field of “family resilience and empowerment” (<em>ketahanan dan pemberdayaan keluarga</em>). In her view, LGBT activities threaten the institution of the family, and therefore the state must take action.</p>
<p>Statements from scholars mirror those of religious authorities and state officials. In this way, they further blur the boundary between religion, the state and science.</p>
<p>This anti-LGBT narrative also serves as a tool for unifying Indonesia’s many social and economic groups. Thus, it perpetuates the idea of a harmonious society at the expense of <a href="https://theconversation.com/onslaughts-against-gays-and-lesbians-challenge-indonesias-lgbt-rights-movement-54639">an already marginalised group</a>.</p>
<p>Sadly, it does so by generating fear and prejudice. </p>
<h2>Counteracting fear and hate</h2>
<p>Many academics from Western countries maintain close ties with scholars and institutions in Indonesia. Since they often support anti-discriminatory actions around the world, they should not turn a blind eye to discrimination against queer people committed by the institutions we are working with. </p>
<p>While open confrontation might not always be effective, I believe critical scholars cannot be quiet when minorities are discriminated against on Indonesian campuses.</p>
<p>The task is not only to challenge <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2020/01/30/rejecting-homophobic-pseudoscience.html">pseudo-scientific anti-LGBT discourses</a> in Indonesian academia, but also to evoke empathy for people who are increasingly marginalised and excluded from education due to their gender expressions and identities.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Indonesia is also home to many critical and engaged scholars. Academic institutions in the Global North can find knowledgeable partners among these scholars that we can work with.</p>
<p>However, Western scholars should not avoid controversial debates with our Indonesian counterparts either. For instance, when signing MoUs or other forms of agreement on co-operation with Indonesian counterparts, issues such as discrimination can be discussed.</p>
<p>Critical scholars can tackle LGBT hate in Indonesia in the same way they criticise, for instance, growing <a href="https://theconversation.com/islamophobia-in-western-media-is-based-on-false-premises-151443">Islamophobia in the West</a>. Stressing to Indonesian partners that state-driven hate against minorities is structurally similar to hatred against Muslims in the West – that is, as a supposed threat to the nation – might be a viable approach.</p>
<p>It is an academic duty to engage in creating a world with less fear and hate. This is something Indonesian and Western scholars should do together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timo Duile receives funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG). The associated research does not explore topics related to the LGBT community.</span></em></p>As Western and Indonesian academics continue to engage in co-operation, we should find common ways of counteracting discrimination, including discriminatory practices against the LGBT community.Timo Duile, Lecturer and researcher at the Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies, University of BonnLicensed 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/1591822021-05-13T15:28:42Z2021-05-13T15:28:42ZHIV survivors’ stories show the loss, resilience and activism of the early years of AIDS pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399942/original/file-20210511-17-kimwep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C0%2C1562%2C1005&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thousands gather in downtown Toronto in 2006 for a candlelight vigil to remember those who have died from AIDS.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/Nathan Denette)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been <a href="https://npin.cdc.gov/pages/hiv-and-aids-timeline">40 years</a> since the onset of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. <a href="https://www.candlelightmemorial.net/">The International AIDS Candlelight Memorial</a> is a time not only to remember the many lives lost to AIDS, but also to reflect on the stories of long-term survivors and caregivers. </p>
<p>These stories must inform our practical response to HIV today both in policy and for social equity. The wisdom of these stories can also improve our responses to COVID-19, future pandemics and other contemporary crises.</p>
<p>Many early depictions of HIV/AIDS focus on the experience of gay communities in the United States, <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-a-sin-how-the-media-fuelled-the-homophobic-response-to-the-hiv-crisis-154504">or the United Kingdom in the recent television series <em>It’s a Sin</em></a>.</p>
<p>However, HIV/AIDS has deeply affected, and continues to affect, many different communities in Canada. This includes gay, bisexual and queer men, <a href="https://www.catie.ca/fact-sheets/epidemiology/epidemiology-hiv-canada">who are still disproportionately affected by the pandemic</a>, as well as women, Indigenous people, transgender people and African, Caribbean and Black people, who are often overlooked in HIV policies and histories. </p>
<p>People who live at the intersections of marginalized communities face unique barriers.</p>
<p>As multidisciplinary HIV researchers, we know how important it is to continue learning from these histories to improve HIV treatment, support and prevention efforts today.</p>
<p>So far, we have conducted 116 oral history interviews with long-term survivors of HIV and their caregivers in British Columbia between 2017 and 2020 as part of <a href="https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/healthcbr/project/hiv-in-my-day/">the community-based HIV In My Day project</a>. These interviews will soon be available in a <a href="https://vault.library.uvic.ca/">publicly accessible digital archive</a>.</p>
<h2>Grassroots advocacy and activism</h2>
<p>Our oral history research identified a lack of support and information for people living with HIV and their caregivers. It documents their experiences of HIV stigma in both health care and society, and the loss of their lovers, friends and community members. </p>
<p>It also illustrates the community care and resilience that helped them deal with the emotional impact of HIV/AIDS, and the grassroots advocacy that was necessary to improve medical responses.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399522/original/file-20210507-25-e4ewz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People looking at the AIDS Memorial Quilt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399522/original/file-20210507-25-e4ewz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399522/original/file-20210507-25-e4ewz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399522/original/file-20210507-25-e4ewz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399522/original/file-20210507-25-e4ewz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399522/original/file-20210507-25-e4ewz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399522/original/file-20210507-25-e4ewz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399522/original/file-20210507-25-e4ewz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Delegates to the 11th International Conference on AIDS in 1996 look over a section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt unvieled in Vancouver.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Chuck Stoody</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>HIV In My Day is a collection of diverse stories that provides a nuanced picture of the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in B.C. These stories demonstrate the importance of people coming together. </p>
<p>Marginalized communities mobilized in response to shared public health challenges that were exacerbated by structural forms of oppression. These personal stories highlight the living history of HIV, including experiences of isolation, discrimination, caregiving, positive thinking and activism.</p>
<p>Gay, bisexual and queer men were at the epicentre of HIV/AIDS in B.C. in the early years of the pandemic and while many of them lived with and died of AIDS, the lesbian and gay communities came together to care for each other in the face of government apathy towards HIV/AIDS rooted in homophobia. </p>
<p>Early community-based AIDS organizations built on previous gay activism. Our participants recount establishing <a href="https://www.aidsvancouver.org/">AIDS Vancouver</a> and B.C. Persons With AIDS Society (later <a href="https://www.straight.com/life/1357541/hiv-organization-positive-living-bc-end-its-services-vancouver-after-operating-over-30">Positive Living BC</a>), which provided critical education and support to community members. <a href="https://aidsactivisthistory.omeka.net/collections/show/3">Early HIV activist groups like ACT UP Vancouver</a> raised awareness about the pandemic. </p>
<h2>Marginalized communities</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399523/original/file-20210507-15-1qkiy3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399523/original/file-20210507-15-1qkiy3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399523/original/file-20210507-15-1qkiy3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399523/original/file-20210507-15-1qkiy3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399523/original/file-20210507-15-1qkiy3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399523/original/file-20210507-15-1qkiy3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399523/original/file-20210507-15-1qkiy3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399523/original/file-20210507-15-1qkiy3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lou Demerais, executive director of the Vancouver Native Health Society (now the Vancouver Aboriginal Health Society), posed for a 2002 photo in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Demerais worked with HIV-AIDS patients in the area, many of whom were Indigenous.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/ Richard Lam)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our participants noted, however, that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0042098020984908">these organizations were not always inclusive of other marginalized communities</a> who were increasingly dealing with HIV/AIDS. People in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside — including Indigenous people, women, people experiencing poverty and people who inject drugs — lacked access to the same important resources. </p>
<p>While these organizations eventually expanded their reach, women and Indigenous communities developed their own networks of care that were responsive to a multitude of complex social factors like sexism, racism, settler colonialism and classism. </p>
<p>The living history of HIV demonstrates how pandemics reinforce pre-existing social inequities. <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-631-x/2020004/s6-eng.htm">COVID-19, for example, disproportionately impacts immigrants and racialized people in Canada today</a>. The <a href="https://www.fnha.ca/about/news-and-events/news/first-nations-opioid-overdose-deaths-rise-in-2018">opioid crisis has been especially severe</a> among Indigenous people and other marginalized communities. </p>
<p>HIV histories provide examples of how to better address these inequities. These histories illuminate decades-long trajectories of community care and activism that confront anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, as well as <a href="https://transpulsecanada.ca/results/report-health-and-well-being-among-racialized-trans-and-non-binary-people-in-canada/">the persistent violence against transgender and gender-diverse people in Canada</a>. </p>
<p>Speaking about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100633">the ongoing opioid crisis in Canada</a>, one participant said: “I look at that epidemic and think why is it even happening? We’ve already been through this.”</p>
<h2>Addressing inequities and injustice</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399943/original/file-20210511-21-o57el5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person in the foreground wiping a tear, in a crowd of people at a candlelight vigil" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399943/original/file-20210511-21-o57el5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399943/original/file-20210511-21-o57el5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399943/original/file-20210511-21-o57el5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399943/original/file-20210511-21-o57el5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399943/original/file-20210511-21-o57el5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399943/original/file-20210511-21-o57el5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399943/original/file-20210511-21-o57el5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People shed a tears while taking part in a AIDS Vigil in Toronto in 2006.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CP PHOTO/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, what can we learn about responding to these crises from the perspectives and experiences of our participants? </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Even if we have differences, we work together…it is possible to change minds or inform people who have misconceptions…that contribute to hostile responses to people in need.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Long-term survivors of HIV and their caregivers remind us to address social inequities, especially during pandemics. This is not only beneficial for marginalized communities, but important for the rest of society as our health and well-being are connected to one another. </p>
<p>HIV In My Day provides moving personal stories of how individuals and their communities responded to the tragedy and injustice of the HIV/AIDS pandemic by challenging prejudice and being more inclusive.</p>
<p>Let’s remember these examples and follow them in our ongoing responses to HIV/AIDS and other crises challenging society. We must face them together, now and in the future.</p>
<p><em>This article was co-authored by Ben Klassen, research manager at the Community-Based Research Centre. He has co-ordinated the HIV In My Day study since 2017 and holds an MA in history from Simon Fraser University.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159182/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Montess receives funding from Mitacs, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. He is affiliated with the University of Victoria and Community-Based Research Centre. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathan John Lachowsky receives funding from Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research, MITACS, Canadian Blood Services, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Law Foundation of British Columbia, Government of British Columbia, and Vancouver Foundation. He is affiliated with the University of Victoria and Community Based Research Centre. </span></em></p>The HIV In My Day project preserves the early history of the HIV/AIDS pandemic through the personal stories of long-term survivors and caregivers.Michael Montess, Postdoctoral Fellow, Public Health & Social Policy, University of VictoriaNathan John Lachowsky, Associate Professor, Public Health & Social Policy, University of VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1601402021-05-10T16:02:21Z2021-05-10T16:02:21ZWhy some straight men have sex with other men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398461/original/file-20210503-15-1kb1olq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C2986%2C1998&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sexual encounters with men do not affect how these straight men perceive their identity.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sexual identities and sexual behaviours don’t always match because sexuality <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2012.713147">is multidimensional</a>. Many people <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/michaelwaters/lgbt-rights-movement-sexual-fluidity-bisexuality-pride">recognize</a> <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674032262&content=reviews">sexual fluidity</a>, and some even identify as “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976382">mostly</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2013.01.001">straight</a>.” </p>
<p>Fewer people know that some men <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243216657511">and women</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15299716.2014.902347">have same-sex encounters</a>, yet nonetheless perceive themselves as exclusively straight. And these people are not necessarily “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soy064">closeted</a>” gays, lesbians or bisexuals. </p>
<p>When a closeted gay or bisexual man has sex with another man, he views that sex as <em>reflecting</em> his secret identity. He is not open about that identity, likely because he <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-016-0819-y">fears discrimination</a>. When a straight man has sex with another man, however, he views himself as straight <em>despite</em> his sex with men. </p>
<p>In my book, <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479801107/still-straight/"><em>Still Straight: Sexual Flexibility among White Men in Rural America</em></a>, I investigate why some men who identify as straight have sex with other men. Large <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/index.htm">nationally representative surveys</a> show that hundreds of thousands of straight American men — at least — have had sex with two or more other men. This finding represents a disconnect between identity and behaviour, and researchers from around the world - in the <a href="https://www.sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jos-2019-0036">United States</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/SH14117">Australia</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189607">U.K.</a> - have studied this topic.</p>
<p>It involves two related but separate issues: first, why men identify as straight if they have sex with other men, and second, why straight men would <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/understanding-the-erotic-code/202007/straight-guise-understanding-male-sexual-fluidity">have sex</a> with <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1363460716678561">other men</a> in the first place. </p>
<h2>Skirting around cheating</h2>
<p>As part of my research, I spoke with 60 straight men who have sex with other men, and specifically looked at men in rural areas and small towns. The majority of men I interviewed were primarily attracted to women, not men. So why would they have sex with other men? </p>
<p>My findings revealed several reasons as to why straight men have sex with other men. Several men explained that their marriages did not have as much sex as they wanted, and while they wanted to remain married, they also wanted to have more sex. Extramarital sex with men, to them, helped relieve their sexual needs without threatening their marriages. </p>
<p>Tom, a 59-year-old from Washington, explained: “I kind of think of it as, I’m married to a nun.” <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243216679934">He continued</a>: “For me, being romantic and emotional is more cheating than just having sex.” And Ryan, a 60-year-old from Illinois, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1363460716678564">felt similarly</a>. He said: “Even when I have an encounter now, I’m not cheating on her. I wouldn’t give up her for that.” </p>
