Gay Identity

The Elusive Embrace : Desire and the Riddle of Identity by Daniel Mendelsohn

  When Daniel Mendelsohn was growing up, he "secretly imagined a place where all the people were other boys, and where all the stores and books and songs and movies and restaurants were by boys, about other boys. It would be a place where somehow the outside reality of the world that met your eyes and ears could finally be made to match the inner, hidden reality of what you knew yourself to be." And while he's found that place in Manhattan's Chelsea district, Mendelsohn has only one foot there--his other foot is in suburban New Jersey, where he acts as a masculine role model ("not exactly a father but a man who would be present") to the young son of a close friend. The Elusive Embrace is an elegantly written memoir that shifts effortlessly between these locales, and between the events in Mendelsohn's life and the Greek and Roman classics that are his academic specialty. Whether he's elaborating upon his earliest explorations of his sexuality or teasing out the secrets that redefine his family history, he writes with admirable grace and delicacy. --Ron Hogan

Answers to Your Questions About Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality

From the American Psychological Association

What is sexual orientation?   What causes a person to have a particular sexual orientation? Is sexual orientation a choice? Is homosexuality a mental illness or emotional problem? Can lesbians and gay men be good parents? Why do some gay men and lesbians tell people about their sexual orientation? Why is the 'coming out' process difficult for some gays and lesbians? What can be done to help lesbians and gay men overcome prejudice and discrimination against them? Can therapy change sexual orientation? Why is it important for society to be better educated about homosexuality?

Call for Papers -- International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies

The International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies is a progressive, international, interdisciplinary forum dedicated to the exchange of new knowledge and ideas about every major aspect of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender life. It features original peer-reviewed articles, "round-table" discussions, interviews, high quality research papers, personal essays, reviews, and poetry that address all aspects of LGBT culture, history, theory, politics, community, and identity.

On occasion, individual issues of the Journal focus on thematic topics, for example, LGBT youth and schools, cultural studies, sexual identity formation at all stages of life, politics and public policy, biography, internalized oppression, bisexual theory, queer art, interconnections with other social identities and/or other forms of oppression, the relationship between AIDS and sexual and gender identity, multiculturalism, and others.

The Journal is a source of information for people involved in social and behavioral sciences; public health and human services; the humanities; political science; law; religion and spirituality; and the arts. It also provides a unique and essential line of communication between scholars, community organizers, educators, students, political activists, and parents of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons.

Overseen by its Editor, Warren J. Blumenfeld, the Journal boasts an international editorial board composed of accomplished academics, writers, activists, and administrators from diverse backgrounds.

The editorial board welcomes the opportunity to review your original manuscripts dealing with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender topics. Please write to the Editor for complete submission guidelines:

Warren J. Blumenfeld, Editor
International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies
P.O. Box 929
Northampton, MA 01061
blumenfeld@educ.umass.edu

For a complimentary issue and subscription information for the International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies, Click here.

Information:

Homosexual Identity in the Ancient World

Essay by Faris Malik

This is an article demonstrating that ancient eunuchs in the Bible and classical literature were not castrated men, but gay men lacking sexual attraction to women.

Inventing Queer Place:  Social space and the urban environment as factors in the writing of gay, lesbian and transgender histories

Essay by Marc Greyling , B.A. (Hons), marcg@eagles.com.au

Excerpt:

...Academics of queer studies, are now familiar with the constructed notion of 'heterosexualisation' of history and with the heterosexualisation of urban space. What we are now coming to grips with, is the re-construction of a past which tells how queers fought back, and in the more recent times fought to homosexualise space...

Modern Gayness and Medieval Friends: Homoeroticism and Homophilia

Essay by Paul Halsall

Excerpt:

...When looking at same-sex relationships in the past, use of the sex/friendship dichotomy induces problems. We very rarely know that two people had sexual relations. For discussion of same-sexual activity, we are often thrown to legal codes, penitentials, denunciatory sermons and so forth. We very rarely have, before the late middle ages when court records begin to survive in number, any real idea of how laws were applied. Careful analysis of Byzantine documents - but not court records - from the 12th century on, for instance, seems to indicate that the provisions against sodomy of the Justinianic code were not applied; and yet such laws are frequently taken as indicators of social attitudes centuries after they were legislated. They are no more compelling, than for instance, the argument that anti-sodomy statutes in the US stop heterosexuals having oral sex...

Counseling / Reparative Therapy

Volunteers Sought for Clinical Study: "Changing Sexual Orientation: Does Counseling Work?"

Can counseling or psychotherapy change gay men and lesbians into heterosexual persons? Please share your experiences with us.

If you have taken part in counseling or psychotherapy that has attempted to change your homosexuality please give us a call. We are conducting a national study of individuals who have gone through such counseling. Did it work? Did it fail? We want to know how it affected you.

We have created an on-line survey. If you want to share with us your experiences, please take a few minutes to answer some questions.

Changing Sexual Orientation: Does Counseling Work? is sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and funded by the H. van Ameringen Foundation.

For more information, please send mail to therastudy@aol.com.

The Sacred Phallus

Phallic symbolism, its myths, cultural customs, magic power beliefs, rites and ceremonies. Exclusive phallus carved amulets: honoring adoration and empowerment of the male.