DOCSLIB.ORG

Obligations at the Gay Bar William B

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Obligations at the Gay Bar William B Hastings Law Journal Volume 48 | Issue 6 Article 3 1-1997 In Communities Begin Responsibilities: Obligations at the Gay Bar William B. Rubenstein Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_law_journal Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation William B. Rubenstein, In Communities Begin Responsibilities: Obligations at the Gay Bar, 48 Hastings L.J. 1101 (1997). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_law_journal/vol48/iss6/3 This Introduction is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Law Journal by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Essays In Communities Begin Responsibilities: Obligations at the Gay Bar by WILLIAM B. RUBENSTEIN David Wilkins asks: [W]hat difference will it make to the long term struggle to end the legal,. economic and political subjugation of blacks in the United States that a substantial number of the most talented and best educated black lawyers are likely to spend some or all of their careers in corporate law prac- tice?1 David Wilkins answers: It depends. Wilkins argues that black cor- porate attorneys have the potential to contribute to the eradication of ra- cial subjugation, but that this potential will be fulfilled only if two pre- conditions are met. First, black attorneys must "recognize that they have moral obligations running to the black community"; Wilkins calls this the "obligation thesis." 2 Second, law schools must assist black law students to "develop the critical skills and obtain the empirical knowledge that they will need to define the scope of this race-based obligation and to reach coherent and morally defensible judgments about how this duty should be incorporated into their lives as corporate lawyers." 3 * Acting Professor, UCLA School of Law. This Essay began as remarks given as the introduction to the Hastings Law JournalSymposium on March 29, 1997. At the time, I was a visiting professor at Stanford Law School, which I thank for its support. I am also grateful to the UCLA School of Law, under whose auspices my remarks were turned into this Essay, and particularly for conversations with, and comments that I received on an earlier draft from, Richard Abel, Alison G. Anderson, Devon Carbado, David Chambers, Mitu Gulati, Janet Hal- ley, Nan Hunter, Arthur Leonard, Martha Minow, Anne Simon, and David Wilkins. 1. David B. Wilkins, Two Paths To The Mountaintop? The Role of Legal Educaton in Shaping The Values ofBlack CorporateLawyers, 45 STAN. L. REv. 1981, 1983 (1993). 2. Id. at 1984. 3. Id. [1101] HASTINGS LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 48 I would like to introduce this audience-one composed primarily of lesbian, gay, and bisexual attorneys and those interested in queer law-to Wilkins' obligation thesis (for those unfamiliar with it) and to begin (in the limited time that I have) a preliminary exploration of the application of this thesis to the gay bar. Thus, I ask: what difference will it make to the long-term struggle to end the legal, economic and political subjuga- tion of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals in the United States that a sub- stantial number of the most talented and best educated gay lawyers-fe- male and male, white and people of color-are likely to spend some or all of their careers in corporate law practice? My preliminary answer, like Wilkins', is: It depends. I will argue that if lesbian, gay, and bisexual corporate attorneys are to become agents of social change, three factors unique to these communities must coalesce: First, the lesbian/gay community generally, and the gay bar specifically, must attend more self-consciously than it has to date to the concept of intra-community "responsibilities"; second, particular obliga- tions of lesbian/gay corporate attorneys must be identifiable and identi- fied, and, most specifically, "coming out" must be seen as neither suffi- cient nor, perhaps, always necessary to social change; and finally, queer communities must develop more sophisticated means for reproducing in- tra-community obligations inter-generationally. My Essay will proceed in three major parts. In Part I, I will per- form the function I promised the Hastings Law Journal I would-I will assess the changes in lesbian/gay law that have occurred in the eighteen years since the Law Journal last held a symposium on this subject. In Part II, before turning to a consideration of the obligations of "lesbian, gay, and bisexual attorneys," I pause to reflect on a prior question-who are these people? One of the limitations of speaking of the gay bar is that there does not yet exist a sufficient description of the history, traditions, and institutions of such an entity, much less a careful struggle with the definitional question. Thus, in Part II, I sketch a brief history of the gay bar and initiate a discussion of this question: What does it mean to be a "lesbian, gay or bisexual lawyer"?4 Finally, in Part III, I will turn to the obligation thesis. There I will describe