<p>These men felt as though extramarital sex with women would negatively affect their marriages, whereas extramarital sex with men was not as much of an issue. Most men had not told their wives about their extramarital sex, however. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Legs together in bed" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398462/original/file-20210503-17-xyif66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398462/original/file-20210503-17-xyif66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398462/original/file-20210503-17-xyif66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398462/original/file-20210503-17-xyif66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398462/original/file-20210503-17-xyif66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398462/original/file-20210503-17-xyif66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398462/original/file-20210503-17-xyif66.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">Straight men who have sex with other men are not necessarily closeted, because they do genuinely see themselves as heterosexual.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Identities reflect sexual, nonsexual aspects of life</h2>
<p>In order to answer why men would identify as straight despite having sex with other men, it’s important to know that sexual identities indicate how people perceive the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243216657511">sexual <em>and</em> nonsexual</a> aspects of their lives. Connor, a 43-year-old from Oregon, noted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I think there’s a definite disconnect between gay and homosexual. There’s the homosexual community, which isn’t a community, there’s the homosexual proclivity, and then the gay community. It’s like you can be an athlete without being a jock. And you can be homosexual without being gay, or into all of it. It just becomes so politically charged now.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The men I talked to identified as straight because they felt that this identity best reflected their romantic relationships with women, their connections to heterosexual communities or the way they understood their masculinity. Straight identification also, of course, meant that they avoided discrimination. They felt that sex with men was irrelevant to their identities given every other part of their lives.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/men-who-identify-as-feminists-are-having-more-and-more-varied-sex-158197">Men who identify as feminists are having more — and more varied — sex</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Living in small towns and in more rural settings also shaped how the men perceived themselves. Larry, 37, from Wyoming explained: “I would say straight because that best suits our cultural norms around here.” Most of the men I talked to were happy with their lives and identities, and they did not want to identify as gay or bisexual — not when people asked them, and not to themselves. </p>
<p>It may come as a surprise, but internalized homophobia was not a major reason the men I spoke to identified as straight. Most <em>supported</em> equal legal rights for lesbians, gays and bisexuals. Other research also shows that, on average, straight men who have sex with men are not any more homophobic <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/97/3/1067/5045222">than other straight men</a>. Additionally, while most men knew bisexual is a valid identity, they felt that bisexual did not describe their identity because they were only romantically interested in women. </p>
<p>Many factors beyond sexual attractions or behaviours shape sexual identification, including <a href="https://academic.oup.com/socpro/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/socpro/spaa074/6043198">social contexts</a>, romantic relationships and beliefs about masculinity and femininity, among others. Straight men who have sex with other men are not necessarily closeted, because they do genuinely see themselves as heterosexual. </p>
<p>Sexual encounters with men simply do not affect how they perceive their identity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160140/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Silva received funding from the Sexualities Project at Northwestern (SPAN) in the form of a postdoctoral fellowship that allowed him to turn this project into a book.</span></em></p>Why do men identify as straight if they have sex with other men? And why would a straight man have sex with another man in the first place?Tony Silva, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1534242021-02-12T13:16:28Z2021-02-12T13:16:28ZHow the gay party scene short-circuited and became a moneymaking bonanza<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383340/original/file-20210209-15-vb2e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C13%2C4399%2C2928&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Revelers party during the Circuit Festival's Water Park Day in Vilassar de Mar, Spain, in August 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/revellers-party-in-a-swimming-pool-during-the-circuit-news-photo/587625108?adppopup=true">Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When coronavirus restrictions threatened the <a href="https://lgbt.wikia.org/wiki/White_Party">White Party</a>, an annual circuit party held in Palm Springs, California, the organizer, Jeffrey Sanger, decided to move the festivities to <a href="https://kesq.com/news/2021/01/01/white-party-founder-criticized-for-hosting-new-years-eve-parties-in-mexico/">Jalisco, Mexico</a>.</p>
<p>Gay partygoers from around the world descended on the small coastal state for the New Year’s Eve bash. Stars from <a href="https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/01/06/drag-race-miss-vanjie-sily-nutmeg-canache-partying-face-mask-coronavirus">Ru Paul’s Drag race</a> made appearances, and even some doctors and nurses, <a href="https://sfist.com/2021/01/04/sf-nurse-who-barely-survived-covid-sparks-online-anger-for-allegedly-attending-new-years-circuit-party/">fresh off their first COVID-19 vaccine doses</a>, got in on the action. </p>
<p><a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/01/gay-circuit-parties-new-years-covid.html">The social media backlash was swift</a>. Mexico, at that time, had one of the highest mortality rates – <a href="https://kesq.com/news/2021/01/01/white-party-founder-criticized-for-hosting-new-years-eve-parties-in-mexico/">measured as deaths to cases</a> – in the world. Others pointed out that the influx of tourists <a href="https://nbcpalmsprings.com/2021/01/03/ps-white-party-promoter-accused-of-hosting-covid-super-spreader/">could strain existing hospital resources</a>. Above all, the partygoers seemed to embody the arrogance, privilege and excess of people who prioritized a good time over a global health emergency.</p>
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<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MethGala">While other gay events have also been occurring during the pandemic</a>, this one particular party seemed to strike a nerve within the gay community.</p>
<p>For five years, <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Gayborhood/QWAgzgEACAAJ?hl=en">my colleagues and I have been attending these circuit parties to interview attendees</a>. We’ve sought to better understand the positive ways these parties influence gay culture, along with some of the problems they can present. </p>
<p>To me, Sanker’s decadent bash – held in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic – epitomized a growing divide in gay culture. </p>
<p>On one side, there are those who continue to push the political boundaries and, in so doing, embrace the legacy of community-building that emerged from <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/lgbtq-studies/after-stonewall">the post-Stonewall era of LGBTQ activism</a>; on the other, a group which seems to reject any notions of solidarity nor express any desire to know more about the history and political implications of their actions.</p>
<h2>Early parties center on solidarity</h2>
<p>The circuit party emerged in the late 1980s and came out of the underground gay club scene established by <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/8460757/gay-black-men-edm-influence-history">Black and Latino men living in Chicago and Detroit</a>. </p>
<p>The name “circuit” was affixed to a particular branch of electronic dance music party due to the style of house music, dubbed “circuit house,” that played almost exclusively at these gatherings. Early circuit house enthusiasts subscribed to the values of <a href="https://www.edmsauce.com/2018/02/24/godfather-plur-movement-responds-carnage/">P.L.U.M.</a> – Peace, Love, Unity and Movement – though the “M” would later be replaced with an “R” for “Respect.”</p>
<p>The circuit soon came to simply refer to the network of underground nightclubs where gay men could dance together. These spaces also <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/ywzjam/gay-circuit-parties-history-lgbtq-mickey-weems-interview">fostered solidarity among gay people</a>, helping them feel less stigmatized and normalizing some of the issues they faced, whether it was HIV/AIDS or rejection by family and peers. </p>
<p>As one 45-year-old gay male man told me, these early parties were “small, intimate affairs. We were all looking for a way to connect with each other, and we didn’t have many options, so the circuit became a space for us to belong and a place where we could be free.” </p>
<h2>The circuit becomes expensive and exclusive</h2>
<p>For LGBTQ people, this quest for belonging hasn’t gone away. </p>
<p>A 2013 <a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/06/13/a-survey-of-lgbt-americans/">Pew survey reported</a> that LGBTQ people still felt high rates of discrimination exclusion from traditional institutions such as the family, church and the workplace. <a href="https://www.lgbtqsouthernsurvey.org/">A 2019 survey of LGBTQ Southerners</a> found that participants felt an attachment to LGBTQ cultural spaces like gay bars and neighborhoods. For all the progress that has been made, these enclaves remain some of the only spaces in society where gayness is the norm.</p>
<p>Broader civil rights gains have coincided with technological advancements, with the internet and social media dramatically changing human interaction and collective organizing. A whirlwind of dizzying social change driven by likes, views and shares has led to greater feelings of what sociologists call “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Alone_Together/AjFXDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=alone+together&printsec=frontcover">anomie</a>” – a French word used to describe feelings of disconnectedness and a lack of community. </p>
<p>Circuit parties are not immune to this change. No longer do individuals attend the circuit to make a political statement; instead, the culture of the circuit seems to be focused almost exclusively on celebrating and seeking hyper-masculine and heteronormative standards of beauty. </p>
<p>For partygoers, this often means building a muscular frame, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13691050902721853">having risky sex</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2015.1080298">using drugs</a>. They’ll also engage in what’s been described by other academics as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/J041v17n02_03">body fascism</a>” – the exclusion and policing of how partygoers are supposed to look. This cut, masculine ideal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2016.1196117">is also reflected in ads for the events</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A DJ plays for a crowd dressed in white." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383342/original/file-20210209-15-2107et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383342/original/file-20210209-15-2107et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383342/original/file-20210209-15-2107et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383342/original/file-20210209-15-2107et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383342/original/file-20210209-15-2107et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383342/original/file-20210209-15-2107et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383342/original/file-20210209-15-2107et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&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">Thousands of gay men gather at the Palm Springs Convention Center for the 2004 White Party.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/thousands-of-gay-men-dance-on-the-dance-floor-in-the-palm-news-photo/532428710?adppopup=true">J. Emilio Flores/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Today, circuit parties have become large-scale international productions costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, leading to an increase in <a href="https://www.hivplusmag.com/prevention/love-sex/2015/11/09/you-cant-afford-gay-circuit">ticket and travel costs</a>. This has made the events more exclusive and also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2012.648877">less racially diverse</a>, since men of color tend to have less <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2005.00021.x">disposable income to attend these events</a> and can also be the target of racial slurs and second-class treatment. </p>
<p>“This is no longer a political event,” one 50-year-old male party promoter told me. “This is a music festival, and we have to make as much money as possible.” </p>
<h2>When subcultures get co-opted by capital</h2>
<p>One of the greatest strengths of the gay rights movement has been its ability to combine activism with fun. However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1103308820926102">as my research shows</a>, unless there’s an intent to prioritize political agendas, group solidarity can easily be eroded.</p>
<p>Sanker has noted that as his events have become more profitable, <a href="https://www.palmspringslife.com/white-party-palm-springs/">they’ve faced less opposition</a> from public officials and conservative groups. </p>
<p>But this profitability has meant scrubbing controversial political messages from the events to make them as palatable to as many customers as possible.</p>
<p>Something, clearly, has been lost.</p>
<p>Sociologists are keen to note how cultures – <a href="https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultural-theory-and-theorists/what-is-a-subculture/">along with subcultures</a> – often emerge as a way to alleviate feelings of isolation and suffering. </p>
<p>However, cultural events often become co-opted by <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Neo-Bohemia-Art-Commerce-Postindustrial-City/dp/0415870976">profit motives</a>. When this happens, they become less about caring for one another, building a sense of community or celebrating the positive aspects of humanity. </p>
<p>Instead, with pure profitability and escapism front and center at the White Party, it’s no wonder that the health of the attendees – along with that of the locals – was shrugged off. </p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher T. Conner 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 decadent New Year’s Eve bash held in the throes of the pandemic is a symptom of a larger problem in the gay community.Christopher T. Conner, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Missouri-ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1328502020-06-30T20:58:29Z2020-06-30T20:58:29ZWe can’t talk about LGBT health without remembering Virginia Brooks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343139/original/file-20200622-75505-t54il4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=225%2C209%2C4935%2C3236&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Queer health scholar Virginia Brooks published a landmark study on lesbians in the 1970s, initially coming up with the ideas behind sexual minority stress theory. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Urgent issues face queer and trans people everywhere, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2016.303088">LGBT suicide</a>, the continued practice of <a href="https://ilga.org/Conversion-therapy-global-research-ILGA-World">conversion therapy</a>, <a href="https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/key-populations/">HIV burden</a>, an <a href="https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-transgender-community-in-2019">epidemic of violence against trans women of colour</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64806/">poor mental and physical health</a> compared to straight and cis people. </p>
<p>In 1981, a former social worker named <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2019.0223">Virginia Brooks</a> coined the sexual minority stress theory. Brooks’ work explained why such health disparities exist. In the process, Brooks revolutionized the way we think about queer and trans people, rejecting cultural notions that being queer or trans is pathological, the result of a traumatic past or something negative in people’s lives.</p>
<p>And yet, Brooks’ life and work has gone largely unrecognized. As a social epidemiologist and PhD candidate in the school of population and public health at the University of British Columbia, I work primarily in HIV and health inequities for LGBT populations. </p>
<p>Though my work often relies on minority stress theory, I was unaware of Brooks’ scholarship until about a year ago. Uncovering Brooks’ story led me on quite the journey — tracking down Brooks’ family, old friends and even her doctoral supervisor from the 1970s. </p>
<p>Published in 1981, Brooks’ <em>Minority Stress and Lesbian Women</em> showed how exposure to cultural, social and economic stressors translates into psychological and biophysical stress for LGBT people. Going through experiences like homophobia, employment discrimination and lack of civil rights, to name a few, cumulatively over time translates into poor health. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-your-sexual-orientation-is-accepted-by-society-you-will-be-happier-and-more-satisfied-with-your-life-117110">If your sexual orientation is accepted by society you will be happier and more satisfied with your life</a>
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<p>The theory laid the groundwork for the burgeoning field of sexual and gender minority or LGBT health over the past four decades, including its application to transgender people with the development of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029597">gender minority stress theory</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Gay minority’ theory and finding Virginia</h2>
<p>Brooks came <a href="https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/statesman/obituary.aspx?n=winn-kelly-brooks-virginia-rae&pid=119257246">from a conservative Southern background</a> and was largely rejected by her family for being gay. A practising social worker, she went back to grad school in her 30s and earned a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977. </p>
