Sexuality, Gender, and Policy Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2017 | Page 3

Sexuality, Gender, and Policy • Volume 1, Number 1 • Fall 2017
Editor’s Note
I
t is my honor to present the first issue of Sexuality, Gender, and Policy. SGP will
be an open-access and peer-reviewed journal from the Policy Studies Organi-
zation that focuses on the social, political, and cultural dimensions of sexuality.
Other related policy research, such as that into sexual health, sexual rights, trans-
gender studies, the intersections between disability and queerness, and sexuality
education will also find itself represented within these pages. I am incredibly ex-
cited by the international reach that this journal will have, and am excited to share
our first submissions in this inaugural volume.
At its core, SGP seeks to explore the political processes that have led to the
creation and evolution of gender- and sexuality-related policies throughout the
world. This means exploring the historical and contemporary methods, theories,
topics, and debates that have shaped these fields, while also taking care to account
for historical inequalities, marginalization, and post-coloniality.
The specific form of this research will be through the publishing of arti-
cles, reviews, syllabi, conference announcements, interviews, panel discussions,
and other scholarly insights. We accept the submission of traditional long-form
research articles (up to 7,000 words), shorter research notes (of up to 4,000 words),
and reviews (of up to 1,000 words), in addition to shorter works.
In the early stages of this journal, we want to celebrate and thank the con-
tributors who have helped to make this inaugural issue possible. The article, “The
admission of Lesbians and Gay asylum seekers to the USA: From Victory (ejusdem
generis) to Complications (social visibility)” by Tim Braimah proposes that the so-
cial visibility test should be rejected by all US courts, and the ejusdem generis ap-
proach should be the only adopted test in interpreting membership in a particular
social group, and used to adjudge refugee claims based on sexual orientation. In-
grid Holme in her article “Sperm exchange on the black-market; exploring infor-
mal sperm-donation through online advertisements” analyses the circumvention
of such control, through examining informal sperm donation occurring outside of
state regulation. Hole argues that despite official efforts to sanitize the process, the
practice of sperm donation is characterized in some quarters by efforts to evade
or outflank the official restrictions on it. In “A Study in LGBTQ Activism in Serbia
and Russia after 1991: Different Countries, Common Issues?”, Dordevic Vladimir
explores the issue of LGBTQ Activism in Serbia and Russia after 1991. The author
discusses whether the said community has so far had any influence in terms of be-
ing a possible “driver” of political and social changes, or it has remained but a mere
object rather than subject in social and political life. Kunal Debnath in “LGBT
Identity: The Illustration of ‘Othering’ in India” proposes a theoretical approach
to understand certain aspects of the otherness in the case of LGBT. Debnath prob-
lematizes the important question of what should be the way of the inclusion of the
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10.18278/sgp.1.1.1