Narrative Therapy Pathways for Re-authoring with Parents of Adolescents Coming-out as Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual

Narrative therapy with parents as they are coming to terms with their adolescent sons’ and daughters’ coming-out as lesbian or gay provides a framework for reauthoring stories and revisioning identities as they negotiate the challenge of becoming lesbian/gay-membered families. Recognized for complementing the elements of multicultural practice, narrative therapy offers therapeutic interventions that are culturally sensitive and acknowledge the role of power and privilege in socially imaging what it means to be lesbian or gay. In this article the familiar storylines that these families bring into therapy are illustrated, and family work with parents of lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents is conceptualized using a narrative therapy lens.     

Countertransference issues in psychotherapy with lesbian and gay clients

This article briefly reviews literature on responses towards same-sex (lesbian and gay) sexualities from psychoanalytic and ‘lesbian and gay affirmative’ psychotherapeutic perspectives. An analysis is presented of reports of countertransferential reactions to lesbian and gay clients, obtained from interviews with fourteen psychotherapists who work in a lesbian and gay affirmative manner and eighteen clients who had received affirmative psychotherapy. Data were subjected to grounded analysis. Participants consistently attended to the thoughts, feelings and values that therapists held in relation to lesbian and gay clients and how these affected the meanings and practices available to them. These were linked with the therapist's sexual identity among other factors. Negative countertransferential reactions were regarded as potentially occurring among heterosexual and lesbian and gay therapists and were seen as arising from therapists’ conscious and unconscious fears about same-sex sexualities. These findings indicate a need to continue debating these issues more widely in the professional arena.     

Issues of Identity Development Among Asian-American Lesbians and Gay Men

This study examined the factors that affect an Asian-American individual's choice of identification with Asian-American and lesbian or gay identity. Nineteen Asian-American lesbians and 16 Asian-American gay men belonging to Asian-American lesbian or gay organizations answered survey questionnaires. Results indicated that most of the respondents identified more strongly with their lesbian or gay identities than with their Asian-American identities; however, most indicated that acknowledgment of both aspects of identity was preferred. Other situational factors, including disclosure of lesbian or gay identity to family and to the Asian-American community, as well as discrimination because of sexual orientation, race, and gender, were examined in regard to identity development.     

Intercultural (Mis)Communication: Why Would You “Out” Me in Class?

This paper conceptualizes Hopson’s notion of crash moments by exploring an intercultural interaction (between an individual who identifies as heterosexual and another who identifies as homosexual) within a graduate classroom by drawing on cultural schema theory and critical incident analysis. Ultimately, this paper deconstructs a communication breakdown through a self-reflexive process in which the researcher was “outed” (someone else disclosed the sexual orientation of a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered individual in a public setting) by a classmate—which the researcher deems as a problematic occurrence, making the incident critical and fitting for analysis within an intercultural communication context. This paper also considers the complexities of sexual identity negotiation as an African American female lesbian at a Historically Black College/University.     

Is it Really Just About Being More Like a Fag? Confronting the Gay Male Model Mantra

Although the debate between feminism and queer is by now a fairly old and some might argue, trite and overwrought one, in this paper I direct my attention to a specific feminist assessment of queer that I find to be especially unhelpful and pernicious: the automatic linkage of queer with the exaltation of a gay male subjectivity. This article is informed by my own ethnographic research on lesbian/queer public sexual cultures; specifically, two Canadian lesbian/queer bathhouses, where public sex and sexual exploration are encouraged. I argue that this contention, that lesbians who espouse queer are aping (gay) male sexuality and subjectivity—due to the privileging of non-normative sexual practices found within the gay male community—does two things: (re)essentializes genders and sexualities, and, more importantly, robs non-gay male subjects (e.g., women, lesbians, butches, trans identified individuals) of their own agency. In sum, I believe that this linkage to a supposed gay male imitation, and concomitantly, viewing lesbian/queer sexual cultures, behaviors, configurations, and signifying sexual economies as mere derivatives of gay male culture, reinforces lesbian/queer invisibility and (re)centers the heterosexual matrix. For the sake of lesbian/queer subjects’ own viability, lesbian/queer sexualities must thus be pulled out of this discursive trap.     

Psychological Adjustment of Lesbians and Gay Men

Previous research has documented that lesbians and gay men proceed through a series of stages in developing a positive lesbian and gay identity. The relationship between lesbian and gay identity and subsequent psychological adjustment has not been evaluated. These empirical studies found that positive lesbian and gay identity is related to psychological adjustment as measured by lower neurotic anxiety and greater ego strength in both an older and a younger sample of lesbians and gay men. Two coping strategies—self-labeling as a homosexual and self-disclosure of sexual orientation to others—were related to development of a positive lesbian or gay identity. These findings suggest that development of a positive lesbian or gay identity is an important task in promoting the psychological adjustment of lesbians and gay men.     

