Homoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, including both male–male and female–female attraction. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality:
it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be temporary,
whereas "homosexuality" implies a more permanent state of identity or sexual orientation. It has been depicted or manifested throughout the history of the visual arts and literature and can also be found in performative forms; from theatre to the theatricality of uniformed movements (e.g., the Wandervogel and Gemeinschaft der Eigenen). According to the Oxford English Dictionary,
it is "pertaining to or characterized by a tendency for erotic emotions
to be centered on a person of the same sex; or pertaining to a
homo-erotic person."
Though homoeroticism can differ from the interpersonal
homoerotic—as a set of artistic and performative traditions, in which
such feelings can be embodied in culture and thus expressed into the
wider society—some authors have cited the influence of personal experiences in ancient authors such as Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius in their homoerotic poetry.
The term "homoerotic" carries with it the weight of modern
classifications of love and desire that may not have existed in previous
eras. Homosexuality as known today was not fully codified until the mid-20th century, though this process began much earlier:
Following in the tradition of Michel Foucault, scholars such as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and David Halperin
have argued that various Victorian public discourses, notably the
psychiatric and the legal, fostered a designation or invention of the
"homosexual" as a distinct category of individuals, a category
solidified by the publications of sexologists such as Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902) and Havelock Ellis
(1859–1939), sexologists who provided an almost-pathological
interpretation of the phenomenon in rather Essentialist terms, an
interpretation that led, before 1910, to hundreds of articles on the
subject in The Netherlands, Germany, and elsewhere. One result of this
burgeoning discourse was that the "homosexual" was often portrayed as a
corrupter of the innocent, with a predisposition towards both depravity
and paederasty—a necessary portrayal if Late-Victorian and Edwardian
sexologists were to account for the continuing existence of the
"paederast" in a world that had suddenly become bountiful in
"homosexuals."
Despite an ever-changing and evolving set of modern classifications,
members of the same sex often formed intimate associations (many of
which were erotic as well as emotional) on their own terms, most notably
in the "romantic friendships" documented in the letters and papers of 18th- and 19th-century men and women.
These romantic friendships, which may or may not have included genital
sex, were characterized by passionate emotional attachments and what
modern thinkers would consider homoerotic overtones.
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, held viewpoints on sexual orientation embedded in his psychoanalytic studies on narcissism and the Oedipus complex, where "rather than being a matter only for a minority of men who identify as homosexual or gay, homoeroticism is a part of the very formation of all men as human subjects and social actors." Freud believed humans to be naturally bisexual, however also expressed interest in "the organic determinants of homoeroticism".
In Asia, male eroticism also has its roots in traditional Japaneseshunga (erotic art), this tradition influenced contemporary Japanese artists, such as Tamotsu Yatō (photography artist), Sadao Hasegawa (painter) and Gengoroh Tagame (manga artist).
Female homoerotic art by lesbian artists has often been less
culturally prominent than the presentation of lesbian eroticism by
non-lesbians and for a primarily non-lesbian audience. In the West, this
can be seen as long ago as the 1872 novel Carmilla, and is also seen in cinema in such popular films as Emmanuelle, The Hunger, Showgirls, and most of all in pornography. In the East, especially Japan, lesbianism is the subject of the manga subgenre yuri.
In many texts in the English-speaking world, lesbians have been
presented as intensely sexual but also predatory and dangerous (the
characters are often vampires)
and the primacy of heterosexuality is usually re-asserted at the
story's end. This shows the difference between homoeroticism as a
product of the wider culture and homosexual art produced by gay men and
women.
The most prominent example of homoeroticism in the Western canon is that of the sonnets by William Shakespeare. Though certain critics
have made assertions, some in efforts to preserve Shakespeare's
literary credibility, to them being non-erotic in nature, no critic has
disputed that the majority of Shakespeare's sonnets concern explicitly
male–male love poetry. The only other Renaissance artist writing in
English to do this was the poet Richard Barnfield, who in The Affectionate Shepherd and Cynthia
wrote fairly explicitly homoerotic poetry. Barnfield's poems,
furthermore, are now widely accepted as a major influence upon
Shakespeare's.
