Centre for Social Research in Health
Belonging and sexual citizenship among gender and sexual minority youth
Something like one in four young Australians is likely to experience serious mental health difficulties, disrupting education, relationships and work. Young people from gender and sexual minorities are especially prone to anxiety, depression and, in the worst case, suicide. Many of these problems are attributable to rejection at home, in school and the community.
Despite this, many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people successfully navigate the challenges of adolescence and attain similar levels of health and wellbeing as their heterosexual peers, despite the stigma and discrimination encountered. Central to success in such transitions is 鈥榮exual citizenship鈥, whereby individuals come to appreciate themselves as having equality before the law, as trustworthy, as deserving of respect, and as having the right to 鈥榖elong鈥 鈥 by participating in a range of practices including work and study, building families, and contributing to social networks and national cultures through volunteering and other forms of service.
But what is it that supports young people in this process and what are their interests and needs?
The project will incorporate policy analysis, historical, archival, textual and online research together with individual interviews and focus groups with two different generations of gender and sexual minority youth: those of the 1970s generation, who were between 16 and 25 years old in 1995, and their counterparts twenty years later aged 16 and 25 years growing up today.
Research Centre
Research Area
Sexuality, Health and Education
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Newman, C.E., Prankumar, S. K., Cover, R., Rasmussen, M., Marshall, D., Aggleton, P. (2020) Inclusive health care for LGBTQ+ youth: support, belonging and inclusivity labour.听Critical Public Health.听
Southerton, C., Marshall, D., Aggleton, P., Rasmussen, M. L., & Cover, R. (2020). Restricted modes: Social media, content classification and LGBTQ sexual citizenship.听New Media & Society.听
Abidin, C., & Cover, R. (2019).听鈥楪ay, Famous and Working Hard on YouTube: Influencers, Queer microcelebrity publics, and Discursive activism.鈥 In P.听Aggleton, R. Cover, D. Leahy, D. Marshall, & M.L. Rasmussen听(eds.).听Youth, Sexuality and Sexual Citizenship. London and New York:听 Routledge.听
Aggleton, P., Cover, R., Leahy, D., Marshall, D., & Rasmussen, M.L. (eds) (2019).听Youth, Sexuality and Sexual Citizenship.听London: Routledge.听
Cover, R.听(2019).听鈥楾he Proliferation of Gender and Sexual Identities, Categories and Labels among Young People: Emergent Taxonomies.鈥 In P. Aggleton, R.听Cover, D. Leahy, D.听Marshall, & M.L.听Rasmussen听(eds.).听Youth, Sexuality and Sexual Citizenship. London and New York:听 Routledge.听
Cover, R.,听Aggleton, P.,听& Clarke, K.听(2019).听鈥楨ducation and Affinity? Pedagogies of Sexual Citizenship in LGBTIQ Youth Support Videos.鈥听Journal of Youth Studies.听
Cover, R., Aggleton, P., Rasmussen, M.L., & Marshall, D. (2019).听The myth of LGBTQ mobilities: framing the lives of gender- and sexually diverse Australians between regional and urban contexts.听Culture, Health and Sexuality.听
Marshall, D., Aggleton, P., Cover, R., Rasmussen, M.L., & Hegarty, B. (2019).听Queer generations: Theorizing a concept.听International Journal of Cultural Studies,听22(4), 558-576.听
Newman, C. (2019). Queer families: valuing stories of adversity, diversity and belonging.听Culture, Health and Sexuality. 21 (3): 352-359.听听
Newman, C.E., Persson, A., Prankumar, S.K. Lea, T., & Aggleton, P. (2019).听Experiences of Family Belonging among Two Generations of Sexually Diverse Australians. Published online in听Family Relations听on 19 November 2019.听
Persson, A., Newman, C.E., Rasmussen, M.L., Marshall, D., Cover, R., & Aggleton, P.听(2019). Queerying notions of 鈥渄ifference鈥 among two generations of Australians who do not identify heteronormatively. Published online in听Sexuality and Culture听on 24 June 2019.听
Clarke, K., Cover, R., & Aggleton, P. (2018). Sex and ambivalence: LGBTQ youth negotiating sexual feelings, desires and attractions.听Journal of LGBT Youth, 15(3), 227-242.听
Cover, R.听(2018). 鈥楳icro-Minorities: The Emergence of New Sexual Subjectivities, Categories and Labels Among Sexually-Diverse Youth Online.鈥 In听S.听Talburt (ed.)听Youth Sexualities: Public Feelings and Contemporary Cultural Politics.听Praeger, pp. 279-302.听
Hegarty, B., Marshall, D., Rasmussen, M.L., Aggleton, P., & Cover, R. (2018). Heterosexuality and Race in the Australian Same-Sex Marriage Postal Survey.听Australian Feminist Studies, 33(97), 400-416.听
Rasmussen, M.L., Aggleton, P., Southerton, C., Marshall, D., Cover, R., & Newman, C. (2018). 鈥淚t was just nice to see they existed鈥. The importance of having LGBTQ teachers who are 鈥榦ut鈥 at school. EduResearch Matters (Blog of Australian Association for Research in Education), 29 October.听
Cover, R., Rasmussen, M.L, Aggleton, P., & Marshall, D. (2017). Progress in question: the temporalities of politics, support and belonging in gender-and sexually-diverse pedagogies.听Continuum, 31 (6), 767-779.听
Rasmussen, M.L., Cover, R. & Aggleton, P. (2017).听Sexuality, Gender, Citizenship and Social Justice: Education鈥檚 Queer Relations. In Peterson, A., Hattam, R., Zembylas, M., Arthur, J. (Eds.),听Palgrave International Handbook of Education for Citizenship and Social Justice, Palgrave Macmillan, UK, pp. 73-96.听
Australian Research Council Discovery Project
- Associate Professor Mary Lou Rasmussen, Australian National University
- Associate Professor Rob Cover, University of Western Australia
- Dr Daniel Marshall, Deakin University