Internalism about a person’s good: don’t believe it

Internalism about a person’s good is roughly the view that in order for something to intrinsically enhance a person’s well-being, that person must be capable of caring about that thing. I argue in this paper that internalism about a person’s good should not be believed. Though many philosophers accept the view, Connie Rosati provides the most comprehensive case in favor of it. Her defense of the view consists mainly in offering five independent arguments to think that at least some form of internalism about one’s good is true. But I argue that, on closer inspection, not one of these arguments succeeds. The problems don’t end there, however. While Rosati offers good reasons to think that what she calls ‘two-tier internalism’ would be the best way to formulate the intuition behind internalism about one’s good, I argue that two-tier internalism is actually false. In particular, the problem is that no substantive theory of well-being is consistent with two-tier internalism. Accordingly, there is reason to think that even the best version of internalism about one’s good is in fact false. Thus, I conclude, the prospects for internalism about a person’s good do not look promising.     

Gay Identity Issues Among Black Americans: Racism,Homophobia, and the Need for Validation

There is little available literature on gay and lesbian identity among Black Americans. This exploratory study involved interviewing a total of six Black-American gay men and lesbian women regarding gay identity development issues. Data pertaining to the interviewees' experiences of gay identity development were obtained through a questionnaire of six open-ended questions and an interview with each participant lasting 1 to 2 hours. This article presents some of the significant challenges faced by those who were interviewed regarding their sense of self-acceptance, both as Blacks in the predominantly White gay and lesbian community and as gay men and lesbian women in the predominantly heterosexual Black community. The implications of these issues for future research and counseling intervention are discussed. In this article the term gay identity is generally used in reference to both men and women. When women are being discussed exclusively, however, the term lesbian identity is used.     

Plasticity,motor intentionality and concrete movement in Merleau-Ponty

Merleau-Ponty’s explication of concrete or practical movement by way of the Schneider case could be read as ending up close to automatism, neglecting its flexibility and plasticity in the face of obstacles. It can be contended that he already goes off course in his explication of Schneider’s condition. Rasmus Jensen has argued that he assimilates a normal person’s motor intentionality to the patient’s, thereby generating a vacuity problem. I argue that Schneider’s difficulties with certain movements point to a means of broadening Merleau-Ponty’s account of concrete movement, one that he broaches without exploiting. What could do more work is his recognition of a transposition capacity - and hence of a plasticity - in the healthy body’s skill schema. As well as avoiding vacuity, he could forestall the appearance of a dichotomy between practical coping and creativity.     

The Meanings and Manifestations of Religion and Spirituality among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Adults

The present study employed a mixed method approach in the effort to explore religious and spiritual practices among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals, as well as the meanings ascribed to the terms religiosity and spirituality by LGBT adults. Data were collected via a cross-sectional survey consisting of open- and close-ended items among 498 LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) identified individuals attending an annual Pride event in a large northeastern city. Both quantitative and qualitative findings suggested that consistent with other studies, spirituality was defined largely in relational terms (e.g., in terms of one’s relationship with God and with self). Religion, in contrast, was defined largely in terms of communal worship and in terms of its negative influences in the lives of individuals and communities. For this sample of LGBT persons, spiritual identities were more pronounced than religious ones, and this pattern may be explained by their understanding of the spiritual self in relation to prosocial engagement and interconnectedness with others, the world around them, and the universe. Further, religious affiliation and practices were explained, in part, by the religion in which the individual was raised, level of educational attainment, as well as the developmental stage in which the person is currently situated. The findings highlight the reality that a substantial number of LGBT individuals may remain committed to religious and spiritual life, which may be related to a motivation to make sense of one’s place in the world especially in light of societal misunderstandings and intolerance to LGBT individuals.     

Counting subjects

Kolak’s arguments for the thesis ‘there is only one person’ in fact show that the subject-in-itself is not a countable entity. The paper argues for this assertion by comparing Kolak’s concept of the subject with Kant’s notion of the transcendental unity of apperception (TUAP), which is a formal feature of experience and not countable. It also argues the point by contrasting both the subject and the TUAP with the notion of the individual human being or empirical self, which is the main concern standard theories of personal identity such as those of Williams, Parfit and Nozick. Unlike the empirical self, but rather like Kant’s TUAP, the subject-in-itself cannot be counted because it is not an object or substance, despite Kolak’s thesis that there is only one. The paper also maintains that Kolak’s contention that the subject is an entity hinges on a strong and less plausible interpretation of Kant’s transcendental idealism.     