Elisar von Kupffer's Lieblingminne und Freundesliebe in der Weltlitteratur (1900) and Edward Carpenter's Ioläus: An Anthology of Friendship (1902) were the first known notable attempts at homoerotic anthologies since The Greek Anthology. Since then, many anthologies have been published.
In the female–female tradition, there are poets such as Sappho, "Michael Field", and Maureen Duffy. Emily Dickinson addressed a number of poems and letters with homoerotic overtones to her sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert.
Letters can also be potent conveyors of homoerotic feelings; the letters between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, two well-known members of the Bloomsbury Group,
are full of homoerotic overtones characterized by this excerpt from
Vita's letter to Virginia: "I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia
[...] It is incredible to me how essential you have become [...] I
shan't make you love me any the more by giving myself away like this
--But oh my dear, I can't be clever and stand-offish with you: I love
you too much for that." (January 21, 1926)
Although the idea is spread by some Christian circles that non-heteronormative orientation is a sin, some theologians and historians have concluded that Jesus of Nazareth had a non-heteronormative behavioral pattern, in some cases based on apocryphal texts. Some also include the apostles John and Simon Peter.
Some speculate that John the Baptist
had homosocial or homoerotic behavior. In the Gospel of John (3:22–36),
John the Baptist speaks of himself as the “friend of the bridegroom,”
implying that the bridegroom of Christ (Matthew 9:15) is coming to meet
his bride, though nothing specific to identify the bride. Jesus was a
rabbi, a teacher, and all the rabbis at that time were married; there is
no reference to a possible marriage.
LGBTQ culture is a culture shared by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals. It is sometimes referred to as queer culture (indicating people who are queer), LGBT culture, and LGBTQIA culture, while the term gay culture may be used to mean either "LGBT culture" or homosexual culture specifically.
LGBT culture varies widely by geography and the identity of the
participants. Elements common to cultures of gay, lesbian, bisexual,
transgender, and intersex people include:
Historical figures identified as LGBTQ, although identifying
historical figures with modern terms for sexual identity is
controversial (see History of sexuality).
However, many LGBTQ people feel a kinship with these people and their
work (particularly that addressing same-sex attraction or gender identity); an example is VictoryFund.org, dedicated to supporting homosexual politicians.
Not all LGBTQ people identify with LGBTQ culture; this may be due to
geographic distance, unawareness of the subculture's existence, fear of social stigma or a preference for remaining unidentified with sexuality- or gender-based subcultures or communities. The Queercore and Gay Shame movements critique what they see as the commercialization and self-imposed "ghettoization" of LGBT culture.
As with gay men, lesbian culture includes elements from the larger
LGBTQ+ culture, as well as other elements specific to the lesbian
community. Pre-Stonewall organizations that advocated for lesbian rights, and provided networking opportunities for lesbians, included the Daughters of Bilitis, formed in San Francisco in 1955. Members held public demonstrations, spoke to the media, and published a newsletter.
Primarily associated with lesbians in North America, Europe,
Australia, and New Zealand, lesbian culture has often involved large,
predominantly lesbian "women's" events such as the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (closed after 2015) and the Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend. Lesbian culture has its own icons, such as Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang (butch), Ellen DeGeneres (androgynous) and Portia de Rossi (femme). Lesbian culture since the late 20th century has often been entwined with the evolution of feminism. Lesbian separatism
is an example of a lesbian theory and practice identifying specifically
lesbian interests and ideas and promoting a specific lesbian culture. Examples of this included womyn's land and women's music.
Identity-based sports teams have also been associated with lesbian
culture, particularly with the rise of lesbian softball teams and
leagues in the 1980s and 1990s. Softball and other athletic teams
created social community and allowed lesbians to reject social
expectations of physicality, but were typically considered separated
from lesbian feminism and political activism.
