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

The Effect Of Gsas In High Schools, Chase Lydon

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

How does the presence of GSAs in high schools affect students and overall school atmosphere? This paper delves into how the presence of GSAs in schools has a number of positive effects on students as well as on the overall school atmosphere (Deming et al.). This leads to improved student health and safety in addition to students sense of comfort and safety in their school (Ioverno et al.). These positive changes affect both LGBTQ+ and straight students attending schools where GSAs are present (Poteat et al.).

Harrison, Dick, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Dick Harrison is a 68-year-old gay man who uses he/him/his pronouns. Originally from Buffalo, NY, he moved to Van Buren, ME as a young adult to pursue work as an art teacher. He soon set to work connecting with other LGBTQ+ folks in northern Maine and just over the border in Canada, an effort that culminated in the founding of Northern Lambda Nord. NLN published a newsletter, organized dances, conferences, and social events, and operated a resource center and hotline for LGBTQ+ people for more than 20 years, providing a crucial lifeline for queer and trans Mainers in some of …

Foreign Language Anxiety, Sexuality, And Gender: Lived Experiences Of Four Lgbtq+ Students, James Donald Mitchell

Dissertations and Theses

The relationship between foreign language anxiety and gender identity has been largely a quantitative endeavor that has shown contradictory results. Furthermore, sexual identity has not been researched in foreign language anxiety literature. A qualitative account of LGBTQ+ language learners with different gender identities has been absent from the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between foreign language anxiety and sexual and gender identity. To gain insight into this relationship, this qualitative study investigated the lived experiences of four LGBTQ+ foreign language university students who represented three gender identities. Data were collected through multiple, in-depth …

From Roadblocks To Bridges, Taylor L. Teichman

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Through lecture and hands-on activities this workshop builds on understanding the layers of oppression of sexual violence, and meeting the needs of young people who have experienced sexual violence. This workshop will assist all professionals in their understanding of what sexual violence means for those from the LGBTQIAH+ youth community.

It will assist those in creating strategies for building bridges and making supports for these young people and their families/loved ones

1. Participants will have the basic knowledge of the intersectionality of sexual violence, LGBTQIAH+ youth, race, and class.
2. Participants will create 2 skills in bridging the gaps for these survivors. …

Rocky Journey Toward Effective Lgbt Leadership: A Qualitative Case Study Research Of The Perceptions Of Openly Gay Male Leaders In High-Level Leadership Positions, Javier Valdovinos

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative ethnographic case study was to explore and discover the perceptions of California gay male leaders in high-level leadership positions, specifically in regard to the types of support they received and the types of barriers they encountered along their leadership journey to attain a high-level leadership position.

Findings: Data collection and analysis resulted in six major findings in the ascent or journey to leadership of the 12 selected participants: (a) self-acceptance and personal determination, (b) networking support, (c) education and leadership skills, (d) family and friends, (e) internalized homophobia, and (f) social prejudice and …

Lg Ms 024 Lgbt Rights Legislation Collection Finding Aid, Julie Cismoski

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

The Collection contains materials related to LGBT rights legislation from 1978 to 1995, gathered by Prof. Erica Rand of Bates College. The bulk of the Collection is copies of press articles, with a press kit and campaign materials from Equal Protection Lewiston. The legislation covered includes Proposition 6, also known as The Briggs Initiative, in California in 1978; the 1992 Human Rights Ordinance in Portland, Maine; the Lewiston Anti-Discrimination Ordinance in 1993; and the statewide referendum, Question 1, in 1995. Some articles on LGBT issues other than rights legislation are included.

Date Range:

1978-1995

Size of Collection:

0.5 ft.

