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- Creators: Department of English
- Creators: Department of Psychology
Description
This qualitative research project investigates the contemporary landscape of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) politics and activism, specifically the concept and identities of so-called "straight allies." Through 13 in-depth interviews with individuals who identify as straight allies, we explore the ways in which these heterosexuals engage in LGBT politics and activist culture. We take a grounded theory approach to data analysis, through which the concept of "passive" and "active" activism emerges as a potent framework to understand these allies' meaning making practices, as well as how they negotiate the emotional, interpersonal, and mass-mediated complexities of being straight in LGBT communities and politics. Thompson's (2005) theory of "ontological choreography" is used as an interpretive lens to make sense of the heterogeneous knowledges and experiences our participants draw upon to constitute their straight ally identities. Implications for future research on LGBT politics and straight alliance are discussed.
ContributorsBlazer, Jennifer (Co-author) / Adler, Jake (Co-author) / Grzanka, Patrick (Thesis director) / Fahs, Breanne (Committee member) / Miles, Joseph (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
A prior experiment by Li and colleagues found that when participants rated same sex faces in physical attractiveness, their self-reports of religiosity were higher in comparison to those that rated opposite sex faces. Could this be due to participants feeling their sexuality was threatened or misunderstood? In the current experiment, we attempted to replicate these findings and extend them by using a pseudo personality test that presented false feedback to participants. This feedback explained that their personalities were similar to homosexual or heterosexual people. Four hundred and fifty participants from Amazon Mturk were randomized into these conditions. We also measured homophobia, moral values, and the believability of the experiment. Results displayed no replication of the original findings. Men were more homophobic than women, while displaying lower moral values and religiosity. Those that self-reported being more homophobic also reported being more religious and moral. In conditions of sexual threat (homosexual personality, same sex faces) and sexual comfort (heterosexual personality, opposite sex faces), self-reports of moral values increased. Participants that reported believing the feedback displayed higher religiosity in both sexual threat and sexual comfort conditions. For a more concrete understanding of the relationship between religiosity, mating goals, and threats to sexuality, more research needs to be performed.
ContributorsHobaica, Steven Matthew (Author) / Cohen, Adam (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Neuberg, Steven (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / College of Public Programs (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
This theoretical inquiry is a response to the apparent need for resources on providing music therapy for LGBTQ adolescents, a population facing systematic oppression in their respective homes and communities. Since there are no published research studies on actual clinical work with this population, I investigated the literature of queer theory, an interdisciplinary field that destabilizes sexual categories and challenges the concept of normal and fixed identities, and applied its theoretical concepts to develop music therapy interventions. I was especially influenced by the ideas of foundational queer theorists Michel Foucault, Eve Sedgwick, and Judith Butler, among others. Their perspectives can advance how music therapists currently approach working with this population and interpret music therapy experiences with LGBTQ clients. The theoretical insights of these fields can be applied to impact the LGBTQ movement for social justice by empowering queer youth using music within a therapeutic environment. This interdisciplinary project incorporates queer theory with music therapy theory to develop evidence-based interventions and open up new perspectives in music therapy practice with LGBTQ clients.
ContributorsBain, Candice Lanell (Author) / Crowe, Barbara (Thesis director) / Grzanka, Patrick (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Trauma is increasingly experienced by people in transit as border militarization increases migrants’ exposure to violence and forces them into more precarious situations. For queer migrants, this includes situations where they are more likely to experience persecution and sexual violence. This paper explores the availability of care for queer undocumented migrants in the United States after surviving a precarious and potentially deadly journey from their country of origin to the US, as well as forms of alternative care developed by the undocuqueer community. In particular, it focuses on access to care for LGBT migrants, who face stigmatization on multiple levels and as a result are more likely than their straight counterparts to experience extreme mental health consequences pre-, in-, and post-transit. Faced with a number of obstacles that prevent them from receiving appropriate mental health care, the undocuqueer community utilizes various strategies to ensure that the health and needs of the community are supported. I argue that in spite of facing traumatic experiences and being unable to fully access healthcare to alleviate these problems in the US, LGBT migrants demonstrate extreme resilience and resist the mechanisms that otherwise threaten their mental well-being.
