Bisexuality

This collection of essays focuses on historical and contemporary representations of bisexuality - both "real" and "imagined" - in literature, film and the visual arts. They ask questions concerning what it means to desire both men and women and explores the role of bisexuality in the construction of every person's sexual identity.

Over the last fifteen years, psychological research regarding sexual orientation has seen explosive growth. In this book, Anthony R. D'Augelli and Charlotte J. Patterson bring together top experts to offer a comprehensive overview of what we have discovered--and what we still need to learn--about lesbian, gay, and bisexual identities. Writing in clear, nontechnical language, the contributors cover a range of topics, including conceptions of sexual identity, development over the lifespan, family and other personal relationships, parenting, and bigotry and discrimination. Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identities Over the Lifespan is essential reading for researchers, students, social scientists, mental health practitioners, and general readers who seek the most up-to-date and authoritative treatment of the subject available.

Although many schools and educational systems, from elementary to tertiary level, state that they endorse anti-homophobic policies, pedagogies and programs, there appears to be an absence of education about, and affirmation of, bisexuality and minimal specific attention paid to bi-phobia. Bisexuality appears to be falling into the gap between the binary of heterosexuality and homosexuality that informs anti-homophobic policies, programs, and practices in schools initiatives such as health education, sexuality education, and student welfare. These erasures and exclusions leave bisexual students, family members and educators feeling silenced and invisibilized within school communities. Also absent is attention to intersectionality, or how indigeneity, gender, class, ethnicity, rurality and age interweave with bisexuality. Indeed, as much research has shown, erasure, exclusion, and the absence of intersectionality have been considered major factors in bisexual young people, family members and educators in school communities experiencing worse mental, emotional, sexual and social health than their homosexual or heterosexual counterparts. This book is the first of its kind, providing an international collection of empirical research, theory and critical analysis of existing educational resources relating to bisexuality in education. Each chapter addresses three significant issues in relation to bisexuality and schooling: erasure, exclusion, and the absence of intersectionality. From indigenous to rural schools, from tertiary campuses to elementary schools, from films to picture books as curriculum resources, from educational theory to the health and wellbeing of bisexual students, this book’s contributors share their experiences, expertise and ongoing questions. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Bisexuality.

This is the first book to assess bisexuality through a range of psychoanalytic and critical perspectives, highlighting both the issues faced by bisexual people in contemporary society and the challenges that can be presented by bisexual clients within a clinical setting. Examining bisexuality through the lenses of Lacanian, Winnicottian and Relational psychoanalytic theories, the book outlines the ways in which the concept is at once both dated and yet still tremendously important. It includes case studies to explore the issue of widespread countertransference responses in the clinical setting, in addition to using both bisexual theory and empirical research on biphobia to comment on the social pressures facing bisexual men and women, and the resultant psychological effects. Bisexual identities and practices have become increasingly visible in recent years, and this important book addresses the lack of critical reckoning with the topic within the psychoanalytic community. It will be of great interest to practicing psychoanalysts and psychotherapists as well as to researchers across the fields of psychoanalysis and gender and sexuality studies.

In our society, the argument for or against same-sex marriage becomes even more heated when the debate turns to bisexual women and men. Bisexuality and Same-Sex Marriage thoughtfully explores this debate from a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives, presenting respected scholars from fields as diverse as American Studies, Communication, Criminology, Human and Organizational Systems, Law and Social Policy, LGBT Studies, Organizational Behavior, Psychology, Sociology, Women’s Studies, and Queer Studies. This clear-viewed volume is organized into three perspectives—theoretical, research, and personal—that frame the debate from a macro to micro level of analysis. This book goes beyond the intense acrimony and divisiveness to rationally examine the issue from various viewpoints and through the latest research. This informative text presents and analyzes in depth the current findings and the diverse LGBT and straight perspectives on the issue. This insightful resource discusses in detail personal views, the latest theories, and is extensively referenced. Bisexuality and Same-Sex Marriage is an essential volume for LGBT studies professionals, psychologists, counselors, educators, students, and interested general public. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Bisexuality.

This volume fills a unique gap. Gerontologists seldom focus on special concerns of gay and lesbian older adults, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender aging organizations rarely address issues of aging, and the mental health field has demonstrated an ability to marginalize both aging and homosexuality. This book lays out the state of knowledge with respect to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender aging—physical health, sexuality, family ties, victimization, and legal and financial concerns. The references at the end of individual chapters and the bibliographical material at the end of the book provide an invaluable resource. For any gerontologist intrigued by the interplay of historical changes and individual aging, it is difficult to imagine a more powerful example than Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Aging. Evolution of attitudes toward homosexuality, the emergence of HIV/AIDS, and legal protections beginning to be afforded to same-sex relationships are all part of the changing world that has shaped and been shaped by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals who are now old.

Emerging from a case study in secondary schools, this book explores young bisexual women’s notions of bisexuality through their own sense of self-identification and how they express their personal beliefs. McAllum sheds light on the presence and practices of "bisexual misrecognition" and "bi-misogyny" in school settings, and draws out the implications of this bias on bisexual women. Incorporating women’s own spoken and written anecdotes, this book reveals hidden narratives and helps boost awareness about the social and learning needs of young bisexual women.

This book could be aptly entitled After Marriage What Is Next for the LGBT Community? Now that marriage is increasingly being institutionalized in many states within the United States it is quite likely that marriage will be acceptable in all 50 states (dependent upon action of the U.S. Supreme Court). What lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender p