Interpersonal Antecedents to Selective Disclosure of Lesbian and Gay Identities at Work

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) employees’ sexual identitymay be considered a concealable stigmatised identity. Disclosing it to others at work could potentially lead to discrimination and rejection, hence threatening their inclusion. Therefore, they may hide their sexual identity instead, which may then come at the cost of, e.g., guilt for not living authentically. However, disclosure is a continuum—rather than a dichotomy—meaning that LGB workers may decide to disclose selectively, i.e., telling some, but not all co‐workers. Most literature on disclosure focuses on the interplay between intrapersonal (e.g., psychological) and contextual (e.g., organisational) characteristics, thereby somewhat overlooking the role of interpersonal (e.g., relational) characteristics. In this article, we present findings from semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews with nine Dutch lesbian and gay employees, conducted in early 2020, to gain a better understanding of interpersonal antecedents to disclosure decisions at work. Through our thematic analysis, we find that LGB workers may adopt a proactive or reactive approach to disclosure, which relates to the salience of their sexual identity at work (high/low) and their concern for anticipated acceptance. Other themes facilitating disclosure include an affective dimension, being in a relationship, and associating with the employee resource group. We demonstrate the importance of studying disclosure at the interpersonal level and reflect on how our findings relate to literature on disclosure, authenticity, belonging, and social inclusion of LGB individuals at work.

Impossible Figures

This essay examines three documentary depictions of gay Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank. These documentaries often problematically assume a fundamental incompatibility between gay identities and Arab and Palestinian cultures, thereby, first, placing their subjects in the position of choosing between living in Palestine/Israel and living as openly gay; and second, producing a narrative of impossibility, in which Palestinian and gay identities can only exist in irresolvable conflict. However, Paul also argues that critical reactions to these films, as well as some broader scholarly debates over sexual identities and practices in the Arab world, also reinforce this narrative of impossibility in a way that makes little room for the diverse lived experiences of gay Palestinians. In order to move beyond this narrative, Paul rereads these documentaries with an emphasis on the quotidian experiences of the films’ gay Palestinian subjects. Through attention to queerness as a spatial experience, he analyzes the ways in which these characters inhabit urban spaces in Israel and Palestine in ways that contest and disorient dominant narratives about these spaces. Paul concludes that a focus on such experiential moments reveals queer lives that are exuberant and subversive, and he shows the necessity of moving beyond narratives of impossibility in studies of sexuality in the Middle East.

Queering gay male body dissatisfaction

A sizable body of psychological research suggests that gay men exhibit greater body dissatisfaction than heterosexual men. However, much of this research has been critiqued for presenting explanatory models that pathologize homosexuality by suggesting that it is the cause of gay male body dissatisfaction. This thesis relied on the voices of 19 gay/queer men/genderqueers to problematize the explanatory models’ characterization of gay identities, communities, and body ideals as monolithic. The participants expressed ideas that were antithetical to the explanatory models’ restrictive formulations of homosexuality. Additionally, this thesis developed a theory of gay/queer embodiment based on the Foucauldian concept of subjection. How the participants negotiated embodied gay and queer identities was explored in relation to larger discursive regimes of power, like heterosexism, hegemonic masculinity, and neo-liberalism. Specific attention was given to queer forms of embodied resistance.

Queering gay male body dissatisfaction

A sizable body of psychological research suggests that gay men exhibit greater body dissatisfaction than heterosexual men. However, much of this research has been critiqued for presenting explanatory models that pathologize homosexuality by suggesting that it is the cause of gay male body dissatisfaction. This thesis relied on the voices of 19 gay/queer men/genderqueers to problematize the explanatory models’ characterization of gay identities, communities, and body ideals as monolithic. The participants expressed ideas that were antithetical to the explanatory models’ restrictive formulations of homosexuality. Additionally, this thesis developed a theory of gay/queer embodiment based on the Foucauldian concept of subjection. How the participants negotiated embodied gay and queer identities was explored in relation to larger discursive regimes of power, like heterosexism, hegemonic masculinity, and neo-liberalism. Specific attention was given to queer forms of embodied resistance.

