Gay and Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review Guest Editor Christopher Fox The Australian Psychological Society Ltd. ISSN 1833-4512 Editor Damien W. Riggs, The University of Adelaide Editorial Board Graeme Kane, Private Practice Jim Malcom, The University of Western Sydney Liz Short, Victoria University Jane Edwards, Spencer Gulf Rural Health School Murray Drummond, The University of South Australia Gordon Walker, Monash University Jo Harrison, The University of South Australia Kirsten McLean, Monash University Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Deakin University Suzanne McLaren, University of Ballarat Christopher Fox, La Trobe University Vivienne Cass, Private Practice International Advisory Committee Esther Rothblum, San Diego State University, US Jerry J. Bigner, Colorado State University, US Meg Barker, The Open University, UK Darren Langdridge, The Open University, UK Todd Morrison, University of Saskatchewan, Canada Elizabeth Peel, Aston University, UK Sonja J. Ellis, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Victoria Clarke, University of the West of England, UK Peter Hegarty, University of Surrey, UK Gareth Treharne, University of Otago, NZ Fiona Tasker, University of London, UK Jeffery Adams, Massey University, NZ Aims and scope The Gay and Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review (‘the Review’) is a peer-reviewed publication that is available online through the Australian Psychological Society. Its remit is to encourage re- search that challenges the stereotypes and assumptions of pathology that have often inhered to re- search on lesbians, gay men, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) people. The aim of the Review is thus to facilitate discussion over the direction of LGBTQ psychology both within Australia and abroad, and to provide a forum within which academics, practitioners and lay people may publish. The Review is open to a broad range of material, and especially welcomes research, commentary and reviews that critically evaluate the status quo in regards to LGBTQ issues. The Review also seeks papers that redress the imbalance that has thus far focused on the issues facing white lesbians and gay men, to the exclusion of other sexual, gender and racial groups. The Review encourages the elaboration of an expansive approach to psychological research on people of a diverse range of sex- ual and non-gender normative groups, and publishes articles from across a range of disciplines in- cluding (but not limited to) psychology, social work, cultural studies, sociology, gender studies, poli- tics, history and legal studies. All submissions or enquires should be directed in the first instance to the Editor. Guidelines for sub- missions or for advertising within the Review are provided on the final page of each issue. 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Indexing http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/glip/glip_review/ The Review is listed on Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory: http://www.ulrichsweb.com/ The Review is indexed by: EBSCO (LGBT Life database) Directory of Open Access Journals International Information Centre and Archives for the Women’s Movement Pandora Archive NLA ProQuest (Genderwatch database) The Review is eligible for DEST points and is recognised on the Australian ERA journal rankings as a level C journal. Gay and Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review Volume 5 Number 3 Contents Editorial: Queer hate 131 Christopher Fox Articles ‘It really is water off our backs’: Young LGBQ people’s strategies for resisting and refuting 134 homonegative practices in Australian workplaces. Paul Willis Lesbian exclusion: ‘I didn't learn it in a cognisant sense, I absorbed it through my skin’ 146 Suzanne Dyson Rural homophobia: Not really gay 153 Lorene Gottschalk and Janice Newton It’s hatred and intolerance not fear 160 Christopher Fox Health service use and experiences of transgender people: Australian and New 167 Zealand perspectives Marian Pitts, Murray Couch, Samantha Croy, Anne Mitchell and Hunter Mulcare Let’s talk about trans: ‘Trans-positive’ discourse, Australian psychology & gender euphoria 177 Natalie Lysenko The smiling faces of contemporary homophobia and transphobia 185 Damien W. Riggs and Amy Patterson Book Reviews International Korean Adoption: A Fifty-Year History of Policy and Practice 191 Jessica Walton Calls for Papers International LGBT Psychology Summer School GLIP Review Special Issue: GLBT Bodies and Body Image Gay & Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2009 EDITORIAL: QUEER HATE CHRISTOPHER FOX In collating this special edition I chose queer tests to the harm and hurt caused by speech. hate purposefully. As I argue later in the edi- tion, homophobia does not capture the true I am not going to cite the statistics on queer essence of our experiences as LGBTQ people. hate. I believe we know these well either I have a phobia of snakes; friends have pho- through first-hand experience or through sup- bias of spiders – we are able to learn to deal porting the broader queer community. I do with these phobias. Yet the abuse and hate not think it our job to educate those that do we experience in our lives is more than some- not know. The question needs to be if people one’s phobia. Q ueer hate is also about en- do not know, why don’t they know? We need compassing the myriad of sexualities and sex- to use our resources more wisely and effect ual lives that are often placed on the periph- change so the barriers to the broader ery of society. Homophobia is not encom- (heterosexual) community knowing the infor- passing of these forms of sexuality. Tran- mation are re-dressed. sphobia and biphobia, although accepted terms, also suffer the same issues as homo- This edition includes contributions addressing phobia. Queer hate is a more informative the many faces of queer hate. We have term. Queer as a broad and inclusive term drawn from many disciplines and this reflects and hate as it is more than a phobia, or a fear the need for us to understand issues from perpetrators have – it is hatred and intoler- many lenses or imaginations. Willis presents ance. his research into young lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer people and their experiences in the Issues pertaining to expression of queer hate workplace. There is a relative lack of informa- are never easily summarised. Each jurisdic- tion in Anglo-democracy on workplace hetero- tion in Australia has separate laws and al- normativity especially when compared to though there may be similarity, there is vari- countries like Sweden and Norway who have ety between states. Not all states afford the long since begun investigating this issue. same protections. Vilification laws on sexual- ity vary as do the application of anti- Lesbian’s experiences of the health system are discrimination laws. Let alone legislation pro- documented in Dyson’s article. Her work tecting the rights of trans people and I can draws on Butler’s (1997) concept of speakabil- not think of, nor find, explicit mention of bi- ity and the lack of recognition and the use of sexuality – still a silent taboo within and out- exclusion as tools to control and manage that side our community. When we consider queer which is deemed unspeakable. hate the issue of speech-acts is often not given the same strength as physical acts. Rurality is the theme of the research of Language is an important cultural symbol and Gottschalk and Newton. They argue there are language often forms the basis of some of the similar experiences between rural and urban queer hate experiences we have in our lives. gay men and lesbians and these experiences The old saying may state “stick and stones are different between the two groups. Rural- may break my bones” but we know that words ity is also a key issue for young same-sex at- can also hurt us. Asquith’s (2004) work on tracted young people. heterosexist and antisemitic hate speech at- ISSN 1833-4512 © 2009 Author/Gay & Lesbian Issues & Psychology Interest Group of the Australian Psychological Society FOX: EDITORIAL I wrote earlier in this Editorial the strength strate how the media can (in)advertently con- and importance of language as a cultural sym- tribute to the ongoing queer hate. bol, and I further this argument by exploring the word homophobia. I argue in the article This edition does not address the forms of that although we have many new and nu- hate we might find within our communities.