Lg Ms 023 Roland Blais Papers Finding Aid, Julie Cismoski

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Roland Blais was born in Rumford, Maine in 1939, and knew by the time he was in high school that he was "different". He saved money and moved to Los Angeles in 1958, where he got a job with Broadway Department Store, and went to gay bars for the first time. He joined the Navy and served from 1959 to 1963, leaving with an honorable discharge. He then enlisted in the Army, serving 1963-1966, stationed at Walsrode, Germany, working with missiles. He returned to the United States, retrieving the car he bought in Germany from Newark Port, New Jersey, …

Lavish Weddings, Ambiguous Anniversaries: How Relationship Histories Shape The Experience Of Getting Married For Gays And Lesbians, Aaron Hoy

Sociology Department Publications

No abstract provided.

Queer Repurposed Artifacts: The State Of New York City’S Contemporary West Village Bars, Stephanie Debiase

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, there has been a shift in queer bar culture in New York City’s West Village, and this thesis aims to explore what these changes are and why they are happening now. How do West Village bars survive when queer populations are forced out? While there are various ways to consider how and what survives in the Village, three variables will be addressed: queer history, or the history queer-identified groups using activism, safety measures, or collaborating with outside sources to secure their rights and overall wellbeing; (post)gentrification, beginning with the 90s when mainstream LGBT groups teamed up with …

The Way We Dream Now: History, Theory, And Lgbtq Memoir In America, Megan Paslawski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines American memoirs written after 2000 by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer authors with an eye to how the recent institutionalization of queer theory and the open production of LGBTQ histories affect these writers’ conceptions of their lives, aspirations, and cultures. I argue that these memoirs, sometimes consciously, find themselves struggling with what are also competing ideas within queer theory about the queerness of futurity even as they turn to the past of queer/trans literature and history to bolster their senses of possible identities and communities. This often has the effect of positioning contemporary LGBTQ writers as …

Race, Sexuality, And Masculinity On The Down Low, Stephen Kochenash

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In a so-called post-racial America, a new gay identity has flourished and come into the limelight. However, in recent years, researchers have concluded that not all men who have sex with other men (MSM) self-identify as gay, most noticeably a large population of Black men. It is possible that a tainted history of Black enslavement in this country that is inextricably linked with ideas of space, surveillance, subversion, and survival inform a Black male’s self-identification as being “on the down low” (DL). This begs the question: What does mainstream society view as gay-ness and how is the DL constructed …

Quiet Heroes, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Quiet Heroes (2018), directed by Jenny Mackenzie, Jared Ruga, and Amanda Stoddard.

The Miseducation Of Cameron Post, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018), directed by Desiree Akhavan.

Syllabus For S St 560 Introduction To Oral History, Documenting Lgbtq Histories In Mississippi, Jessica Wilkerson

Queer Mississippi (Complete Collection)

Syllabus distributed to students in Southern Studies (S ST) 560 for the 2018 Spring semester at the University of Mississippi. It includes course description and objectives, a reading list of required texts, an explanation of assignments and course policies, and a detailed schedule for the 14-week course.

Believer, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Believer (2018), directed by Don Argott.

Intersex And The Pardoner’S Body, Kim Zarins

Accessus

Most scholars today have retreated from reading into the Pardoner's body in favor of more figurative readings that emphasize his lack of masculinity, and such lack is then linked to his dejection and despair. Other, more affirming readings center the Pardoner's performance, which allows him to model any sort of body desired through figuration. While such positions dominate and older theories like Beryl Rowland's proposal of an intersex Pardoner are dismissed, in fact, an intersex reading might be a more life-affirming interpretation, not only in terms of reframing the Pardoner's body as manifesting variation as opposed to lack, but also …

Some-Ness In No-When: Queer Temporalities In The Horror Genre, Melody Hope Cooper

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In my research, I question why heteronormative society is afraid of the elements of horror films that are inherently queer. My focus is on temporal understandings of horror through the concepts of queer time, as theorized by Jack Halberstam and the theory of the abject, as presented by Julia Kristeva. I examine the relationship between queer time and heteronormative time. The abject serves as the return of time without identity or defined by binaries. Queer time is the time that will destroy heteronormative time’s conception of itself. This then relates to the horror that is created by the queering of …