<p>Brooks worked in the tumultuous 1970s, post-<a href="https://kinseyinstitute.org/about/history/alfred-kinsey.php">Kinsey</a>, pre-<a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/hiv-aids/history#1981-1990s">AIDS</a> era. And in the midst of evolving <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth">feminist</a>, <a href="https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/LGBTQ-History-Timeline-References.pdf">gay</a> and <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement">civil rights</a> movements, she was the first to apply minority stress theory to lesbian and gay populations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343004/original/file-20200619-43214-174g0k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343004/original/file-20200619-43214-174g0k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343004/original/file-20200619-43214-174g0k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343004/original/file-20200619-43214-174g0k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343004/original/file-20200619-43214-174g0k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343004/original/file-20200619-43214-174g0k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343004/original/file-20200619-43214-174g0k6.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">Virginia Brooks’ study of lesbians in 1975 was one of the first to connect societal homophobia with health outcomes for LBGTQ2I people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Brooks conducted her study after the founding of the <a href="https://now.org/about/history/founding-2/">National Organization for Women</a> (NOW) and recruited part of her study sample from a 1975 San Francisco NOW meeting — <a href="https://timeline.com/lesbians-battled-for-their-place-in-1960s-feminism-25082853be90">shortly after lesbians had been kicked out of, then allowed back into,</a> NOW. In spite of the theoretical, computational and socio-cultural limitations of the time, Brooks conducted cutting-edge research, designing the largest and perhaps most rigorous study of lesbians at the time. </p>
<p>Only two previous studies conducted among lesbian women had exceeded samples of 100 participants. Brooks recruited nearly 700 women in five months for her now out of print 1981 book <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=5imGAAAAIAAJ&q=minority+stress+and+lesbian+women&dq=minority+stress+and+lesbian+women&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWi5PPpJbqAhWsHjQIHfomDHEQ6AEwAHoECAEQAg"><em>Minority Stress and Lesbian Women</em></a>. She rejected the practice of recruiting gay and lesbian people from those who had been hospitalized in psychiatric facilities for homosexuality. She also used a high-quality sexual orientation measure based on self-reporting rather than marital status or reported “deviant” behaviour. </p>
<h2>Citing history</h2>
<p>Today, Brooks’ work on sexual minority stress is largely unknown, even within the LGBT health research community. It is generally attributed to Ilan Meyer who first published a <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2137286">study of gay men</a> and minority stress in 1995. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2019.0223">Brooks’ work has been cited approximately 20 times less</a> frequently than his work in the past 30 years. It’s unfortunately not an isolated incident that work by a lesbian scholar that centres women has largely been neglected. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0747-4">Demands to think about gender within the academy </a> have fuelled vocabulary additions like <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02658-6">manels and manferences</a> (all male panels and conferences), moves to recognize women’s scholarship like <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/citeher">#CiteHer</a> and a pivotal <a href="https://500womenscientists.org/nas-summary">2018 report</a> from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine on <a href="https://www.nap.edu/visualizations/sexual-harassment-iceberg/">sexual and gender harassment</a> in academic sciences.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1136889215390760961"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189136">A study</a> of nearly 300,000 publications in high-impact STEM journals found that articles with men in key author positions (first or last author) were more frequently cited than articles with women in key author positions. An <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0306312711435830">earlier study</a> of honours awarded in STEM disciplines over two decades found that women were less likely to receive awards in recognition of their scholarly achievements in science, their contributions often attributed to men or otherwise overlooked, a phenomenon known as the “Matilda Effect.” </p>
<p>These pervasive biases also extend to the subject of research in academia. In the 20 years following Brooks’ publication, 28 per cent of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.92.7.1125">LGBT health scholarly articles</a> included lesbians versus 88 percent that included gay men.</p>
<h2>Brooks’ legacy</h2>
<p>It would be tough to overstate the importance of Brooks’ work and the legacy of sexual minority stress. The theory informed the landmark <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64806/">2011 Institute of Medicine LGBT health report</a>, which led to the establishment of the Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2016, and subsequently the designation of sexual and gender minorities as an <a href="https://www.nimhd.nih.gov/about/directors-corner/message.html">NIH health disparity population</a> — key steps toward LGBT health and human rights progress. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343135/original/file-20200622-75522-s2xnv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343135/original/file-20200622-75522-s2xnv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343135/original/file-20200622-75522-s2xnv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343135/original/file-20200622-75522-s2xnv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343135/original/file-20200622-75522-s2xnv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343135/original/file-20200622-75522-s2xnv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343135/original/file-20200622-75522-s2xnv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&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">Brooks lived long enough to witness major shifts in legal rights and cultural attitudes for queer people including more people beginning to connect queer acceptance with health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Brooks envisioned a future where achievement of LGBT health and equality would be marked by sexual orientation being considered like any other demographic variable such as age, race, ethnicity and gender in health research. She witnessed some of the movement towards progress; she changed her name to Winn Kelly Brooks in 1983 and continued a career of teaching, clinical practice and research until retiring in 2001. Following a lengthy illness, she died in 2008 in Texas at 69 years old.</p>
<p>Today, we are on our way to realizing that vision, with sexual orientation included in major government-funded population-representative health surveys in the United States and Canada. During Pride month, we can also celebrate, as part of Brooks’ legacy and the movement it helped grow, the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/15/863498848/supreme-court-delivers-major-victory-to-lgbtq-employees">U.S. Supreme Court decision that LGBT Americans are protected from employment discrimination by the 1964 Civil Rights Act</a> — a protection the Canadian Human Rights Act has afforded <a href="https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/35-2/bill/C-33/royal-assent/page-16">lesbian and gay Canadians since 1996</a> and <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Bills/421/Government/C-16/C-16_1/C-16_1.PDF">transgender Canadians since 2017</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132850/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashleigh Rich receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. </span></em></p>A little-known researcher’s theory on the experience of queer people continues to reverberate to today.Ashleigh Rich, PhD candidate, School of Population & Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1409102020-06-23T19:56:23Z2020-06-23T19:56:23ZWhen Supreme Court justices defy expectations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343288/original/file-20200622-55021-1biin20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C8%2C2959%2C1886&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, surprised many court watchers by authoring the decision to expand the Civil Rights Act.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-applauds-as-supreme-court-associate-news-photo/666861628?adppopup=true">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled in the important and much-anticipated case, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/17-1618">Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia</a>, that the LGBTQ community is protected from employment discrimination. </p>
<p>The 6-3 ruling took many by surprise, in part because two conservative justices were in the majority, and one of them, Justice Neil Gorsuch, wrote the majority opinion. </p>
<p>In this transformative moment in U.S. history, when the public supports the recognition of fundamental human rights, including the right to marry the person of one’s choice, the law appears to be catching up with society. And the U.S. Supreme Court has decided cases in ways that <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage/">reflect social realities</a>.</p>
<p>The principles of equality and nondiscrimination are at the heart of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/political-equality-and-american-democracy/10581912">American democratic tradition</a>. As <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1003632">a public law scholar</a>, I believe the bold decision in Bostock is consistent with a historic pattern of some justices defying expectations when faced with a major social transformation. </p>
<p>Instead of ruling to maintain the discriminatory status quo, they have demonstrated their commitment to these basic values of democracy by addressing historic injustices. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343291/original/file-20200622-55013-1gg7tuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343291/original/file-20200622-55013-1gg7tuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343291/original/file-20200622-55013-1gg7tuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343291/original/file-20200622-55013-1gg7tuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343291/original/file-20200622-55013-1gg7tuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343291/original/file-20200622-55013-1gg7tuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343291/original/file-20200622-55013-1gg7tuy.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">Proponents of same-sex marriage across the country celebrated its legalization in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/thousands-of-same-sex-marriage-supporters-in-west-hollywood-news-photo/563914089?adppopup=true">Joe Kohen/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Disappointed presidents</h2>
<p>One classic example of a justice defying expectations to promote civil rights is <a href="https://www.oyez.org/justices/earl_warren">Chief Justice Earl Warren</a>, who was appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower and served on the court between 1953 and 1969.</p>
<p>Warren arrived at the court as a Republican with conservative credentials. He had <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/762484?seq=1">been a proponent of</a> President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Calif-officials-including-Earl-Warren-once-13437345.php">place Japanese Americans in concentration camps</a>.</p>
<p>But as a Supreme Court justice, Warren did not meet the expectation that he would bring a conservative viewpoint to decisions. Instead, he championed civil rights as chief justice.</p>
<p>In 1954, he wrote the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483">landmark opinion in Brown v. Board of Education</a>, a unanimous decision which led to desegregration of public schools by overturning an 1896 precedent and rejecting the idea that “separate but equal” was constitutional. Social science showing the <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/93824/simple-justice-by-richard-kluger/">psychic injury that racism caused</a> <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/psychologist-work-racial-identity-helped-overturn-school-segregation-180966934/">was crucial to this outcome</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343566/original/file-20200623-188931-1obta3a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343566/original/file-20200623-188931-1obta3a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343566/original/file-20200623-188931-1obta3a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343566/original/file-20200623-188931-1obta3a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343566/original/file-20200623-188931-1obta3a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343566/original/file-20200623-188931-1obta3a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343566/original/file-20200623-188931-1obta3a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343566/original/file-20200623-188931-1obta3a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The research conducted by Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark, helped move the Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education, to declare segregation in public schools unconstitutional.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-brown.html#obj62">Gordon Parks, photographer; Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some have speculated about Warren and his unexpected shift. His sense of <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/East_to_America.html?id=Yu51AAAAMAAJ">guilt over his active involvement in the Japanese American incarceration</a> was apparently influential. The notion among the legal community about Warren’s opinion in Brown v. Board of Education is that “<a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/13506">the Japanese Americans paid the ransom to free the Blacks</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343294/original/file-20200622-55009-48i1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343294/original/file-20200622-55009-48i1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343294/original/file-20200622-55009-48i1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343294/original/file-20200622-55009-48i1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343294/original/file-20200622-55009-48i1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343294/original/file-20200622-55009-48i1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343294/original/file-20200622-55009-48i1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343294/original/file-20200622-55009-48i1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Earl Warren came to the Supreme Court as a conservative and later turned into a champion for civil rights.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-american-jurist-chief-justice-of-the-supreme-news-photo/82316310?adppopup=true">Bachrach/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Although Eisenhower thought Warren would be <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780847696048/Justices-Presidents-and-Senators-A-History-of-U-S-Supreme-Court-Appointments-from-Washington-to-Clinton-revised-edition">conservative in his judicial philosophy, that was hardly the case</a>. In this and subsequent cases, <a href="https://supremecourthistory.org/timeline_court_warren.html">what was called the “Warren court”</a> became synonymous with a series of rulings that expanded the scope of constitutional rights. </p>
<p>When asked what he considered his most serious mistakes, Eisenhower replied: <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/04/commander-v-chief/554045/">“They are both sitting on the court</a>.” </p>
<p>He was referring to Justice Warren and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/25/us/william-brennan-91-dies-gave-court-liberal-vision.html">Justice William Brennan, a Republican</a> who had been on the New Jersey Supreme Court and whom Eisenhower appointed to the Supreme Court in 1956. Both judges were more liberal in their judicial philosophy than anticipated. </p>
<p>In these instances and others, <a href="http://epstein.wustl.edu/research/JusticePresident.pdf">presidents have been known to be disappointed</a> by the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcs/article/17/3/530/814389">decisions of those they appoint</a>. </p>
<h2>Unusual coalitions</h2>
<p>When justices are confronted with a new type of discrimination and are unconstrained by past precedent, they may have the ability to form coalitions on the court to advance civil rights. For instance, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/09/business/archives-business-sexual-harassment-workplace-grueling-struggle-for-equality.html">the advocacy campaign against sexual harassment</a> outside of the court, aimed at addressing egregious misconduct in the workplace, appears to have exerted influence inside the court. </p>
<p>Even though women had experienced sexual harassment for centuries, no one had even coined a term for <a href="https://time.com/4286575/sexual-harassment-before-anita-hill/">the phenomenon until the 1970s</a>, when the federal government began to formulate new policies. </p>
<p>Policymakers recognized that sexual harassment was illegal when it took the form of coercing employees to perform sexual acts in exchange for rewards or to avoid losing their jobs or work-related benefits. </p>
<p>Subsequently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency with responsibility for dealing with employment discrimination, was inundated with complaints. </p>
<p>When the Supreme Court first considered this issue in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1985/84-1979">Meritor v. Vinson</a> in 1986, the notion was barely a decade old. Moreover, the central question was a novel one, whether an employee could sue for a different type of sexual harassment, a so-called “hostile work environment.”</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1985/84-1979">9-0 decision written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist</a> – who was appointed by President Richard Nixon and elevated to chief justice by President Ronald Reagan – the court <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393696738">unanimously</a> ruled that the protections in federal civil rights law did cover this type of sexual harassment. </p>
<p>The Meritor ruling, despite criticism of its treatment of relevant evidence and employer liability standards, was hailed as a victory for advocates of civil rights. </p>
<p>As with Bostock, the ruling in the <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-1323-6.html">Meritor decision was surprising</a>. Conservative justices had taken a liberal position and joined liberal justices in an effort to combat egregious misconduct in the workplace. They did this by expanding the scope of discrimination on the basis of sex with the new and more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/19/how-supreme-court-made-sexual-harassment-cases-more-difficult-win/">expansive interpretation of sexual harassment</a>.</p>
<h2>Marriage equality</h2>
<p>Another remarkable social change in American society is the recognition of same-sex marriage, known as marriage equality. Litigation began over this issue in the late 20th century with Baehr v. Lewin (1993), in which <a href="https://casetext.com/case/baehr-v-lewin-1">the Hawaii Supreme Court</a> held that the failure of a clerk to issue marriage licenses to a same-sex couple <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/abstract/title/57672">was a form of sex discrimination</a>. </p>
