The transnatnal ex-gay movement is an important ntext affectg lbians and sexual mory women around the world. In 2015, the UN Human Rights Commissner lled for all natns to ban nversn therapi. This rearch vtigat a neglected area of scholarship on the ex-gay movement by nstctg and analyzg the implitns of ex-gay disurs of female homosexualy a global ntext. The ex-gay movement origated the Uned Stat and has proliferated to nearly every ntent. We argue that is the ma purveyor of public, anti-lbian rhetoric today, nstctg lbianism as sful and sick to ntrol women’s sexualy, enforce rigid genr rol and equaly, and opprs sexual mory women. Guid by Adrienne Rich’s theory of pulsory heterosexualy and Barbara Risman’s genr stcture theory, we analyze how, ex-gay disurse, lbianism is meaned and monized the dividual, teractnal, and stutnal dimensns of the genr stcture. Fally, we exame the impact of ex-gay disurse on sexual mory women global ntext.
Contents:
- PUBLIC DISURS OF GAY MEN
- PUTTG LBIANS THEIR PLACE: DENSTCTG EX-GAY DISURS OF FEMALE HOMOSEXUALY A GLOBAL CONTEXT
- ‘GAY DISURSE’ AND THE ARTIST AND JOURNAL OF HOME CULTURE
- IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
PUBLIC DISURS OF GAY MEN
Do gay men munite wh each other differently than they do wh straight people? If they do, how is “gay men’s English” different om “straight English”? ... * gay discourse *
Bisexual men are perceived to sound more mascule than men who are straight, acrdg to a study of Atralian subjects.Amics at the Universy of Sydney pared the voic of gay, straight and bisexual men a study volvg 160 people.In the rearch led by clil psychologist Jam Morandi, people were reced to analyse the voic of 60 men, 20 of whom were gay, 20 straight and 20 bisexual. They were then asked to rate the men on their sexual orientatn g a sle om zero (exclively heterosexual) to 10 (exclively homosexual).Listeners were also asked to rate each man’s perceived level of femy or masculy the voic on a siar sle.The men volved the study were asked to rerd themselv on a smartphone recg the first two l of the Atralian natnal anthem.Voice sampl were then modified to remove any background noise while volume levels were ma the same to ensure nsistency.Rults om the study showed listeners uld distguish between gay and straight men’s voic wh an accuracy of 62 per cent, apparently nsistent wh prev rearch.However, the study participants uld not terme any differenc between bisexual and straight men’s voic wh any gree of accuracy. The thors said their rearch showed bisexual men’s voic were perceived as beg more exclively attracted to women pared wh both gay and straight men’s voic.Bisexual men’s voic were rated as more mascule than both gay and straight men’s voic.Rearchers claimed the abily to intify a man’s bisexual inty om his voice alone uld have cril social implitns such as helpg to rce feelgs of alienatn.‘Voice may unter visibily many bisexuals feel’An abstract of the study, tled Can listeners tect if a man is bisexual om his voice alone, reads: “The prent study examed whether bisexual men n be intified om their voic ak to how gay men n be intified on their voice alone.“If this is the se, voice may be an important target of discrimatn on the one hand but may also unter the visibily many bisexuals feel (if their bisexual inti n be apprehend by their voice alone, whout explic disclosure required).“The fdgs may also she light on whether bisexual male voic, like gay male voic, differ om straight voic terms of their genr non-nformy – a qutn that to date has not been examed.”But amics noted the rearch was limed on the grounds all men who participated the study are Atralian, which may not be reflected among wir cultur.And the thors nced the study did not ntrol for the rerdg environment or microphone-to-mouth distance, which uld have affected the qualy of the voice sampl.The thors said the fdgs suggted that while the voic of bisexual men the sample were perceived as more mascule and attracted to femal, listeners did not associate this imprsn wh bisexualy.As a rult, while bisexual men may appear to be at lower risk of facg voice-based intifitn and discrimatn than gay men, they may often be mistaken as beg straight.The study was published the Journal of Sex Rearch.
PUTTG LBIANS THEIR PLACE: DENSTCTG EX-GAY DISURS OF FEMALE HOMOSEXUALY A GLOBAL CONTEXT
* gay discourse *
We ntend that the transnatnal ex-gay movement is the ma purveyor of public, anti-lbian rhetoric today and that openly means, stereotyp, and moniz lbians and lbian relatnships as a way to ntrol women’s sexualy, enforce rigid genr rol and equaly, and opprs sexual mory women around the ex-gay movement is thrivg around the world, spe some evince of s cle the U. Guid by Andrienne Rich’s [5] theory of pulsory heterosexualy and Barbara Risman’s [6] genr stcture theory, we analyze ex-gay disurs of female homosexualy to show: (1) how women’s relatnships wh women are “cshed, validated, [and] forced to hidg and disguise” ([5], p.
