Hi everyone and welcome back. Well, congratulations. We're more than halfway through our semester study of devian. Looking back, we opened this semester by looking at the nature, meaning, and context of deviance. Then we discussed some major theories of deviance and have continued on looking at some major types of devian. In this section, we're going to look at particularly gays, lesbians, and homophobia, and to a lesser extent, a few other groups that are unjustly marginalized, stigmatized. In every case, we're going to look at the reactions of others and the consequences of those reactions as well as the social dimensions of the behaviors and conditions. That's what we're covering uh in chapter 10 which is titled gay people and other targets of stigma. Uh these are the basic sections we're going to be covering. Why are some types of sexuality considered deviant and then subsequently stigmatized? We'll do some um data on prevalence. In other words, what percentage of Americans Americans here self-identify as um something essentially other than hetero? Why is it difficult to get accurate statistics for same-sex orientation? You probably could guess that on your own. Same reason we keep talking about it's difficult to get a lot of accurate data on the topics that we cover in this class. Right? There are considered to be stages four to be precise uh in coming out uh and identifying as um gay or lesbian and then we'll finish off with why would someone who selfidentifies as straight hetero engage in same-sex activities. We know of a couple different types and we'll define and give some examples of that. Quote of the day from Tennessee Williams. Some of you may have read or seen the play Street Car Named Desire, and it's kind of a beautiful quote, I think, for what we're going to be talking about today. Okay. So, you all know we're more than halfway through our semester study of devian. And if you look back and think about it, we opened our semester by looking at the nature of devian, meaning, context of deviance, and then we also talked about some major theories of devian. And then continued on to look at some major types of devian. So this section we're going to look at particularly uh gays, lesbians, homophobia, and to a lesser extent you'll be doing some readings on a few other groups that are stigmatized in American society. In every one of those cases, we're going to reflect on how others react and what those consequences are. Okay. So, to start us off, a number of high-profile celebrities have quote unquote come out, I'm doing air quotes, over the last couple of years. And as you can see here, they've come from all walks of life, entertainment, sports, journalism, politics, so on. And most of the people that you're looking at have all been pretty outspoken once they came out how they wanted to be sexually identified. For example, Miley Cyrus, who is kind of in the middle on the bottom there, she selfidentifies as pansexual. And interestingly to give you an idea of how quickly a lot of these definitions are happening, uh that term wasn't even mentioned in your devian text uh in prior editions. What is it? Uh it's also sometimes referred to as omnisexual or gender blind. Individuals like Miley who identify this way are attracted to all gender identities, all biological sexes. A another relatively new orientation in the sense of new being more kind of widely heard I would say is sexually fluid which is how the daughter of Johnny Depp identifies. She is the woman not pictured here. I've taken her photo off. Sorry. Uh she um is a person uh who is doesn't really have a fixed gender identity or gender expression. It kind of shifts over time or depending on the situation. So coming out isn't really the big event that it once was, which kind of suggests that there's probably less stigma associated with being any of these orientations other than hetero than in the past. However, it's pretty safe to say there still exists a fair amount of negative reaction to some groups by some people. So for purposes of discussion in this section, we can start with the idea that very few people completely abstain from sex during their entire lives. Yeah, some do. That would be the pride flag at the bottom left, asexual. Um, but most have some form of sexuality that they identify with that involves some form of sexual relations. These are I listed some note some for sure, but these are some of the more commonly known current sexual identities out there today that have flags associated with that corresponding identity. And you probably know them all. the definitions with these identities. Uh most I will just kind of go over most experience sexual activities most in terms of numbers with members of the opposite sex. That's heterosexual upper left. Some partner with members of their own sex. That would be like the pride flag in the middle. A smaller proportion partner sexually with members of both sexes. bisexual top. Some other sexual identities that we will reference in this section are also represented here by individual pride flags. But regardless of the types of sexual activities that one likes or prefers, most typically again typically not always stay within relatively speaking their customary sexual preferences particularly once they a person has selfidentified typically. I know I'm using terms here kind of hedging my bets, but typically some forms of sexuality have been stigmatized as deviant and these people have been subject over history for sure to considerable prejudice, considerable discrimination. Like a lot of topics that we've covered, sexual orientation or sexual preference have been the subject of changes, as we've talked about in legal and in public opinion over the years. Some of those changes incrementally slow, some relatively fast. As we've discussed not too long ago, there was a time in this country when homosexual behavior was illegal and subject to criminal sanctions. People who acted on such sexual preferences were, as we saw, arrested and in some cases, as we saw and talked about, imprisoned. Obviously, today homosexual conduct is legal. I'm doing air quotes because of what we covered in our last section. Uh but regardless, it is for sure in today's climate, for sure there are definitely some people who still regard certain types of sexual identity and sexual behavior as undesirable. First off, it's safe to say