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

But, Why Not?, Anonymous

SURGE

I am the lucky one.

That’s how I’ve felt growing up in backwater Pennsyltucky, yet somehow managing to be openly queer. I came out to my friends and family as bi/pan-sexual in the 8th grade. None of my coming-out experiences resulted in horror stories. At that point most people had already guessed and accepted the fact that I was most definitely a queer kid. Even the most conservatively religious members of my friend group seemed perfectly okay with the fact that my sexuality didn’t fit with their ideas of morality. I was who I was, and to all outward appearances …

My Husband Is Now A Woman? The Experiences Of Transgender Individuals In Partner Relationships, Lisa Platt

Forum Lectures

How would you react on a first date if the person disclosed they used to be the other gender? Or if your partner/spouse decided to switch genders? This research examines the psychological and social challenges transgender individuals often face when seeking and maintaining romantic partner relationships. The experiences of the transgender community are beginning to receive more attention in both psychological research and mainstream culture. One area conspicuously absent is comprehensive research regarding the nature and challenges of transgender individuals' partner relationships. This study was a qualitative exploration of the transgender partner experience. Participants were recruited nationwide through convenience sampling. …

Getting "Bi" In The Family: Bisexual People's Disclosure Experiences, Kristin S. Scherrer, Emily Kazyak, Rachel M. Schmitz

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

There are many similarities in gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals’ coming out experiences, but bisexual people face unique challenges. Despite this, an explicit focus on bisexual people is missing from family research. Using family systems and cultural sociological perspectives, the authors analyzed how social and cultural factors shape disclosure processes for bisexuals as they come out to multiple family members. After analyzing qualitative data from a diverse group of 45 individuals, they found that bisexual people navigate monosexist and heterosexist expectations in their family relationships. Cultural constructions of bisexuality shape the ways that bisexual people disclose their identities, including how …

Family Affairs Newsletter 2015-03-15, Zack Paakkonen

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

FAMILY AFFAIRS was a free, twice-a-month, social activities newsletter for the GLBTQI (gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/queer/intersex) community, sent out around the 1st and 15th of each month. It covered the State of Maine only. The list was begun and maintained for many years by Jean Vermette in Bangor, and later operated by Zack Paakkonen of Portland. Over the years it evolved from a social activities newsletter into a business directory, classified ad service, and community bulletin board.

Family Affairs Newsletter Business Directory 2015-03-15, Zack Paakkonen

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

Family Affairs Newsletter Directory of GLBTQIA Businesses.

The Scales And Shapes Of Queer Women's Geographies: Mapping Private, Public And Cyber Spaces In Portland, Or, Paola Renata Saldaña

Dissertations and Theses

Queer women's relationship to space has been under-theorized due to the difficulties in identifying particular spatial patterns that can describe their presence in urban settings. Most of the research that has focused on queer space has mentioned the difficulty of mapping queer women. The purpose of this research is to identify the ways in which the scarcity of queer women-specific space in Portland, Oregon, has affected the development of a women's community based on a queer identity, the role of intersecting identities such as race and gender identity in these communities and spaces, as well as the implications of queer …

Lg Ms 038 Frances Peabody Papers Finding Aid, Katharine Renolds Thomas, Christina E. Walker

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Frannie Peabody was one of Maine's leading AIDS activists. Best known in Maine and nationally for her exceptional leadership in the AIDS epidemic, she also gave significant service on historic preservation, child welfare, and gay rights issues. She was a founder of Portland’s The AIDS Project and of the Frannie Peabody Center (formerly Peabody House), as well as of Greater Portland Landmarks. The Papers contain Peabody's personal papers, including her work with The AIDS Project and bereavement counseling.

Date Range:

1981-1999

Size of Collection:

24.5 ft.

Family Affairs Newsletter 2015-03-01, Zack Paakkonen

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

FAMILY AFFAIRS was a free, twice-a-month, social activities newsletter for the GLBTQI (gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/queer/intersex) community, sent out around the 1st and 15th of each month. It covered the State of Maine only. The list was begun and maintained for many years by Jean Vermette in Bangor, and later operated by Zack Paakkonen of Portland. Over the years it evolved from a social activities newsletter into a business directory, classified ad service, and community bulletin board.

