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Title: Parents of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth : understanding parent reactions to coming out
Creator: Chrisler, Alison J.
Date: 2016
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Despite shifts towards inclusivity of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) community, many LGB young people still report not feeling accepted in their families and communities (Human Rights Campaign, 2012). Research shows that parental acceptance can have a positive effect on LGB young adult’s mental and physical health (Espelage, Aragon, & Birkett, 2008; Ryan, Russell, Huebner, Diaz, & Sanchez, 2010). Therefore, how parents react to their child coming out as LGB can have an effect on their...
Show moreDespite shifts towards inclusivity of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) community, many LGB young people still report not feeling accepted in their families and communities (Human Rights Campaign, 2012). Research shows that parental acceptance can have a positive effect on LGB young adult’s mental and physical health (Espelage, Aragon, & Birkett, 2008; Ryan, Russell, Huebner, Diaz, & Sanchez, 2010). Therefore, how parents react to their child coming out as LGB can have an effect on their child’s wellbeing. Using a newly developed conceptual model that captures the diverse experiences of parents who have a LGB child, this dissertation examined why parents react the way they do when their child comes out as LGB. The purpose of this study was to 1) validate and refine a portion of a newly developed conceptual model that focuses on parental reactions to LGB disclosure and 2) conduct a content validity study that refines a newly developed measure that captures parents’ perceptions about their LGB child’s sexual identity development. The first manuscript examined the findings from an exploratory, phenomenological study, which consisted of two phases. The first phase included a focus group of six LGB college students who discussed their coming out experiences. The results from the focus group and conceptual model informed the development of a parent interview protocol used during the second phase of the study. The second phase included semi-structured interviews with twenty Midwest parents. Results from the deductive thematic analysis demonstrated that the newly developed conceptual model mapped onto the experiences of parents who have a LGB child. The second manuscript used a mixed method design. The first phase of the study used an inductive thematic approach to examine parents’ perceptions of their child’s sexual identity development. Findings from the first phase were then used to create a measure that captured parents’ beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors related to their LGB child’s sexual identity development. A panel of nine content and lay experts provided substantive feedback on the measure, which included having them rate each measure item as to whether it was clear and representative of the content domain. Item-level and scale-level content validity index averages were calculated. Based on the results from the content validity study, along with experts’ qualitative feedback, various items were refined. Taken together, the findings from both studies demonstrate that parents’ reactions are complex. Their reactions depend on their environment, current relationships, and even past experiences. Even among accepting parents, their reactions are often filled with fear rather than excitement for their child’s future. Therefore, it is critical that parents explain that their emotional response do not mean they do not love and support their child but rather are rooted in the fear they have about how the child will be treated by a heteronormative society. Additionally, parents possess misconceptions about sexual identity development. Thus, there is a need for more resources and supports that educate parents about sexual identity development and how to become a stronger advocate in their local community. Having such supports is vital to promoting supportive and healthy family relationships especially between LGB youth and their parents.
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Title: (de)(anti)(intra) : Queer Self-Storying as Embodied, Community, and Theory-Building Processes
Creator: de Sostoa-McCue, Tania
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This cultural rhetorics project asserts that story is theory, and surfaces self-storying as an embodied, theory-building process. I undertook phased interviews with three queer creative writers, holding space for their stories in order to witness, interact with and to learn from the ways in which queer authors discuss and approach relationships with one another through storying and composing. This desire to learn from other queer-identified community stakeholders led to the emergence of a...
Show moreThis cultural rhetorics project asserts that story is theory, and surfaces self-storying as an embodied, theory-building process. I undertook phased interviews with three queer creative writers, holding space for their stories in order to witness, interact with and to learn from the ways in which queer authors discuss and approach relationships with one another through storying and composing. This desire to learn from other queer-identified community stakeholders led to the emergence of a story-theory, through which a narrative thread of failure, survival and agency emerged. I articulate a reorientation and reframing of guiding concepts of community, composition and embodiment within queer spaces as (intra)community, (de)composition, and the (anti)body. An important impetus for this project was a desire to address the future of Queer in the academy. I utilize tools and theories from queer theory and cultural rhetorics not only to build, but to show spaces in which these conceptual frames can inform future, positive shifts. I do so to provide my own insights and to offer tools to continue the work Queer in the academy and to bridge the space between academic Queer and non-academic queer. I utilize cultural rhetorics to continue the work of what I see as one of Queer’s primary purposes: to subvert, to disrupt and to re-imagine the ways in which the queer community and Queer can thrive and effect systemic change.
