Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons^™

Reflections From A Former Executive Director, Jill Dolan

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

I joined CLAGS as a board member in 1994, at a transitional moment in its history. The grassroots activist project that Marty Duberman had started in his living room had been recognized as one of CUNY's Research Centers for only a short time at that point, and many people on the board struggled with what it meant to be institutionally affiliated. The board had grown from people Marty knew personally to a broader group of gay and lesbian scholars (or simply scholars working on gay and lesbian issues) recommended by others. For example, I was brought to the board by …

Letter From The Executive Director, Paisley Currah

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Heterosexuality is under attack--not by the authors of a new "I hate straights" broadsheet, not by vacationers in Provincetown, but by state judges in the US. In August, New York's highest court ruled that the New York State Constitution "does not compel recognition of marriages between members of the same-sex." Their reasoning? In part, the decision declared, because opposite-sex relationships are "often too casual," and thus result in the production of children by "accident or impulse." And so, "unstable relationships between people of the opposite sex present a greater danger that children will be born into or grow up in …

Review Of Queer Wars: The New Gay Right And Its Critics. Paul Robinson. Reviewed By Greg Mallon., Gerald P. Mallon

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Paul Robinson, Queer Wars: The New Gay Right and Its Critics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. $25.00 hardcover.

Don't Ask Don't Tell And The Uri Community, Justin Thames

Senior Honors Projects

When Bill Clinton and his staff introduced the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Bill(US Code 10) it created quite a controversy. The bill was designed to replace the then current system of asking for an individual’s sexual orientation on a military application thus making homosexuality a barrier to service in the United States Armed Forces. The bill was finally passed in 1993 and is meant to keep people in power from discriminating on the basis of homosexuality. This new law requires that no investigations be launched to identify the sexual orientation of a service member nor will hearsay be allowed to …

How Does Change Happen? Women's Rights And Development Conference, Kaushalya Perera

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

This was the question that was the central focus of the 10th International Forum of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID). The Forum was held in Bangkok, Thailand from October 27th-30th, 2005. The AWID is an international organization, founded in 1982, and hosts an international forum every three years.

New Editors For Glq: A Journal Of Lesbian And Gay Studies, Ann Cvetkovich, Annamarie Jagose

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The publication of GLQ 12.1 in December 2005 marks the moment when we officially take over from Carolyn Dinshaw and David Halperin as the new co-editors of the journal. Although it's a transition that has been some years in the making (Annamarie first came on board as Associate Editor for Volume 9 and has been a co-editor for Volumes 10 and 11, and Ann was associate editor for Volume 11), Volume 12 represents the beginning of a genuine partnership between the two of us.

Looking At Lesbian Feminism 1970-2005: Conversations Across Generations, Polly Thistlethwaite

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

What has become of lesbian feminism? Over 100 activists, scholars, and writers convened at the CUNY Graduate Center on Friday, October 28, for intergenerational discussions about lesbian-feminism. Activists from the first 'organized' lesbian movement paired with lesbian activists who came out post-lesbian-feminism to talk about lesbian-feminism and the body, culture, sex, and movement building. Together with a moderator, participants in the four featured discussions shared convictions and experiences about class, race, transgender politics, misogyny, privilege, dating strategies, sexual styles, and liberation struggles.

Capital Campaign To Mark Clags's 15th Anniversary, Paisley Currah

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

It may seem hard to believe, but when the new year rolled in, CLAGS turned 15. In 1991, CLAGS opened as the first university-based research center for what was then called "lesbian and gay studies" in the US. It's been a heady, infectiously exciting, and sometimes contentious 15 years.

Aals As Creative Problem-Solver: Implementing Bylaw 6-4(A) To Prohibit Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation In Legal Education, Barbara J. Cox

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Trans Politics, Social Change, And Justice, Richard M. Juang

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

On May 6 and 7, 2005, Trans Politics, Social Change, and Justice brought over four hundred trans people and allies into a single building. A feeling of electricity was everywhere. Not because this was the first trans conference — it was not. Nor was it the largest. What participants felt came from the fact that the real lives of trans people were being addressed by trans people. For a time, the ground had shifted; the complex webs of institutions and politics that surround the lives of people everywhere were being addressed primarily from the perspective of transgender peoples and their …

Queer Studies In Asia, Paisley Currah

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

How does research about diverse sexualities and genders circulate through Asia? How do linguistic barriers affect the flow of local and regionally produced knowledges? Who calls the shots, defines the agenda, decides who gets published? How can we create more venues for South-South dialogues?