ContributorsCordwell, Cailan Rose (Author) / Wheatley, Abby C. (Thesis director) / Ward, Mako Fitts (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
In the mid-twentieth century, a number of vital and quietly revolutionary gay male writers, including Christopher Isherwood, Gore Vidal, James Baldwin, and John Rechy, increasingly wrote about explicitly homosexual experiences and culture despite social and legal opposition. Both individually and collectively, these four authors ultimately merged disjointed identities to establish a tradition of visibility and resistance in the United States. Divided into four main sections, this thesis examines each author’s portrayal of homosexual experiences and culture through his distinct approach with a close literary analysis of various works. The first section considers Christopher Isherwood and how milieu affects his depictions of homosexuality in The Berlin Stories (1945), Down There on a Visit (1962), and A Single Man (1964). The second examines Gore Vidal’s The City and the Pillar (1948) and the relationship between homosexuality and masculinity. The third section looks at how James Baldwin writes about the intersection of homosexuality, race, nationality, and class in both Giovanni’s Room (1956) and Another Country (1962). Finally, the fourth section considers the emergence of queer communities built around resistance in John Rechy’s City of Night (1963). In addition to these literary texts, original reviews of each novel published in The New York Times capture their reception and acceptance into a mainstream American readership. Through their distinct approaches, these four authors collectively present a varied, although somewhat limited, look at the homosexual experience in postwar, pre-Stonewall America.
ContributorsBramlett, Charles Paul (Author) / Sturges, Robert (Thesis director) / Bryant, Jason (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Comm (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Aside from uplifting and tearing down the mood of a young LGBTQ+ kid, journalistic media has the potential to alter the way audiences understand and react to individuals of the LGBTQ+ community. Looking at the rhetorical approaches, frameworks, and expanded narratives of news sources, this project engages with the concepts of same-sex marriage, lifestyles, bans, and children in education in order to attain an understanding of what media messages are being shared, how they are being communicated, and what the implications of such rhetoric are. Summary of the findings:
• Same-sex marriage as the win that cannot be repeated.
Infamously known as the central legal battle for the LGBTQ+ community, same-sex marriage finds itself in many political speeches, campaigns, and social commentaries. Interestingly, after being legalized through a Supreme Court decision in the United States, Same-Sex Marriage finds itself framed as the social inevitability that should not be repeated in politics or any legal shift. In other words, “the gays have won this battle, but not the war.”
• There are risks around the “LGBTQ+ lifestyle” and its careful catering to an elite minority and the mediation through bans.
The risks of the LGBTQ+ “lifestyle” date back far, with many connotations being attached to being LGBTQ+ (AIDS epidemics, etc.). In modern journalism, many media outlets portray LGBTQ+ individuals to be a tiny minority (.001% according to some) that demands the whole society to adhere to their requests. This framework portrays the LGBTQ+ community as oppressors and obsessed advocates that can never “seem to get enough” (ex: more than just marriage). The bans are framed as the neutralizing factor to the catering.
• LGBTQ+ children and topics in academic and social spaces are the extreme degree.
When it comes to LGBTQ+ issues and conversations as they revolve around children, media outlets have some of the most passionate opinions about them. Often portrayed as “the line that shouldn’t be crossed,” LGBTQ+ issues, as they find themselves in schools and other spaces, are thus portrayed as bearable to a certain degree, never completely. Claims of indoctrination are also presented prominently even when institutional efforts are to protect LGBTQ+ kids.
• Same-sex marriage as the win that cannot be repeated.
Infamously known as the central legal battle for the LGBTQ+ community, same-sex marriage finds itself in many political speeches, campaigns, and social commentaries. Interestingly, after being legalized through a Supreme Court decision in the United States, Same-Sex Marriage finds itself framed as the social inevitability that should not be repeated in politics or any legal shift. In other words, “the gays have won this battle, but not the war.”
• There are risks around the “LGBTQ+ lifestyle” and its careful catering to an elite minority and the mediation through bans.
