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

Acts Of Belonging: Perceptions Of Citizenship Among Queer Turkish Women In Germany, Ilgin Yorukoglu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines how people who have multiple identifications develop a sense of belonging. It focuses on those with politicized, romanticized, and stigmatized identifications which are assumed to be in conflict with one another. My particular case is that of "queer" women of Turkish descent in Germany with Berlin as my main study site.

These people embody what is considered to be an oxymoron: being queer yet also Turkish, being a lesbian yet having a Muslim background, being of immigrant origin yet also German. In short, they are between all worlds and thus, seemingly, do not belong anywhere. Their ambiguous …

Strengthening Services For Lgbtq Clients: Best Practice Recommendations For Rural Low-Income Service Providers, Elizabeth Holman, Ramona Oswald, Dina Izenstark, Shawn Mendez, Kimberly Greder

Faculty Publications

People who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBTQ), are more likely to be poor than heterosexualpeople. While they face the same general risk factors for poverty as others, LGBTQ people may experienceadditional discrimination in hiring, employment, and compensation, as well as face rejection from friends and family members who potentially could provide financial support in times of need. For LGBTQ people who live outside of large cities, the risk for poverty is even greater7. Thus, it is important that low-income service providers in rural communities provide culturally competent services to sexual minorities and their families.The purpose of this …

Coming Out, Coming Together, Coming Around: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Families' Experiences Adjusting To A Young Family Member's Disclosure Of Non-Heterosexuality, Denise M. Fournier Rodriguez

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

Young people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) are disclosing their sexual identity--or coming out--at progressively younger ages, making it more important than ever for the general population to understand, tolerate, and accept diversity in sexual identity. This study was designed to fill the gap in the existing literature about how the coming out process affects LGB young people's families of origin. Three LGB young people participated in the study, along with a member of each of their families. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with each of the participants, as well as a conjoint interview with each of …

Same-Sex Couples' Lived Experiences Of The Repeal Of The Defense Of Marriage Act's (Doma) Section Three, Alicia Anne Bosley

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

Same-sex couples are affected by the social and political climates in which they live, as these create the difference between acceptance and legalization, and discrimination and prohibition, of their relationships. This contingence is made increasingly impactful by the privileges and protections afforded to married couples by the federal government; same-sex couples, along with other couples that choose not to, or cannot, marry, are excluded from these benefits. Following the June 26, 2013 ruling that Section Three of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage as between a man and a woman, was unconstitutional, same-sex couples were given access …

The Australian Football League And The Closet, Andrew Douglas

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines the complete absence of openly gay males from the ranksof the professional players in the Australian Football League (AFL). It seeks to explain this absence in the context of the modern gay rights movement. incontemporary Australian society. It compares and contrasts the effects of thismovement on both the AFL and other mainstream Australian social institutions.

Over more than four decades, the gay rights movement has effected a number of social changes. These changes include both specific legal reforms and more general trends such as the increasing social visibility of gay men across a range of mainstream institutions …

Beyond The Strait And Narrow: The Import Of Queer Criminology For Criminology And Criminal Justice, Vanessa R. Panfil, Jody Miller

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

[Introduction] In March 2014, as part of its community relations service, the U.S. Department of Justice held a community service training for police officers that focused on developing strategies to better prevent and respond to bias crimes against transgender citizens. While the impetus for the training was recognition that this group is disproportionately affected by hate violence (see NCAVP, 2013), attendees of the training also highlighted the tumultuous relationships transgender individuals have had with law enforcement as another impetus for change. Transgender activists and the DOJ lauded the event as an important step for improved relationships between law enforcement and …

Twice As Likely To..., Adrienne M. Ellis

SURGE

TRIGGER WARNING!

I am white. I am bisexual. I am female. I have been sexually assaulted. Three times. [excerpt]

Original Plumbing: Performing Gender Variance Through Relational Self-Determination, Raechel Tiffe

Communication and Media Faculty Publications

In 2009, Amos Mac and Rocco Kayiatos, two transgender men, created Original Plumbing (OP) magazine, in an effort to “[document] diversity within trans male lifestyles through photographic portraits, essays, personal narratives and interviews.” In this essay, I argue that OP becomes a platform from which to understand the relational performance of transmale life. The magazine provides a foundation for transmen to take ownership of self-determination by constructing identity through a non-heteronormative framework, made possible through the queer worldmaking practices of an exclusively FTM (female- to-male) space. Throughout this essay, I critique what the magazine elects to value as “diversity,” tackling …

Gay After Graduation, Laura J. Koenig

SURGE

I first went public with my sexual orientation over Surge last spring–my last semester at Gettysburg before graduation. I was scared, but ultimately lucky to be met with support from my friends and family. People generally accepted my sexuality and then moved on. Actually, life went on so quickly that it took me some time to catch up. [excerpt]

Bi The Way, I'M Queer, Chelsea E. Broe

SURGE

363 days ago, on October 11, 2012, I came out as bisexual.