Gender-Inclusive Library Workgroup Report, Erin White, Donna E. Coghill, M. Teresa Doherty, Liam Palmer, Steve Barkley

VCU Libraries Task Force Reports

The Gender-Inclusive Workgroup explored how VCU Libraries can better serve trans and gender-nonconforming users and staff. The group’s recommendations cover library spaces, staff, systems, services, and culture. Key recommendations include highlighting existing all-gender restrooms; building more gender-inclusive restrooms; expanding availability of menstrual products and disposal bins; continuing support for name-of-use changes in library systems; minimizing display of legal name in library systems; offering ongoing staff training in gender-inclusive language and customer service; and encouraging staff to share pronouns. The workgroup also recommends pursuing a culture of shared learning and inclusive thinking, with a reminder that gender identity is one facet …

Rural Space As Queer Space: A Queer-Ecology Reading Of Fun Home, Debra J. Rosenthal, Lydia Munnell

2018 Faculty Bibliography

Alison Bechdel's Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic has quickly joined the ranks of celebrated literary graphic novels. Set in part at a family-run funeral home, the book explores Alison's complicated relationship with her father, a closeted gay man. Amid the tensions of her home life, Alison discovers her own lesbian sexuality and her talent for drawing. The coming-of-age story and graphic format appeal to students. However, the book's nonlinear structure; intertextuality with modernist novels, Greek myths, and other works; and frank representations of sexuality and death present challenges in the classroom.

This volume offers strategies for teaching Fun Home in …

Queer: Good Gay, Bad Gay, Black Gay, White Gay?, Ian Barnard

English Faculty Articles and Research

"As Deadline .com bluntly put it, 'Kevin Spacey Apologizes to Anthony Rapp for Alleged Sexual Advances; Chooses to "Live As A Gay Man."' The outraged response of progressive intellectuals, activists, and cultural critics to Spacey’s twofold tweet has demonstrated, inter alia, the resilience of old school assumptions and expectations about coming out and about gay identity and gay identifications. These outraged responses have come especially from younger generations of intellectuals, activists, and critics, but also across generations, genders, and sexual orientations. Despite decades of attacks on models of gay identity that center on teleological narratives of coming out, and critiques …

Let’S Escape Into The Music: A Cross-Generational Oral History Of Orlando Lgbtq+ Spaces, Hannah Powell

Honors Program Theses

Since Orlando’s first gay bar, The Palace Club, opened in 1969, LGBTQ+ spaces have played an essential role in the Orlando queer community. They have acted as loci of gathering, solidarity, identity-formation, recreation, and even healing. There is an absence of literature on the LGBTQ+ community in Orlando and, more generally, in Central Florida as a whole. The legacy of LGBTQ+ spaces in Orlando is worthy of study due both to the city’s rich queer history and Orlando’s singular experience of the deadliest act of hate-motivated violence against the LGBTQ+ community in the history of the United States. Through documenting …

In-Terracial Conversation, Cheryl Dunye, Alexandra Juhasz

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Factors Impacting Parental Acceptance Of An Lgbt Child, Dani E. Rosenkrantz

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Chrisler’s (2017) Theoretical Framework of Parental Reactions When a Child Comes Out as Lesbian, Gay, or Bisexual suggests that parental reactions to having a non-heteronormative child are impacted by a process of cognitively appraising information about their child’s identity and experiencing and coping with emotional responses, both of which are influenced by contextual factors such as a parent’s value system. However, some religious values can challenge parents in the process of accepting a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) child. The purpose of this study was to test a model that examines the influence of cognitive-affective factors (cognitive flexibility, emotional …