Maintenance and Transformation of Problematic Self-Narratives: A Semiotic-Dialogical Approach

This study focuses on how the emergence of innovative moments (IMs), which are exceptions to a person’s dominant self-narrative (i.e., his or her usual way of understanding and experiencing), progresses to the construction of a new self-narrative. IMs challenge a person’s current framework of understanding and experiencing, generating uncertainty. When uncertainty is excessively threatening, a semiotic strategy to deal with it often emerges: attenuation of novelty’s meanings and implications by a quick return to the dominant self-narrative. From a dialogical perspective, a dominant voice (which organizes one’s current self-narrative) and a non-dominant or innovative voice (expressed during IMs) establish a cyclical relation, mutual in-feeding, blocking self-development. In this article, we analyze a successful psychotherapeutic case focusing on how the relation between dominant and non-dominant voices evolves from mutual in-feeding to other forms of dialogical relation. We have identified two processes: (1) escalation of the innovative voice(s) thereby inhibiting the dominant voice and (2) dominant and innovative voices negotiating and engaging in joint action.     

Intimate Partner Violence Within Gay Male Couples: Dimensionalizing Partner Violence Among Cuban Gay Men

Using a quantitative–qualitative mixed design, the current study investigated relationship violence within 35 gay male couples living in Santiago, Cuba. Informants narrated how violence was enacted within their relationship. Qualitative analyses revealed men’s construction of masculinity and the sequelae of economic hardships—which led to economic emasculinization—were primary contributors to relationship abuse. Gendered interpretations to the display of heightened masculinity contributed to intimate partner violence. Enacted interpersonal violence was not meaningfully associated with alcohol consumption or to personality measures. We suggest the economic constraints that are perceived by couples to precipitate relational stress may be similar across heterosexual and gay/lesbian couples, and that the relational power accorded to economic privilege cannot be aligned fully by gender.     

An American Drag Queen in West Berlin: The Negotiation of Homosexual Identity,Transgressive Behavior and Social Acceptance in late 1960s and early 1970s West Germany

My work analyzes a number of confrontations between Tobi Marsh, a gay drag queen, and his German-Jewish landlord, Stark, in late 1960s and early 1970s West Berlin. Based upon an extensive personal interview with Marsh, my work uses subjective testimony to examine the complexity of lived-experience for gay men in Bundesrepublik society right at the time when the West Germany government extended full political and legal equality to gay men. Marsh’s testimony details two separate incidents during which Stark, who knew Marsh was openly gay and performed as a drag queen, attacked Marsh’s sexual orientation. While perhaps not significant in and of itself, a closer look at Marsh’s account reveals that Stark made use of very specific social contexts in order to condemn Marsh’s sexual identity. In fact, on both occasions some other social transgression entirely served as a catalyst to the confrontation, one a racial transgression and another an ethno-religious transgression. In both cases, however, Stark made use of the situation of a “double-transgression” to censure Marsh and his company first and foremost as homosexuals. At the same time, the sexual nature of Stark’s outbursts reveals that Stark was actually concerned about the tenuous standing and respectability of his own person and household as a likewise marginalized individual in West German society. Indeed, Stark’s attacks on Marsh’s homosexuality were disguised attempts to assert his own position in “respectable” West German society at Marsh’s expense. Marsh’s run-ins with Stark, then, both add to the growing literature on the various forms of informal prejudice suffered by gay men in post-World War II West German society and serve as a larger lens through which to view the rich complexity of life for gay men in a country still undergoing democratization where social belonging was being negotiated along a number of fronts.     

Speaking of persons,human and divine

Christians commonly speak of and to God as ‘a person’. The propriety of such talk depends on how the concept of a person is being used and understood, and that concept is much contested in contemporary analytic philosophy. In this article, I note the presuppositions of one current debate about what it is to be a human person, and then propose an alternative approach to persons—both human and divine—that draws upon the Thomistic philosophical and theological tradition. In this tradition, ‘person’ is neither an essence-determining kind term, nor a merely nominal or functional kind term, but is applicable analogously to entities of various ‘kinds’ (e.g. humans, angels and God). The origins of this account in Aquinas’ theology of the Trinity will be examined, and I will conclude by noting a recent development of Thomas’ thought in relation to what it is to be a human person.     