Every year, the queer community observes October 11th as National Coming Out Day, a day when queers of all kinds can openly acknowledge and celebrate their sexual orientation and gender identity. [excerpt]

How Far Would You Go With Him?: Interethnic Romantic And Sexual Encounters And Relations Among Men In The Dutch Context, Dillon C. Harvey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This report seeks to explore the experiences and complications men face romantically and sexually when ethnicity and race are used as focus lenses to reflect upon the participants' past interpersonal interactions. The interviews and analyses within this article reflect the ways in which Dutch ethnic/racial norms and stereotypes shape attraction and desire, and how men who pursue other men romantically and/or sexually negotiate with said external constructions of identity. Research in this paper provides the reader with insight into race relations on an intimate level through the participants' personal narratives, revealing the complexity of Dutch race relations on the most …

Decoding Literary Aids: A Study On Issues Of The Body, Masculinity, And Self Identity In U.S. Aids Literature From 1984-2011, Alexander Shimon Abrams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rather than waiting decades to respond, novelists of nearly every literary genre began conceptualizing the AIDS epidemic shortly after the first documented case of the virus in the United States in 1981. Writers, feeling a sense of urgency, wasted little time constructing didactic texts that differ from much historical fiction in that they were written as the tragedy they are commenting on occurred. However, AIDS literature has changed as the disease has spread well beyond the gay communities of San Francisco and New York, causing people to reexamine their longstanding beliefs on masculinity, sexuality, and body politics.

My Master's thesis …

The Queer Truth, Chelsea E. Broe

SURGE

I remember learning about intersexuality (then called hermaphrodism) for the first time in my health class when I was twelve years old. In that lesson, my teacher mentioned that when a child is born intersex, the parents will likely choose a binary sex (male or female) for the child, have the child undergo sex reassignment surgery, and raise the child to fit the corresponding gender. My teacher went on to explain that sometimes the parents pick the “wrong” sex for their child, and the child grows up feeling like he or she should be the “opposite” gender. Implied in this …

A Mixed-Method Examination Of Homicides Targeting Lgbt Individuals In The United States, Kristin Kaye Kelley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study is to understand the dynamic processes of fatal attacks against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals across different situational circumstances. Recent scholarship has begun to identify the heterogeneous nature of anti-LGBT homicides, including possible differences in how victims are targeted by offenders. However, several limitations of prior research have stunted the systematic examination of these circumstances. Few studies, for instance, have disaggregated by crime type and bias type, thus masking unique patterns and causal processes associated with varying types of anti-LGBT homicide events. Others have relied on official data sources whose validity and …

Choosing Sides: The Gender Dilemma, Center For Public Service

SURGE

“You can’t check a box between male and female; you are either a boy or a girl.”

My professor makes this statement often. It is pretty easy to see why he would use gender in this example: he is trying to give us a simple, understandable explanation of a binary. When explaining the binary, he just wants to show that it is a two-option classification: from his experience, male and female fits. [excerpt]

Mobile Activism: What Your Profile Picture Says About You, Laura J. Koenig

SURGE

I know you’ve all been seeing this image all of your Facebook news feeds. All of the sudden a few weeks ago it became everyone’s profile picture. People were sharing it, along with other images, explaining why Prop. 8 and the Defense Of Marriage Act should be repealed, and were generally expressing their support of marriage equality. [excerpt]

Update From The International Resource Network, Kalle Westerling

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The International Resource Network (IRN), the global network of researchers, activists, artists, and teachers sharing knowledge about diverse sexualities, hosted by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, as so far had a time of reorganization and applying for future funding. Meanwhile, the local organizations and projects associated with the network continued to grow and expand.

5th Annual Rainbow Book Fair, Sarah Chinn

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Each year, the Rainbow Book Fair grows larger and more exciting: as the largest LGBT book expo in North America, the RBF is the place to learn about new trends in queer publishing. Exhibitors at the Fair range from academic presses to romance and erotica, from trade presses to art books and literary journals and beyond: it’s the Fair’s goal to represent the amazing variety of queer and trans writers and publishers.

Letter From The Executive Director: An Accidental Protester, James Wilson

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

This past January, I spent a cold, wet, and fabulous week in Paris. One evening while strolling along the Left Bank, sauntering in the shadows of the imposing grandeur of L’Hôtel national des Invalides, I found myself caught up in a massive wave of protesters, who were dispersing from a demonstration in front of the Eiffel Tower. The crowd moved like a protean organism through the narrow Parisian streets, growing in immensity as other protest groups siphoned into the throng from criss-crossing thoroughfares.