that there are a lot of myths surrounding same-sex orientation. Take a look at that section that comes early in this chapter in your text to kind of get you started. Let's start with some general characteristics of uh same-sex orientation, including what we know about the prevalence in society today, which is always a good place to start. Give you some numbers. Well, as I mentioned before, we can start by safely saying that the data that we've garnered in this area has historically been well, best word, lacking. Why? Well, again, the same reason data on a lot of the other topics we've discussed in this class have been missing andor inadequate. And it generally center centers on to start off with definition counts of same-sex orientations can vary substantially depending on literally how we define it. How do we define same-sex orientation? In other words, think about it this way. Would we describe one as homosexual if they've had a homosexual encounter? Or would we define it if it's simple attraction to someone of the same sex, maybe with or without sex? Or is it strictly self-identification where one identifies gay, lesbian, bisexual? Obviously, those different definitions are going to what? Well, they're going to yield different numbers, right? However, nevertheless, the most recent census data that we have shows the following. This is US census data self identity. So, I don't have to read it, but I'll go over it real quickly with you. Uh, people identifying as straight. These are Americans, of course. uh 88% bisexual four gay or lesbian three other two and transgender less than 1% of the population. So even though yeah there are different definitions of opposite sex or same-sex orientation, there is one person in US history who really gave us a look into what you might call boundaries between sexual orientations more than anyone before or since. And that is this man, Alfred Kinsey. That's him on the right uh cover of Time magazine. and in the middle photo there, him on the left, uh, with a couple of his associate researchers. So, what's his deal? In 1948, Kinsey published the results of 5300 interviews with men about their sexual behavior. That's it up there on the upper left. Published 1948, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. It's often referred to, maybe you've heard it referred to just simply as the Kinsey report. The followup, the one yellow there, uh, sexual behavior in females in the United States came out about 6 years later. So, you can probably imagine how Americans responded to this research and his book. This was 1948. His book's findings on sex overall, but definitely on homosexuality, it is very safe to say, shocked Americans. And as often happens when Americans are shocked, uh, not only shocked Americans, his book, The Kinsey Report, but it became an instant bestseller. So, what did he find in examining male sexual behavior in the late 1940s in the US? Again, I can't stress enough. Remember 1940s. Well, he found a lot, but some of the major findings let's talk about. First, fully half, 50% of all men in his sample acknowledged having had erotic feelings toward other men. Half of all men in Kinsey's sample said they had erotic feelings at some point in their life toward other men. One-third, this is number two finding. One-third had had at least one sexual experience with another man. One-third had had at the time of the survey research had had at least one sexual experience with another man. and 4% in his sample had had sexual experiences exclusively with other men. Again, imagine when this was written. This was astonishing to most Americans. So, all of this survey data, all of this research, what did he conclude? Well, his big big findings were contained in something called what you see right there in front of you, the Kinsey scale. And the Kinsey scale, you can kind of see on the bottom how it pans out. 0 to six point scale from exclusively same-sex behaviors, exclusively homosexual to exclusively other sex behaviors, exclusively heterosexual. So what Kinsey found was that approximately 10% of all American adults were in that four to five range, what he called predominantly homosexual. Again, that's represented in the four or five that you see in the scale there. and another 2.5% were exclusively homosexual, exclusively same-sex behaviors. So the big overarching, if you want to take away here, all of this is important, but if you want to take away here, his big contribution, Kinsey, to sex and sexuality studies was that sexual orientation was on what he called a continuum. a continuum being exclusively heterero behavior at one end to exclusively homosexual behavior on the other and in between six-point scale. So if you think about the term fluid, Kinsey was really ahead of his time, right? Because he said people were really somewhere in that middle portion. It was, you know, a a continuum from one end to the other. And it should also be mentioned the Kinsey Report was huge for the same-sex community. Why? Well, the Kinsey Report, as I mentioned before, was a national bestseller, like New York Times bestseller. This wasn't just some academic reading, you know, some paper in an academic journal. This was a book people had on their coffee tables, so Americans knew him. And more importantly, because it kind of got mainstreamed so much, the Kinsey report, it really gave voice to the homosexual community in the United States. Think about it. men, a lot of them confided in Kinsey at a time 1940s when a homosexual act, as we've already talked about, was illegal. It could lead to a year in prison in some states, like we talked about, Georgia was one, could lead to a life sentence if you were convicted. And that idea of a continuum, that was revolutionary. He was basically saying again it's really impossible to identify people who are exclusively either or homosexual heterosexual. Kinsey was a pioneer in the idea of sexuality being non-binary. Not one end or the other much more in the middle. And further, because this book was so popular and so out there, you started seeing the beginning of gay activism. That quote that you see there up on the upper right. Kinsey himself out of his research began to publicly advocate be out on the front lines in the trenches for the repeal of what we talked about last time, anti-sodomy laws. He was kind of at the forefront of that. So 1948, early 