Documenting Queer Community Histories: Whose History Is It?, Jessica Stern, Nicholas Ray

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

What does it mean to be a member of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ) community? When did LGBTQ community history begin? Where do queer communities differ? How do we broach these questions to document communities' experiences? And significantly, why is it important to document the histories of those who are defined as LGBTQ?

Apocalyptic Empathy: A Parable Of Postmodern Sentimentality, Rebecca A. Wanzo

Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Faculty Research

This essay analyzes the relationship between feelings and politics in Octavia E. Butler's novels "Parable of the Sower" and "Parable of the Talents." Comparison of the sentimentalism approach used by the author and Harriet Beecher Stowe in the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin"; Characteristics of Butler's novels which are categorize as postmodernism; Significance of feeling of the novels' heroines to political activism.

Report From The National Lgbtq Students Of Color Summit, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

I've always imagined finding a space where gender is not assumed, where women are undeniably and understandably attracted to each other, and where men embrace without fear. I found this space at the National Summit for LGBTQ Students of Color on the day of my 22nd birthday, January 15th, 2005. Over two nights and three days, the United States Student Association hosted a national summit filled with grassroots organizing workshops, "how-tos" for your campus, methods on how to challenge homophobia from other student groups while still building alliances, and late night dialogues on art and freedom of expression.

Bodies And Landscapes Of Control In The Neoliberal City, Kerwin Kaye

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

With many still feeling the effects of a post-election depression, around forty people attended CLAGS's panel "Bodies and Landscapes of Control in the Neoliberal City" on November 16th. The panel sought to examine the concrete ways in which neoliberal policy re(shapes) the urban landscape and the relationship between these macroeconomic factors and the construction and deployment of erotic identities and experiences.

From The Executive Director, Paisley Currah

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

We find ourselves in difficult times: last November, referenda against same-sex marriage passed in 11 states; the war in Iraq continues, unabated; oxymoronic legislators in DC are strategizing to privatize social security; the Democratic Party is reevaluating its support of reproductive rights; the national security state is making it possible for states to verify their inhabitants' records against those of the feds, resulting in many undocumented workers and some trans people losing their drivers licenses; PBS has decided not to distribute a children's show in which a cartoon rabbit talks to the real children of lesbian moms, and even SpongeBob …

Masochism: A Queer Subjectivity?, Amber Musser

Publications and Research

Judith Butler's Gender Trouble elaborates what may be called a queer subjectivity. Characterized by non-essential, performative identity, her theory has been criticized because, according to its critics, it does not give the subject political agency. Liberal theorists, such as Seyla Benhabib, have been particularly concerned with the political effects of this form of subjectivity on already marginalized social groups while other theorists, such as Susan Stryker and Ed Cohen, have articulated concern that the theory does not sufficiently account for embodiment, affect, and identity. This essay brings Deleuze's theory of masochism in dialogue with Butler's theories of subjectivity in an …

Queer Studies In Eastern Europe: Lgbtq Scholars Convene In Fifth Conference In Poland, Tomek Kitlinski, Pawel Leszkowicz

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The International Conference of LGBTQ Studies was held in Poland from May 24-26, 2004. Themed as "Europe without Homophobia," the conference at Wroclaw University brought together an international group of scholars and activists to discuss homophobia, both in its global and East European forms.

From The Executive Director, Paisley Currah

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

CLAGS joins other LBGT groups in condemning the sexual humiliation and other forms of torture inflicted on Iraqi detainees by US military forces. As the AI-Fatiha Foundation for LGBTIQ Muslims noted in a press release last month, "forcing men to masturbate in front of each other and to mock same-sex acts or homosexual sex is perverse and sadistic, in the eyes of many Muslims."

On Rubin's Self Made Men And Green's Becoming A Visible Man, Kristen Schilt

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In their new books, Jamison Green and Henry Rubin create two very different but complimentary works about female-to-male transsexuals (FTMs) [1]. In Becoming a Visible Man, Green, a long-time transgender activist and public speaker, provides a lyrical and moving account of his own experience as a transman, as well as a comprehensive overview of the some of the issues facing transmen today, ranging from the varied effects of testosterone to the pressures to conform to hegemonic masculine ideals. Self-Made Men, on the other hand, is an interview study conducted by up and coming sociologist Henry Rubin …

Clags Launches Disability/Queerness Programming, Sarah Chinn

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

CLAGS kicked off our initial year of Disability and Queerness: Centering the Outsider programming on September 22nd with an evening celebrating the release of Desiring Disability, a special issue of GLQ on disability and Disability Studies, and Haworth Press's forthcoming Queer Crips, a collection of essays and stories by disabled gay men.