<p>As the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal and other public interest organizations mounted campaigns advocating for same-sex marriage, public attitudes gradually shifted in favor of official <a href="https://www.lambdalegal.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_-TB-6aM6gIVIRh9Ch3OLwGyEAAYASAAEgIIg_D_BwE">recognition of customary marriages of same-sex couples</a>.</p>
<p>This social movement culminated in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2014/14-556">Obergefell v. Hodges</a> in 2015. Acknowledging that the U.S. had undergone a significant social transformation in accepting diverse types of intimate relationships, the court resolved to make the law match the times.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343321/original/file-20200622-55017-lsemzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343321/original/file-20200622-55017-lsemzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343321/original/file-20200622-55017-lsemzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343321/original/file-20200622-55017-lsemzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343321/original/file-20200622-55017-lsemzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343321/original/file-20200622-55017-lsemzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343321/original/file-20200622-55017-lsemzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343321/original/file-20200622-55017-lsemzq.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">Amy Snow and Christelle Snow (R), who married in April 2015 under California law, celebrate the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage in June 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/amy-snow-and-christelle-snow-who-married-in-april-celebrate-news-photo/478728160?adppopup=true">David McNew/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The 5-4 decision, which held that the right to marry is fundamental and guaranteed by the Constitution, was authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kennedy said he voted in favor of this position even though <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-11-28/retired-justice-kennedy-says-his-gay-marriage-ruling-surprised-him-video">it did not correspond to his own Catholic religious tenets</a>. </p>
<p>Kennedy said he undertook writing the landmark opinion because of his religious beliefs: “It seemed to me I couldn’t hide,” he told an interviewer. “The nature of injustice is you can’t see it in your own time,” <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-11-28/retired-justice-kennedy-says-his-gay-marriage-ruling-surprised-him-video">Kennedy said</a>. “And as I thought about it more and more, it seemed to me just wrong under the Constitution to say that over 100,000 adopted children of gay parents could not have their parents married.”</p>
<h2>Social upheaval creates new context</h2>
<p>In the midst of immense social upheaval, courts and individual justices grapple with rules that must be reassessed in a new context – so it seems less surprising that justices consider carefully the meaning of equality and sex discrimination in light of the changing times. </p>
<p>This set of examples suggests that it may be unwise to presume that judges will vote in particular ways because of their backgrounds or judicial philosophy. Over the years, justices have felt the exigencies of the times that sometimes lead them to rule in ways that will protect the American constitutional order. Chief Justice John Roberts, expected to be more ideologically conservative in his rulings, has been praised for <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/01/robertss-rules/305559/">his role in building consensus, his temperament and his fair-mindedness</a>.</p>
<p>While this certainly does not happen all the time, it may at least indicate that the U.S. political system can survive the ongoing crises of the 21st century associated with hyper-polarization. Ideological considerations, while often important in judicial decision-making, do not necessarily provide a guide to future decisions. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Dundes Renteln 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>Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the Supreme Court as a conservative. But his ruling in a major civil rights case is part of a pattern of justices setting aside ideology to address historic injustices.Alison Dundes Renteln, Professor of Political Science, Anthropology, Public Policy and Law, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1408782020-06-16T22:03:48Z2020-06-16T22:03:48ZWhat the Supreme Court’s decision on LGBT employment discrimination will mean for transgender Americans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342276/original/file-20200616-23235-1qwpzad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Transgender activist Aimee Stephens sat outside the Supreme Court as the court held oral arguments dealing with workplace discrimination.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/transgender-activist-aimee-stephens-sits-in-her-wheelchair-news-photo/1174525050?adppopup=true">Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a landmark decision, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/17-1618">the United States Supreme Court has ruled</a> that gay men, lesbian women, bisexual individuals and transgender people – individuals whose sex assigned at birth does not match their current innate sense of being male, female, both or neither – cannot be discriminated against in the workplace simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.</p>
<p>The decision involved three separate but related cases: two involving men who were fired for being gay and one involving a transgender woman, Aimee Stephens, who was fired from <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/18-107">her job at a funeral home after her transition</a>. The court’s ruling in favor of Stephens affects the estimated <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/">1.4 million</a> adults in the United States who identify as transgender. </p>
<p>Stephens passed away on May 12, 2020, just one month before the Supreme Court ruled in her favor.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0019793920902776">study we published on Feb. 11, 2020</a> suggests that nondiscrimination protections for transgender people are likely to be especially meaningful. As scholars of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=80vVFBUAAAAJ&hl=en">economics</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xYqTZcsAAAAJ&hl=en">health</a> and LGBT populations, we wanted to find out about how transgender people fare economically. We learned that on nearly all measures of economic and social well-being, they do much worse than the general population.</p>
<h2>Little is known about transgender people</h2>
<p>A growing body of research on sexual minorities has steadily advanced over the past 25 years. However, when we first started working on this research project three years ago, we found little published work on the economic lives of transgender people.</p>
<p>Most research that did exist came only from studies of one or two progressive-leaning states, such as <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/demographics/health-trans-adults-ca/">California</a> or <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3490554/pdf/AJPH.2011.300315.pdf">Massachusetts</a>, or used “convenience” or “snowball” <a href="https://transequality.org/issues/us-trans-survey">samples</a> of transgender people where participants are recruited through social networks.</p>
<p>These types of data are useful, but they might not accurately reflect the general transgender population in the United States. </p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>This is where our study came in. </p>
<p>We used data from an annual telephone survey of over 400,000 individuals in the United States that asks people about their employment, income, health insurance coverage and overall health. It’s called the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/index.html">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey</a>.</p>
<p>Starting in 2014, this survey gave states the option to ask respondents their sexual orientation and gender identity. When asked “Are you transgender?” over 2,100 adults responded “yes.”</p>
<p>Although this is only a fraction of 1% of the total survey sample, it is a much larger sample of transgender people than has been used in other survey-based studies. And, importantly, it allowed us to examine transgender individuals from states as diverse as Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Idaho and Florida.</p>
<p>The most consistent pattern we found is that individuals who described themselves as transgender did much worse in aspects of their lives that affect their economic well-being – like educational attainment, employment and poverty status – than otherwise comparable individuals who did not identify as transgender.</p>
<p>This was especially true for employment. Transgender people were 11 percentage points less likely to be working compared to nontransgender, or cisgender, people.</p>
<p>We found that this effect was driven by two forces: Transgender people were more likely to be unemployed – that is, they would like to work but are not currently working – and much more likely to report that they are unable to work.</p>
<p>The data don’t tell us why transgender people may be unable to work. It may be due to a disability, poor health, lack of transportation or other structural barriers. It’s also possible that transgender people have been turned away so many times by potential employers – possibly due to discrimination which is now illegal throughout the United States – that they are what economists aptly refer to as <a href="https://theconversation.com/forget-lower-jobs-growth-the-number-of-people-whove-stopped-looking-for-work-is-much-more-worrisome-118445">“discouraged,”</a> and thus they report that they are “unable to (find) work.”</p>
<p>Our results also showed that transgender people had much lower rates of college education than nontransgender people. While 28% of nontransgender people in the survey said they had a college education, the same was true for only 14% of transgender respondents.</p>
<p>Even after accounting for lower college education rates, we found that transgender people had higher rates of poverty and worse health than otherwise comparable individuals who did not identify as transgender.</p>
<p><iframe id="moU0M" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/moU0M/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Rapidly changing policy</h2>
<p>Of course, there are limits to the Supreme Court decision, and LGBT rights advocates have already stressed the need to adopt a federal <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5/text">Equality Act</a> which would extend nondiscrimination protections to housing, public accommodations, education and health care - all areas of life that are currently not explicitly protected by federal civil rights law for LGBT people. The need for these protections is highlighted by the timing of the Supreme Court decision: Just three days prior to the ruling, the Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/06/12/hhs-finalizes-rule-section-1557-protecting-civil-rights-healthcare.html">rolled back nondiscrimination protections for transgender people in health care</a> that were instituted by the prior administration.</p>
<p>It is too early to tell how nondiscrimination protections for transgender people in these other important areas of life will play out in the various branches of government, but the recent Supreme Court ruling outlawing LGBT discrimination in employment is likely to improve the economic situation facing transgender Americans, which our research shows is already very precarious. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/transgender-americans-are-more-likely-to-be-unemployed-and-poor-127585">an article</a> originally published on Feb. 13, 2020.</em></p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140878/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Carpenter receives funding for LGBT related research from the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here are his own.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gilbert Gonzales receives funding for LGBT related research from the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here are his own.</span></em></p>In a national survey, transgender individuals had worse employment outcomes, lower incomes and higher rates of poverty than cisgender people.Christopher Carpenter, E. Bronson Ingram Professor of Economics and Director of the Vanderbilt LGBT Policy Lab, Vanderbilt UniversityGilbert Gonzales, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health and Society, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1296092020-02-10T13:58:09Z2020-02-10T13:58:09ZThe history of ‘coming out,’ from secret gay code to popular political protest<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310358/original/file-20200115-134797-epn1u8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters in Manchester, U.K., 1988.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/clause-28-march-in-manchester-people-demonstrate-against-news-photo/930164184?adppopup=true">Reid/Mirrorpix via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You probably know what it means to “come out” as gay. You may even have heard the expression used in relation to other kinds of identity, such as being undocumented. </p>
<p>But do you know where the term comes from? Or that its meaning has changed over time?</p>
<p>In <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=u5MOC4YAAAAJ&hl=en">my 2020 book</a><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/come-out-come-out-whoever-you-are-9780190931650?cc=us&lang=en&">“Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are,”</a>, I explore the history of this term, from the earliest days of the gay rights movement, to today, when it has been adopted by other movements. </p>
<h2>Selective sharing</h2>
<p>In the late 19th and early 20th century, <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/george-chauncey/gay-new-york/9781541699212/">gay subculture thrived</a> in many large American cities. </p>
<p>Gay men spoke of “coming out” into gay society – borrowing the term from debutante society, where elite young women came out into high society. A 1931 news article in the Baltimore Afro-American referred to “the coming out of new debutantes into homosexual society.” It was titled “1931 Debutantes Bow at Local ‘Pansy’ Ball.”</p>
<p>The 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s witnessed a growing backlash against this visible gay world. In response, gay life became more secretive. </p>
<p>The Mattachine Society, the earliest important organization of what was known as the homophile movement – a precursor of the gay rights movement – <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3640270.html">took its name from mysterious medieval figures in masks</a>. In this context, coming out meant acknowledging one’s sexual orientation to oneself and to other gay people. It did not mean revealing it to the world at large.</p>
<p>Such selective sharing relied on <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/contested-closets">code phrases</a> – such as “family,” “a club member,” “a friend of Dorothy’s,” “a friend of Mrs. King” or “gay” – that could be used in mixed company to designate someone as homosexual. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/george-chauncey/gay-new-york/9781541699212/">The term “gay”</a> was originally borrowed from the slang of women prostitutes, when they used the word to refer to women in their profession. Of course, “gay” was ultimately “<a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/contested-closets">outed</a>” when the gay rights movement adopted it following the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969. </p>
<h2>Out in public</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280290/original/file-20190619-171281-1lwjdaf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280290/original/file-20190619-171281-1lwjdaf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280290/original/file-20190619-171281-1lwjdaf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1533&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280290/original/file-20190619-171281-1lwjdaf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280290/original/file-20190619-171281-1lwjdaf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1533&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280290/original/file-20190619-171281-1lwjdaf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1927&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280290/original/file-20190619-171281-1lwjdaf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1927&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280290/original/file-20190619-171281-1lwjdaf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1927&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">The first article on Stonewall to appear in The New York Times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/06/29/89004281.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=LedeAsset&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=33">New York Times</a></span>
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<p>Coming out took on a more political meaning after the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, in which patrons of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F000312240607100502">Stonewall Inn in New York City</a> fought back against a police raid. The rebellion included riots and a resistance that lasted for days. It was subsequently commemorated in an annual march known today as “gay pride.”</p>
<p>At the first Gay Liberation March in New York City in June 1970, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/outing-shattering-the-conspiracy-of-silence/oclc/28026413">one of the organizers stated</a> that “we’ll never have the freedom and civil rights we deserve as human beings unless we stop hiding in closets and in the shelter of anonymity.” </p>
<p>By this time, coming out was juxtaposed with being in the closet, conveying the shame associated with hiding. By the end of the 1960s, queer people who pretended to be heterosexual were said to be “in the closet” or labeled a “closet case” or, in the case of gay men, “closet queens.” </p>
<p>By the 1970s, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/outing-shattering-the-conspiracy-of-silence/oclc/28026413">mainstream journalists were already using the term</a> beyond sexual orientation – to speak of, for instance, “closet conservatives” and “closet gourmets.” </p>
<h2>A rite of passage</h2>
<p>By presenting coming out as a way to <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3640270.html">end internalized self-hatred</a> and achieve a better life, the LGBTQ movement helped to encourage people to come out, despite associated risks. It also showed how <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3640270.html">coming could be used to build solidarity and recruit other queer people</a>.</p>
<p>For instance, in 1978, in his campaign to defeat a California initiative that would have banned gay teachers from working in state public schools, openly gay elected government official Harvey Milk urged people to “Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are.” </p>