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Title: STUDENTS’ CONCEPTIONS OF THEIR CAMPUS LGBTQ+ CENTER
Creator: Noble, Chelsea E.
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and similar identities (LGBTQ+) resource centers on college campuses provide services, resources, programming, and advocacy focused on gender and sexuality, especially minoritized genders and sexualities. As center staff enact this work at the individual and organizational levels, LGBTQ+ centers seek to promote students’ thriving, especially among students with minoritized genders and sexualities. Although students are the animating reason for LGBTQ...
Show moreLesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and similar identities (LGBTQ+) resource centers on college campuses provide services, resources, programming, and advocacy focused on gender and sexuality, especially minoritized genders and sexualities. As center staff enact this work at the individual and organizational levels, LGBTQ+ centers seek to promote students’ thriving, especially among students with minoritized genders and sexualities. Although students are the animating reason for LGBTQ+ centers’ existence, relatively little is known about how students experience and conceptualize campus LGBTQ+ resource centers. The purpose of this study was to understand LGBTQ+ resource centers from students’ perspectives. Guided by a critical adaptation of an ecological model of development (Bronfenbrenner, 1993; Renn & Arnold, 2003), I undertook a qualitative study drawing on interviews with 15 students who felt in some way connected to their campus LGBTQ+ center. I also included data from observations and publicly available center documents. The participants were all current students at a Midwestern university where the LGBTQ+ center had at least one full-time staff member and a clear commitment to social justice. The campus LGBTQ+ center often served as an important force in students’ ecosystems. Students’ ecosystems reflected common elements of university education (e.g., classes, student organizations, and friends), LGBTQ+ campus spaces, families and communities of origin, as well as broader forces including U.S. politics, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a number of oppressive systems. In the midst of highly variable, often unsupportive, and sometimes hostile contexts, students found support and guidance through their LGBTQ+ center. Students experienced their center in five major ways: physical space, source of relationships, organizational navigation and tools, virtual presence, and symbol of institutional commitment. Students emphasized and interacted with each of these aspects in accordance with their needs as they navigated their academic pursuits and daily lives in the face of racism, cissexism, heterosexism, and a host of other oppressive forces. Ultimately, students’ experiences with their campus LGBTQ+ center were frequently a means of survival and a boost towards students thriving on campus and in their lives.
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Title: Contextual Support, Resilience, Allostatic Load, and Mental Health in Transgender and Gender Diverse Individuals
Creator: Kimball, Devon Mary
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: A growing body of literature suggests that how much support TGD individuals experience in the places they live, including their present context and context of origin, can influence their wellbeing. Other research about physical health has found exposure to stressors has physiological effects on sexual and gender minority people, which can be measured through allostatic load (a selection of multiple physiological indicators that reflects “wear and tear” on the body; AL). Research on mental...
Show moreA growing body of literature suggests that how much support TGD individuals experience in the places they live, including their present context and context of origin, can influence their wellbeing. Other research about physical health has found exposure to stressors has physiological effects on sexual and gender minority people, which can be measured through allostatic load (a selection of multiple physiological indicators that reflects “wear and tear” on the body; AL). Research on mental health has also indicated that TGD individuals are at higher risk of depression and anxiety. TGD populations also have unique resilience factors that are important to consider, such as pride and community connectedness, which may influence health outcomes. This study used latent class analysis to examine how individuals clustered based on current and past levels of contextual support, and then examined the relationship between these classes and AL, depression, and anxiety, including whether pride and community connectedness moderated these relationships. Contextual support across the lifetime was also examined as a continuous variable. Participants either had lived consistently in contexts with high levels of support (High Support class), had moved from contexts with low levels of support to high levels of support (Low to High Support class), or had consistently lived in contexts with low levels of support (Low Support class). Individuals in the Low Support class had lower levels of AL compared to their peers in the High Support class. There were no associations between class and depression and anxiety, and there were no moderating effects of community connectedness or pride. This study suggests that contextual support may not influence depression and anxiety among TGD people, but that lower levels of support may actually correlate with decreased AL.
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Title: Toward a Virulent Community Literacy : Constellating the Science, Technology, and Medicine of Queer Sexual Health
Creator: Flores, Wilfredo Antonio
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Toward a Virulent Community Literacy: Constellating the Science, Technology, and Medicine of Queer Sexual Health is a qualitative study (informed by Indigenous and decolonial methodologies) of how queer and trans people of color generate and share knowledge about their sexual health on Twitter with regards to HIV/AIDS. With a Twitter archive of 15,000 discrete tweets built with the keywords “Truvada,” PrEP,” and “HIV,” three datasets were derived comprising general utterances from queer users...