Wilkins' thesis about black cor- 4. I am here purposefully echoing Sanford Levinson's question, "What does it mean to be a 'Jewish lawyer'?" See Sanford Levinson, Identifying the Jewish Lawyer: Reflections on the Construction of ProfessionalIdentity, 14 CARDOZo L. REv. 1577, 1583 (1993). August 19971 IN COMMUNITIES BEGIN RESPONSIBILITIES 1103 porate attorneys, consider its application to lesbian, gay, and bisexual attorneys, and offer preliminary responses to some anticipated criticism.' In undertaking this consideration, I have been significantly motivated by two factors. First, when I practiced law at the ACLU, I came in contact with attorneys in corporate practice who devoted significant ener- gies to lesbian, gay, and bisexual rights and liberation. Their contribu- tions, while enormously important in the fight against legal and social homophobia, are often underacknowledged and thus do not serve as the models that they should for encouraging more of such activity.' A sec- 5. A set of anticipated criticisms that I want to address at the outset concerns the impli- cations of my borrowing Wilkins' thesis about black attorneys. First, it is important to bear in mind the overlap of the subjects of each of our explorations. A significant minority of Wilkins' subjects may also identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual, while a significant percentage of les- bian, gay, and bisexual attorneys are people of color. (These overlaps are themselves merely subsets of the many identity categories that constitute the subjects of our discussions-black women in corporate law, lesbians of color at law firms, Jewish gay men in traditionally WASP environments, etc.) Wilkins develops his obligation thesis with a broad brush across all African Americans, though consciously acknowledging these dimensions; similarly, this initial discus- sion of a gay-obligation thesis speaks rather broadly (though in Part II quite self-consciously) of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community as well. For those falling at the many identity inter- sections, it may be necessary to develop a far more sophisticated "multi-obligation analysis" than either Wilkins or I offer in sketching our theses. See also infra note 119. A second concern of mine in borrowing Wilkins' analysis is that I not effortlessly import strategies of the African American civil rights struggle into the gay rights movement. Thus, in Part m, I take pains to analyze Wilkins' claims rather carefully and to consider their relation- ship to what is clearly a different contextual setting than that of which he writes. Both of these concerns raise the interesting question of whether individuals' obligations to their communities-both in origin and content-differ depending upon the nature of the commu- nity, or, in this context, depending upon the nature of the oppression that the community has suffered. While I have preliminarily considered such questions elsewhere, see William B. Rubenstein, Since When Is The Fourteenth Amendment Our Route to Equality? Some Reflec- tions on the Construction of the "Hate-Speech" Debate From a Lesbian/Gay Perspective, in SPEAKING OF RACE, SPEAKING OF SEX: HATE SPEECH, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND CIVIL LIBERTIES 280 (1994), the limited scope of this Essay does not enable me to pursue my responses in more depth here. 6. At the risk of excluding others, those with whom I worked most closely and who are remarkable role models include Marc Wolinsky, a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz who litigated, inter alia, Steffan v. Perry, 41 F.3d 677 (D.C. Cir. 1994) (en bane); David Braff, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, who helped litigate Gay Teachers Ass'n v. Board of Educ. of N.Y., 585 N.Y.S.2d 1016 (1st Dept. 1992) and Able v. United States, 88 F.3d 1280 (2d Cir. 1996); Joe Tringali, a partner at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, who litigated, inter alia, Anderson v. Branen, 17 F.3d 552 (2d Cir. 1994); David Hollander, who, while a partner at Morrison & Foerster, was the chair of the board of directors of Lambda Legal Defense & Edu- cation Fund; and the late Craig Davidson (Webster & Sheffield; Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett) and Michael Valentini (Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom), two of the founders of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), see Craig J. Davidson & Michael G. Valentini, CulturalAdvocacy: A Non-Legal Approach to Fighting Defamation of Lesbians and Gays, 2 L. & SEXUALITY: REV. LESBIAN & GAY LEGAL ISSUES 103 (1992). HASTINGS LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 48 ond catalyst for my thoughts here, though, has been the unsatisfying dis- course within the legal academy about the career paths available to law students generally and to minority law students in particular. Part of the socialization of law school is an implicit inculcation that two career paths exist-public interest law for the good and everything else for the fallen.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Queer Theorists and Gay Journalists Wrestle Over