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<span class="caption">Supervisor Harvey Milk sits outside his camera shop in November 1977.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/avowed-homosexual-supervisor-harvey-milk-who-was-shot-and-news-photo/517432258?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Milk gambled that if queer people told their friends they were gay, Californians would realize that they had friends, coworkers and family members who were gay and – out of solidarity – would oppose the proposition. The campaign helped defeat the initiative. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, the gay and lesbian rights movement radicalized in response to the Christian right and AIDS epidemic. Activists used the mantra “Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are” to demand that people declare their homosexuality. The coming out narrative became a rite of passage, something to be shared with others, and the centerpiece of gay liberation movements.</p>
<h2>In your face</h2>
<p>In the 1990s, the radical organization <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/contested-closets">Queer Nation</a> took coming out to a new level. </p>
<p>Its members wore T-shirts in Day-Glo colors with slogans such as “PROMOTE HOMOSEXUALITY. GENERIC QUEER. FAGGOT. MILITANT DYKE.” Wearing these T-shirts, they entered heterosexual bars in New York and San Francisco and staged “kiss-ins.” They visited suburban shopping malls outside these same cities and chanted, “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re fabulous – and we’re not going shopping!” Through these tactics, they not only came out, but forced heterosexuals to acknowledge their presence.</p>
<p>The politics of coming out has helped make LGBTQ people more visible and better protected by law. As testimony of this shift, today, marriage equality is the law of the land, the popular TV comedy “Modern Family” features a gay couple and one of the leading candidates for the Democratic presidential ticket, Pete Buttigieg, is a gay man.</p>
<p>To be sure, homophobia and transphobia are still alive and well. Still, LGBTQ people have made clear strides in the past half-century and coming out politics has been part of their success. </p>
<h2>Going bigger</h2>
<p>The success of the LGBTQ movement has inspired other social movements – such as the fat acceptance movement and the undocumented youth movement, among others – to also “come out.” </p>
<p>As I show in my new book, coming out has become <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/223459">what sociologists call a “master frame,”</a> a way of understanding the world that is elastic and inclusive enough for a wide range of social movements to use. </p>
<p>For example, just as Harvey Milk urged queer people to come out for “youngsters who are becoming scared,” so too the undocumented immigrant youth movement has urged undocumented youth to “come out as undocumented and unafraid.” </p>
<p>As one of the immigrant youth movement leaders quoted in my new book explained, Milk’s speech had impressed upon her and her peers that, “If you don’t come out nobody’s gonna know that you’re there. … They’re gonna say or do whatever they want because nobody’s standing up, and you’re not standing up for yourself.” </p>
<p>This campaign has been effective at <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=22645">convincing undocumented youth to be visible</a>, which has been crucial for political mobilization.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310359/original/file-20200115-134789-7ewpm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310359/original/file-20200115-134789-7ewpm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310359/original/file-20200115-134789-7ewpm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310359/original/file-20200115-134789-7ewpm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310359/original/file-20200115-134789-7ewpm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310359/original/file-20200115-134789-7ewpm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310359/original/file-20200115-134789-7ewpm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310359/original/file-20200115-134789-7ewpm9.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At a 2017 rally, one activist wears a T-shirt reading ‘Undocumented and Unafraid.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/activists-wearing-tshirt-reading-undocumented-unafraid-772202494">Diego G Diaz/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>The specific language of “coming out, which is so closely associated with LGBTQ rights, allows other social movements to liken their experience to that of LGBTQ people. </p>
<p>For instance, when fat liberation activist <a href="http://www.marilynwann.com">Marilyn Wann</a> speaks about how she "came out” as fat, she is not just speaking about a turning point in her personal biography. By using the term “coming out,” she implies that being fat is like being gay – and that, just as homophobia is morally wrong, so too is “fatphobia.” In this context, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/197420/fat-so-by-marilyn-wann/">coming out as fat</a> means owning one’s fatness and refusing to apologize for it.</p>
<p>As my book shows, the multiple meanings of coming out – including coming into community, cultivating self-love, and collectively organizing to promote equality and justice – offer a productive way for social movements to move forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129609/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abigail C. Saguy receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>In the 1950s, ‘coming out’ meant quietly acknowledging one’s sexual orientation. Today, the term is used by a broad array of social movements.Abigail C. Saguy, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1299732020-01-29T13:21:00Z2020-01-29T13:21:00ZI track murder cases that use the ‘gay panic defense,’ a controversial practice banned in 9 states<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311702/original/file-20200123-162204-kjgln2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ABA has called for states to curtail 'gay panic' and 'trans panic' defenses.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lady-justice-on-emerald-background-570949807">icedmocha/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>On January 21, New Jersey became the ninth state in the nation to ban the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/n-j-bans-gay-transgender-panic-defenses-n1120416">gay panic defense</a>, a strategy that the governor said is “rooted in homophobia.” W. Carsten Andresen, a criminal justice scholar, has been building a database of murder cases that use the gay panic defense. We asked him to tell us more about these cases, and what sets them apart from other murder trials.</em></p>
<p><strong>What is the gay panic defense?</strong></p>
<p>This is when a man kills someone and <a href="https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1796&context=faculty_publications">claims that he was protecting himself</a> from a same-sex pass or an attempted sexual assault. The offender uses the gay panic defense as an excuse or justification to try to evade punishment for the crime of murder.</p>
<p><strong>What’s an example of this in practice?</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.advocate.com/crime/2018/4/29/why-texas-man-got-probation-murdering-gay-neighbor">One well-known case occurred in 2015</a>, when Daniel Spencer, a guitarist, invited another musician, James Miller, to his Austin apartment to play music together. Later that night, Miller stabbed Spencer four times, killing him. Miller then cleaned Spencer’s apartment, went back to his own home, changed clothes and contacted the police to report killing Spencer. </p>
<p>While there was no physical evidence to suggest an attempted sexual assault, <a href="https://www.kxan.com/news/crime/man-originally-facing-murder-charge-gets-probation-on-lesser-charge/">the defense attorney argued at the trial in 2018 that</a>, since Miller had never been in trouble with the police before, the only thing that could explain his committing murder was that Spencer had tried to sexually assault him.</p>
<p>In this instance, the gay panic defense was successful. The jury convicted Miller of criminally negligent homicide, the lowest grade of felony in Texas. Ultimately, the court punished Miller with only a six-month jail term and a 10-year probation sentence. </p>
<p><strong>How did you first become interested in this subject?</strong></p>
<p>Two events put me on a path to researching the gay panic defense. </p>
<p>First, my wife is a family attorney in Austin who does a lot of work with LGBTQ+ clients. Shortly after the birth of our son, I attended a conference with her to help with our son. </p>
<p>At the conference, my eyes opened to the obstacles that the LGBTQ+ community faces in a state like Texas, where there is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-gaymarriage/top-court-leaves-in-place-texas-ruling-questioning-gay-spousal-benefits-idUSKBN1DY1U7">history of homophobia</a> that continues to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/25/opinion/sunday/worst-and-best-places-to-be-gay.html">the present day</a>. I started to think about what it would be like if Texas didn’t recognize my marriage, if Texas didn’t <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/images/news/2019mymhodres/113.pdf">respect my right to be a parent</a>. </p>
<p>The second event involved an old friend, a wonderful person, who committed suicide. A few days after his death, I learned for the first time that he was gay, and realized that he had lived an almost completely closeted life. To think that he kept this secret, that he spent his life alone, was a terrible realization. </p>
<p>Both of these things disquieted me and set the stage for my future research on the gay panic defense.</p>
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<p><strong>How common is the gay panic defense?</strong></p>
<p>This is a difficult question to answer, because these cases are not tracked in a systematic way by the government.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr">While the FBI tracks several details about homicides</a> that occur annually in the U.S., it does not collect information about the sexual orientation or sexual identity of homicide victims. </p>
<p>It is also difficult to get information about murders where offenders use a gay panic defense in court. I could not find any federal source, or any individual states, that tracked how often defendants used this defense during their murder trials.</p>
<p>To investigate the frequency of these defenses, I had to collect these cases myself and enter them into a database. I read legal articles, social science research and advocacy reports; talked with other people, such as lawyers, to see if they could tell me about specific cases; and searched online for <a href="http://www.justia.com">legal appeals</a> and <a href="http://www.newspapers.com">media accounts</a>.</p>
<p>The most recent case I heard about, for example, came to my attention when I was talking with a lawyer about my data. She mentioned a case that she had prosecuted in 1997, which had not shown up in my initial searches. </p>
<p>While I have currently identified 104 cases, I am certain that there are hundreds of cases that I have yet to identify.</p>
<p><strong>Is this defense effective in court?</strong></p>
<p>Based on my <a href="https://www.stedwards.edu/news-center/news-releases/criminal-podcast-features-st-edwards-criminal-justice-expert-panic-defense">early analysis</a>, defense attorneys who enter gay panic defenses can reduce a defendants’ murder charges 32% of the time, even though the majority of these homicides involve incredible violence. The court case resulted in a conviction, but, since the charge was lower, the prison sentence was lower, generally around 18 years. </p>
<p>In the remaining cases, the offender received a more severe sentence, including the death penalty, life in prison and non-life prison sentences that averaged about 31 years. Four cases resulted in acquittals, which suggests that juries might have balked at higher charges. </p>
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<p><strong>What else do your data show?</strong></p>
<p>My data are consistent with data from prior research examining LGBTQ+ homicide victims in several ways. </p>
<p>First, the offenders in these cases killed the victims in particularly violent ways, a level of violence that distinguishes them from the majority of homicides. </p>
<p>In these murders, the offenders used firearms only about 26% of the time. In the majority of homicides, <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/topic-pages/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8.xls">firearms are used 46% of the time</a>. This is consistent with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260512462301">a 2012 study that examined 120 anti-LGBTQ+ murders</a>, finding that many offenders used a knife or their hands to kill, instead of a gun. </p>
<p>Additionally, in my data, offenders engaged in what experts might call overkill, stabbing the victim several times. In at least 22 cases, offenders stabbed the victim 10 or more times.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987134">Victims who live a closeted gay life</a> are especially vulnerable. The offenders in these cases seemed to take advantage of this “secret” after they were arrested to ultimately construct a nefarious portrait of these victims in their gay panic defense in court.</p>
<p><iframe id="tLk7B" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/tLk7B/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0093854814541259">consistent with previous research</a> into murders of LGBTQ people, the homicides in my data set fit into one of two patterns. </p>
<p>In 54% of cases, after the murder, the offender purposefully stole cash, credit cards, jewelry, computers, stereo equipment or automobiles. In New Orleans in 1977, for example, <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/louisiana/supreme-court/1980/383-so-2d-1-1.html">Warren Harris Jr.</a>, who posed as a prostitute, killed at least four men and stole their cash.</p>
<p>In the the remaining 46% of homicides, the offender engaged in expressive homicidal violence to kill and mutilate the victim. In 2009, <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2009-07-17-0907160827-story.html">Joseph Biedermann</a> met Terrence Hauser in a bar in Hoffman, Illinois, went home with him, and ultimately stabbed him to death 61 times. In Denton, Texas in 2005, <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/investigations/2007/11/11/da-s-burden-sympathy-for-a-killer/">Joshua Abbott</a> went home with David Morrison and stabbed him to death 38 times.</p>
<p>Based on my research, these killings seem to have no other purpose to them beyond inflicting violence.</p>
<p><strong>Is this sort of defense permitted nationwide?</strong> </p>
<p>In 2013, <a href="https://lgbtbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Gay-and-Trans-Panic-Defenses-Resolution.pdf">the American Bar Association called in a proclamation</a> for states to prohibit the gay and trans panic defenses. Since then, <a href="https://lgbtbar.org/programs/advocacy/gay-trans-panic-defense/">nine states have passed legislation</a> prohibiting the gay panic defense.</p>
<p><iframe id="rNIdQ" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/rNIdQ/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>In 2018, Representative Joe Kennedy of the U.S. House and Senator Edward Markey also <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3188/text">proposed a nationwide ban</a>. </p>
<p>Yet, this legislation does not necessarily signal an end to homophobia in the courtroom. First, defense attorneys, who have argued that legislation is an unconstitutional violation of a client’s due process rights, may <a href="https://www.phillipmurphylawyer.com/will-new-yorks-elimination-of-the-gay-trans-panic-defense-be-challenged-in-court-as-violating-due-process-rights/">ultimately get these laws overturned</a>. </p>
<p>Second, this legislation also does not ban murderers from arguing that they killed in self-defense in response to an attempted sexual assault. <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/12/06/man-who-killed-popular-south-bay-butcher-takes-manslaughter-plea/">In California</a>, the first state to pass this legislation, Gage McCartney – who strangled a man and claimed self-defense – was recently given a lenient plea deal: manslaughter and a 12-year prison sentence. </p>
<p>Finally, the legal scholar Cynthia Lee has written about how offenders can go around prohibitions issued by judges <a href="https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1796&context=faculty_publications">to introduce gay panic defense strategies</a>. In the Matthew Shepard murder trial, the defense attorney introduced two witnesses to testify that the victim was sexually assertive, even though the judge had prohibited them from using a gay panic defense. </p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129973/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>W. Carsten Andresen 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>In a handful of cases, defendants in murder cases have said that they were defending themselves from a same-sex pass or attempted sexual assault.W. Carsten Andresen, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, St. Edward's UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1252902019-11-05T12:16:51Z2019-11-05T12:16:51ZDoes the Civil Rights Act protect LGBT workers? The Supreme Court is about to decide<p>The complicated history of <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act">the Civil Rights Act</a> in the U.S. is about to get even more so.</p>
<p>In 1964, the act – specifically, <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm">Title VII</a> of the act – made it illegal for employers to discriminate based on race, religion and sex, among other things. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/us/politics/supreme-court-gay-transgender.html">In October 2019</a>, the U.S. Supreme Court <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/altitude-express-inc-v-zarda/">heard three cases</a> that raise the question whether <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/bostock-v-clayton-county-georgia/">the act prevents discrimination</a> toward <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/r-g-g-r-harris-funeral-homes-inc-v-equal-opportunity-employment-commission/">LGBT workers</a> on the basis of sex.</p>
<p>Two of the cases were brought by men who allegedly lost their jobs because they are gay. The third case addresses transgender discrimination in the workplace.</p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://kelley.iu.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/profile.cshtml?id=JMAGID">professor of business law</a> and I’ve done extensive research in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ablj.12082">Title VII policy and practice</a>. I believe these cases could be some of the most important in the Civil Rights Act’s history.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lyndon B. Johnson presents Martin Luther King Jr. with one of the pens used to sign the Civil Rights Act.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Dist-of-Columbi-/4cb26dee64e5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/30/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A brief history of sex discrimination</h2>
<p>Title VII’s protected class of sex was <a href="https://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/legal-resources/know-your-rights-at-work/title-vii/">complicated from the start</a>.</p>
<p>The original bill didn’t include protections for sex discrimination. U.S. Rep. Howard W. Smith of Virginia added those protections with a one-word change to the bill during the <a href="https://www.jofreeman.com/lawandpolicy/titlevii.htm">debate on the House floor</a>. </p>