1950s and early '60s stereotypes of lesbian women stressed a binary of "butch" women, or dykes (who present masculine) and "femmes", or lipstick lesbians (who present feminine), and considered a stereotypical lesbian couple a butch-femme pair. In the 1970s, androgyny,
political lesbianism, and lesbian separatism became more common, along
with the creation of women's land communities. The late 1980s and 1990s
saw a resurgence of butch-femme, and influences from punk, grunge, riot grrrl, emo, and hipster subcultures. In the 2000s and 2010s, the rise of Non-binary gender
gender identities brought some degree of return to androgynous styles,
though at times with different intentions and interpretations than in
the 1970s.
Dili, East Timor (top), Vancouver, Canada (top right), Mexico City, Mexico (bottom left), and Kolkata, India (bottom), representing gay men's culture around the world.
According to Herdt, "homosexuality"
was the main term used until the late 1950s and early 1960s; after
that, a new "gay" culture emerged. "This new gay culture increasingly
marks a full spectrum of social life: not only same-sex desires but gay
selves, gay neighbors, and gay social practices that are distinctive of
our affluent, postindustrial society".
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, gay culture was largely
underground or coded, relying on in-group symbols and codes woven into
ostensibly straight appearances. Gay influence in early America was more often visible in high culture, where it was nominally safer to be out. The association of gay men with opera, ballet, haute couture, fine cuisine, musical theater, the Golden Age of Hollywood and interior design began with wealthy homosexual men using the straight themes of these media to send their own signals. In the heterocentricMarilyn Monroe film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a musical number features Jane Russell
singing "Anyone Here for Love" in a gym while muscled men dance around
her. The men's costumes were designed by a man, the dance was
choreographed by a man and the dancers (as gay screenwriter Paul Rudnick points out) "seem more interested in each other than in Russell"; however, her presence gets the sequence past the censors and works it into an overall heterocentric theme.
After the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York City
was covered on the mainstream news channels, showing images of gay men
rioting in the streets, gay male culture among the working classes,
people of color, street people, radical political activists and hippies
became more visible to mainstream America. Groups such as the Gay Liberation Front formed in New York City, and the Mattachine Society,
which had been in existence and doing media since 1950, gained more
visibility as they addressed the crowds and media in the wake of the
uprisings in Greenwich Village. On June 28, 1970, the first Christopher Street Liberation Day was held, marking the beginning of annual Gay Pride marches.
In 1980 a group of seven gay men formed The Violet Quill
in New York City, a literary club focused on writing about the gay
experience as a normal plotline instead of a "naughty" sideline in a
mostly straight story. An example is the novel A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White. In this first volume of a trilogy, White writes as a young homophilic
narrator growing up with a corrupt and remote father. The young man
learns bad habits from his straight father, applying them to his gay
existence.
American female celebrities such as Liza Minnelli, Jane Fonda, and Bette Midler
spent a significant amount of their social time with urban gay men (who
were now popularly viewed as sophisticated and stylish by the jet set), and more male celebrities (such as Andy Warhol)
were open about their relationships. Such openness was still limited to
the largest and most progressive urban areas (such as New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Washington, D.C., and New Orleans),
however, until AIDS forced several popular celebrities out of the
closet due to their illness with what was known at first as the "gay
cancer".
Elements identified more closely with gay men than with other groups include:
Familiarity with aspects of romantic, sexual and social life common among gay men (for example, Polari, poppers, camp, fag hags and—in South AsianLGBTQ+ culture—"evening people")
There are a number of subcultures within gay male culture, such as bears and chubbies. There are also subcultures with an historically large gay-male population, such as leather and SM.
Gay critic Michael Musto opined, "I am a harsh critic of the gay
community because I feel that when I first came out I thought I would be
entering a world of nonconformity and individuality and, au contraire,
it turned out to be a world of clones in a certain way. I also hated
the whole body fascism thing that took over the gays for a long time."