An analysis of the intersections between race and class in representations of Black and white gay men in QueerLife

ABSTRACT This article seeks to critically analyse how intersections of race and class shape representations of Black and white gay men in QueerLife, a South African online magazine. It focuses on QueerLife's '4men' section and how its content represents classed and raced gay identities. My argument is that QueerLife forwards racialised and classed representations of the gay lifestyle, which reinforce homonormalisation within what is known as the "Pink Economy". Using Critical Diversity Literacy (CDL) to read the underlying meanings in texts and images, the article concludes that QueerLife is complicit in the construction of gay identity categories that seek to appeal to urban, white, middle-class gay-identifying communities in South Africa. The article also demonstrates how, when Black bodies are represented in QueerLife, exceptionalism mediates their visibility in this online magazine. Overall, the findings demonstrate how Black and white gay bodies are mediated online and how their different racial visibilities are negotiated within the system of structural racism. Keywords: Class, gayness, Pink Economy, QueerLife, representation, racism.

From emo kid to stylish GQ Gent and back again: Matty Healy and hybrid masculinity

This article examines the evolution of the appearance of British musician, Matty Healy, lead singer of contemporary band The 1975, in his performance as a hybrid man in style and fashion magazines. Hybrid masculinity is often used by young white men as a form of assimilating aspects from marginalized groups into performing their identities. This is to distance themselves from the narrow confines of hegemonic masculinity through transgression. Healy’s performances of gay and feminized hybrid masculinities have emerged through his clothing, from early national success as a typical ‘emo’ kid ‘dressed in black from head to toe’ to a fully groomed, suited and booted Englishman, cover star of GQ and in demand as a model. Prior to global fame, Healy’s style referenced rock stars of the past and he was admired for his simple black clothing, boyish emo good looks and curly hair; style blog IdleMan.com refers to him as a ‘gothic hipster’. Yet in concert with his stylist, Patricia Villirillo, Healy has begun to play on the more feminized aspects of emo fashion such as performing in women’s skirts and dresses, and arguably has produced a twenty-first-century emo aesthetic. Moreover, he also adopts the appearance of a powerful man in a suit or for performances as well as photoshoots. Healy might now be dressed in a suit or tie for performing, as easily as he might wear a skirt, as many men in music have before him. Wearing skirts as an act of transgression highlights the lack of diversity in men’s clothing in its mundanity, and despite advances in acceptance of dynamic masculine identities through performing gay identities, performing hybrid masculinities through femininity, is still highly problematic.

‘Our Nameless Desires’

The chapter surveys the development of Irish lesbian and gay fiction since the early 1990s. It traces the emergence of a generation of gay-identified authors who, buoyed by the gains made by the lesbian and gay movement since the 1970s, which culminated in the decriminalization of male homosexuality in the Republic in 1993, sought to give literary expression to the diversity of lesbian and gay identities in contemporary Ireland. The analysis distinguishes between two significant compositional principles in this body of fiction—plots that are structured temporally and those that are structured spatially—and examines their treatment in novels by Mary Dorcey, Emma Donoghue, Tom Lennon, Colm Tóibín, Micheál Ó Conghaile, Keith Ridgway, Barry McCrea, and others.

Acquainted Strangers: Thwarted Interaction in Digitally Mediated Urban Gay Bars

While some situations in sexual contexts facilitate interaction, others can make overtures difficult to negotiate. Furthermore, social media creates new challenges as individuals navigate sexualized spaces in an increasingly digital world. Drawing on fieldwork in Philadelphia gay bars and supplemental interviews with young gay club-goers, I find that men experience unexpected challenges that inhibit their ability to socialize with gay others and enact positive gay identities. I show how the social organization of particular bars, as well as the popularity of mobile dating applications, undermines the interactional accomplishment of positive outcomes such as identity affirmation and “having fun”: (1) men’s embodied work to evade effeminacy constrains their facial expressions, comportment, and speech; (2) gay bars’ multiple functions as sexual fields and community outposts render both social and sexual interaction difficult to initiate; (3) patrons struggle over whether and how to interact with other mobile dating app users, a novel social tie I conceptualize as acquainted strangers, in the bars. I discuss how these mechanisms—managing stigma corporeally, negotiating discrepant frames, and navigating ambiguous social ties—may thwart interactional achievements while reproducing inequalities in contexts beyond the gay bar.