And has tablished a signifint global prence, remas an important ntext to exame for the liv of sexual mory is an emergg body of terdisciplary social science rearch on the ex-gay movement beyond scholarship psychology and mental health discipl regardg the effectivens and ethics of sexual orientatn change efforts (See [9] for a thorough crique of nversn therapi, as well as the posn of the U. Fally, a few studi foced on the transnatnal impact of the movement, cludg s global expansn [27], anti-LGBT public policy posns wh rpect to ternatnal law [8], fluence on tnal policy Atralian schools [28], Amerin antigay activism Uganda [29] and Ai [3], and the ex-gay movement’s activi Lat Ameri, particularly Mexi, Brazil, and Argenta [30]. Ex-gay lears have lobbied to uphold the crimalizatn of nsensual homosexual relatns; prevent fay regnn of same-sex upl; and prevent LGBT people om adoptg or rearg their own children, servg as foster parents, or havg accs to medil technologi that would enable them to bee parents.
Combg the ameworks, we analyze ex-gay nstctns of female homosexualy at the dividual, teractnal, and stutnal levels of society [6] to discs the implitns of an important ntext which women’s relatnships wh women are “cshed, validated, [and] forced to hidg and disguise” ([5], p. In the first, the purpose is to analyze the texts to intify and then nstct the relevant disurse or disurs; is, to illumate how relatns of power and domatn that are embedd the texts ( this se, ex-gay movement texts of female homosexualy) send level of Fairclough’s approach, what he lls “disurse practice” aims to illumate how a disurse (or disurs) is promoted and circulated by s advot.
‘GAY DISURSE’ AND THE ARTIST AND JOURNAL OF HOME CULTURE
In The Artist, a 6d monthly published between 1880 and 1902, may be seen a profile of a late Victorian perdil which addrs a tellg succsn of domant rear groups, which genr and diverse tegori of ‘artist’ are primary variabl. The profile has emerged om the intifitn of one ‘centre’ at a specific perd (1888?–1894),2 unr a particular edor, which the journal seeks to tegrate and tablish a visible gay disurse, a gay tradn, and a gay terpretative muny of rears before 1895 and the Wil trials. Although The Artist is distctive among neteenth-century s of homosexual disurse, edor-led as is, is not unique. Early numbers of The Stud, for example, unr the edorship of Gleon Whe,3 are siarly oriented, but thor-led (and dispersed) gay perdil disurse such as that by John Addgton Symonds and Walter Pater4 is far more mon the thirty years 1865–95. Scty of the publishg history of their work shows clearly that mastream perdils circulated genr-marked, homosocial and even homoerotic ‘gay disurse’. Pater and Symonds th publish both d, and fairly explic, same-sex material the Contemporary Review, the Fortnightly, Maclan’s Magaze, the New Review, the Wtmster Review, and even Cornhill5 and Harper’s New Monthly Magaze. * gay discourse *
Analyzg the three levels, g Fairclough’s approach to cril disurse analysis, facilated our efforts to: (1) reveal and ntt the movement’s iology of female homosexualy by nstctg relatns of power and domatn embedd s relig and scientific disurs; (2) suate ex-gay disurs and iology wh larger social ntexts of how, by whom, and for whom they are produced and circulated different cultural ntexts; and (3) evaluate the extent to which they may reflect, reproduce, and/or change wir social arrangements. Cril disurse analysis is a particularly eful approach to nstctg disurs and analyzg iologi that are proffered by adherents as natural, universal, and God-given, as the prent for this study reprent the views of ex-gay movement spokpersons and the anizatns, all of which have or had signifint global and polil import: Exod Internatnal, a large work of predomantly U. -based Christian ex-gay mistri, found 1976 and disband 2013; Exod Global Alliance (EGA), an pennt anizatn created 1995 to ordate mistri globally, based Canada; the Natnal Associatn of Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy (NARTH), a profsnal anizatn for ex-gay therapists and relig unselors, found 1992 and renamed Alliance for Theraptic Choice and Scientific Integry (ALLIANCE) 2014, based the U.
FOCUS is a Christian Right anizatn that veloped a signifint ex-gay divisn lled Love Won Out om 1998–2009, when transned to EXODUS until lears of the anizatns have vted signifint rourc over many years tablishg an enormo global prence through creatg, lotg, and supportg the velopment of member and affiliate anizatns other untri and velopg world-wi works wh relig and polil anizatns outsi of the U. Automatic translatn technologi built to Inter web browsers make materials easily accsible to non-English-speakg have been dog rearch on the ex-gay movement sce 2004, and have gathered and analyzed an extraordary llectn of materials reprentg a wi variety of texts (d, vio, prt, and onle) created and/or circulated by the anizatns over time.
IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
We d texts on female homosexualy to: (1) intify and articulate the elements of their disurs; (2) show how disurs of female homosexualy are circulated and modified for dienc different untri; and (3) evaluate the impact of the disurs on lbians on sexual mory women. Today’s transnatnal ex-gay movement has proliferated the view of homosexualy as a s agast God’s sign for genr, a treatable genr disorr, and a societal threat requirg polil terventn [7] texts typilly weave relig and psychologil narrativ of female homosexualy together, renrg lbianism a viatn om “Biblil femy” [42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48] and a breach of “God’s sign for genr and sexualy” [49]. Simultaneoly, the narrativ voke the secular thory of psychology to ny the thenticy of lbian existence, nstctg “the ndn of lbianism” as qutsentially mascule, advotg that “women wh same-sex attractn” unrgo reparative therapy, which foc on “rtorg” a woman’s feme inty so she n rever her “herent” heterosexualy [45] the dividual level, ex-gay disurs stct women to accept that God tends and expects for them to assume a feme inty and to be sexually attracted to men, and that this is psychologilly healthy.