Show moreToward a Virulent Community Literacy: Constellating the Science, Technology, and Medicine of Queer Sexual Health is a qualitative study (informed by Indigenous and decolonial methodologies) of how queer and trans people of color generate and share knowledge about their sexual health on Twitter with regards to HIV/AIDS. With a Twitter archive of 15,000 discrete tweets built with the keywords “Truvada,” PrEP,” and “HIV,” three datasets were derived comprising general utterances from queer users of color, public health officials using social media for outreach, and organizations sharing research findings. Focusing on the data subset comprising 300 discrete users of color and relevant media (i.e., news articles, public health advertisements, other emergent artifacts from the data), this dissertation recounts three case studies focusing on: the rollout of HIV prevention advertisements within queer-centered media; the patent breaking of Truvada, a once-daily medication for preventing HIV; and the use of social media to take to task bad actors and misinformed healthcare providers. The data are used as part of an argument that the manner by which medicine and public health interface with queer and trans people of color hinges on ongoing colonization via the medical and outreach practices derived from colonial practices. Moreover, using a theoretical argument derived from Black and Native technology studies (as well as Black Feminist Thought, Anishinaabe cosmology, settler colonial studies, and digital rhetorical theory), the data was reviewed through a protocol for understanding identity construction amid technology use. The results revealed three rhetorical strategies: 1) continuing community-born public health practices created during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s by deploying descriptive hashtags to challenge stigma; 2) creating emergent whisper networks for sharing information about dealing with healthcare providers, navigating insurance networks, and communicating the symptoms of taking the medication; and 3) recognizing and countering the complex systems of late capitalist biomedicalization that prioritize profit over life. To contribute to ongoing commitments within writing and rhetoric studies to create equitable healthcare experiences, an HIV/AIDS health literacy framework follows the data results, which allows for outreach in non-clinical settings through relational design, or a participatory communication design process that incorporates community voices via an attunement to social media such as Twitter. This dissertation contributes to ongoing incursions within technical and professional communication, as well as the rhetoric of health and medicine, to upcycle disciplinary savvy into building better public health and clinical experiences for queer and trans people of color.
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Title: The intersection of race and sexuality in a national sample : examining discrimination and mental health
Creator: Wiklund, Lauren Olivia
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The current study examined the experiences of race and sexuality related mistreatment in 2,335 racially diverse sexual minorities, the impact of those experiences on depression and anxiety symptoms, and the buffering effects of racial identity and social support. Zero inflated Poisson regression models were utilized for data analysis. Despite sexual minorities of color endorsing more frequent racial- and sexuality-based discrimination compared to their White counterparts, findings indicate...
Show moreThe current study examined the experiences of race and sexuality related mistreatment in 2,335 racially diverse sexual minorities, the impact of those experiences on depression and anxiety symptoms, and the buffering effects of racial identity and social support. Zero inflated Poisson regression models were utilized for data analysis. Despite sexual minorities of color endorsing more frequent racial- and sexuality-based discrimination compared to their White counterparts, findings indicate they had similar levels of anxiety and depression. Positive racial identity and social support varied by race. Importantly, social support was significantly associated with a decrease in depression and anxiety symptoms for Black sexual minorities with any symptoms. These findings suggest that at low levels of discrimination, sexual minorities of color appear to have resilience against some of the negative psychological consequences of experiencing both race- and sexuality-based discrimination, when compared to White sexual minorities. The resilience against racial discrimination, taught through racial socialization from an early age for many people of color, may generalize to resilience against sexuality-based discrimination. Given the variation of results across racial minorities, this study underscores the importance of an approach to race that preserves each racial groups' unique experiences of discrimination and mental health. Implications of a multidimensional approach to sexuality, challenges in addressing intersectional experiences, and considerations for clinicians working with these vulnerable populations are discussed.
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Title: The Impact of Multiple Forms of Discrimination on Mental Health in Transgender and Gender Diverse People
Creator: Glozier, Kalei
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people experience a variety of stressors, one of which being discrimination. These experiences of discrimination are embedded within power structures that privilege cisgender, white, heterosexual individuals, and those with other dominant identities and result in the marginalization of those outside of those identities across a multitude of contexts. This study examines experiences of discrimination in a sample of 158 TGD individuals and the relationship...
