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

Ua1b1/7 Lavendar Recognition Ceremony, Western Kentucky University

WKU Administration Documents

Commencement program listing LGBTQ graduates of Western Kentucky University.

Lg Ms 045 Howard Solomon Collection, Anthony Marvullo

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

The Howard Solomon Collection documents the art, activism, and scholarship of Howard Solomon, spanning the late 1960s to 2017.

Because Howard was the scholar-in-residence from 2002 to 2008, much of the material acts as a survey of the larger LGBTQ+ Collection. See Appendix C for a full list of cross-referenced papers, archives, and collections.

How Queer Came To Be: Deconstructing White Queerness In Melville's "Bartleby," Ginsberg's Howl, And Morrison's A Mercy, Sara Elizabeth Parnell Wilcox

Graduate Theses

In American LGBTQ+ communities, questions continually arise about what it means to live in a post-gay marriage world. Is there still a need for a division between LGBTQ+ and heteronormative spaces, such as nightclubs or parades? What purpose does the ideological signification of a queer identity serve if, ostensibly, queer communities are now equal with their heteronormative counterparts? Rather than accepting the homonormative, post-gay marriage premise that underlies frequent, current representations of “queerness” in terms of white, male, gay bodies, I plan to explore the convergence of aesthetics and politics as a method of freeing queer theory from some of …

Sex Trafficking Of Transgender And Gender Nonconforming Youth In The United States, Meaghan Tomasiewicz

Center for the Human Rights of Children

There is a growing body of research from a variety of disciplines highlighting the overrepresentation of LGBTQ identified individuals among sex trafficked and commercially sexually exploited (CSE) youth. A much smaller subset of this research specifically focuses on transgender female youth. Transgender male, GNC, and intersex youth are largely excluded from the available literature. The issues and obstacles faced by the transgender and GNC communities require specialized services that are not necessarily applicable to the LGBTQ community as a whole due to population-specific healthcare, mental health, and safety factors in addition to employment discrimination, housing discrimination, and familial rejection. By …

Queer Arab Writing Across Borders: Sexual Citizenship And Acts Of Belonging, Nicole Fares

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study provides a comparative analysis of various representations of sexuality in seven transnational Arab cultural productions: Salim Haddad's Guapa (2016), Rabih Alameddine's The Angel of History (2016), Ahmed Dany Ramadan's The Clothesline Swing (2017), Hasan Namir's God in Pink (2015), Fadia Abboud's I Luv U But (2016), Alissar Gazal's Lesbanese (2008), and Ayse Toprak's Mr. Gay Syria (2017). These productions demonstrate a range of experiences of discrimination and trauma experienced by queer Arab immigrants and refugees in Europe, the U.S. and Canada, as their national identities continue to be regarded as obstacles preventing them from fully integrating into the …

Microaggressions Within The Lgbtq+ Community: An Autoethnography, Erika A. Perez Montes

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This autoethnography is about different points in my life where I committed microaggressions towards the LGBTQ+ community specific to different genders, sexual orientations and/or how people in the community present themselves. I use “thick intersectionality” ‒ an embodied exploration of the complex particularities of individuals’ lives and identities associated with their race, class, gender, sexuality, and national locations ‒ as a means of portraying my message, voicing the emotions that I felt, and the identity I occupied at that moment. I show that the intersectionalities of queer folks’ identities create unconscious microaggressions towards other queer folks. The purpose of my …

On The Politics And Conceptualization Of Gender Non-Conformity : Exploring Thailand’S Kathoey Population., Macey E. Mayes

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the politics and conceptualization of gender in Thailand, drawing specifically on the Thai understanding of sex and gender with regard to the kathoey population. This work considers the solidification of a third-gender category and looks to the ways this solidification can inhibit the fluidity of gender and sexuality. It also analyzes the dangers of transnational advocacy and the superimposition of Western queer advocacy and theory on Thai gender identities. I approach this issue from an interdisciplinary framework that seeks to include historical, cultural, and theoretical perspectives. In examining anthropological research, critiques of …

A Qualitative Study Of School-Based Sexuality Education State Policies And Lgbtq+ Student Experiences In Sex Ed, Anna Babbin

Honors Scholar Theses

Objective:To assess the experiences of LGBTQ+ students in school-based sexuality education and compare responses of students from states with inclusive (Oregon and California) and non-inclusive (Alabama and Texas) sex education policies.

Participants:669 LGBTQ+ students between 13-17 years of age.

Main Outcome Measures:Student write-in responses about the inclusion of queer sexual orientations and gender identity topics in their school-based sex education.

Analysis:LGBTQ+ student write-in responses about their experiences in sex education were reviewed for themes using qualitative methods, and themes were compared across states.