A Queer Supplement: Reading Spinoza after Grosz

This article critiques Elizabeth Grosz's understanding that queer theory is unproductive insofar as it disrupts the specific identities of gay and lesbian. Reconsidering ideas about desire, the body, and identity that Grosz takes from Gilles Deleuze's work on Friedrich Nietzsche and Baruch Spinoza, this essay argues that, despite her productive reworking of homophobia in terms of “active” and “reactive” forces, Grosz's application of Spinoza is only partial. Focusing on Spinoza's evaluation of bodies, the essay both critiques Grosz's approach to experimental desire and observes Spinozist preoccupations in order to talk about the experimental body. It concludes that if Grosz were to attend more seriously to the Spinozist imperative to analyze a body in terms of its capabilities—that is, its power to be affected—the epistemological basis of her argument would change. It would be difficult to dismiss the plurality and sensibility of a queer body or its challenge to lesbian and gay as the source of a primary identity.     

Happiness theories of the good life

The paper starts with a presentation of the pure happiness theory, i.e. the idea that the quality of a person’s life is dependent on one thing only, viz. how happy that person is. To find out whether this type of theory is plausible or not, I examine the standard arguments for and against this theory, including Nozick’s experience machine argument. I then investigate how the theory can be modified in order to avoid the most serious objections. I first examine different types of epistemic modifications of the theory (e.g. the idea that a person’s happiness is more valuable for her if it is based on a correct perception of her own life), and then turn to a number of modifications which all make the value of a person’s happiness depend on whether the evaluative standard on which her happiness is based satisfies certain requirements. In connection with this, I present and defend my own modified version of the happiness theory.     

Information-Seeking Practices during the Sexual Development of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals: The Influence and Effects of Coming Out in a Mediated Environment

Constructing a sexual identity is one of the major developmental tasks of adolescence. Applying the Media Practice Model, this study retrospectively examines how self-identifying lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals used media during the commencement of the coming-out process and the effects of media use during this pivotal time of development. Results indicate that the Internet plays a critical role in the development of LGB sexual identities. Heavy users of media during the coming-out process are significantly less likely to communicate openly with their families later in life. However, individuals’ reports of loneliness and self-esteem are not affected. Conclusions suggest that mediated forms of communication can be beneficial for sexual exploration among LGB individuals.     

Creating an embodied queer Judaism: liturgy,ritual and sexuality at San Francisco’s Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, 1977–1987

ABSTRACT

Gay and lesbian synagogues, unique to the American religious landscape, first appeared in the early 1970s. At the height of the gay synagogue movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s, over two dozen such congregations met the spiritual needs of gay and lesbian Jews across the United States. As they grew and expanded, these synagogues incubated a new “queer Judaism” centred on innovative rituals, liturgy, and embodied practices grounded in gay and lesbian (and later, also bisexual and transgender) experiences. In this essay, I offer a 10-year case study of the development of queer Judaism at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav (CSZ), San Francisco’s gay and lesbian synagogue, founded in 1977. Within the landscape of gay and lesbian synagogues, CSZ stands out for being founded in San Francisco when that city was the capital of American gay culture. Inspired by the Gay Liberation Movement and the flowering of grassroots Jewish community organizing in the late 1960s and 1970s, the founders of CSZ asserted a right to difference, building and promoting links between Judaism, sexuality, gender, and identity. In this context, CSZ helped build a queer, sex-positive Judaism that celebrated and politicized sexual minorities, created new forms of chosen family, and fostered an ethic of egalitarian and lay-led inclusiveness.     

Structuring Ends

There is disagreement among contemporary theorists regarding human well-being. On one hand there are “substantive good” views, according to which the most important elements of a person’s well-being result from her nature as a human, rational, and/or sentient being. On the other hand there are “agent-constituted” views, which contend that a person’s well-being is constituted by her particular aims, desires, and/or preferences. Each approach captures important features of human well-being, but neither can provide a complete account: agent-constituted theories have difficulty accounting for the normativity of their claims, and substantive good theories have difficulty accounting for how a person’s actually adopted aims shape what is good for her and hence what she has reason to do. I articulate and defend a hybrid view that equals these approaches in systematicity and completeness of explanation yet seeks to surpass them in coherence with our ordinary judgments about what human well-being consists in. This hybrid view maintains, with agent-constituted theories, that a person’s well-being is (1) significantly constituted by her actually adopted aims; (2) deeply contingent; (3) agent-relative; (4) significantly dependent on spatially and temporally remote events; and (5) significantly independent of her experiences. The hybrid view also maintains, with substantive good theories, that a person’s well-being is (6) in part determined by facts independent of her aims, desires, and preferences; (7) such that all her aims are subject to critical evaluation and revision; and (8) constituted by her aims only if these aims are choiceworthy.