Some U.S. studies have found that the majority of gay male couples are in monogamous relationships. A representative U.S. study in 2018 found that 32% of gay male couples had open relationships. Research by Colleen Hoff of 566 gay male couples from the San Francisco Bay Area funded by the National Institute of Mental Health found that 45 percent were in monogamous relationships, however it did not use a representative sample. Gay actor Neil Patrick Harris
has remarked, "I'm a big proponent of monogamous relationships
regardless of sexuality, and I'm proud of how the nation is steering
toward that."
During the 1980s and 1990s, Sean Martin drew a comic strip (Doc and Raider) which featured a gay couple living in (or near) Toronto's
Gay Village. His characters have recently been updated and moved to the
internet. Although primarily humorous, the comic sometimes addressed
issues such as gay-bashing, HIV, and spousal abuse.
An Australian study conducted by Roffee and Waling in 2016
discovered how some gay men felt like they were expected to be
hyper-sexual. Participants reported how other gay men would
automatically assume that any interaction had sexual motivations.
Furthermore, if it was then clarified that this is not the case then
these gay men would suddenly feel excluded and ignored by the other gay
men with which they had been interacting with. They felt that they could
not obtain purely platonic friendships with other gay men. One
participant reported feeling alienated and disregarded as a person if
they were not deemed by other gay men as sexually attractive. This
presumption and attitude of hypersexuality is damaging, for it enforces
preconceived ideals upon people, who are then ostracised if they do not
meet these ideals.
Online culture and communities
A number of online social websites for gay men have been established.
Initially, these concentrated on sexual contact or titillation;
typically, users were afforded a profile page, access to other members'
pages, member-to-member messaging and instant-message chat. Smaller,
more densely connected websites concentrating on social networking
without a focus on sexual contact have been established. Some forbid all
explicit sexual content; others do not. A gay-oriented retail online couponing site has also been established.
Recent research suggests that gay men primarily make sense of
familial and religious challenges by developing online peer supports
(i.e., families of choice) in contrast to their family allies' focus on
strengthening existing family of origin relationships via online
information exchanges. Participants' reported online sociorelational
benefits largely contradict recent research indicating that online use
may lead to negative mental health outcomes.
Fashion
Notable gay and bisexual fashion designers include Giorgio Armani, Kenneth Nicholson, Alessandro Trincone, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Patrick Church, Gianni Versace, Prabal Gurung, Michael Kors and others are among the LGBT fashion designers across the globe.
Bisexual culture emphasizes opposition to, or disregard of, fixed sexual and gender identitymonosexism (discrimination against bisexual, fluid, pansexual and queer-identified people), bisexual erasure and biphobia
(hatred or mistrust of non-monosexual people). Biphobia is common
(although lessening) in the gay, lesbian and straight communities.
The bisexual pride flag was designed by Michael Page in 1998 to give the community its own symbol, comparable to the gay pride flag of the mainstream LGBTQ+ community. The deep pink (or rose) stripe at the top of the flag represents same-gender attraction; the royal blue
stripe at the bottom of the flag represents different-gender
attraction. The stripes overlap in the central fifth of the flag to form
a deep shade of lavender (or purple), representing attraction anywhere along the gender spectrum. Celebrate Bisexuality Day has been observed on September 23 by members of the bisexual community and its allies since 1999.
The study of transgender and transsexual culture is complicated by the many ways in which cultures deal with sexual identity/sexual orientation and gender.
For example, in many cultures people who are attracted to people of the
same sex—that is, those who in contemporary Western culture would
identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual—are classed as a third gender with people who would (in the West) be classified as transgender.
In the contemporary West there are different groups of
transgender and transsexual people, such as groups for transsexual
people who want gender affirming surgery, male, heterosexual-only cross-dressers and trans men's groups. Groups encompassing all transgender people, both trans men, trans women, and non-binary people, have appeared in recent years.
Some transgender or transsexual women and men, however, do not
identify as part of a specific "trans" culture. A distinction may be
made between transgender and transsexual people who make their past
known to others and those who wish to live according to their gender
identity and not reveal their past (believing that they should be able
to live normally in their true gender role, and control to whom they
reveal their past).