Clags Fellowships And Awards, Noam Parness

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

This past fall, CLAGS awarded two fellowships: The Paul Monette-Roger Horwitz Dissertation Prize, and the CLAGS Fellowship Award. Our fantastic fellowship winners are profiled in this newsletter, and on our website. Please check out our current winners to read more about their scholarly endeavors! Additionally, we are excited by all of the applications that we have received for the three fellowships that CLAGS will be awarding this spring: The Martin Duberman Fellowship, The Robert Giard Fellowship and the Joan Heller–Diane Bernard Fellowship in Lesbian and Gay Studies.

Clags Events And Outreach, Spring 2013, Benjamin Gillespie

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

This past semester, CLAGS held many successful and provocative events that effectively supported our mandate as a platform for historical and contemporary issues affecting the LGBTQ community. We hosted the book launch for Born This Way: Real Stories of Growing up Gay by Paul Vitigliano, featuring such guest speakers as Noah Michelson (Huffington Post Gay Voices) and Michael Musto (Columnist, Village Voice).

Performing Que(E)Ries: Nina Arsenault With J. Paul Halferty, Benjamin Gillespie

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

This exciting conversation and performance demo with one of Canada’s leading queer performance artists took place on October 26th, 2012 in the Segal Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center. The event featured two short films made by Arsenault and filmmaker Jordan Tannehill, Plane of Immanence and Guadalajara, as well as an extended monologue by Arsenault retelling an autobiographical story on her quest for feminine beauty entitled The Ecstasy of Nina Arsenault: a surgical pilgrimage through a waking facelift.

Performing Que(E)Ries, Charles Busch, James Wilson

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Charles Busch, renowned New York performer, playwright, director, and drag extraordinaire, participated in the second iteration of this new CLAGS series in the Fall. He discussed his astonishing career in the theatre and on film, as well as the changes he has seen in LGBTQ performance over the last four decades in New York and beyond. The conversation was moderated by CLAGS Executive Director James Wilson.

“Queering The Rainbow Nation”: An Analysis Of 11 Gay And Lesbian Capetonians’ Perceptions Of Lgbt Identity In Cape Town And The South African Government’S Commitment To Lgbt Equality, Ryan Sasse

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The South African government has made vast strides in the fight for LGBT equality, strides that are unparalleled by any other nation on the African continent. Unfortunately, the lack of hate crime legislation within the country—as well as the government’s unwillingness to address the nation’s resulting violence—often overshadows the accomplishments that have been made over the last few years. Keeping in mind that “[f]eminist research goals foster empowerment and emancipation for women and other marginalized groups, and feminist researchers often apply their findings in the service of promoting social justice for women,” we can see how the LGBT community is …

It's Not About The Coffee: Queer Temporalities At A Community Coffeehouse, Jodi Davis

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Long Beach California’s “gay ghetto” 1 is a loosely defined neighborhood with bars, coffeehouses and businesses that cater to the LGBTQ community. The corner of Broadway and Junipero roughly marks the center of the gay ghetto and is home to Hot Java “The Community Coffeehouse”. The customers there are loyal and through ethnographic inquiry this paper highlights the importance of Hot Java as a queer site of resistance and community building. Through interviews, observation, and exploration of queer theoretical models of space and time, this paper illustrates Hot Java as a queer temporal space marked by trauma, resistance, and community …

How To Look Like A Lesbian Without Even Trying, Laura J. Koenig

SURGE

“Ugh. I hate those pictures. I look like such a lesbian in them,” my cousin explained to me while her family and I sat around their kitchen table. After she said this, her younger brother laughed into his chicken noodle soup and she hit him over the head. “Shut up. I’m telling you. They’re so bad,” she said. As the conversation went on, I learn that she was referring to pictures that had been taken at one of her lacrosse practices. The important part is that she was displeased with the photos. And it’s certainly not because someone had caught …

The Va-Jay-Jay Revolution

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and art about beauty standards, the portrayal of lesbians on television, a critique of the word bitch, organized religion as a violation of women's rights, harassment in public spaces, and the representation of women in various countries as observed by studying abroad.

What You Need To Know About Sex, Lauren Gardner, Paula Pearl, Jessie Roth, Cristina Smith

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork examining messages about sex and contraception in the media, intimate partner violence, sexuality and gender in popular music, and sexuality.

Ua35/11 Honors Program, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about the Honors Program. Includes brochures, awards programs, student handbooks, newsletters and research publications.

Socially Situated Identities Of Gay Gang- And Crime-Involved Men, Vanessa R. Panfil

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Within the criminological literature, gay men have primarily been portrayed as victims of anti-gay bias crimes or intimate partner violence, or as sex workers and/or drug users. This coverage, which is limited in scope, largely fails to recognize that gay men have agency (choice or power to control the situation). It also provides an incomplete picture regarding gay men's involvement in gangs, violence, and crime.