There was a silence surrounding Homosexuality in the People's Republic of Poland. One can almost get the impression that same sex love, and same sex relationships, did not even exist there; that the communists had successfully removed Homosexuality from society. The roots of this silence can be found in the Communist Party´s disdain for anything deemed individualist and deviant, and also in the conservatism and religiosity of the Polish society.In my thesis I study when and how gays and lesbians found a way out of the silence that surrounded their sexuality. Gay men did so by creating subcultures, which found refuge in parks, public bathrooms and a few bars in larger Polish cities, and offered a sense of belonging for them. Lesbians, on the other hand, lacked this access to semi-public spheres, which made it even harder for them to find each other and create a space for their sexuality.

Through discourse analysis of twelve Library and Information Science theses, covering the period between 1975 and 2007, this thesis examines representations of Homosexuality and homosexual identities. By using queer theory as a point of reference aspects such as essence/construct, equality/difference, notions of gender and views on the historical and contemporary situation of homosexuals are brought to the fore in the analysis. It is shown how the material unequivocally posits the contemporary situation of homosexuals favourably in comparison to a past signified by prejudices and oppression. This can be seen as an implicit essentialism in the texts, though ambivalences open up the possibility that it in some cases may be only strategically used while explicitly adhering to constructionist views. In linking concepts of a homosexual difference to prejudices, frequently involving notions of inverted gender performances or sexual ?extremes?, the discourse of progression posits normalcy and assimilation as positive values.

This essay deals with how young adult literature describes and characterizes young homosexual men. Two novels are analyzed within a framework of queer theory and cultural studies. The focus is on how sociality enforces heteronormativity. The analyses of the novels investigate how the characters think of themselves and their sexuality, what their view of love and relationships are, and how their closest friends and parents react to their Homosexuality..

Within this essay a study is made of an LGBTQ-orientated Christian service in Stockholm called Queer Service. The following questions seek to be answered: What reasons does an individual set for his/hers participation in Queer Service? Which aspects of a queer service highlight the participants as important to them?As a method to answer these questions, the author has observed a number of queer church services in autumn of 2012. Moreover communication within the group of the assembly on the social media page Facebook has been followed and five individuals from the Queer Service congregation have been interviewed. As a background to the study, the European religious climate seen from Grace Davies eyes is depicted.  The reader also learns of how the Swedish church has handled questions about Homosexuality and bisexuality and what liberation theology is.

Swedish: Det här kandidatarbetet undersöker om karaktärer med icke-normativ sexualitet finns representerade i digitala spel och hur dessa framställs. Arbetet har även fokus på de reaktioner samhället har visat i samband med att spel som behandlar ämnet icke-normativ sexualitet kommit ut på marknaden. Syftet är att uppmärksamma och ge insikt om icke-normativ sexualitet som ämne och hur diskussionen av detta kan leda till en utveckling inom spelmediet. Informationen som användes för att undersöka ämnet och dess reaktioner finns sammanställt under ett forskningsmomentet, vilket sedan utvecklas till flera noveller. Dessa noveller har sedan användes i en undersökning som genomfördes av 11 stycken deltagare.

This study examines how the media reports on the Pride Festival in Stockholm and what news topics and themes it prioritizes. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the media coverage of Pride highlights political questions related to social and societal problems. One of the main focuses of the study is on how the media covers male and female Homosexuality. The newspapers examined are the tabloids Aftonbladet and Expressen and the respected dailies Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. The study extends over three periods: 19-07-2010 to 07-08-2010, 25-07-2011 to 14-08-2011, and 24-07-2012 to 11-08-2012.Several key theories and themes frame the study.

Swedish: Det här kandidatarbetet undersöker om karaktärer med icke-normativ sexualitet finns representerade i digitala spel och hur dessa framställs. Arbetet har även fokus på de reaktioner samhället har visat i samband med att spel som behandlar ämnet icke-normativ sexualitet kommit ut på marknaden. Syftet är att uppmärksamma och ge insikt om icke-normativ sexualitet som ämne och hur diskussionen av detta kan leda till en utveckling inom spelmediet. Informationen som användes för att undersöka ämnet och dess reaktioner finns sammanställt under ett forskningsmomentet, vilket sedan utvecklas till flera noveller. Dessa noveller har sedan användes i en undersökning som genomfördes av 11 stycken deltagare. English: This bachelor thesis investigates if characters with non-normative sexuality are represented in digital games and how these are portrayed.

