Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons^™

Pornography, The Lgbtq+ Community, And The Queer Alternative, Rebekah Gredler

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Pornography is a complicated and controversial topic. Much has been said about how porn may or may not affect individuals, but very little has been done in the academic community on how pornography affects the LGBTQ+ community. In debates of censorship and regulation of porn, their voices are often ignored in public debate in favor of straight, feminist, or puritanical, religious discourses. This is problematic because pornography, particularly queer pornography, has done much for the evolution and self-affirmation of the LGBTQ+ community. It would be remiss if such positive effects of such a controversial exploit were to go unacknowledged. In …

“Like Dying And Like Being Born”: The Portal, The Door, And The Closet In Mohsin Hamid’S Exit West, Lynn Nichols

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

This paper analyzes Exit West by Mohsin Hamid through the lens of queer theory and LGBT symbolism. Scholarship surrounding Exit West has focused on the novel's magical realism as a commentary on xenophobia and colonialism. By drawing on noted texts in queer theory including Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet, this paper draws further connections between Hamid's portal plot and the experience of coming out. This argument considers the intersectionality of migration and coming out to demonstrate that for characters like Nadia, these experiences must overlap.

Searching For Sapphistries: An Archive Of Felt Photographs, Lauren Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

Using the holdings of the Peter J. Cohen Collection in New York City as a platform from which to engage the queer impulse of feeling backward, this thesis posits that vernacular photographs can be included in sapphistry through the creation of a counterarchive of “felt photographs,” where a reading of photographs is animated by a queer positionality and knowing.

The. Broken. Gay. Chicanx. Grind., Damon R. Carbajal

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

No abstract provided.

White On The Outside | Brown On The Inside, Damon R. Carbajal

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

This poem is one of a trio of poems published in this volume titled, “at the interSEXtion of being GAY and CHICANX: Un Trío de Poemas,” that dive into what it means growing up as a gay, Chicanx light-skinned in the current times post the moviemento and through the strides of the queer liberation movement. The poems explore many facets of living at this intersection including, but not limited to, toxic masculinities, queerphobia, mental health, sexual assault, pride, etc. The poems also explore the notion of what it means to be mestiza as Mexicano and White and how this further …

Things Will Never Be The Same: How Corona Further Exposed Our System "Documenting The Pandemic Through Highlighting Community Mutual Aid Efforts", Pico Villa

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

No abstract provided.

Kinstitution: A Topia Between Archive And Proposal, Christopher Lineberry

Theses and Dissertations

Situating Topher Lineberry's work, this paper offers a primer on institutional critique, preliminary developments of "kinstitutional critique," and the cultivation of family-derived art history through the work of the artist's grandmother, Helen Lineberry. Feeding into a working understanding of family-and-kin-as-institution, the paper ultimately locates Topher Lineberry's work between relations to place, historical archives, and speculative proposals.

Intersextional Pride, Damon R. Carbajal

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

This poem is one of a trio of poems published in this volume titled, “at the interSEXtion of being GAY and CHICANX: Un Trío de Poemas,” that dive into what it means growing up as a gay, Chicanx light-skinned in the current times post the moviemento and through the strides of the queer liberation movement. The poems explore many facets of living at this intersection including, but not limited to, toxic masculinities, queerphobia, mental health, sexual assault, pride, etc. The poems also explore the notion of what it means to be mestiza as Mexicano and White and how this further …

Epistemologías Muertas, Luis Oswaldo Esparza

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

No abstract provided.

Assessing Transgender Inclusion Within A Veterans Healthcare System: A Delphi Study, Kathy-Jo B. Lee

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

Transgender veterans have specific health care needs and often experience profound health disparities, barriers to accessing care, and varying degrees of stigma and discrimination. Yet, there is a lag in research regarding transgender persons in terms of the extent and impact of diversity and inclusion within healthcare. There is a need to further define inclusion and examine how this concept is operationalized in the healthcare settings. This study addressed the gap in knowledge gained from transgender healthcare research by establishing a consensus definition of transgender inclusion as well as identified contributing factors. The study also compared the end user perspectives …

Space-Praxis: Towards A Feminist Politics Of Design, Mary C. Overholt

Masters of Environmental Design Theses

Outside of the academy and professionalized practice, design has long been central to the production of feminist, political projects. Taking what I have termed space-praxis as its central analytic, this project explores a suite of feminist interventions into the built environment—ranging from the late 1960s to present day.