From The Executive Director: Disability And Queerness: Centering The Outsider, Paisley Currah

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

When James Anastos, a transgender man, turned 21 and moved into a residential living environment for the neurologically impaired in Staten Island, his male gender identity became a problem. "Being transgender, they told me they could have me put away if I dressed like a boy. They didn't like the way I dressed—all boys' clothes," he told me during an interview.

Queer Zagreb, Zvonimir Dobrovic

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Queer Zagreb is an international festival that took place for the first time in Croatia from April 25-30, 2003. It presented an extensive program which included theater, dance, film, and visual art, as well as a symposium of papers from around the globe focused on queer sexuality, art and activism. It was a pioneer event of its kind in post-communist Europe, and was presented throughout the city in some of Zagreb's most established venues.

Respect And Equality: Transsexual And Transgender Rights, Stephen Whittle

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The problem of who I legally am in the world I live in has been vexatious throughout my adult life. Like other transsexual people worldwide, I face an inadequate legal framework in which to exist. Some of us live within states and nations that recognise the difficulties and attempt to provide a route way through the morass of problems that arise; others barely, if not at all, even acknowledge our being. We are simply 'not' within a world that only permits two sexes, only allows two forms of gender role, identity or expression. Always falling outside of the 'norm,' our …

Sexual Consent In A Gay, Lesbian, And Bisexual Population: An Exploratory Study, Dahlia Marie Hallal

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Recently, researchers have begun to study how consent to sexual activity is negotiated between men and women in romantic relationships. Much of this research has focused on heterosexual relationships where factors affecting the process of consent include differential socialization between men and women. Consequently, the literature to date is arguably heterosexist in nature and evidently indirectly oppressive to individuals not identifying as heterosexual. Further, clinicians addressing issues of sexual consent have no literature to draw upon when working with gay males, lesbian women, or bisexual (GLB) individuals, potentially assuming heterosexist dynamics. Conducting research within a GLB population on sexual consent …

Undercover Girl- The Fbi's Lesbian: A Note On Resources, Lisa E. Davis

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Historical investigation is never easy, but deciphering gay and lesbian history often turns out to be more than usually convoluted. The players lead at least two lives—public and private — and secrets abound. Clues appear in unconventional sources, beyond the library and beyond theory. If you are lucky, the search develops its own momentum. This is how the story of undercover girl Angela Calomiris (1915-95), "Angie" to her friends, whose life was touched by extraordinary events, revealed itself to me.

The Ten Days That Shook San Francisco: History And Myth, Paul Vandecarr

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

November 1978: a popular religious and civic leader from San Francisco named Jim Jones leads over 900 people—mostly African-Americans and many from San Francisco—to murder and suicide in a remote jungle community of Guyana called "Jonestown." Though far from San Francisco, the catastrophe strikes at the heart of the city's public life. Only nine days later, on November 27, ex-police officer and city Supervisor Dan White enters San Francisco City Hall and assassinates Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. These two events—which devastated San Francisco's African-American and gay communities—formed a defining moment in the city's turbulent and ongoing attempt …

Changing Of The Guard, Alisa Solomon

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

After four gratifying years, i have decided to step down as the executive director of CLAGS to focus again on research, writing, and teaching. As much as I have enjoyed the position and as proud as I am of all we have accomplished, the truth is, I don't have the temperament of an administrator. I'm yearning to teach graduate students again, to be more available to my undergraduate students at Baruch, and eager to jump back into the scholarship that I've had to put aside since 1999.

Minding Our Q'S, Paisley Currah

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

A personal admission first—it's a scary thing to be stepping in as executive director, following in the very large footsteps of Alisa Solomon, Jill Dolan, and CLAGS's founder and first executive director, Martin Duberman, who have all worked so hard and accomplished so much to make CLAGS a major center for gay and lesbian studies. But, with the support of Alisa, the tremendous CLAGS board, its exceptional staff, and the many others who participate in its work, I am also looking forward to the challenge of building on their work.

Media, Message And Meaning: The "Queer As...What?" Symposium, Andrew Ingall

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

On October 11, scholars, journalists, media watch activists, and community intellectuals examined depictions and productions of LCTBQ people in television, the World Wide Web, and print journalism at a CLAGS symposium with the wily title, "Queer as . . . What?"