<p>Later, in 1978, Congress added the <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/pregnancy.cfm">Pregnancy Discrimination Act</a> to the Civil Right Act. The change came after the Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1744-1714.2001.tb00908.x">pregnancy discrimination was not “because of sex”</a> and couldn’t be found illegal under the original Title VII language. </p>
<p>This history is important given <a href="https://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/spotlight-textualism-originalism/">the rise of “statutory originalism” and “textualism”</a> in judicial interpretation.</p>
<p>Originalism means courts should interpret laws based on their original intent or purpose. </p>
<p>Relatedly, judges who subscribe to textualism believe they should evaluate the words of a statute enacted by Congress only and not consider evidence outside the statutory language.</p>
<p>One of the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx">two new justices</a> sitting on the Supreme Court hearing the cases of LGBT workplace rights, Justice <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Neil-Gorsuch">Neil Gorsuch</a>, employs <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/10/15/lgbt-discrimination-supreme-court-gorsuch-textualism-229850">textualism</a> and <a href="https://time.com/5670400/justice-neil-gorsuch-why-originalism-is-the-best-approach-to-the-constitution/">originalism</a> in judicial interpretation.</p>
<h2>A path to LGBT rights</h2>
<p>LGBT rights weren’t debated as part of the original Title VII, suggesting that Gorsuch and other judges inclined to originalism would not consider them protected by the act.</p>
<p>If the Supreme Court could find pregnancy discrimination was not “because of sex” and required an amendment to Title VII to prohibit pregnancy discrimination, it suggests that the Court could interpret the <a href="https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/understanding-the-role-of-textualism-and-originalism-in-the-lgbt-title-vii-cases/">protected class of sex very narrowly</a>.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3244473">critics reject</a> this “original meaning” approach to Title VII interpretation related to LGBT rights.</p>
<p>And it is true that the court’s interpretation of the meaning of sex discrimination within Title VII – case law that has developed over more than 50 years – includes Supreme Court decisions that offer broader meaning to its language, specifically with regard to sex-stereotyping.</p>
<p>In 1989, the court held that Title VII prohibited an employer from denying opportunities to a woman based on “<a href="https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2019/04/30/does-the-civil-rights-act-protect-gay-and-transgender-workers">stereotypical notions about women’s proper deportment</a>” in <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/490/228.html">Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins</a>.</p>
<p>In that case, Ann Hopkins received advice from her employer that, if she wanted to make partner at the firm, <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/490/228.html">she should act more feminine</a>. The Court’s ruling meant that negative employment actions by an employer based on employee’s gender non-conformity are prohibited under Title VII.</p>
<p>Title VII protections expanded further with <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/523/75.html">Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore</a> in 1998 when a unanimous Supreme Court held that same-sex harassment is sex discrimination under Title VII. The case involved a man working on an oil rig being bullied by other men because he was considered effeminate.</p>
<p>The majority opinion was written by Justice <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographyScalia.aspx">Antonin Scalia</a>, then the <a href="https://www.law.virginia.edu/news/2010_spr/scalia.htm">avowed originalist</a> on the Court. </p>
<p>These precedents in sex-stereotyping and same-sex harassment offer an avenue for the Court to hold that Title VII prohibits discrimination against LGBT individuals in employment.</p>
<h2>Same-sex marriage and the Cakeshop case</h2>
<p>Despite this, some <a href="https://onlabor.org/looking-back-at-justice-scalias-decision-in-oncale-because-of-sex/">lower courts</a> have routinely held that Title VII does not bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.</p>
<p>Lower courts’ inconsistent interpretations of Title VII have resulted in varying rights for employees depending on the location of their workplace. A Supreme Court decision on this question would create the same set of rights for employees across the country.</p>
<p>Just four years ago, the Supreme Court required all states to grant and recognize same-sex marriages in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2014/14-556">Obergefell v. Hodges</a>. Justice <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/justices/kennedy.bio.html">Anthony Kennedy</a>, who wrote the majority opinion in that narrow decision, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/justice-kennedy-the-pivotal-swing-vote-on-the-supreme-court-announces-retirement/2018/06/27/a40a8c64-5932-11e7-a204-ad706461fa4f_story.html">has since retired</a> and has been <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/7/11/17555974/brett-kavanaugh-anthony-kennedy-supreme-court-transform">replaced by Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh</a>.</p>
<p>Also since the same-sex marriage decision, many states have passed religious liberty statutes and the Court has considered the religious liberty claim on a national level. In <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/the-ongoing-challenge-to-define-free-speech/not-a-masterpiece/">Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission</a>, the Court found that <a href="https://harvardcrcl.org/masterpiece-cakeshop-a-hostile-interpretation-of-the-colorado-civil-rights-commission/">a Colorado Civil Rights Commission</a> was hostile toward the religious objections of a cake shop owner who refused services to a couple entering a same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>In that case, the Court was able to issue a narrow ruling that sidestepped the broader First Amendment issues of free exercise of religion and free speech.</p>
<p>Could that happen here? I think the Court is unlikely to sidestep the central question of Title VII’s application to LGBT employees presently under consideration, both because the circuit courts have issued inconsistent rulings and because the justices’ questions during oral arguments squarely addressed the claims.</p>
<p>If I’m right, these cases will be among the most important workplace discrimination cases in decades and will redefine the rights of LGBT employees across the country. The decision is expected in mid-2020.</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/125290/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Manning Magid 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>The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on how the Civil Rights Act applies to LGBT people. A business law scholar explains why it could be one of the most consequential discrimination cases in decades.Julie Manning Magid, Professor of Business Law, Indiana UniversityLicensed 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/1214782019-08-20T11:22:16Z2019-08-20T11:22:16ZWhat states that don’t protect LGBTQ workers from discrimination have in common<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287724/original/file-20190812-71909-iyaoix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some states protect LGBTQ worker from discrimination, but many others do not.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/homosexuality-samesex-marriage-gay-love-concept-1115312330?src=V0l4KIDRAOLDq4Lb4oKoeQ-1-1">Rachaphak/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Are you fully protected from employment discrimination? </p>
<p>For employees who identify as LGBTQ, and work in one of <a href="https://www.lambdalegal.org/states-regions/in-your-state">at least 17 states nationwide</a> that fail to protect workers, the answer at best is uncertain. At worst, it’s “no” under state statute. </p>
<p><a href="https://academics.pnw.edu/humanities-education-social-sciences/member/tesa-rigel-hines/">One of my areas of research</a> is employment discrimination. In an article to be published this fall, I examined the characteristics of states which have adopted legislation protecting LGBTQ employees from discrimination. </p>
<p>In many ways, the patchwork pattern of state-level protection from discrimination for LGBTQ employees is similar to states which allowed same-gender marriage before 2015. </p>
<p><iframe id="VXEH1" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/VXEH1/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Discrimination costs</h2>
<p>Because federal law <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm">does not specifically protect LGBTQ employees from discrimination</a>, some argue that it is legal to harass and even fire an employee just for “coming out” on the job. </p>
<p>In fact, on Aug. 16, the Trump administration filed a written brief with the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-107/112655/20190816163010995_18-107bsUnitedStates.pdf">arguing that federal law does not protect transgender employees from discrimination</a>. The Supreme Court will decided by 2020 whether sexual orientation and gender identity are covered under federal employment discrimination law.</p>
<p><a href="http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Badgett-Sears-Lau-Ho-Bias-in-the-Workplace-Jun-2007.pdf">Early</a> <a href="http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Sears-Mallory-Discrimination-July-20111.pdf">studies</a>
indicate that discrimination against LGBTQ employees, up to and including loss of employment, is prevalent in the U.S. </p>
<p>In a 2007 study of literature by the <a href="http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Badgett-Sears-Lau-Ho-Bias-in-the-Workplace-Jun-2007.pdf">Williams Institute</a>, a think tank at the University of California, Los Angeles, 16% to 68% of those identifying as lesbian, gay and bisexual, and 15% to 57% of those identifying as transgender, reported experiences of employment discrimination.</p>
<p>The associated loss of workplace productivity due to discrimination against LGBTQ employees is estimated at <a href="http://homepages.se.edu/cvonbergen/files/2013/11/The-Moral-Responsibility-of-Business-to-Protect-Homosexuals-from-Discrimination-in-the-Workplace.pdf">US$229.3 billion annually</a>, due to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.6.1244">absenteeism, turnover and costs related to stress</a>.</p>
<h2>Location, location, location</h2>
<p>Nationwide, 19 states had adopted same-gender marriage legislation, civil unions or other spousal rights before <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_6j37.pdf">U.S. v. Windsor</a> in 2013. An important predecessor to marriage equality, U.S. v. Windsor was significant in ruling that states must honor same-gender marriages performed in other states, and for overturning part of the <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/104/hr3396">Defense of Marriage Act</a>.</p>
<p>I wanted to know if the characteristics of these states that were early supporters of marriage equality were similar to states that have been early adopters of legislation protecting LGBTQ workers.</p>
<p>In my study, I looked at the 2010 census for the geographic, social and economic characteristics of all 50 states. </p>
<p>I compared these independent variables to each state’s employment protections for LGBTQ workers. In some states, protection from discrimination only applied to public employees. </p>
<p>In other states, the law covers all employees. Some states offer protection from discrimination based only on sexual orientation, but not gender identity. </p>
<p>I used statistical modeling to understand what made a state more likely to adopt laws protecting LGBTQ employees from discrimination.</p>
<p>States in the Northeast region of the U.S. were 92% more likely than states in the Midwest to adopt statutory protections from employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. States in the South were least likely to have adopted such legislation.</p>
<h2>Other important characteristics</h2>
<p>I also found that the size of the urban population in a state predicted its likelihood to adopt protections for LGBTQ workers from discrimination.</p>
<p>When the urban population of a state increased by 1%, the state was nearly 10% more likely to adopt legislation protecting LGBTQ employees. </p>
<p>Another interesting study result was based on a nationwide index of religiosity, taken from the <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/02/29/how-religious-is-your-state/?state=alabama">2014 Religious Landscape Study</a> conducted by the Pew Research Center. </p>
<p>Higher rates of religious practice by a state’s residents, like those of Alabama and South Carolina, was the only variable that I studied which decreased the likelihood of a state to adopt legislation that protected LGBTQ employees from discrimination. This finding echoes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2006.00384.x">other</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3512216">research</a> of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00682.x">pro-LGBTQ legislation</a>.</p>
<p><iframe id="d2rno" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/d2rno/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://lnkd.in/evid3pF">I am currently surveying members of the LGBTQ community</a> to better understand the employment and related experiences of this community nationwide.</p>
<h2>A major legal conflict</h2>
<p>Charges of discrimination are regulated by federal law. However, workers may also pursue legal action under state law, which is why state protections are important.</p>
<p>In 2012 and 2015, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued administrative rulings to enforce federal law and accept charges of discrimination by LGBTQ employees <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/wysk/enforcement_protections_lgbt_workers.cfm">under the protected class of “sex.”</a> </p>
<p>These EEOC rulings are not legally binding on federal courts, which has led to a legal conflict between the 2nd, 11th and 6th Circuit Courts of Appeals. The 2nd Circuit is in the Northeast, the 6th Circuit is in the Midwest, and the 11th Circuit is in the South.</p>
<p>This Circuit Court split is intriguing, given my study’s finding of the role of a state’s geographic location in predicting its likelihood to adopt protections for LGBTQ employees. Currently, most LGBTQ workers in <a href="https://www.lambdalegal.org/states-regions/in-your-state">the South and Midwest regions</a> have little to no state protections from employment discrimination. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court will decide <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/altitude-express-inc-v-zarda/">the consolidated</a> <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/r-g-g-r-harris-funeral-homes-inc-v-equal-opportunity-employment-commission/">cases</a> of discrimination, brought by LGBTQ employees under the protected class of “sex” during its upcoming term. </p>
<p>There was substantial evidence in my study that there is less political conflict over this LGBTQ issue compared to marriage equality. I hope to see the Supreme Court defer to the EEOC’s practice on this issue. All employees deserve a safe workplace. </p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tesa Rigel Hines 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>The Supreme Court will decide in the next year whether sexual orientation and gender identity are covered under federal employment discrimination law.Tesa Rigel Hines, Clinical Instructor, American Politics and Public Policy, Purdue University NorthwestLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1192772019-07-29T21:08:07Z2019-07-29T21:08:07ZBotswana recognizes LGBTQ rights, leading the way in southern Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285617/original/file-20190724-110195-1m98npd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=111%2C19%2C2083%2C1448&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Activists celebrate outside the High Court in Gaborone, Botswana on June 11, 2019. Botswana became the latest country to decriminalize gay sex.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> (AP Photo)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Botswana is a small country by population, but a big one by its role in the history of <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/botswana/">multi-party democracy and human rights</a> in southern Africa. Botswana, although it did not sacrifice as much as many of the other frontline states, just got bigger. Last month, its High Court determined that the law that criminalised “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature” was discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional. </p>
<p>Botswana now joins a select group of African countries that <a href="https://theconversation.com/botswana-court-ruling-is-a-ray-of-hope-for-lgbt-people-across-africa-118713">recognizes</a> the rights and dignity of its sexual minorities.</p>
<p>This ruling is a tremendous victory for all LGBTQ people in Botswana. The path is now open to liberate LGBTQ people from fear of arrest and harassment by the police, of <a href="https://africanarguments.org/sexuality-and-social-justice-in-africa/">shaming and outing</a> by health-care professionals and of extortion by ex-lovers, among other presently common experiences. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/botswana-court-ruling-is-a-ray-of-hope-for-lgbt-people-across-africa-118713">Botswana court ruling is a ray of hope for LGBT people across Africa</a>
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<p>It has the potential to liberate LGBTQ people psychologically from the stigma of being criminalized. That stigma often <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/sexual-diversity-in-africa-products-9780773541887.ph">drove men</a> who have sex with men (MSM) to hide their sexuality behind a façade of heterosexual relationships. This ruling provides some hope for a safer and greater dignity as the need to hide from the law is removed.</p>
<p>The ruling <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b_ZWsVbLiI">has significance</a> far beyond Botswana’s borders. </p>
<h2>Botswana is widely respected</h2>
<p>Although human rights monitors in South Africa have <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/same-sex-marriage-global-comparisons">reported failures</a> by security forces to uphold rights of lesbians and transgender men,
it was the first country in the world to enshrine freedom from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in its <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/07/southafrica-lgbtq-rights/593050/">national constitution</a>. It was also one of the first governments in the world to recognize full equality of marriage for sexual and gender minorities. </p>
<p>While Cape Town markets itself as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/07/southafrica-lgbtq-rights/593050/">“Africa’s gay capital,”</a> South Africa has been cautious to avoid the accusation of exporting its approach to human rights. Some consider the South African laws an idiosyncrasy linked to <a href="https://www.un.org/africarenewal/web-features/good-leadership-about-people-%E2%80%93-festus-mogae">white settler colonialism</a>. </p>