Tape-By-Tape: Digital Practices And Cataloguing Rituals At The Lesbian Herstory Archives, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

This essay will outline the digital collections of the Lesbian Herstory Archives with an emphasis on process and workflow. The paragraphs below will describe the efforts put forth by the all- volunteer collective, and their dedication toward making materials accessible through the use of digital technology to preserve, catalog, and exhibit lesbian herstory. Interviews with Archive Coordinators, called “Archivettes”, Rachel Corbman on the Online Public Access Catalog, Saskia Scheffer on Photos, and Maxine Wolfe on Audio, will provide examples of LHA digital practices in the creation and maintenance of the Photo Collection, OPAC, and Audio Tape Digitization projects. Additional mention …

Shandong University Students' Views On Homosexuality, Joseph Miller

Honors Projects

Relatively little research currently exists on the subject of homosexuality and LGBT rights within the present People’s Republic of China. Homosexual behavior itself has only been legal in the country since 1997, and it was only removed from the Chinese Psychiatric Association’s list of disorders in 2001. While a few studies are beginning to examine current Chinese attitudes towards the subject of homosexuality, it is not yet enough to get a rounded view of the subject, and more research must be done in order to provide more accurate data. It is to this purpose that this survey of Shandong University …

Exploring Cultural Representation Of Same-Sex Marriage: A Content Analysis Of Wedding Announcements In The New York Times, Aaron Blasvak, Aaron Hoy

Sociology Department Publications

No abstract provided.

The Cross In My Closet, Ann M. Sasala

SURGE

All this changed when I turned fourteen. Suddenly the quiet peace was shattered by my raucous, rebellious response to the “Adam and Eve Not Ann and Eve“ chanted by my neighbors, teachers, and family. The solace I once felt during prayer became a black hole of hate; instead of listening for words of kindness, instead of finding serenity, I spit in the faces of my family, friends, and religion. Hoping to purge my body of its new found, fiery anger, I turned to a priest who told me there could be no salvation: “man shall not lie with man…it is …

Emerging Feminist Voices On Media And Representation, Diana Depasquale, Cassie Tenorio, Alyssa Wells, Savannah Fulmer

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

The work featured in this panel is from students in WS2000, Introduction to Women's Studies. I created an assignment called "Choose Your Own Adventure." These projects include: an examination gender in film, and a revised version of the Bechdel Test, sexism and misogyny in gaming culture expressed through a series of comics, a painting on canvas using a variety of materials and techniques representing the control of women's reproductive rights and the damage done to female bodies by patriarchal language and rhetoric, and an analysis of womanism, scripture and Alice Walker's The Color Purple.

Each student engaged with issues related …

Family Affairs Newsletter 2015-02-15, Zack Paakkonen

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

FAMILY AFFAIRS was a free, twice-a-month, social activities newsletter for the GLBTQI (gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/queer/intersex) community, sent out around the 1st and 15th of each month. It covered the State of Maine only. The list was begun and maintained for many years by Jean Vermette in Bangor, and later operated by Zack Paakkonen of Portland. Over the years it evolved from a social activities newsletter into a business directory, classified ad service, and community bulletin board.

Family Affairs Newsletter Business Directory 2015-12-15, Family Affairs

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

FAMILY AFFAIRS is a free, twice-a-month, social activities newsletter for the GLBTQI (gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/queer/intersex) community, sent out on the 1st and 15th of each month.

Another Country: When Your Nation Doesn’T Consider You To Be A Citizen, William B. Daniels Ii

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

I plan to show how the characters in Another Country uncover the inherently racist and homophobic requirements for citizenship in a nation. The novel Another Country by African American author James Baldwin (1924-1987) exposes the fallible nature of hetero-normative and racial ideals that narrowly define a model citizen of a nation-state. The queer interracial relationships in the novel, particularly between the main character Rufus and his lover Eric, transgress the boundaries of nation, race, and sexuality, thus revealing the illusionary nature of categorizations that are defined and applied by nation-state apparatuses in order to discriminate and maintain uniformity. In addition …

Mary Morris Knowles: Devout, Worldly, And 'Gay'?, Judith Jennings

Quaker Studies

This essay examines three themes relating to the beliefs and actions of Mary Morris Knowles (1733-1807) as a devout Quaker woman, incorporates new research and places her in multiple contexts within eighteenth-century Quakerism. Considering Knowles in relation to the themes of self and collective identity, her concepts and practices of womanhood in the private, social and public spheres and her theology and religious practices raises new questions about Quakerliness, or ways of being a Quaker. How wide and diverse was the spectrum of behavior considered appropriate for a Quaker woman and did it change over time? Was it possible for …

Family Affairs Newsletter 2015-02-01, Zack Paakkonen

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

FAMILY AFFAIRS was a free, twice-a-month, social activities newsletter for the GLBTQI (gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/queer/intersex) community, sent out around the 1st and 15th of each month. It covered the State of Maine only. The list was begun and maintained for many years by Jean Vermette in Bangor, and later operated by Zack Paakkonen of Portland. Over the years it evolved from a social activities newsletter into a business directory, classified ad service, and community bulletin board.

Young Activists, New Movements: Contemporary Chinese Queer Feminism And Transnational Genealogies, Wen Liu, Ana Huang, Jingchao Ma

Graduate Student Publications and Research

As young, diasporic feminist activist–scholars involved in queer feminist move- ments across China, Taiwan, and New York City, we reflect on the emergent ‘‘new’’ queer feminism in China today, with its amorphous cohesion and dramatic impact, as highlighted by the subway protest. Drawing on transnational feminism, we are part of this latest ‘‘new’’ response to growing global inequalities and neo-colonial feminist discourses that calls for a critical re-engagement with global politics (Grewal & Kaplan, 2001). However, as activists who center our political involvement in Asia, ‘‘transnationalism’’ is not only a vision, but an already exist- ing state, as we see …

"'The Law’S The Law, Right?' Sexual Minority Mothers Navigating Legal Inequities And Inconsistencies.”, Emily Kazyak

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

LGB parents face a number of legal inequities and confront a legal landscape that not only varies drastically by state but also quickly changes. Research has shown that some LGB parents and prospective parents have inaccurate knowledge about the laws relating to parenting. Drawing on data from 21 interviews, I ask how sexual minority mothers gain knowledge about the law. I found that people were very aware of the legal inequities they face and sought to become knowledgeable about the law before they had children. Sexual minority mothers reported using four primary methods to learn about the law: doing independent …

Let The Record Show: Mapping Queer Art And Activism In New York City, 1986-1995, Tara Jean-Kelly Burk

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although scholars increasingly scrutinize late twentieth-century American art produced in relation to social movements organized around feminism, anti-racist politics, health activism, and LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) identity, scholars usually fail to address the importance of printed ephemera as a medium of artistic expression. Ephemeral materials, such as posters, are cheap to make and print. They are typically distributed illicitly via un-commissioned wheat-paste campaigns in urban public space. Collectives tend to make their designs copyright-free to encourage wide distribution. Particularly in the era before digital social media, these materials were central to the ways in which communities coalesced in …

Beyond The Dialectics And Polemics: Canadian Catholic Schools Addressing Lgbt Youth Issues, Renato M. Liboro, Robb Travers, Alex St. John

Psychology Faculty Research

In 2012, Canadian media coverage on Bill 13—an Ontario legislative proposal to require all publicly funded schools to support Gay-Straight Alliances as a means of addressing issues concerning bullied lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students—instigated a divisive exchange among representatives of the Ontario Catholic school sector. Beyond these dialectics and polemics, a proactive mix of advocates from schools in the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) of Ontario took steady steps to address the circumstances of their LGBT students. This study included semi-structured interviews with ten stakeholders from the WCDSB to determine if strategies and programs deemed successful for …

Family Affairs Newsletter 2015-01-15, Zack Paakkonen

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

FAMILY AFFAIRS was a free, twice-a-month, social activities newsletter for the GLBTQI (gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/queer/intersex) community, sent out around the 1st and 15th of each month. It covered the State of Maine only. The list was begun and maintained for many years by Jean Vermette in Bangor, and later operated by Zack Paakkonen of Portland. Over the years it evolved from a social activities newsletter into a business directory, classified ad service, and community bulletin board.

