What we do

Our academic themes and areas of research

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and (LGBT) Queer Life research area

The aim of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and (LGBT) Queer Life research area is to bring together research related to contemporary LGBTQ sexualities and gender identities and to support researchers working within this field through the formation of alliances and collaborations.

This empowered, consolidated and enhanced knowledge exchange functions to identify pertinent collaborative opportunities as well as optimising the visibility of LGBT Queer research at the university. The LGBT Queer Life research aims to capitalise on links with community groups, the voluntary and statutory sectors, and others to develop LGBT Queer community-based research in tandem with scholarly research.

Our significant achievements in this area include:

• Queer Futures 2
• Liveable Lives
• ACCESSCare

We welcome collaborators and potential beneficiaries of our research into LGBTQ sexualities and gender identities and would like to hear approaches for PhD study in this area of sexuality and gender studies research.

Sex, sexuality and health research area

Research into sex, sexuality and health examines interactions between lived experience, policy and practice and how these affect physical and mental health and well-being in UK and international contexts.

Critical perspectives on policy, practices and service delivery support understandings of the context and lived experience of citizens and (health) service-users.

Health and illness 

Our research at the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender critically explores the lived experiences of health, illness and disability. Drawing on critical, feminist and queer theory, using creative and participatory methodologies, this research focuses on both the promotion of health and prevention of illness and explores what makes life liveable, in sickness and in health (mental and physical), in contexts of enduring and increasing social inequalities that shape experiences of health and care for individuals, their families and their communities. The research resists pathologising accounts of queer lives and is non-normative in nature in order to bring about transformation as part of a broader sociopolitical drive.

Infection and disease

The social and physical experience of sexuality and gender has implications for physical and mental health. Our research at the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender includes a core focus on sexual health and HIV incorporating approaches that range from behavioural interventions in health outcomes to critiques of service policy and design.

Social and cultural wellbeing

Researchers at the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender critically examine how sexual practices, identities and difficulties are inscribed with meanings which limit, constrain or enable liveable lives for individuals whose experience is structured by multiple and intersecting inequalities or privileges.

Our significant achievements in this area include:

• Reducing health inequalities experienced by LGBTI people
• Alcohol use among gender and sexual minorities - Drinkaware

We welcome collaborators and potential beneficiaries of our research and would like to hear approaches for PhD study into health, wellbeing and disease associated with sex, sexuality and gender. 

The Everywhere Project was a two-year pilot project co-funded by the European Commission’s Public Health Programme and led by Dr Nigel Sherriff from the Centre for Health Research at the University of Brighton.

Digital sexualities research area

Researchers in the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender are involved in a range of projects that explore gender and sexuality in digital and media cultures. Research focuses on sexuality and body image, sex advice, conflict and confrontation in online interactions in gender and sexuality networks, and LGBT online activism.

Our significant achievements in this area include:

• Digital cultures of resistance, which investigated the nature of LGBT political discourse and activism on social media. It aimed to understand the political applications of social media from the point of view of LGBTQ young communities and to understand the congruence between the aesthetics of digital and social media forms of LGBTQ activism and the resonance of these ideas among the public as well as the opportunities and limitations of the digital media platforms’ affordances.

We welcome collaborators and potential beneficiaries of our research and would like to hear approaches for PhD study into digital media associated with sex, sexuality and gender.

Our research impact and knowledge exchange

The Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender works with local and national networks including, academics, professionals and charities. Our members have founded and developed services and projects that have made a profound difference to the lives of people in diverse communities.

Health4LGBTI

Health4LGBTI is an EU-funded pilot project aimed at reducing health inequalities experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and intersex (LGBTI) people. There is substantial evidence demonstrating that LGBTI people experience significant health inequalities that have impact on their health outcomes. LGBTI people continue to experience stigma and discrimination combined with social isolation and limited understanding of their lives by others, leading to significant barriers in terms of accessing health and social care services. These experiences can translate into a risk of alcohol abuse, depression, suicide and self-harm, violence, substance misuse and HIV infection. Depression, anxiety, alcohol and substance misuse are more common in LGBTI people, with lesbian and bisexual women at particular risk of alcohol abuse.

The project found that health professionals assume that LGBTI people do not face discrimination in accessing healthcare services and some believe that LGBTI people were contributing to their own marginalisation. As well as the lack of knowledge and cultural competence on the part of health professionals, the research found evidence of heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and interphobia creating significant barriers to healthcare, aggravated by systems ill-equipped to deal with the complexities of gender identity along with laws and policies restricting access to healthcare for trans people in particular, with some even being refused appropriate medical services.

An integral focus of this team’s research is to look at how health inequalities of this kind can be reduced, for example by ensuring that health services are attuned through appropriate and mandatory training for staff and students across health systems.

In 2019, the Health4LGBTI team, including Professor Nigel Sheriff (PI), Dr Laetitia Zeeman, Dr Nick McGlynn and Alex Pollard won the University of Brighton Research and Enterprise Excellence Award for Outstanding Project.

ACCESSCare

This project (2014-2016), led by Dr Richard Harding, and funded by Marie Curie, aimed to improve demand for and supply of palliative care for people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or trans (LGBT) and are in the later stages of a life-limiting illness.

Research has shown that people who identify as LGBT, and their significant others, may not receive the care they need when facing a life-limiting illness, despite an increased risk of certain cancers. Findings from the ACCESSCare study informed the recent Marie Curie publication ''Hiding Who I Am'': the reality of end-of-life care for LGBT people', and the Care Quality Commission Thematic Review (CQC) ‘A different ending – addressing inequalities in end-of-life care’. The main paper from ACCESSCare is freely available online from the Palliative Medicine website and highlights the additional barriers and stressors that LGBT people may experience when facing advanced illness and in bereavement.

A booklet aims to help individuals to think about:

• Why sexual orientation or gender identity may be important in relation to care needs, and preferences

• The care individuals are entitled to receive

• What to do if you think you have been discriminated against, because of your sexuality or gender identity

Our research output and activity

Details of research publications and other outputs fostered by the centre and achieved by its members, along with funded projects delivered by the centre, can be accessed on the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender's database of research.

• Visit the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender overview page on our research database
• Visit the record of our research publications and other outputs in sexuality and gender research
• Visit the record of our funded projects in gender and sexualities research.