According to a study done by the Williams Institute of UCLA on "How Many Adults Identify as Transgender in the United States?",
they found that younger adults are more likely to identify as
transgender than older adults. This may be a result of a newly wider
acceptance of transgender people from the communities, allowing for
those who identify as transgender to have a greater voice. In their
research they found that an estimated 0.7% of adults between the ages of
18 and 24 identify as transgender, while 0.6% of adults age 25 to 64
and 0.5% of adults age 65 or older identify as transgender.
The pink on the transgender pride flag represents female while
the baby blue on the flag represents male. The white stripe in between
the baby blue and pink represents other genders besides male or female.
Transgender relationships
In the report "Views from both sides of the bridge? Gender,
sexual legitimacy, and transgender people's experiences of
relationships", authors Iantaffi and Bockting conducted a study with
1229 transgender individuals over 18 years old, to learn more about
transgender relationships in the US. When it came to a relationships
within a transgender person, it depended on if they wanted a
heteronormative or mainstream culture relationship. Studies show
transgender people can also be victim to heteronormativity too, and it
can impact their relationships. There are also transgender people that
try to challenge Western traditional beliefs in gender roles and sexual
differences within relationships.
First trans solidarity rally and march, Washington, DC USA (2015)
Many annual events are observed by the transgender community. One of the most widely observed is the Transgender Day of Remembrance
(TDOR) which is held every year on November 20 in honor of Rita Hester,
who was killed on November 28, 1998, in an anti-transgender hate crime.
TDOR serves a number of purposes:
it memorializes all of those who have been victims of hate crimes and prejudice
it raises awareness about hate crimes towards the transgender community
and it honors the dead and their relatives
Related events are the trans marches,
a series of annual marches, protests or gatherings that take place
around the world, often during the time of the local pride week. These
events are frequently organized by transgender communities to build
community, address human rights struggles, and create visibility.
Youth culture
Youth pride, an extension of the gay pride and LGBTQ+ social movements,
promotes equality amongst young members (usually above the age of
consent) of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual or transgender,
intersex and questioning (LGBTQ+) community.
The movement exists in many countries and focuses on festivals and
parades, enabling many LGBTQ+ youth to network, communicate, and
celebrate their gender and sexual identities.
Youth Pride organizers also point to the value in building community
and supporting young people, since they are more likely to be bullied. Schools with a gay–straight alliance
(GSA) handle discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+ youth better
than schools without it; they develop community and coping skills, and
give students a safe space to obtain health and safety information.
Sometimes the groups avoid labeling young people, preferring to let
them identify themselves on their own terms "when they feel safe".
Gay and lesbian youth have increased risks for suicide, substance
abuse, school problems and isolation because of a "hostile and
condemning environment, verbal and physical abuse, rejection and
isolation from family and peers", according to a U.S. Task Force on
Youth Suicide report.
Further, LGBTQ+ youths are more likely to report psychological and
physical abuse by parents or caretakers, and more sexual abuse.
Suggested reasons for this disparity are:
youths may be specifically targeted on the basis of their perceived sexual orientation or gender non-conforming appearance.
"...Risk factors associated with sexual minority status, including
discrimination, invisibility, and rejection by family members...may lead
to an increase in behaviors that are associated with risk for
victimization, such as substance abuse, sex with multiple partners, or
running away from home as a teenager."
A 2008 study showed a correlation between the degree of parental
rejection of LGB adolescents and negative health problems in the
teenagers studied. Crisis centers in larger cities and information sites on the Internet have arisen to help youth and adults. A suicide-prevention helpline for LGBT youth is part of The Trevor Project, established by the filmmakers after the 1998 HBO telecast of the Academy Award-winning short film Trevor; Daniel Radcliffe donated a large sum to the group, and has appeared in its public service announcements condemning homophobia.
Increasing mainstream acceptance of the LGBTQ+ communities
prompted the Massachusetts Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian
Youth to begin an annual Gay–Straight Youth Pride observance in 1995.