The risks of the LGBTQ+ “lifestyle” date back far, with many connotations being attached to being LGBTQ+ (AIDS epidemics, etc.). In modern journalism, many media outlets portray LGBTQ+ individuals to be a tiny minority (.001% according to some) that demands the whole society to adhere to their requests. This framework portrays the LGBTQ+ community as oppressors and obsessed advocates that can never “seem to get enough” (ex: more than just marriage). The bans are framed as the neutralizing factor to the catering.
• LGBTQ+ children and topics in academic and social spaces are the extreme degree.
When it comes to LGBTQ+ issues and conversations as they revolve around children, media outlets have some of the most passionate opinions about them. Often portrayed as “the line that shouldn’t be crossed,” LGBTQ+ issues, as they find themselves in schools and other spaces, are thus portrayed as bearable to a certain degree, never completely. Claims of indoctrination are also presented prominently even when institutional efforts are to protect LGBTQ+ kids.
ContributorsNieto Calderon, Ramon Antonio (Author) / Himberg, Julia (Thesis director) / Sturges, Robert (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Horizon is a young adult dystopian fiction piece that addresses issues of gender and LGBTQIA+ identity. In the story, the world has been divided into two separate societies: earth, inhabited by females, and a platform in the sky, inhabited by males. This physical division is the result of a war between the two groups. Ever since this war, there has been limited communication between the two societies, and the members of each society have animosity for those who are of a different sex or gender. The plot follows two main characters, Andrea and Susumu, as they come to understand the corruption of their societies and attempt to cross the gender divide. They are joined on their journey by other characters of varied gender and LGBTQIA+ identities, each of them unable to fit into their society's parameters of appropriate gendered behavior. This creative project looks critically at the ways in which members of different genders can become alienated from each other through societal pressure. It also analyzes how LGBTQIA+ identity may factor into the gendering of an individual, explores how people can be ostracized because of their identity, and critiques the gender binary. The second component of this creative project is a detailed reflection on the creative writing process. It outlines the steps of creating Horizon, from brainstorming through writing and editing. An explanation of the purpose the project and a discussion of writing challenges and future goals is included. The reflection also puts Horizon in context with other LGBTQIA+ media and dystopian novels and explains some of the most crucial decisions that were made in the creation of this story.
ContributorsPerry, Samantha Lynn (Author) / Himberg, Julia (Thesis director) / Dove-Viebahn, Aviva (Committee member) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / College of Public Service and Community Solutions (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
The rates of anxiety, depression, and attempted suicide for transgender individuals are extremely elevated relative to the general population. Yet, little research has been conducted about the transgender population regarding social transition (an individual presenting as their authentic/true gender, one different than the gender they were assigned at birth, in the context of everyday life) and parental acceptance. Both of which have been shown to impact the mental health of transgender individuals. The purposes of this study were: (1) To characterize a sample of transgender adults on their age of awareness of their authentic gender identity and their age of social transition. (2) Examine whether age of social transition, (3) parental acceptance, and (4) the gap in time between age of awareness and age of social transition (awareness-transition gap) were related to mental health. (5) Examine whether parental acceptance was related to age of social transition or to awareness-transition gap. (6) Examine whether age of social transition or awareness-transition gap interact with parental acceptance as correlates of mental health. The sample consisted of 115 transgender adults, ages 18 to 64. Measures were separated into 7 subheadings: demographics, transgender
on-cisgender identity, age of awareness, age of social transition, primary caregiver acceptance, secondary caregiver acceptance, and mental health. Hypotheses were partially supported for age of social transition with mental health, parental acceptance with mental health, and awareness-transition gap with parental acceptance. This study investigated under studied concepts of social transition and parental acceptance that appear to have an effect on the mental health of transgender adults.
on-cisgender identity, age of awareness, age of social transition, primary caregiver acceptance, secondary caregiver acceptance, and mental health. Hypotheses were partially supported for age of social transition with mental health, parental acceptance with mental health, and awareness-transition gap with parental acceptance. This study investigated under studied concepts of social transition and parental acceptance that appear to have an effect on the mental health of transgender adults.
ContributorsRosenberg, Beth Ann (Author) / Gonzales, Nancy (Thesis director) / Saenz, Delia (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / College of Public Service and Community Solutions (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05