50s. So over 70 years after the Kinsey report, his general conclusions actually still still stand. Of course, you'll also see in your text that quote unquote same-sex feelings and having ever engaged in same-sex behavior numbers, like we've talked about, two really different things. Again, different definitions, different numbers, but that 2.5 Kinsey statistic that I gave you, that's a good place at least to start. And another good takeaway from Kinsey's research, again, the idea of a continuum of sexual orientation, he was saying most people lie somewhere in the middle from exclusively heterero to exclusively homosexual. Okay, let's switch gears a bit here and talk about something I began with in this talk and that this is the idea of coming out. Generally speaking, coming out involves both a public declaration of one's identity like owning it, admitting it and also actions that convey that idea identity to others. Not just saying but doing. We may think of coming out as one single pronouncement, but in fact, research shows that's not really how it happens. It's really more of a process. And that process can often take years. But in a general four stage, as you see here, or four-step process, the first stage is often called the sensitization stage. So in this stage, usually around puberty, the person begins to become aware of differences from others of the same sex. They just feel different. They have a sensitization that something is different here. Can't really maybe figure it out, but a recognition at least among oneself that they're different. The second stage is what is often referred to as disassociation or identity confusion. In this stage, there's usually a recognition of sexual orientation, kind of knowing it, but usually a failure to act on it. Either because they're confused about it, I'm pretty sure, but not 100%. or maybe actively trying to deny it or being afraid of being rejected. The stigma of this identity, particularly at this age range, which is typically late teens, contributes oftentimes to not wanting to 100% identify as gay or lesbian. Third, actual coming out or what's sometimes referred to as identity assumption. That's the third stage. This stage usually occurs around 19 early 20s and with it some important life events like defining it, defining it, owning it, saying it, defining oneself as fill in the blank, gay, lesbian, by and also acknowledging a shared identity with others in your group. So during this stage of coming out, the individual starts to have contact perhaps frequent contact with their community. For example, uh gay bars, gay organizations, so on. And those contacts with other gays and/or lesbians often help to put away steps one and two to resolve some of those earlier conflicts. The individual in this stage starts to define and even redefine who they are and as a positive and a viable lifestyle like this is I am assuming this identity identity assumption usually at this point there's disclosure to another person or persons you're actively stating it and that's part of the self-acceptance of identity here. Stage four is commitment. It's the final stage. The individual here takes on their sexual identity as a way of life. Uh sexual activity may be combined not only just as sex but with emotion with emotional life. Maybe forming a stable long-term committed relationship with a single partner. There's a feeling here of positivity and acceptance. Uh because society is predominantly heterosexual just by numbers. Coming out is often described as a continual process. And that makes sense, right? Think about it. If you are straight there, that's a norm. There's a normative expectation. If you are another sexual orientation, you kind of are continually having to come out because it wouldn't be unusual for people to assume you're straight or assume something else. Questions are asked in this community in everyday conversation that kind of require one to have to decide to self-disclose their sexual orientation. And that's something obviously straight people never have to do, right? So following a discussion on those who identify as gay or lesbian by and come out, let's talk for a minute about those who engage in participate in same-sex activities even though they identify as straight. Again, people who self-identify, they say, "I am hetero but engage in same-sex activities." So, we'll start with upper left there. Trades. Trades are males who identify exclusively as straight. I am heterosexual. I am not gay. But they have casual sexual encounters with other men. Trades typically are serviced, so to speak, by gay or by men, but they don't reciprocate. They don't trade. It's precisely that lack of reciprocation that defines trades. They will not do so because the trade what? While the trade thinks of themselves as straight, as masculine, other stereotypes, and absolutely not gay. Going clockwise, street hustlers probably can tell from the type from the name. Also exclusively male and also consider themselves hetero and air quotes here, masculine. Uh, typically according to your authors, they are lower social class teen males who to make money let adults perform oral sex on them. Like trades, they don't reciprocate for the same reason as trades because they self-identify as straight. Street hustlers generally stop this kind of prostitution once they are adults. And then finally, situationals. What you see at the bottom there, situationals can be male or female. Uh they also again self-identify as heterosexual. But if the setting, the so-called situation arises, they may engage in same-sex activities. Well, where or why, you might be wondering. Well, think of those in prison or priests, for example. They're in a situation that essentially mandates them being celibate, but they want sexual release, so they willingly resort to sexual activities with others who are the same sex. Your authors also talk about situations like married women who again self-identify as straight but perhaps have a lesbian lover on the side. Okay, that's it. Quick one. Uh these are the two sections that you need to read in your textbook. Uh there is an entire section kind of middle latter part of the uh chapter on homophobia and one of the last sections I believe it's 10.7 other victims of social stigma. Take a look at that as well. Okay, thanks for sticking in there with me and I will see you next time. Bye-bye.