Use Of Craigslist.Org To Hook Up: Age Differences In Sex Requests, Hiv Disclosure And Negotiated Safety Among Men-Seeking-Men, Kristen Clements-Nolle, Aliya Buttar, Lindsey Dermid-Gray, Tyler Peterson, Andrea Esp

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Data from 984 “men-seeking-men” Craigslist.org postings in five cities were analyzed to assess differences in sexual requests, HIV status disclosure, and negotiated safety between young (18-24 years) and older (25 years and older) men who have sex with men (MSM). Young MSM were less likely than older MSM to post their HIV status or the preferred status of a partner (p=0.04), disclose and/or request a partner who was disease and drug free (p=.01), and request use of a condom in their posting (p=0.01). Interventions aimed at changing the culture and content of postings on Craigslist.org by encouraging HIV status disclosure …

Lgbtq Relationally-Based Positive Psychology: An Inclusive And Systemic Framework, Daniela Domínguez

Psychology

Positive psychologists have contributed to our understandings of how positive emotions and flexible cognition enhance resiliency. However, positive psychologists’ research has been slow to address the relational resources and interactions that help non-heterosexual families overcome adversity. Addressing overlooked LGBTQ and systemic factors in positive psychology, this article draws on family resilience literature and LGBTQ literature to theorize a systemic positive psychology framework for working with non-heterosexual families. We developed the LGBTQ Relationally-Based Positive Psychology framework that integrates positive psychology’s strengths-based perspective with the systemic orientation of Walsh’s (1996) family resilience framework along with the cultural considerations proposed by LGBTQ family …

The Transgender Military Experience: Their Battle For Workplace Rights, Michelle Dietert, Dianne Dentice

Faculty Publications

Although there have been studies that focus on the experiences of the gay and lesbian population serving in the United States military, few have focused on the experience of active duty transgender service members. Transgender individuals transgress the binary conception of gender by deviating from societal gender norms associated with assigned sex at birth. The Department of Defense has set policies and standards that reflect a binary conception of gender, with a focus on conformity. We argue that able-bodied gender variant service personnel are just as capable of serving their country as anyone else. Because of the repercussions associated with …

Sexual Minorities In Sports Book Review, Kristy Mccray

Health and Sport Sciences Faculty Scholarship

A Book Review of Sexual Minorities in Sports by Melanie L. Sartore-Baldwin

A Vibrant And Vocal Community: Establishing An Archival Outreach Plan For The Lgbtq Community In Utah And Similar States, Julia Huddleston

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Despite being both politically and culturally conservative, Utah has a vocal and vibrant lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community that has been making history and headlines for decades. However, there is a demonstrated lack of primary source material documenting these movements. The lack of archival material highlights the need for archives in Utah to actively seek out collections from LGBTQ individuals and organizations through a concentrated outreach effort.

This paper addresses the unique concerns associated with acquiring LGBTQ collections—building trust, respectfully arranging and describing materials in a way that maximizes access, and creating inclusive physical spaces through reference …

Deadline: Ethics And The Ethnographic Divorce, Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

In the summer of 2009, the author receives a call from a New York Times reporter about her book Between Gay and Straight. The book portrays her (now-ex) husband’s and her integration into a network of gay male friends. “Deadline” explores tensions between private and public as the private turmoil of divorce clashes with the public construction of the author’s marriage and with her determination to continue the social justice work of Between Gay and Straight.

Lg Ms 039 Maine Frontrunners Archives Finding Aid, Katharine Renolds Thomas

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Maine Frontrunners was founded April Fool’s Day, 1995, inspired by the enthusiastic leadership of the legendary runner John Bean. The group has run Saturday mornings since then, through all kinds of weather. The Maine group is part of International Front Runners, an affiliation of GLBT running/walking clubs that have organized in many of the larger cities around the world. Inspired by Patricia Nell Warren's novel The Front Runner, the first Front Runner club began in San Francisco in 1974, and other FR clubs quickly began forming in the United States and then in Canada and abroad.

Date Range:

1994-2003 …