    PLEASURE PRIPRINCIPLES BY CALEB CRAIN QUEER THEORISTS AND GAY JOURNALISTS WRESTLE OVER THE POLITICS OF SEX 26 PLEASURE PRINCIPLES PLEASURE PRIPRINCIPLES Nearly two hundred men and women have come to sit in the sweaty ground-floor assembly hall of New York City’s Lesbian and Gay Community Services Cen- ter. They’ve tucked their gym bags under their folding chairs, and, despite the thick late-June heat, they’re fully alert. Doz- ens more men and women cram the edges of the room, leaning against manila-colored card tables littered with Xerox- es or perching on the center’s grade-school-style water foun- tain, a row of three faucets in a knee-high porcelain trough. A video camera focuses on the podium, where activist Gregg Gonsalves and Columbia University law professor Kendall Thomas welcome the audience to a teach-in sponsored by the new organization Sex Panic. It might have been the Sex Panic flyer reading DANGER! ASSAULT! TURDZ! that drew this crowd. Handed out in New York City’s gay bars and coffee shops, the flyer identified continuing HIV transmission as the danger. It pointed to the recent closing of gay and transgender bars and an increase in arrests for public lewdness as the assault. And it named gay writers Andrew Sullivan, Michelangelo Signorile, Larry Kramer, and Gabriel Rotello as the Turdz. The flyer, however, is not how I first Kramer, or Sullivan with hisses, boos, thing called queer theory. Relatively found out about the Sex Panic meeting. and laughs. The men and women here new, queer theory represents a para- A fellow graduate student recommend- tonight feel sure of their enemies, and as digm shift in the way some scholars are ed it to me as a venue for academic the evening advances, these enemies thinking about homosexuality.
    [Show full text]
  • The Lived Experience of Monogamy Among Gay Men in Monogamous Relationships
    Walden University ScholarWorks Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies Collection 2020 The Lived Experience of Monogamy Among Gay Men in Monogamous Relationships Kellie L. Barton Walden University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations Part of the Clinical Psychology Commons This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies Collection at ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Walden University College of Social and Behavioral Sciences This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation by Kellie Barton has been found to be complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the review committee have been made. Review Committee Dr. Chet Lesniak, Committee Chairperson, Psychology Faculty Dr. Scott Friedman, Committee Member, Psychology Faculty Dr. Susan Marcus, University Reviewer, Psychology Faculty Chief Academic Officer and Provost Sue Subocz, Ph.D. Walden University 2020 Abstract The Lived Experience of Monogamy Among Gay Men in Monogamous Relationships by Kellie Barton MS, Walden University, 2012 BS, University of Phoenix, 2010 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Clinical Psychology Walden University February 2020 Abstract Research on male gay relationships spans more than 50 years, and the focus of most of this research has been on understanding the development processes, consequences, and risk factors of nonmonogamous relationships. Few researchers have explored the nature and meaning of monogamy in the male gay community.
    [Show full text]
  • APPENDIX B Syphilis Case Illustrating the Application of the Manual APPENDIX B
    APPENDIX B Syphilis Case Illustrating the Application of the Manual APPENDIX B Appendix B Syphilis Case Illustrating the Application of the Manual THE SITUATION After analyzing syphilis morbidity reports and interview records, STD officials in the city of Chancri-La noticed an increase in the number of syphilis cases among men who reported having sex with men (MSM). From 1999 to 2002, the number of MSM cases had gone up, as well as the percentage of MSM cases. In 1999, there was only 1 MSM case, which represented .9% of the syphilis cases in males. By 2002, the number of MSM cases had increased to 14, and represented 29.2% of their male cases. Further analysis revealed that the cases were not concentrated in one geographic part of the city, based on the males’ residences. However, through interviews conducted by the Disease Intervention Specialists (DIS), the STD officials learned that most of the males socialized in the same area. ACTIONS TAKEN A DIS was already screening sporadically at a gay bar. To address this emerging problem, STD officials initiated meetings with six community-based organizations (CBOs) that work with the MSM community. Together, they designed a plan of action to implement jointly. One of the activities implemented was syphilis screening in different venues (i.e., bathhouses, gay bars, CBOs, mobile unit, and a gay parade). The STD director and program staff were interested in determining which of these screening approaches was more successful in reaching the target population. The following illustrates the steps involved in designing and implementing this evaluation.