Blurring The Spectrum: Exploring Queer Conservatism, Austin P. Mejdrich

Masters Theses

Running parallel to the groundbreaking and historic advancement of LGBTQ rights over the past decade has been the rise in the prominence and public discourse of queer conservative thinking. From the Log Cabin Republicans to far-right nationalistic politics, queer conservatives underscore both diverging ideologies within the modern American conservative tradition and the increase of far-right politics in Western societies. This study argues that queer conservatism, while traditionally less explored in the broader context of sexuality politics, is consequential to an understanding of the LGBTQ community and queer politics. Thus, an exploration of queer conservatism as a political ideology is explored, …

On Lgbt Studies At Vcu: An Interview With Richard Godbeer, Amita Rao, Emily Furlich

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

No abstract provided.

"I Think That's Really What It Comes Down To, Is Intimacy": Lgbtq+ Polyamory And The Queering Of Intimacy, Emily Pain

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Polyamory is an intimate practice, identity, and philosophy that permits open and honest relationships with multiple partners and centers on values such as communication, trust, and egalitarianism. The limited body of existing research on polyamory has contributed important perspectives towards a sociological understanding of polyamorous relationship negotiations and family challenges; however, it has focused primarily on privileged groups, drawing participants from polyamorous communities that are largely comprised of white, middle-class, heterosexual cisgender men and bisexual cisgender women. LGBTQ+ (‘queer’) lives have been severely marginalized in this literature, reinforcing oppressive gender and sexual hierarchies and leaving many important questions unanswered. Moreover, …

Beyond Litigation : The Behavior Of Cause Lawyering Organizations In The Lgbtq Movement, David Lawrence Trowbridge

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Scholarship tells us that cause lawyers, including those in the LGBTQ movement, are likely to avoid non-litigation tactics in favor of court-centered strategies (Klarman 2005; Rosenberg 2008; Scheingold 1974). Other research suggests that lawyers are likely to steer the LGBTQ movement’s agenda away from both grassroots interests and its more radical agenda (Leachman 2014; Levitsky 2006). However, more recent scholarship shows an increased reliance on non-litigation tactics in the LGBTQ movement and publicly available evidence indicates cause lawyers are working on diverse sets of issues within the movement (Cummings and NeJaime 2010; Marshall 2006).

A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender + Student Support Group Within A Central Florida State College: A Qualitative Study, Remy Ansiello

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For decades, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) + students attending institutions of higher education have been marginalized and have experienced hostility and outright discrimination, causing the need for student support groups for this population on college campuses. Recent laws passed at a national level have brought a greater level of equality to this minority group; however, feelings of marginalization, homophobia, heterosexism, and heteronormative culture persist. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to ask how students participating in an LGBT + support group within a Central Florida public state college perceive their experiences in college. The researcher also asked …

Reeling Backward: The Haptics Of A Medium And The Queerness Of Obsolescence, Travis L. Wagner

Student Publications

This article considers the haptics of queer activist footage shot on video, and more specifically footage shot on magnetic media. Despite ideal methods of care, magnetic media faces extreme concern from a preservation standpoint. As a format that is both subject to rampant deterioration (known colloquially as “sticky shed”) and obsolescence (with the ceasing VCR production), the queer activist videotape is an archival artefact irretrievably stuck in a liminal space. To play a tape is to contribute to its destruction, yet to not play the tape is to overlook potentially unique moments in queer history. As such, this article explores …

“I Thought I Found Home”: Locating The Hidden And Symbolic Spaces Of African American Lesbian Belonging, Aretina Rochelle Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation investigates the place-making practices of African American lesbians in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1990 to 2010. For this project, I ask how African American lesbians claim space to examine how race, sexuality, and class shape their place-making practices. The study is situated in the city before and following the 1996 Olympic Games, which was a period of rapid social, economic, and political growth.

The primary question posed in this study is as follows: How do African American lesbians claim space in Atlanta? This dissertation posits three arguments. First, African American queer spaces are transitory, reflecting the shrinking boundaries of …