MARY MAGDALENE AND SAPPHO: A NEW CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING GROUP? MARJAN SAX, PAPER GIVEN AT CONFERENCE "HOMOSEXUALITY, WHICH HOMOSEXUALITY?" AMSTERDAM, 1987.

VERBAL AND PHYSICAL ABUSE AS STRESSORS IN THE LIVES OF LESBIAN, GAY MALE, AND BISEXUAL YOUTHS: ASSOCIATIONS WITH SCHOOL PROBLEMS, RUNNING AWAY, SUBSTANCE ABUSE, PROSTITUTION, AND SUICIDE, R. C. SAVIN-WILLIAMS, JOURNAL OF CONSULTING AND CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, 1994, VOL 62(2), P261-269.

A common theme identified in empirical studies and clinical reports of lesbian, gay male, and bisexual youths is the chronic stress that is created by the verbal and physical abuse they receive from peers and adults. This article reviews the verbal and physical abuse that threatens the well-being and physical survival of lesbian, gay male, and bisexual youths. This response to gay male, lesbian and bisexual adolescents by significant others in their environment is often associated with several problematic outcomes, including school-related problems, running away from home, conflict with the law, substance abuse, prostitution, and suicide. Although the causal link between these stressors and outcomes has not been scientificaaly established, there is suggestive evidence that these outcomes are consequences of verbal and physical harassment.

PERSONALITY CORRELATES OF POSITIVE IDENTITY AND RELATIONSHIP INVOLVEMENT IN GAY MEN, J. PATRICK SCHMITT, LAWRENCE A. KURDEK, JOURNAL OF HOMOSEXUALITY, 1987, VOL 13(4), P101-109.

Six personality variables (social anxiety, trait anxiety, locus of control, sensitization, depression, and self concept) were correlated with variables relevant to a positive gay identity (degree of communication about sexual preference and degree of comfort being gay) and to relationship involvement (being in a gay relationship, number of months in a gay relationship, and living with a partner) in a volunteer, nonclinical sample of 51 gay males. Men who informed others of their sexual preference were low on trait anxiety, sensitization, and depression and high on self concept. Men comfortable with their gay identity were low on social anxiety, sensitization, and depression and high on self concept. Men involved in long-term relationships were low in trait anxiety, had an internal locus of control, and were low in depression. Men living witha partner had a higher self concept than men not living with a partner. Results are discussed in terms of previous studies of gay male relationships.

MALE PROSTITUTION AND HOMOSEXUAL IDENTITY, DEBRA BOYER, JOURNAL OF HOMOSEXUALITY, 1989, VOL 17 (1/2), P151-183.

The documentary film on transvestites, The Queen, has a scene where a young man tells a friend about a recent job interview (Litvinoff, 1968). His friend asks, "Did you tell them you were a homosexual?" The young man, who did not get the job, answers, "No, they told me." What this interaction reflected was not just the fact of the young man's homosexuality, but the social fact: What it means to be homosexual in his culture and society. In this paper, I discuss the conduct of prostitution as one enactment of those meanings: Prostitution, as a social fact in the life of adolescent gay males, is understood by them to be linked with their homosexual identity.

The current research literature regarding male-juvenlie prostitution activity is reviewed. An attempt is made to develop some theoretical understanding of the development of this activity among gay and bisexual adolescents. A predisposition, resulting from faulty psychosexual and psychosocial development, appears to make these boys vulnerable to the situational variables that they encounter. More severe disruptions in psychosexual and psychosocial development seem to result in more destructive and non-ego-enhancing prostitution activities. A clinical case study is presented which illustrates the development of this activity. Recommendations are made to help reduce the amount of self-destructive prostitution activity among male adolescents.

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