<p>But Botswana was never a colony. It was a protectorate in which core aspects of traditional authority and culture were preserved and almost no white settlement was allowed. Botswana, Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe are widely respected throughout Africa for their role in the liberation of South Africa from white supremacy.</p>
<p>The Botswana ruling may slightly embolden South African’s Minister of International Affairs. Now that South Africa is just one of four nations in the region to have decriminalized consenting homosexual acts, it may become more forthright in speaking out against gross violations of the human rights of sexual and gender minorities in other African countries.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285754/original/file-20190725-136737-7rzr4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285754/original/file-20190725-136737-7rzr4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285754/original/file-20190725-136737-7rzr4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285754/original/file-20190725-136737-7rzr4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285754/original/file-20190725-136737-7rzr4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285754/original/file-20190725-136737-7rzr4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285754/original/file-20190725-136737-7rzr4k.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">In this May 2010 photo, women protest against a sentence of 14 years in prison, with hard labour, given to two men in Malawi under Malawi’s anti-gay legislation, in the city of Cape Town, South Africa,</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Urbanized and progressive</h2>
<p>The common assumption is that traditional culture in Botswana is inimical to gay rights. That assumption is mistaken. </p>
<p>Botswana is one of the most urbanized countries on the continent (more so than South Africa, and not much behind Switzerland). <a href="http://www.legabibo.org/">LEGABIBO</a> (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals of Botswana, whose CEO testified as a friend of the court in this case), is one of the oldest sexual minority rights associations on the continent outside of South Africa. </p>
<p>While Sotho-Tswana remain strong and integral to national identity, traditional culture is actually more open than commonly assumed. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2017.1298052">The concept of <em>batho</em> (often translated as “African humanism”)</a> is perhaps relevant to that understanding. How can you be a human being with dignity and meaning if you do not respect your fellow humans — alive, yet-born and ancestral — as equally endowed with dignity and humanness, notwithstanding their (and our own) many differences and flaws? <a href="https://76crimes.com/2019/01/23/botswana-president-speaks-up-for-lgbti-rights-2/">The current president appears to share the same view.</a></p>
<p>Former president Festus Mogae <a href="https://www.un.org/africarenewal/web-features/good-leadership-about-people-%E2%80%93-festus-mogae">hinted at this cultural attribute</a> a few years ago when he admitted that, as president, he quietly ordered the police not to enforce the-then law. Why enforce something that humiliates our family members and ourselves, especially when that law is a relic of a colonial, racist system?</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/botswana-joins-list-of-african-countries-reviewing-gay-rights-113586">Botswana joins list of African countries reviewing gay rights</a>
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<h2>Judicial independence</h2>
<p>Botswana has a long and proud tradition of judicial independence and of the courts taking a stand against the misuse of power. </p>
<p>The current ruling is actually the culmination of an incremental process of legal victories over the past decade, including winning the rights to non-discrimination in places of employment, change gender identity on official documents and form civil society associations. This process of respect for the rule of law is powerful testimony to the strength of Botswana’s democratic institutions.</p>
<p>But democracy, of course, does not always favour progressive change. Botswana’s Attorney General has already filed an appeal against <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48892517">the new ruling</a>. Although, without providing a strong rationale and running counter to the President’s earlier sympathetic statements toward sexual minorities, it is difficult to see the appeal as much more than a performance of rectitude. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285755/original/file-20190725-136759-bxxw20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285755/original/file-20190725-136759-bxxw20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285755/original/file-20190725-136759-bxxw20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285755/original/file-20190725-136759-bxxw20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285755/original/file-20190725-136759-bxxw20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285755/original/file-20190725-136759-bxxw20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285755/original/file-20190725-136759-bxxw20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Activists celebrate inside the High Court in Gaborone on June 11, 2019 after Botswana became the latest country to recognize LGBTQ human rights.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several African countries have used appeals to democracy to cement majoritarian cultural preference into their constitutions precisely to block sexual minority rights. <a href="https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4f9eae7c2.pdf">This was the main argument in the Kenya case</a>, where decriminalization of sodomy theoretically opened the door to a challenge on the constitutional definition of marriage as heterosexual. </p>
<p>In Botswana, a public health crisis clarified that democracy means more than majority preference. <a href="https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-around-world/sub-saharan-africa/botswana">Botswana has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world, roughly 100 times that of Canada’s.</a> Botswana was among the first governments on the continent to recognize the imperative of a holistic, science-based approach to fighting the pandemic. </p>
<p>Since men who have sex with men (MSM) and trans people have <a href="https://hivlawcommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/HIV-and-the-Law-supplement-FINAL.pdf">disproportionately high rates of HIV </a>, it only makes sense to help that “key population” protect itself (and hence the non-key majority, who can now be equipped with honest sexuality education). Rationally, and compassionately, who can oppose this logic on the most basic public health grounds?</p>
<p>Bravo, Botswana, for saying so loudly and clearly that they cannot.</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/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&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/119277/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>marc epprecht receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>The recent ruling to decriminalize same sex behaviour in Botswana may have a positive impact on the rest of southern Africa.Marc Epprecht, Professor of Global Development Studies, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1142242019-04-03T09:51:57Z2019-04-03T09:51:57ZLGBT school lessons row shows homophobia is alive and well in the UK<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266798/original/file-20190401-177181-ryzo2n.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>To say primary school teacher Andrew Moffatt has had a surreal few months is probably an understatement. Not long ago he was in Dubai, being entertained by Little Mix, having been shortlisted for the $1m <a href="https://www.globalteacherprize.org/person?id=7419.">Global Teacher Prize</a>. But since then he’s been forced to defend his award-nominated inclusive teaching on the back of ardent parent protests. </p>
<p>Moffat’s “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/No-Outsiders-in-Our-School-Teaching-the-Equality-Act-in-Primary-Schools/Moffat/p/book/9781909301726.">No Outsiders’ project</a>” teaches children to value themselves and each other – whatever their differences – by engaging in a diverse range of stories. Some of their lessons help children challenge racism and ableism – but it is the inclusion of same-sex relationships and LGBTQ+ people, that has been singled out as problematic. </p>
<p>And many of the headlines have focused on the apparent polarisation of religious and LGBTQ+ rights – Parkfield School being in a predominantly Muslim area – which makes the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/27/caught-in-middle-queer-muslims-lgbtq-lessons-schools-protests">dangerous assumption</a> that LGBTQ+ and religion are <a href="http://www.educateandcelebrate.org/guidance-for-schools-who-serve-faith-communities/">mutually exclusive</a>. </p>
<p>After weekly protests, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/04/birmingham-school-stops-lgbt-lessons-after-parent-protests">400-strong petition</a> from parents, and the withdrawal of more than 600 children from lessons, Parkfield Community School – where Moffat is assistant headteacher – has temporarily stopped running the Equality programme. The school and the parents are now in negotiations to find a positive way forward.</p>
<h2>‘Them’ and ‘us’</h2>
<p>In the wake of the Birmingham protests, the leader of the House of Commons, Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom, <a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/leadsom-parents-choose-when-kids-exposed-lgbt">said that parents</a> should choose when their children “become exposed to that information”. This was met with some criticism – her choice of wording denotes a sense of danger and positions LGBTQ+ people as “other”. And in many ways, homosexuality is still seen as a threat to family values and innocence. </p>
<p>In Birmingham, the argument against LGBTQ+ education has been similar – with discrimination legitimised through notions of childhood. Children are innocent, represent the future and are in need of protection – only the worst kind of person would argue against protecting children. Fatima Shah, a parent in Birmingham, for example said: “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/04/birmingham-school-stops-lgbt-lessons-after-parent-protests">We are not a bunch of homophobic mothers</a>…They need to be allowed to be children rather than having to constantly think about equalities and rights.”</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TsG-byFIfTY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>That LGBTQ+ people are still seen as “not normal” and that little bit different is found in more official places than is perhaps acknowledged. <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/665520/Teachers__Standards.pdf.">The Teachers’ Standards</a>, for example – which all teachers are required to meet – asks that teachers show “tolerance” of the rights of others. But if we merely tolerate someone, it is still “them and us” and “we” are clearly positioning ourselves as better. As such, tolerance does not disrupt systems and structures, and it does not challenge society as it is. Tolerance is the accepted language of <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8306.html">faux inclusion</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Promoting homsexuality’</h2>
<p>Part of the problem in all of this is the legacy of <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/9/pdfs/ukpga_19880009_en.pdf">Section 28</a>. This is the clause of the 1988 Local Government Act that penned discriminatory statements into legislation. It stated that: “A local authority shall not (a) intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality; (b) promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.”</p>
<p>This act followed the Conservatives’ 1987 election campaign that promoted “family values” by attacking Labour as pro-gay and a threat to children and society. Section 28 was not repealed until 2000 in Scotland and 2003 in England and Wales. The failure to repeal the act in England in 2000 was called “<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/850113.stm">a victory for common sense</a>” by the then shadow education secretary Theresa May. </p>
<p>Prominent politicians have since apologised for supporting Section 28 – although it was not until the Equality Act 2010 that schools were required to “<a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/149">advance equality of opportunity</a>” for all protected characteristics. Nine years later, and with a backdrop of division, progress in schools is diverse and uneven.</p>
<h2>I’m not homophobic, but…</h2>
<p>So while the polices of Section 28 may be firmly in the past, the legacy remains. The inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in schools is not starting from a point of absence, but from a position of disapprobation –- from a long and lengthy association of gay as disruptive to the young innocent minds and actions of children. </p>
<p>This continues to be discretely supported and legitimised – creating a “them and us” culture through policy. So while it is hugely pleasing that past and present <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/25/birmingham-school-should-resume-lgbt-lessons-says-former-ofsted-chief">Ofsted</a> have repeatedly enforced its support for LGBTQ+ inclusion, words can only travel so far when government policy is as it is. </p>
<p>Most of the argument surrounding the LGBTQ+ lessons has centred around the age-appropriateness of the curriculum. But if there is an age when children should learn about same-sex relationships, then under equality law it should be the same age that they learn about heterosexual relationships. And therein lies the disparity, in that children are constantly exposed to heterosexuality – from cartoons to casual conversations, heterosexuality is always in operation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114224/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Llewellyn 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>Just because your children are learning about LGBT relationships, it won’t make them gay.Anna Llewellyn, Assistant Professor in Sociology of Education, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/968392018-06-18T21:02:39Z2018-06-18T21:02:39ZGrindr profile pics are all about the hookup<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222233/original/file-20180607-137315-bgf5qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A recent analysis of profile pictures on Grindr show that most people using the site emphasize their physical fitness and bodies indicating that they using it as the Uber of casual sex.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>How do we present ourselves on our dating profiles? When we select our photos, what do our selections say about us? What do they say about the app or service we are using? </p>
<p>Are there differences in the way people present themselves? And if so, what are some of the driving forces behind the way people present themselves?</p>
<p>I am a PhD candidate in marketing at Concordia University and I use psychology and marketing theories to help me to try and understand how we choose to present ourselves — or self-market — on dating apps.</p>
<p>The way we do this says a lot about us.</p>
<p>Based on my initial findings, both straight and queer men use “costly signals” to attract a mate. However, the form of their signal differs. </p>
<h2>Dating apps — a brief history</h2>
<p>Tinder is known as having changed the way people date. But Grindr is actually the first geosocial dating app to <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2009/03/25/gay-dating-makes-its-way-to-the-iphone/">hit the market in 2009</a>. </p>
<p>Like Tinder, Grindr is a smart phone app which uses your location to generate potential matches nearby. While Tinder requires two potential matches to “like” each other simultaneously (“swipe right”) to start a conversation, Grindr gives access to any member to start a conversation with another member nearby. Profile pictures of people around you show up on the screen.</p>
<p>Grindr is the largest “networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people” with <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/719621/grindr-user-number/">2.4 million worldwide active users.</a> Grindr is most <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bj84b8/iphone-anniversary-grindr-gay-hookup-culture">often referred to as a hookup app</a> because men can meet other men for <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2012-14766-008.pdf">hookups</a>, seemingly meaningless and often anonymous sex, and move on.</p>
<p>It has been suggested the app has helped queer men who want to <a href="http://www.gayguys.com/2014/06/grindr-keeping-gay-guys-closet/">stay in the</a> <a href="https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/digital-closet-why-grindr-and-other-apps-show-how-far-we-are-from-true-equality/#gs.Q2qej84">closet</a> or those who are too young to go out to gay adult venues.</p>
<h2>The peacock’s tail on Grindr is physical fitness</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-8721.00173">costly signaling theory</a> suggests that people engage in behaviours that appear to be costly because they want to give an honest signal to a potential mate. This signal is something that can not be copied. You cannot “cheat” to display this signal.</p>
<p>The classic example used to describe this phenomenon is the peacock’s tail. The quality of the peacock’s tail is an honest signal of the quality of its genetic makeup and fitness. A higher-quality tail is costly because it requires energy and resources to grow and maintain. </p>
<p>A costly signal is needed to demonstrate that you are the best match. It is how we know the signal is honest and is not cheating.</p>
<p>For some of us, we may consider an expensive sports car like the Ferrari to be the “peacock’s tail.” If someone wanted to signal access to resources, a Ferrari could be one such signal as resources are needed to obtain a Ferrari. </p>
<p>In the same way, good physique and physical fitness cannot be cheated. So displaying physical fitness is an honest signal to a healthy lifestyle and good genes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221433/original/file-20180603-142093-13soukp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221433/original/file-20180603-142093-13soukp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221433/original/file-20180603-142093-13soukp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221433/original/file-20180603-142093-13soukp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221433/original/file-20180603-142093-13soukp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221433/original/file-20180603-142093-13soukp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221433/original/file-20180603-142093-13soukp.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">Gay men use different signals than straight men to indicate their ‘resources.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>In my research I found that straight guys on Tinder are more likely to use conspicuous consumption to attract women. Many Tinder men portray themselves with an expensive car for example. Tinder males are likely to signal specific resources or potential for acquiring resources, while women are more likely to signal pro-social behaviours such as benevolence, charitable work or virtue. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-your-profile-pic-says-about-you-in-the-tinder-age-86823">What your profile pic says about you in the Tinder age</a>
