Gender / Sexuality

Researchers have found that negative sexual experiences occur in nightlife settings, and have sought to identify the drivers of these experiences as well as preventive solutions. This body of inquiry overwhelmingly focuses on the experiences and needs of young women who are assumed to be cisgender and heterosexual, and does not consider potentially differing needs of gender and sexuality minorities. The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to include gender and sexuality minority voices in this conversation and surface identity-specific experiences, needs, and ideas for how to support sexual safety in nightlife contexts.

Data collection was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 40 gender and sexuality minorities who went out in New York City nightlife an average of at least once per week. Through reflexive thematic analysis, a three-part Continuum of Sexual Safety in Nightlife was developed: (a) as long as bad things don’t happen, (b) consent is mandatory, and (c) I’m being myself and you are too. Ideas for how nightlife operators could alter their establishments to improve feelings of sexual safety for gender and sexuality minority patrons were identified across physical venues, policies, and staff hiring and training. Implications of the findings are discussed. Future studies should extend this preliminary research to better understand the needs and experiences of gender and sexuality minority nightlife patrons and evaluate the economic case for implementing these suggestions in nightlife settings.

Download the full document here: https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/yzsn-ds31

I have an immense capacity for concentration — it’s like I have whatever the opposite of ADHD is. Sit me down in front of a computer with a pile of something to write or data to input (and some dope tunes) and I’ll barrel through from dusk ‘till dawn without so much as looking up. I know, I kind of hate me too.

In Coming Out of the Psychedelic Closet: Psychedelics and Identity Politics, Nese Devenot posits a correlation between coming out as LGBTQ and coming out as a psychedelic user. In so doing, she proposes to map the identity of ‘psychedelic people’ and the movement toward legalization and social acceptance of psychedelics onto other identity-based claims for human rights protections and the civil rights movements coalesced through these claims. For her, ‘psychedelic people’ are doubly oppressed through drug war policies and social stigma against the psychedelic experience. She argues, psychedelic users can and must assume their rightful place in the fight against cultural hegemony and oppression.

Q: I’m a girl who’s been been having fantasies about other women. I’ve become obsessed with lesbian porn, but I’m not sure I actually want to do sexual things with actual girls. How do I know I’m really gay? I’m super scared that I might be, because my dad’s always saying that being gay is a sickness you need to cure, and I don’t wanna be sick. Should I try to get gay conversion therapy to fix myself?