    [Show full text]
  • Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame 2001
    CHICAGO GAY AND LESBIAN HALL OF FAME 2001 City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations Richard M. Daley Clarence N. Wood Mayor Chair/Commissioner Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues William W. Greaves Laura A. Rissover Director/Community Liaison Chairperson Ó 2001 Hall of Fame Committee. All rights reserved. COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues 740 North Sedgwick Street, 3rd Floor Chicago, Illinois 60610 312.744.7911 (VOICE) 312.744.1088 (CTT/TDD) Www.GLHallofFame.org 1 2 3 CHICAGO GAY AND LESBIAN HALL OF FAME The Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame is both a historic event and an exhibit. Through the Hall of Fame, residents of Chicago and our country are made aware of the contributions of Chicago's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) communities and the communities’ efforts to eradicate homophobic bias and discrimination. With the support of the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations, the Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues established the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in June 1991. The inaugural induction ceremony took place during Pride Week at City Hall, hosted by Mayor Richard M. Daley. This was the first event of its kind in the country. The Hall of Fame recognizes the volunteer and professional achievements of people of the LGBT communities, their organizations, and their friends, as well as their contributions to their communities and to the city of Chicago. This is a unique tribute to dedicated individuals and organizations whose services have improved the quality of life for all of Chicago's citizens.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparison of Gay and Straight Men and Their Utilization of the Bar Scene
    Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® Masters Theses & Specialist Projects Graduate School 5-2015 Meet Me at the Bar? A Comparison of Gay and Straight Men and Their tU ilization of The aB r Scene Jasmine M. Routon Western Kentucky University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses Part of the Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, and the Gender and Sexuality Commons Recommended Citation Routon, Jasmine M., "Meet Me at the Bar? A Comparison of Gay and Straight Men and Their tU ilization of The aB r Scene" (2015). Masters Theses & Specialist Projects. Paper 1470. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1470 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses & Specialist Projects by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MEET ME AT THE BAR? A COMPARISON OF GAY AND STRAIGHT MEN AND THEIR UTILIZATION OF THE BAR SCENE A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Sociology Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, Kentucky In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree Master of Arts By Jasmine M. Routon May 2015 I dedicate this thesis to my best friend, Brant Weiss, who continues to motivate and inspire me. We have shared many conversations concerning life, love, sexuality and many other beautiful disasters that have all contributed to my research interests. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to acknowledge my thesis chair, Donielle Lovell, who has been a mentor to me since my undergraduate years.
    [Show full text]
  • About Outing: Public Discourse, Private Lives
    Washington University Law Review Volume 73 Issue 4 January 1995 About Outing: Public Discourse, Private Lives Katheleen Guzman University of Oklahoma Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview Part of the First Amendment Commons Recommended Citation Katheleen Guzman, About Outing: Public Discourse, Private Lives, 73 WASH. U. L. Q. 1531 (1995). Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol73/iss4/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Law Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABOUT OUTING: PUBLIC DISCOURSE, PRIVATE LIVES KATHELEEN GUZMAN* Out of sight, out of mind. We're here. We're Queer. Get used to it. You made your bed. Now lie in it.' I. INTRODUCTION "Outing" is the forced exposure of a person's same-sex orientation. While techniques used to achieve this end vary,2 the most visible examples of outing are employed by gay activists in publications such as The Advocate or OutWeek,4 where ostensibly, names are published to advance a rights agenda. Outing is not, however, confined to fringe media. The mainstream press has joined the fray, immortalizing in print "the love[r] that dare[s] not speak its name."' The rules of outing have changed since its national emergence in the early 1990s. As recently as March of 1995, the media forced a relatively unknown person from the closet.6 The polemic engendered by outing * Associate Professor of Law, University of Oklahoma College of Law.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Law and Society May Legitimately Prefer Heterosexuality
    Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons Faculty Publications 2011 Straight Is Better: Why Law and Society May Legitimately Prefer Heterosexuality George W. Dent Jr. Case Western University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/faculty_publications Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons Repository Citation Dent, George W. Jr., "Straight Is Better: Why Law and Society May Legitimately Prefer Heterosexuality" (2011). Faculty Publications. 506. https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/faculty_publications/506 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. TEXASFINAL STRAIGHT IS BETTER DENT FINAL AUG. UPDATE8/23/2011 3:15 PM STRAIGHT IS BETTER: WHY LAW AND SOCIETY MAY JUSTLY PREFER HETEROSEXUALITY GEORGE W. DENT, JR. * I. INTRODUCTION........................................................... 361 II. THE CONFLICT OVER HOMOSEXUALITY .................... 361 III. THE LEGITIMACY OF VALUE JUDGMENTS IN THE LAW ............................................................................ 363 IV. THE CATHOLIC NATURAL LAW PHILOSOPHY OF SEXUALITY ................................................................. 369 V. SOCIETY MAY LEGITIMATELY PREFER HETEROSEXUALITY AND TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE ... 371 A. The Intrinsic
    [Show full text]
  • The Invisible Lesbian: the Creation and Maintenance of Quiet Queer Space and the Social Power of Lesbian Bartenders
    THE INVISIBLE LESBIAN: THE CREATION AND MAINTENANCE OF QUIET QUEER SPACE AND THE SOCIAL POWER OF LESBIAN BARTENDERS A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Sociology Colorado College In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Arts in Sociology By Kathleen Hallgren May/2012 ABSTRACT Despite extensive scholarship exploring relationships between space, gender, and sexuality, little attention has been given to lesbian/queer subjects in everyday heterosexual spaces such as bars. Furthermore, there is an absence of work addressing the bartender as a social actor. This research confronts those gaps by examining the social power of lesbian bartenders in straight bars to facilitate lesbian networks, and to cultivate and maintain “quiet queer spaces”—structurally heterosexual and socially heteronormative spaces that temporarily and covertly double as safe spaces for queer populations. By drawing on previous scholarship, and conducting a primary investigation through interviews and observations, I examine the creation and maintenance of quiet queer spaces in Colorado Springs bars to conclude that quiet queer spaces are both present and necessary in lesbian networks. I specifically examine the position of the lesbian bartender in straight bars as one of unique social power, essential in the creation and identification of quiet queer space. 2 After living in Colorado Springs for nearly four years, I could almost have been convinced that I was the only lesbian1 in the city. Beyond the campus of the city’s small liberal arts college, I saw no evidence of queer populations. This is curious, given recent studies2 that suggest one in every ten Americans is gay.
    [Show full text]
  • Nostalgia, Utopia, and Desire in the New York Lesbian Bar
    Vassar College Digital Window @ Vassar Senior Capstone Projects 2019 “It’s your future, don’t miss it”: nostalgia, utopia, and desire in the New York lesbian bar Zoe Wennerholm Vassar College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalwindow.vassar.edu/senior_capstone Recommended Citation Wennerholm, Zoe, "“It’s your future, don’t miss it”: nostalgia, utopia, and desire in the New York lesbian bar" (2019). Senior Capstone Projects. 897. https://digitalwindow.vassar.edu/senior_capstone/897 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Window @ Vassar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of Digital Window @ Vassar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “It’s Your Future, Don’t Miss It”: Nostalgia, Utopia, and Desire in the New York Lesbian Bar Zoe Wennerholm April 26, 2019 Senior Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies ________________________ Advisor, Lisa Brawley Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………….3 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….4 Chapter 1: History: A Brief Review of Lesbian Bars in the 20th and 21st Century American Urban Landscape……………………………………………………………………………9 Chapter 2: Loss: Lesbian Bar Closings and Their Affective Reverberations………………29 Chapter 3: Desire: The Lesbian Bar in the Queer Imaginary……………………………….47 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….52 References Cited……………………………………………………………………………55 Appendix 1: Interview with Gwen Shockey…………………………………………………60 Appendix 2: Timeline of New York Lesbian Bars…………………………………………73 2 Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Lisa Brawley, whose guidance and encouragement always came at exactly the right time. My heartfelt thanks also goes to Gwen Shockey, whose enthusiasm and willingness to speak with a naïve young dyke made me feel understood and inspired.