Formulated in response to Michel de Certeau’s theory of spatial practices, space-praxis collapses formerly bifurcated definitions of ‘tactic’/‘strategy’ and ‘theory’/‘practice.’ It gestures towards those unruly, situated undertakings that are embedded in an ever-evolving, liberative politics. In turning outwards, away from the so-called masters of architecture, this thesis orients itself toward everyday practitioners …

Made Of Water, Covered In Mud, Nicole Norman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My fixation on water as metaphor is a product of my cosmic design; Scorpio sun, Pisces moon, Pisces rising. I am made of water, begging to be held. Anything liquid has this same desire. I use my art practice to examine the fluidity of physical and digital spaces; how they transform almost constantly. This is only possible through the use of containers that give form to abstract ideas and make them easier to drink (read: digest). Containers can vary in size and shape, but their purpose remains the same. A drinking glass, a swimming pool, a creek bed. These are …

Aztlán Potentialities: Queer Male Chicanx Affect And Temporalities, Ethan Trejo

English (MA) Theses

While there has been much critical attention paid to Aztlán, the mythical/historical Chicanx homeland, there is still work to be done in combatting the entrenched heteronormativity of Aztlán and of chicanidad more broadly. This thesis, born from my own identity as a queer Chicanx male, considers the potentialities of queer male Chicanx affect and temporalities, offering an affective turn as a resistance model to the heteronormativity that plagues the queer male Chicanx. The first chapter establishes a critical intervention in the field by putting Cherríe Moraga’s dream of a “Queer Aztlán” in conversation with the queer futurity framework that José …

Transgendering Viewers Of Television, Arianna S. Goodhand

Honors College Theses

In response to the growing number of transgender characters on television, I explored how witnessing transgender representation on television is associated with an increase in viewers’ knowledge about the trans community, their empathy and understanding for the trans community, and their likelihood to advocate for the trans community. I hypothesized that witnessing trans representation on television is associated with greater understanding and empathy for the trans community, knowledge about trans experiences, and motivation to advocate for the trans community. The trans community specifically is becoming more visible thanks to television shows like Fox’s Pose. Gender and gender identity frameworks …

From Byronic To Gothic Blood Sucker: Subversion Toward A Non-Gendered Identity, Hannah Hoover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Analyzing Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and linking trends of the Byronic hero that have merged into a variety of genres reveal that the hero is a mode of subversive gender expression, which has evolved within the Gothic through feminine desire. Delving into Bram Stoker’s Dracula will provide unique insight into the audience’s desires/expressions of gender. Finding the transition point from the monster vampire of Dracula to Stephanie Meyer’s desirous, sparkling boy-next-door in Twilight will track the trajectory of gender and sexual norms through time. From the foundational adaptation of the Byronic hero in Wuthering Heights to the repressed vampiric desire …

Land Lines: Modes Of Communication In Kentucky's Queer Past And Present., Emma R. Johansen

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

As the queer historical discipline grows in reach, prominence, and scholarship, southern queer histories are on the tail end of this growing academic attention. Academic historians, digital humanists, and public historians alike have neglected Kentucky’s rich queer history in academic circles. This thesis aims to mend this gap in historic interpretation through research in Kentucky gay press, television, radio, and their effect on Kentucky’s queer organizing. Through extensive primary research in the Williams-Nichols archive, and secondary sources on the women in print movement, queer rurality, and gay media studies, this thesis measures the ways Kentucky queer communities have correlated with …

The Relationships Of Perceived Parental Social Support To Vigilance And Resilience Among Lgbtq And Straight Cisgender Adults, Brady Dodds

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of parental support to resilience and vigilance in LGBTQ and straight, cisgender adults as the majority of research has examined these relationships in LGBTQ and straight, cisgender children and teens. It was hypothesized that greater parental support would be correlated with higher resilience and lower vigilance. Also, it was hypothesized that the relationships would be stronger for LGBTQ participants than for straight, cisgender participants. Participants who were recruited via Prolific Academic completed an online questionnaire that included measures of maternal and paternal support, resilience, and vigilance. Results indicated that participants …

Disrupting Gender Normativity Through A Social Learning Framework, Ashley Shank

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Through a social learning theoretical framework, this thesis seeks to understand the mechanisms by which gender normativity is perpetuated, as well as how it may result in the marginalization of transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) youth. Additionally, ways in which TGNC youth navigate oppression and how discrimination against TGNC youth may be reduced through disruption of gender normativity are explored. Using qualitative methods that include the analyzation of community meeting transcripts as well as townhall meetings with TGNC/queer community members, the present study will attempt to answer the following research questions through a social learning theoretical framework: 1. How can …

Learning About Healthy Relationships And Sexuality For Adults With Disabilities, Vanessa Karjack

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Many adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities receive little to no sex education; as a result, they often struggle to have fulfilling and healthy relationships, experience limitations in physical interactions, and are at risk of being taken advantage of by others. Sommaro et al. (2019) explained that individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) and developmental disabilities (DD) are often placed into one of two categories: they are treated as either eternal children or sexual deviants. These ideas are based on old knowledge and are known to be inaccurate. However, current systems of care struggle to move forward from these notions. A …

An Intersectional Analysis Of Lgbtq+ Healthcare In The United States, Nicole Niles

Senior Honors Projects

LGBTQ+ healthcare has made some significant progress in the last few decades, yet countless studies have shown that the American healthcare system still lags behind in equitable healthcare. My project sought to identify the issues that prevent the LGBTQ+ community from receiving quality healthcare, which involved the curation of over twenty academic journal articles for an annotated bibliography, along with a paper discussing these articles.

One of the most important concepts to gender studies is intersectionality. Coined by legal theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality describes the concept of how one’s individual characteristics, including race, class, and gender, intersect and …