EKHO - The Ecumenical Association for Christian LGBTQ people has existed in Swedensince the 1970's second half. The movement had its ups and downs throughout the years. Inthis essay, I will examine what happened when the movement was formed and how thefirst period developed. By examining EKHO Stockholm´s magazine EKHO-bladet my task isto describe the story from when the first EKHO association was formed until the EKHO organizations of Sweden joined together and formed the National Association, Riks EKHO. My second issue is to look into which role EKHO has played for the development in LGBTQ-issues for the Church of Sweden by analyzing documents from within the church concerning these matters.

The purpose of the essay is to by means of a quantitative method investigate what the portrayal of GLBT-people looks like in a selection of Swedish and New Zealand newspapers. The essay focuses on aspects such as the gender ratio between GLBT-people who are mentioned and also those who are allowed to speak out in the newspapers. Also in what proportions the newspapers portrays the different fractions of the GLBT-term, what subjects are covered and what types of sources are used are areas of interest.The analysis is conducted through a quantitative research method where two Swedish newspapers (Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter) and two New Zealand newspapers (The Dominion Post and The New Zealand Herald) were selected. Three periods of 15 days were selected for each newspaper and electronic databases were used in order to try and collect all articles with relevance for this study.The theoretical background consists of Tiina Rosenberg?s theories about media?s role in the individuals? identity shaping, Nina Björk?s feminist theories connected to gender and power, and the patriarchal structure of society, and also Anders Sahlstrand?s accounts of journalism?s use of sources and their effect on the audience?s perception of the news presented.The main results from the analysis points towards preponderance in the occurrence of male Homosexuality and male homosexuals.

My study focuses on how heterosexuality became, and still is, the norm for sexuality in Namibia. My aim is to through interviewing young academics from University of Namibia and by using discourse analysis, queer- and postcolonial theory, try to find out how these young academics perceive sexuality. My findings are that my respondents perceive heterosexuality to be natural, normal and given by god, and that they perceive Homosexuality to be ?a big no-no?. There are certain institutions in the Namibian society that regulates how the Namibian people thinks about sexuality, and my findings are that these are Christianity, culture, family, government, and the traditional picture of a good man and a good woman.

In this paper I have examined how the structure of society affects the characters in the movies of Gus Van Sant, and what there is that characterizes Van Sant as an auteur. I have also looked at the thematics and how the characters develop throughout from his first movie Mala Noche (US 1985) until one of his latest Milk (US 2008). Van Sant is open with his Homosexuality and those perspectives are of major importance for this study. He presents how his characters try to live a normal life in a society that is not made for them. I have chosen to analyze five different movies.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how work by Swedish artist Ylva Ogland (born in 1974) function as an eye-opener for the social marginalisation of people identified with Homosexuality, prostitution and drug addiction. Although highly present in reality, these phenomena were historically, and are still today, hidden from view in public discourse. I have focused on the installations Rapture and Silence and Things Seen, and the still-life painting called Xenia. I argue that these artworks carefully represent the above-mentioned marginalised groups, by way of references to comparable motives in the history of art, from neoclassicism in France, to realism and romanticism..

Can the need for inclusion result in certain social norms remain unchallenged, and over time become hard to identify? To ?fit in? and be accepted in different social contexts we have to behave according to the dominating rules and conventions. We accept characteristics and make use of attributes specific for the group we want to be a part of. When we accept these attributes we contribute to keep the concept of them alive. Further on these attributes will be picked up by the next person who wants to become a part of that specific context.

This study demonstrates how norms and ideals about sexuality and gender expression are used in the TV-show The Walking Dead. An intermediate study is made on the comic books? two same sex couples as they are compared to how they are represented in the TV-show. Tara Chambler and Alisha, a same sex couple who only exist in the TV-show, not in the comic books, are also analysed. Queer theory and an intersectional perspective are used to discover how different power asymmetries are connected to each other through an active interplay.

Previous studies have pointed out the potential risks involved with targeting homosexual consumers by using ads with homosexual imagery in mainstream media. Many of these studies have indicated that there may be drawbacks with exposing heterosexuals to these kinds of advertisements. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether this is true for all groups of heterosexual consumers. An experimental study was carried out to examine the effects of explicit homosexual imagery on a heterosexual group with a generally positive attitude towards Homosexuality. Empirical evidence suggests that homosexual imagery does not elicit any negative reactions among these heterosexual consumers.