    [Show full text]
  • The Gay Commute
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Scholarship at UWindsor The Gay Commute On the Development of Queer Community and Identity in the Windsor-Detroit Borderlands 1945-1980 Graeme Sylvestre University of Windsor 1 The landscape of the Windsor-Detroit borderland is especially well-suited for exploring the reciprocal development of queer community and identity. Historical scholarship has revealed how queer individuals have manoeuvred metropolitan space and explored their own complex and dynamic identities of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Within the urban area of post-war Detroit, threat of exposure and possible arrest affected the everyday lives of gay people, yet they found places to meet in and around a downtown cluster of predominantly white bars and in separate gay locations in black neighborhoods. As gay sites, the urban bars exerted a pull that also extended to people in the suburbs who desired homosexual contact. This pull extended across the international border to Windsor, where a dearth of queer-friendly spaces drove gay Windsorites to the downtown bars and bathhouses of Detroit. What is here referred to as “the gay commute” was a defining characteristic of the lived experiences of gay residents in the Windsor- Detroit borderlands through the latter decades of the twentieth century. This phenomenon can be understood as the movement of queer individuals from locations that are deemed unaccommodating or hostile to queer gender and sexual identities to spaces that are accessible and amenable to lived queer sexual and social lifestyles and experiences. Where societal persecution resulted in the repression of gay identities and lifestyles, queer individuals travelled to locations where they could engage in queer social, cultural, and sexual interaction with anonymity and security.
    [Show full text]
  • Sexual Satisfaction, Identity and Sero-Adaptation
    SEXUAL SATISFACTION, IDENTITY AND SERO-ADAPTATION: AN INVESTIGATION INTO PERSONALITY AND BEHAVIOURAL CORRELATES OF BAREBACK IDENTITY AND BEHAVIOUR IN MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN by Natania Leah Marcus A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Clinical and Counselling Psychology Applied Psychology and Human Development Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Natania Leah Marcus (2016) SEXUAL SATISFACTION, IDENTITY AND SERO-ADAPTATION: AN INVESTIGATION INTO PERSONALITY AND BEHAVIOURAL CORRELATES OF BAREBACKING IDENTITY AND BEHAVIOUR IN MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN Master of Arts Clinical and Counselling Psychology 2016 Natania Leah Marcus Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development University of Toronto Abstract Barebacking, or condomless anal intercourse in the presence of risk of contracting HIV, has emerged as a common phenomenon between men who have sex with men (MSM). The present cross-sectional study investigated psychological correlates of barebacking behaviour and identity, as well as how MSM increase their sexual satisfaction while reducing risk of HIV transmission. Two hundred and fifty-six MSM across Canada and the US were recruited for an online survey. Men who engaged in barebacking were significantly more likely to be HIV-positive, be higher in sexual sensation-seeking, meet sexual partners online, and use substances before and during sex. Self-identified barebackers were also more sexually satisfied than non- barebackers. Further, MSM who engaged in barebacking were found to use more sero-adaptive strategies, which are harm-reduction techniques to reduce risk of HIV transmission such as strategic positioning and taking PrEP.
    [Show full text]
  • Out & About: a Fresher's Guide to Gay London
    A FRESHERS GUIDE TO GAY LONDON ABOUT OUT& 4 “BE WHO YOU ARE AND SAY WHAT YOU FEEL, BECAUSE THOSE WHO MIND DON’T MATTER AND THOSE WHO MATTER DON’T MIND.” Dr Seuss (American Writer and Cartoonist, 1904-1991) The committee would like to make a special thanks to Alfredo Carpineti and Chris Kurzeja for their time and efforts in creating the professional design and thoughtful original content of Out & About. 3 CONTENTS 4 All About IQ 5 Help! (I Need Somebody) - Info & Advice 6 Help! (I Need Somebody) - Sexual Health 8 The Long Way Out 13 I Wanna Take You To A Gay Bar 16 Nightclubbing 18 Soho Map 20 I Don’t Feel Like Dancing 23 Culture Club 24 A Little History 26 What’s On: Autumn 2009 4 ALL ABOUT IQ COMMITTEE ‘09/10 PRESIDENT TREASURER SECRETARY CHRIS ROB MIKE WEB/PUBLICITY EVENTS WOMENS OFFICER MITCH FELIX IONA Our website is www.imperalcollegeunion.org/iq Our Facebook Page: search for “IQ (Imperial College LGBT)” in the Imperial College network Q-Phone: 07963 005 676 55 WORDHELP! FROM (I NEED THE SOMEBODY) PRESIDENT Sometimes you just have a burning question (or something else burn- ing) that you need help with. Sometimes friends are helpful, but most of the time you just want to find out anonymously. This section lists places and people that are there to help you out. INFO AND ADVICE The LLGS provides an information, support and referral service for lesbians, gay men, bisexual people and anyone who needs to consider issues around their sexuality.
    [Show full text]