Results:The majority of LGBTQ+ students living in Alabama and Texas report receiving …

Brother Outsider: Queered Belonging And Kinships In African American Men’S Literature, 1953-1971, Debarati Biswas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Brother Outsider: Queered Belonging and Kinships in African American Men’s Literature, 1953-1971 builds on the work of women-of-color feminists since the late 1960s and queer-of-color critique in the works of José Esteban Muñoz, Robert Reid-Pharr, Roderic Ferguson, and Nadia Ellis, in order to chronicle the emergence of a queer tradition in mid twentieth century African American men’s literature. Through literary analysis and archival research on marginal figures of African American culture during this period, this dissertation proposes that the black pulp novels of Chester Himes, Robert Deane Pharr, Clarence Cooper Jr., and Iceberg Slim perform a queer critique of and …

“The Childish, The Transformative, And The Queer”: Queer Interventions As Praxis In Children’S Cartoons, Heather Wright

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott McCloud considers “the simplified reality of the cartoon,” establishing a definition and theory for the medium (30). McCloud believes that cartoons possess “a special power” that is tied to their unique ability to “focus our attention on an idea” (31). Put simply, there is something about cartoons that allows for an easy exchange of concepts. Cartoons can teach. Using cartoons, a general term, to refer to both comics and animation, this thesis examines the transformative power of queer world building and intervention in recent children’s cartoons and how it functions, and can …

Faces Of Bg: Diverse Backgrounds, Many Stories, One Community, Holly Shively

Honors Projects

If you ask people who have been around Bowling Green State University for at least a decade, they’ll tell you the university seems more diverse, but some people find that, based on statistics, the university isn’t diverse enough. Despite BGSU having roughly 77 percent of students being between the ages of 18 and 21 years old and 78 percent being white, smaller communities flourish within the larger BGSU community. FacesofBG.com is a website that explores diversity at Bowling Green State University through the motto “Diverse backgrounds. Many stories. One community.” Through educational components like diversity in the local news and …

A Conversation With Stephen T. Coady

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 1999. Highlights of this conversation include Stephen's experience in starting ABiGaLe at Holy Cross, his description of the campus climate during the late 1990's, and his reflections on being an activist during this time period.

Interview keywords: student groups, activism, support, coming out, ABiGale, Chaplain's Office

Hiding Behind The Closet Door: Representations Of The Homosexual Experience In A Streetcar Named Desire, Antonia Piccirillo

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

Themes related to homosexuality and the homosexual experience are interwoven in many layers throughout Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. This research paper analyzes contemporary commentary on homosexuality from the 1940s and ‘50s, Blanche’s experiences with light and perception, and moments of homosociality between the male poker players, to interpret how the homosexual experience is represented and exposed on stage through the two main characters in the play, Blanche and Stanley. Williams uses a heteronormative context to portray the homosexual experience, thus mirroring the way gay men had to navigate life in the closet while presenting to the public …

Queer Mississippi Oral History Project Performance, Jessica Wilkerson

Queer Mississippi (Complete Collection)

Members of Dr. Jessica Wilkerson's Oral History of Southern Social Movements class (S ST 560) gave a presentation on their findings at the end of the semester.

How To Be The Perfect Asian Wife!, Sophia Hill

Art and Art History Honors Projects

“How to be the Perfect Asian Wife” critiques exploitative power systems that assault female bodies of color in intersectional ways. This work explores strategies of healing and resistance through inserting one’s own narrative of flourishing rather than surviving, while reflecting violent realities. Three large drawings mimic pervasive advertisement language and presentation reflecting the oppressive strategies used to contain women of color. Created with charcoal, watercolor, and ink, these 'advertisements' contrast with an interactive rice bag filled with comics of my everyday experiences. These documentations compel viewers to reflect on their own participation in systems of power.

A Conversation With Meghan Griffiths

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 2004. Highlights of this conversation include content on the role of Jesuit and faith-based education on personal development and identity formation. She speaks largely about her roles as an Orientation Leader and cochair of the LGBTQ Alumni network.

Interview keywords: Jesuit, faith, orientation leader, Catholic, queer, bisexual, LGBTQ Alumni Network

Living In The Liminal: Representation Of Transgender And Nonbinary Identity In 'Steven Universe', Mads Bradley

Media and Communication Studies Honors Papers

An analysis of the children’s animated series Steven Universe, this research takes a semiotic approach to explore anti-essentialist messages of gender identity. Atypical within the mainstream media, the cartoon expresses dynamic messages about gender by representing nonbinary characters and gender fluid themes. By contextualizing the American history of cartoon production, queer representation, and audience reception, this analysis provides insight into the importance of inclusive depictions of transgender identity in children’s media. Through close textual analysis and focus group findings with straight cisgender and queer informants, the research examines how the show portrays liminal identities. By combining textual analysis and …

A Conversation With Philip Dardeno Ii

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 2002. Highlights of this converation includes content on being involved in Allies and ABiGaLe, being gay at the turn of the century at Holy Cross, community and campus involvement.

Interview keywords: Allies, ABiGaLe, Millennial March, September 11 Terrorist Attacks

From Heo To Zir: A History Of Gender Expression In The English Language, Brodie Robinson

Senior Honors Theses

With the growing presence of the LGBTQ+ community on the global stage, the matter of gender has been rushed to the forefront of the public consciousness. News outlets have hotly debated the topic of gender expression, a topic which has motivated mass demonstrations and acts of violence, and this has promoted a linguistic conversation at the international level.

This thesis is intended to provide the historical context for the contemporary debate on gender expression in the English language, and explores both the grammatical background (the Indo-European origins of linguistic gender, the development of the modern pronoun system, etc.) and the …

A Conversation With Karen Mcshane

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 2006. Highlights of this conversation include content on feelings of homesickness in college, events demonstrating global context such as teh 9/11 terrorist attacks, organizations on campus such as ABiGaLe, hate crimes, relationships, support systems, Holy Cross' Jesuit identity, the patriarchal language of Catholic services, mental illness and post-graduation resources.

Interview keywords: homesickness, September 11 Terrorist Attacks, coming out, ABiGaLe, hate crimes, relationships, support, Jesuit, Catholicism, atheism, Chaplain's Office, Counseling Center, clinical depression, Spanish, LGBT Alumni Network