In 1997 the nonprofit Youth Pride Alliance, a coalition of 25
youth-support and advocacy groups, was founded to hold an annual
youth-pride event in Washington, D.C.; Candace Gingrich was a speaker the following year.
In 1999, the first annual Vermont Youth Pride Day was held. As of 2009
it is the largest queer and allied-youth event in Vermont, organized by Outright Vermont to "break the geographic and social barriers gay youngsters living in rural communities face." In 2002, a college fair was added to the event to connect students with colleges and discuss student safety. In April 2003 a Youth Pride Chorus, organized with New York's LGBT Community Center, began rehearsals and later performed at a June Carnegie Hall Pride concert with the New York City Gay Men's Chorus.
In 2004 the San Diego chapter of Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) worked with San Diego Youth Pride coordinators to organize a Day of Silence throughout the county. In 2005, Decatur (Georgia) Youth Pride participated in a counter-demonstration against Westboro Baptist Church (led by church head Fred Phelps' daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper),
who were "greeting students and faculty as they arrived with words such
as 'God hates fag enablers' and 'Thank God for 9/11'" at ten locations.
In 2008 Chicago's Youth Pride Center, primarily serving "LGBT youth of
color", opened a temporary location and planned to move into their new
building on Chicago's South Side in 2010.
In 2009, the Utah Pride Center held an event to coincide with Youth
Pride Walk 2009, a "cross-country walk by two Utah women trying to draw
attention to the problems faced by homeless LGBT youth". In August 2010 the first Hollywood Youth Pride was held, focusing on the "large number of homeless LGBT youth living on Los Angeles streets."
According to a 2007 report, "Of the estimated 1.6 million homeless
American youth, between 20 and 40 percent identify as lesbian, gay,
bisexual or transgender".
At larger pride parades and festivals there are often LGBTQ+ or queer youth contingents, and some festivals designate safe spaces for young people.
LGBT youth are more likely to be homeless than heterosexual,
cisgender youth due to the rejection from their parents because of their
sexual orientation, or gender identity (Choi et al., 2015; Durso and
Gates, 2012; Mallon, 1992; Whitbeck et al., 2004). Out of the 1.6
million homeless people in the United States, forty percent of them
identify as part of the LGBT community.
In a survey of street outreach programs 7% of the youth were
transgender (Whitbeck, Lazoritz, Crawford, & Hautala, 2014). Many of
the transgender youth that are placed in homeless shelters do not get
the type of help they need and often experience discrimination and
systemic barriers that include sex-segregated programs in institutional
practices that refuse to understand their gender. Many transgender
youths have problems acquiring shelters because of certain policies like
binary gender rules, dress codes, and room assignments (Thaler et al.,
2009). Problems with classification happen when the procedures or
policies of a shelter require the youth to be segregated based on their
assigned sex rather than what they classify themselves as. As a result,
many of the LGBT youth end up on the street instead of shelters which
are meant to protect them.
LGBT youth also have a higher suicide rate in the U.S. Those who
identify with the LGBT community are four times as likely to attempt
suicide than those who do not.
There was a study that was done to look into the difference of rates
between gay high school students and their straight peers. They were
asked about their sexual orientation and then about suicide. They found
that about 32 percent of sexual minorities (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual) had
suicidal thoughts in comparison to almost 9.5 percent of their
heterosexual peers.
In the United States and Europe, some cities host black gay pride
events with a focus on celebrating the black gay community and culture.
The two largest in the world are Atlanta Black Pride and D.C. Black Pride. UK Black Pride is the largest celebration of its kind outside the U.S.
LGBT social movements are social movements
that advocate for LGBT people in society. Social movements may focus on
equal rights, such as the 2000s movement for marriage equality, or they
may focus on liberation, as in the gay liberation movement of the 1960s
and 1970s.
In 2010, the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT)
was a great step in the inclusion of lesbian, gay, and bisexual
individuals in the military. "The repeal of DADT reversed the practice
of discharging LGB service members on the basis of sexual identity."
