UTP Celebrates WorldPride: Queer Identities and Experiences

June 27, 2014

Anthro_56_1_coverThe past century has witnessed a tremendous improvement in the development of homosexual rights. Prior to this time, members of the LGBTIQQ2SA community faced a large amount of discrimination and adversity, which often made it very difficult for sexual identities to be explored and formed.

Today, homosexual Canadians are able to fully explore their sexuality, some as early as childhood, thanks to the progression of human rights. To learn more about queer experiences and the development of queer identities, check out these articles from Anthropologica, The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, and University of Toronto Quarterly.

Anthropologica 56.1 (2014): 13-82.
Michelle Walks

The thematic section in Anthropologica 56.1 focuses on Queer Studies in anthropology guest edited by Michelle Walks, who re-introduces us to the work accomplished in the anthropology of gender, sex and sexuality to contextualize this current research. These articles explore queer experiences and queer identities in Turkey, Singapore, Vancouver, Toronto and, in a research note, in Thailand. Through these articles, we get new insights into key theoretical issues—homonormativity, neoliberalism, activism, intersectionality, social media, transgender, globalization, immigration and diaspora—in Queer Studies and cultural anthropology more generally.

Dargie, Emma, Karen Blair, Caroline Pukall, and Shannon Coyle. “Somewhere Under the Rainbow: Exploring the Identities and Experiences of Trans Persons.” The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality (2014): 1-15.

The literature on transgender/transsexual-spectrum persons is limited. Most studies are based on the assumption that trans persons are best understood within rigid and binary definitions of gender and sexuality and they tend to focus on diagnostics, medical management and risk factors. Researchers and clinicians may also assume that people who challenge cultural norms of gender and sexuality can be grouped together. Such assumptions about the specific experiences of trans person can be harmfully incorrect. The goals of the present study were to explore the gender and sexual identities of trans persons, to investigate group differences, and to examine factors that predict better psychological and physical well-being. Participants took part in an online study and provided information about their gender and sexual identity, social support, relationship quality, and mental/physical health. Results depicted diverse gender identities and sexual orientations among trans persons and emphasized that while many challenges faced by sexual and gender minorities are similar, trans persons report unique mental and physical health outcomes. Also, greater social support and relationship quality predicted mental, but not physical, health among trans persons. These results highlight the importance of acknowledging the complexity of trans identities and the key role of social and personal support.

Gray, Amy, and Serge Desmarais. “Not All One and the Same: Sexual Identity, Activism, and Collective Self-esteem.” The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality (2014)

This study examines important distinctions in sexual orientation identities by exploring the relationships among sexual identity, activism, and collective self-esteem. Past research has revealed that individuals who label themselves as belonging to certain minority sexual identities may experience different types of outcomes; for instance, bisexual individuals have been shown to experience more psychological hardships (Brewster & Moradi, 2010; Browne & Lim, 2010), whereas Queer individuals’ politicization may buffer against some of these negative experiences and increase their psychological well-being (Galinsky et al., 2013; Klar and Kasser, 2009; Riggs, 2010). We explored whether these important differences could be attributed to a person’s choice of a sexual identity description. An online survey was distributed to Facebook groups affiliated with 33 universities across Canada, which yielded responses from 265 participants. Four distinct sexual identity categories were created and compared in two multiple regression models that controlled for measures of personal and social identity. In the first model, we tested group differences in collective self-esteem and, in the second model, we assessed group differences in political activism. As predicted, collective self-esteem was significantly lower for those who identified as bisexual, and activism was most likely among those who identified as Queer. Our research highlights the need for caution when either measuring or studying aspects of sexual orientation, since these identity categories reflect different personal and political points of reference.

Pyne, Jake. “Gender Independent Kids: A Paradigm Shift in Approaches to Gender Non-conforming Children.” The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 23.1 (2014): 1-8.

Recent years have seen a substantial change in how children who challenge gender norms (referred to in this article as “Gender Independent”) are regarded by professionals, by their families and by the public at large. Pathologized and treated for decades as a mental illness, childhood gender non-conformity would seem to be imbued with new meaning, as evidenced by a growing number of public voices claiming gender variance as part of human diversity. Call it a paradigm shift: from disorder to diversity, from treatment to affirmation, from pathology to pride, from cure to community. This commentary article reflects on recent shifts in language, shifts in identity options, and shifts in the focus of intervention with gender non-conforming children. Drawing on existing research and public discourse, I consider what the field of human sexuality can learn from “Gender Independence.”

Probyn, Elspeth. “The Outside of Queer Cultural Studies.” University of Toronto Quarterly 64.4 (1995): 536-46.

Summer in Montréal, hot and very humid. And as with every year, it seems that the heated pavement brings forth a new Montréal subject, a different social and civic subject wrought of the peculiarities of climate and sensibility. Indeed, it is a local cliché that for a brief moment of time Montrealers and Montréalais alike put off their penchant for politics large and small, cast off with the salt-stained boots and tired winter coats. Instead of political platforms we have bandstands, festivals compete and overlap into a weave of carnival, a moving warp of bodies against bodies: the International Festival of Fireworks, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, Divers-cité (our gay pride march), le festival du homard, le festival de la bi&eagrave;re en fû, le Tour de l’île, Portuguese and Italian saints’ days, the Construction Workers’ holiday, les fétes du trottoir—all transform the streets into chaotic bursting capillaries of people celebrating something or other, or merely living fully in the forgetfulness that winter ever existed. Under banners that instruct `Montréal sourit aux touristes,’ fair-weather subjects proliferate. If summer exuberance is common in places where winter is long and hard, Montréal may be uncommon for the ways in which its citizens are placed within a government-funded web of fun, the exhortations resembling school-teacherly dictates to get out there and play.

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