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<p>But from my observations, the queer men on Grindr use different “costly signals.” Their signals are more likely to be about their physical fitness. </p>
<p>They tend to show shirtless pictures with abs, large biceps or pictures taken mid workout. Or they briefly mention how important the gym is to them. This is done to signal positive information about themselves and their genetic fitness to others.</p>
<p>Grindr guys display their physical fitness and use their good looks. They demonstrate that they spend time in the gym and that they take good care of their body. </p>
<h2>Anonymous and fast — not for long term mating</h2>
<p>Compared to straight men, they are more likely to explicitly state that they are “DTF,” that is, looking for sex or a hookup. Grindr males are more likely to stay anonymous on their profiles than their Tinder counterparts. They want to efficiently show that they can immediately have uncommitted sex with a stranger. This is also done by showing body pictures with their abs on display. </p>
<p>With my preliminary analysis, I find that Grindr men use costly signaling to demonstrate their genetic fitness to potential mates. This is different from the Tinder guys who use more conspicuous consumption in their profiles to indicate resources and ability to take care of family.</p>
<p>The signals we use in our profiles, are a function of who we are and what we want from a mate. </p>
<p>The Grindr context is one where long term procreation is rarely the main purpose. The primary concern is to show that they will be a fun hookup, or attractive to be around.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96839/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chaim Kuhnreich 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>Grindr, the largest queer dating app worldwide, is all about the short term hookup; the currency used to attract your date is physical fitness versus wealth symbols, used by straight men on Tinder.Chaim Kuhnreich, PhD Candidate in Marketing, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/977672018-06-06T19:10:41Z2018-06-06T19:10:41ZHow homophobia, misogyny & race played a role in the Ontario election<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222317/original/file-20180608-137322-1h54xzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne acknowledges her supporters following the defeat of her party in the provincial election on June 7. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kathleen Wynne’s status as the first lesbian premier of Ontario worked against her this election, just as her sexuality has throughout her career. But we cannot stop at sexuality when asking tough questions. Wynne’s tenure as premier might be called feminist, but homophobia may be less of a factor in her defeat than misogyny. </p>
<p>As cultural critics <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2018/05/18/we-can-stop-trumpism-from-coming-to-canada.html">Rinaldo Walcott and Naomi Klein</a> point out in the <em>Toronto Star</em>, Conservative leader Doug Ford’s taunting comments about Wynne’s smile served to remind us of the similarities between her treatment and that of Hillary Clinton, another widely hated (though straight) woman who was well-qualified for the job.</p>
<p>Women in politics (indeed, most women in the public sphere) in the West have always experienced gender-based discrimination in the form of punishment and policing for daring to step out of the domestic sphere. </p>
<p>This discrimination ranges from dismissal, especially of younger women, to the “bitch” stereotype for older women, who would merely be called “tough” if they were men, and, of course, these forms of discrimination extend to sexual harassment and assault. </p>
<p>For queer women, there is the added stereotype of being “man-hating” and they also face the threat of “corrective rape” in addition to slurs and other forms of homophobic harassment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222051/original/file-20180606-137318-1svduji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222051/original/file-20180606-137318-1svduji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222051/original/file-20180606-137318-1svduji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222051/original/file-20180606-137318-1svduji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222051/original/file-20180606-137318-1svduji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222051/original/file-20180606-137318-1svduji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222051/original/file-20180606-137318-1svduji.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">Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne walks with her partner Jane Rounthwaite, left, during the annual Pride Parade in Toronto, Sunday July 3, 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite what Canada believes about its tolerance, particularly with regard to gay marriage, <a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbtq2-apology-is-a-good-start-but-its-not-enough-88159">the recent apology to queer people</a> and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marching in the annual Pride parade, we live in a homophobic society. </p>
<p>That means that all queer people are subject to implicit (and, far too often, explicit) bias. This happens to varying degrees, of course, but even in more supposedly liberal places like Toronto, where police <a href="https://www.dailyxtra.com/are-toronto-police-taking-the-safety-concerns-of-lgbt-communities-seriously-82218">didn’t believe the queer community</a> when it spoke out about the disappearances of community members. Homophobia is alive and well across Canada.</p>
<p>With that said, though, Wynne has made some decisions that were unpopular and contributed to her party’s loss on Thursday (and her subsequent decision to resign as Liberal leader), though the reasons for the Liberals’ lack of popularity are contradictory. </p>
<h2>A rise in inequality in Ontario?</h2>
<p>There have been victories under Wynne, but also too many losses and too much maintenance of the status quo. As <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2018/05/18/we-can-stop-trumpism-from-coming-to-canada.html">Walcott and Klein</a> write: “Despite important victories for workers like the minimum wage hike, and despite election-year promises of new spending, Ontario under the Liberals has become a more unequal society, with the benefits of a long period of prosperity still stuck at the top.” </p>
<p>Ontarians have heavily criticized the sale of Hydro One, for example, for privatizing our energy and spurring rate increases for consumers.</p>
<p>Wynne’s legislating people back to work during a strike has received divergent responses: It has been both heavily criticized as an assault on labour rights, and also championed <a href="https://3903.cupe.ca/students/">as necessary</a>. Indeed, her anti-NDP statement that the striking York University employees ought to be legislated back to work shows her priorities are with maintaining the status quo. </p>
<h2>The forefront of women’s rights</h2>
<p>At the same time, people have taken issue with the sexual education curriculum the Wynne government introduced for being too left-leaning; in particular, people have responded badly to the inclusion of queer and transgender content as well as the curriculum’s challenges to heteronormativity. Some of that criticism focused on Wynne’s sexuality and the stereotype of “<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-sex-ed-how-founded-are-fears-of-indoctrination-1.3065545">queer indoctrination</a>.” </p>
<p>Aside from the changes to the curriculum, the closest the Wynne government has come to initiatives that explicitly benefit queer communities — though not very prominently — is with the Ontario Fertility Program, which names queer people among candidates for fertility treatment. This program has not received much criticism; it’s hard to argue with the facilitation of reproduction for people who struggle. But it is one place that her queerness might be made visible. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221830/original/file-20180605-119863-1pj6hsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221830/original/file-20180605-119863-1pj6hsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221830/original/file-20180605-119863-1pj6hsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221830/original/file-20180605-119863-1pj6hsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221830/original/file-20180605-119863-1pj6hsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221830/original/file-20180605-119863-1pj6hsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221830/original/file-20180605-119863-1pj6hsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne waves from her bus at a campaign event in Paris, Ont. in May 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Significantly, these are all feminist issues: The economy, labour rights, knowledge about ourselves and our bodies and reproductive rights. And Wynne’s track record on these issues is divided. </p>
<p>Economically, Wynne’s policies have been right-leaning, while her more gender-focused work — while far from perfect — provide more protections than women have previously had in Ontario. Historically queer women have been at the forefront of most, if not all, feminist fights. </p>
<p>The other more explicit feminist initiative has been Wynne’s “It’s Never OK” program, which aims to combat sexual violence, and requires new workplace and campus sexual violence policies. It also includes funding for education initiatives. </p>
<h2>Getting a seat at the table</h2>
<p>It is notable, though, that these policy decisions do not tend to have a lot to do with queerness. </p>
<p>Wynne’s sexuality has not significantly informed her political choices because it can’t. Her career wouldn’t survive it, as no queer politician’s would in the current climate; queer people are stuck in a discourse that “we’re just like you,” making it nearly impossible to address issues that are specifically faced by queer people.</p>
<p>Wynne’s status as a lesbian is also evidence that a marginalized identity is not a guarantee of political investment. She is a queer woman who has experienced discrimination, but she is a <em>white</em> queer woman, and that makes a world of difference in her priorities, how she has been treated and how she is received and understood publicly. </p>
<p>Wynne’s right-leaning investments shore up her proximity to power in order to get a seat at the table. This is regardless of the consequences for the most vulnerable members of our society. She rarely mentions the issues that most affect, for example, racialized Ontarians. Her marginalized identity is potentially exploited, both by herself and others, in order to appear “diverse” without making substantive change. </p>
<p>The “leftist” issues that Wynne has focused on speak mainly to white women. Far too little attention is paid, for example, to the staggering numbers of missing and murdered Indigenous women. As is the case for the over-representation of racialized, poor, disabled women and transgender people who experience gender violence in the “It’s Never OK” policy. And where there is mention, the policy is vague, additive and police-centric, which does not address the needs of people who do not feel safe with the police. </p>
<h2>A centrist is a centrist is a centrist</h2>
<p>So when we think about Wynne’s sexuality, we simply cannot consider it outside of the rest of the social categories she occupies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222055/original/file-20180606-137322-gfpn26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222055/original/file-20180606-137322-gfpn26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222055/original/file-20180606-137322-gfpn26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222055/original/file-20180606-137322-gfpn26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222055/original/file-20180606-137322-gfpn26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222055/original/file-20180606-137322-gfpn26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222055/original/file-20180606-137322-gfpn26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wynne is pictured between glasses as she speaks during a campaign stop at Crosscut Distillery in Sudbury, Ont., on May 23, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>She is certainly hated for her sexuality, for being a woman and for being a feminist (even if she doesn’t take up that label herself). But despite these identifications, her whiteness protects her from the worst of the violence she might experience. Her privilege helps to shape her priorities. </p>
<p>Wynne’s willingness to take a “centrist” position (which are always conservative positions, despite how they are coded) harms people whose lives and well-being are put at risk by these policies or by the lack thereof. </p>
<p>Her alliances are clear when she calls the NDP and Andrea Horwath “radical.” Instead of fighting those systems that are so violent, she, like many white queer people, has shown that she will shore up too many of them. </p>
<p>She has been protected by her alliances with power structures and the ways she has sold out Ontarians, especially the most vulnerable. Being a lesbian has not changed that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97767/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharlee Cranston-Reimer receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>How has sexuality, gender and race played a role in the career of Kathleen Wynne, who stepped down as Ontario Liberal leader after her party’s disastrous showing in the provincial election?Sharlee Cranston-Reimer, SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellow Women's and Gender Studies, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/905462018-01-30T15:10:35Z2018-01-30T15:10:35ZZimbabwe’s LGBT community: why civil rights and health issues go hand in hand<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203016/original/file-20180123-182955-1bjal0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Zimbabwe's LGBT community has long struggled to gain recognition, protection and support.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Juda Ngwenya</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Zimbabwe’s recently deposed president Robert Mugabe made no secret of his loathing for gay men and lesbians. He once famously <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00918361003712087?scroll=top&needAccess=true">described them</a> as “worse than pigs and dogs”. In 2015, he stood before the UN General Assembly and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxH_Rp9VIj8">declared</a> “we [Zimbabweans] are not gays”.</p>
<p>After nearly four decades, Mugabe’s reign is over. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups are among those <a href="https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/lgbti-groups-celebrate-end-mugabes-reign-zimbabwe/#gs.=OeWv9A">celebrating his departure</a>. </p>
<p>But his ouster is unlikely to change the lives of LGBT Zimbabweans, for two main and interlinked reasons. The first is that this group of people remains marginalised and excluded from health policies, particularly around testing and treatment of HIV. The second is that Zimbabwe’s law frames LGBT people as criminals or “would-be” criminals – a constant threat to “normal” (that is, heterosexual) people’s health.</p>
<p>My ongoing <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Candice_Chikura_Mtwazi">research</a> suggests that work is needed to change the perception of LGBT people as both victims and carriers of HIV. Addressing the country’s laws is an important starting point. This is because there are two bits of legislation that directly affect the LGBT community: the first is that it’s illegal to be gay in Zimbabwe. The second is that it’s <a href="https://www.unodc.org/res/cld/document/zwe/2006/criminal_law_codification_and_reform_act_html/criminal_law_codification_and_reform_act.pdf">a criminal offence</a> to knowingly expose anyone to HIV.</p>
<p>The result is that people infected with HIV don’t get the treatment they need. This in turn means that HIV infections aren’t brought under control. And the public perception that people in the LGBT community are carriers of HIV is reaffirmed.</p>
<h2>Denial and exclusion</h2>
<p>Research <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5435254/pdf/bmjgh-2016-000168.pdf">has shown</a> that LGBT people are simply not acknowledged as legitimate sub-groups according to the state and in the country’s HIV strategies or health policies.</p>
<p>For example, UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/246200/5/9789241511124-annexes-eng.pdf">include</a> “men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people” among those groups which are vulnerable to HIV infection. But LGBT groups do not feature at all in Zimbabwe’s official definition of “at risk” populations. Without this kind of policy recognition, they lack official support and protection.</p>
<p>On top of this LGBTI people often refrain from discussing their sexuality with health workers or <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5435254/pdf/bmjgh-2016-000168.pdf">hide</a> certain aspects of their sexual practices. Others may <a href="https://www.outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/559-1.pdf">stay away</a> from clinics and hospitals to avoid stigma and discrimination. </p>
<p>All of this creates porous areas through which HIV can spread. That in turn confirms the dominant narrative of LGBT people being “vectors” of the disease. </p>
<p>Zimbabwe has an estimated population of 14.2 million people; about 1.55 million of them were <a href="https://www.pepfar.gov/documents/organization/257623.pdf">living with HIV</a> in 2014. The highest prevalence (16.7%) was among people aged between 15 and 49. The country can only respond effectively to the pandemic if the state allows health policies to recognise and support all sexualities. The current policies are conditional and selective, and that doesn’t really help anyone.</p>
<h2>Is change possible?</h2>
<p>Zimbabwe’s new president Emmerson Mnangagwa was asked during a recent interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos whether his country might change its stance on sexual minorities.</p>
<p>He replied that the law would continue to prevail, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/24/africa/zimbabwe-president-emmerson-mnangagwa-davos-intl/index.html">saying</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In our Constitution it is banned – and it is my duty to obey my constitution.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He then went on to say that “those people who want it [decriminalisation] are the people who should canvass for it.”</p>
<p>This sort of tacit acknowledgement of LGBT people as a group that could advocate for their rights and inclusion offers a glimmer of hope. After all, Mnangagwa’s predecessor offered no space at all for sexual minorities to argue their case. Perhaps change may yet come to Zimbabwe’s LGBT community – and to the country’s laws.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90546/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Candice C. Chikura 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>Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson Mnagagwga has offered a glimmer of hope to LGBT people in the country.Candice C. Chikura, Project Manager | Doctoral Scholar | Associate Lecturer in Law, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.