Although this was a large shift in policy by the U.S. for those
identifying as LGB, those who are transgender are still not fully
included in this change.
Some challenges that transgender people face post-DADT are
"changing their name to align with their gender identity, changing their
sex designation in official documentation and records, encouraging
appropriate pronoun use, and obtaining appropriate medical services"
(Levy et al., 2015; Parco et al., 2015a, 2015b).
Another challenge that they face is transphobia, which is "the intense dislike or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people" (Hill & Willoughby).
Criticism
Criticism of LGBT culture comes from a variety of sources, much of
which is critique from within the community itself. Some, like Michael Musto, view the culture as conforming to caricatures or stereotypes that alienate "fringe" members of the community. Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore and movements like Gay Shame
have argued that LGBT culture has been depoliticized by a tiny minority
of relatively privileged queer people, who participate in "institutions
of oppression" at the expense of the vast majority of LGBT people.
Some consider the very notion of "separatism", or a group lifestyle,
alienating (including of LGBTQ+ members in the broader society).
Another problem is that bisexual and transsexual/transgender individuals experience social pressure to identify as gay or lesbian, and may face ostracism and discrimination from the mainstream LGBTQ+ culture. For bisexuals, this pressure is known as bisexual erasure. New York University School of Law professor Kenji Yoshino
has written, "Gays de-legitimatize bisexuals...the lesbian and gay
community abounds with negative images of bisexuals as fence-sitters,
traitors, cop-outs, closet cases, people whose primary goal in life is
to retain 'heterosexual privilege'".
Criticism has been made that the LGBT community represents an
artificial separation, rather than one based on tangible customs or
ethnic identification. In particular, labels that LGBT members use to
describe themselves vary widely; some simply prefer to identify as
loving a particular gender. Some believe that the LGBT-community concept
is alienating; the term itself implies estrangement from straight
people as a separate group. Further, including three groups involved
with sexuality and one group exploring transsexual/transgender identity (a broader phenomenon) is artificial.
Mattilda Berstein Sycamore argues that the single-issue focus of LGBT politics, which ignores all intra-group differences,
has naturally led to a movement and culture focused on the needs of
white, middle-class gay cisgender men, which alienates anyone who does
not fit that description.
Some gay male commentators who are in monogamous relationships argue that mainstream gay culture's disdain of monogamy and its promotion of promiscuity has harmed efforts to legalize same-sex marriage.
Yuvraj Joshi argues that efforts to legalize same-sex marriage have
emphasized the sameness of gay people to heterosexuals, while
privatizing their queer differences.
British journalist Mark Simpson's 1996 book, Anti-Gay, describes forms of intolerance by the mainstream gay community towards subgroups. The Times
wrote that Simpson succeeded in "pointing out that oppression and
prejudice do not become legitimate just because they happen to be
practiced by the previously oppressed". Aiden Shaw of Time Out New York
wrote that "Thank fucking God someone did this, because...whatever
happened to our individuality, our differences?" Other commentators
harshly criticized Simpson's argument, with Boyz declaring that "Simpson is a cunt."
Translational research (also called translation research, translational science, or, when the context is clear, simply translation) is research aimed at translating (converting) results in basic research into results that directly benefit humans. The term is used in science and technology, especially in biology and medical science. As such, translational research forms a subset of applied research.
The term has been used most commonly in life sciences and
biotechnology, but applies across the spectrum of science and
humanities. In the context of biomedicine, translational research is
also known as bench to bedside. In the field of education, it is defined as research which translates concepts to classroom practice.
Critics of translational medical research (to the exclusion of
more basic research) point to examples of important drugs that arose
from fortuitous discoveries in the course of basic research such as penicillin and benzodiazepines. Other problems have stemmed from the widespread irreproducibility thought to exist in translational research literature.
Although translational research is relatively new, there are now several major research centers focused on it. In the U.S., the National Institutes of Health
has implemented a major national initiative to leverage existing
academic health center infrastructure through the Clinical and
Translational Science Awards. Furthermore, some universities acknowledge
translational research as its own field in which to study for a PhD or
graduate certificate.
Definitions
Translational
research is aimed at solving particular problems; the term has been
used most commonly in life sciences and biotechnology, but applies
across the spectrum of science and humanities.
In the field of education, it is defined for school-based
education by the Education Futures Collaboration (www.meshguides.org) as
research which translates concepts to classroom practice.
Examples of translational research are commonly found in education
subject association journals and in the MESHGuides which have been
designed for this purpose.
In bioscience, translational research is a term often used interchangeably with translational medicine or translational science or bench to bedside. The adjective "translational" refers to the "translation" (the term derives from the Latin for "carrying over") of basic scientific findings in a laboratory setting into potential treatments for disease.
Biomedical translational research adopts a scientific
investigation/enquiry into a given problem facing medical/health
practices:
it aims to "translate" findings in fundamental research into practice.
In the field of biomedicine, it is often called "translational
medicine", defined by the European Society for Translational Medicine
(EUSTM) as "an interdisciplinary branch of the biomedical field
supported by three main pillars: benchside, bedside and community", from laboratory experiments through clinical trials, to therapies, to point-of-care patient applications. The end point of translational research in medicine is the production of a promising new treatment that can be used clinically.
Translational research is conceived due to the elongated time often
taken to bring to bear discovered medical idea in practical terms in a
health system.
It is for these reasons that translational research is more effective
in dedicated university science departments or isolated, dedicated
research centers. Since 2009, the field has had specialized journals, the American Journal of Translational Research and Translational Research dedicated to translational research and its findings.
Translational research in biomedicine is broken down into different stages. In a two-stage model, T1 research,
refers to the "bench-to-bedside" enterprise of translating knowledge
from the basic sciences into the development of new treatments and T2 research
refers to translating the findings from clinical trials into everyday
practice, although this model is actually referring to the 2
"roadblocks" T1 and T2. Waldman et al.
propose a scheme going from T0 to T5. T0 is laboratory (before human)
research. In T1-translation, new laboratory discoveries are first
translated to human application, which includes phase I & II
clinical trials. In T2-translation, candidate health applications
progress through clinical development to engender the evidence base for
integration into clinical practice guidelines. This includes phase III
clinical trials. In T3-translation, dissemination into community
practices happens. T4-translation seeks to (1) advance scientific
knowledge to paradigms of disease prevention, and (2) move health
practices established in T3 into population health impact. Finally,
T5-translation focuses on improving the wellness of populations by
reforming suboptimal social structures
Comparison to basic research or applied research
Basic research is the systematic study directed toward greater knowledge or understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomena and is performed without thought of practical ends. It results in general knowledge and understanding of nature and its laws. For instance, basic biomedical research focuses on studies of disease processes using, for example, cell cultures or animal models without consideration of the potential utility of that information.
Applied research is a form of systematic inquiry involving the practical application of science.
It accesses and uses the research communities' accumulated theories,
knowledge, methods, and techniques, for a specific, often stated, business, or client-driven purpose.
Translational research forms a subset of applied research. In
life-sciences, this was evidenced by a citation pattern between the
applied and basic sides in cancer research that appeared around 2000.
In fields such as psychology, translational research is seen as a
bridging between applied research and basic research types. The field of
psychology defines translational research as the use of basic research
to develop and test applications, such as treatment.
Challenges and criticisms
Critics
of translational medical research (to the exclusion of more basic
research) point to examples of important drugs that arose from
fortuitous discoveries in the course of basic research such as penicillin and benzodiazepines,
and the importance of basic research in improving our understanding of
basic biological facts (e.g. the function and structure of DNA) that go on to transform applied medical research.
Examples of failed translational research in the pharmaceutical
industry include the failure of anti-aβ therapeutics in Alzheimer's
disease. Other problems have stemmed from the widespread irreproducibility thought to exist in translational research literature.
Translational research-facilities in life-sciences
Although translational research is relatively new, it is being
recognized and embraced globally. Some major centers for translational
research include:
About 60 hubs of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards program.
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