Show moreTransgender and gender diverse (TGD) people experience a variety of stressors, one of which being discrimination. These experiences of discrimination are embedded within power structures that privilege cisgender, white, heterosexual individuals, and those with other dominant identities and result in the marginalization of those outside of those identities across a multitude of contexts. This study examines experiences of discrimination in a sample of 158 TGD individuals and the relationship between discrimination, mental health, and social disadvantage. The current study used latent class analysis (LCA) to separate participants into classes based on their experiences of discrimination based on their identities: Class 1 (All Types)- had the highest probability of endorsing all types of discrimination experiences, Class 2 (Few Types)- had a low probability of endorsing discrimination experiences based on their identity, and Class 3 (SGM Types)- had a high probability of endorsing discrimination experiences related to gender identity, gender presentation, and sexuality, but a low probability of endorsing discrimination based on race and ancestry. Class membership did not significantly predict mental health outcomes; however, social disadvantage was a predictor of mental health outcomes. Thus, social disadvantage should be systematically addressed to prevent poor mental health outcomes in TGD populations.
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Title: The queer critical research and video editing practices of The Gender Project : consent, collaboration, and multimodality
Creator: Miles, Casey
Date: 2016
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The Gender Project is a collection of four short documentaries about gender, gender identity, and sexuality. As a collection, the documentaries offer broad representations of queer identities as they intersect with race, class, education, geography, sex, and more. Each documentary was made in collaboration with participants, meaning their ideas, feedback, and time were required for completion. The purpose of working collaboratively is to bring more balance in the research relationship, with...
Show moreThe Gender Project is a collection of four short documentaries about gender, gender identity, and sexuality. As a collection, the documentaries offer broad representations of queer identities as they intersect with race, class, education, geography, sex, and more. Each documentary was made in collaboration with participants, meaning their ideas, feedback, and time were required for completion. The purpose of working collaboratively is to bring more balance in the research relationship, with participants having agency over their involvement and representations. The methodological framework for theorizing the critical making of this project includes critical praxis, queer techne, a lesbian collective aesthetic, and researching from friendship, which structure a set of queer critical research and editing practices – consent, collaboration, and multimodality. These practices are a response to a fundamental understanding of research as inequitable, that participants bear more risk than researchers, and are left out of their own authoring. Practiced together, the contextualized and situated queer critical research practices of The Gender Project work toward a critical theory of making with implications in how we do research, specifically how researchers position participants, and what more robust participation can contribute to research projects.
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Title: “PALABRA EMPEÑADA” : LA CONFIGURACIÓN INTELECTUAL DE GABRIELA MISTRAL A TRAVÉS DE SUS CARTAS, 1914-1957
Creator: Romero, Lau
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Gabriela Mistral (1889 – 1957) fue la primera mujer latinoamericana en obtener el Premio Nobel de Literatura, en 1945. Su reconocimiento como una fue tardío en su país natal, Chile, donde recibió el Premio Nacional de Literatura en 1951. Esta tesis investiga la correspondencia privada de Gabriela Mistral durante el período 1914 a 1957 para buscar otra explicación al fenómeno mistraliano fuera de su innegable talento. En otras palabras, esta investigación se centra en aquellas estrategias que...
Show moreGabriela Mistral (1889 – 1957) fue la primera mujer latinoamericana en obtener el Premio Nobel de Literatura, en 1945. Su reconocimiento como una fue tardío en su país natal, Chile, donde recibió el Premio Nacional de Literatura en 1951. Esta tesis investiga la correspondencia privada de Gabriela Mistral durante el período 1914 a 1957 para buscar otra explicación al fenómeno mistraliano fuera de su innegable talento. En otras palabras, esta investigación se centra en aquellas estrategias que la escritora despliega dentro del campo cultural tanto chileno como internacional (Pierre Bourdieu 1990; Toril Moi 1999; Gonzalo Catalán 1985) para asegurar su sitio dentro del mismo, expandir sus redes intelectuales y afectivas, y proteger su continuidad a través de la obtención de capital simbólico. La organización de la tesis, compuesta en cuatro capítulos, gira en torno a “nudos” en los cuales la trayectoria profesional de Mistral –y su capital acumulado– se pone en riesgo y/o se refuerzan a través del establecimiento de alianzas, amistades y favores. De allí también que la hipótesis principal se organice en torno a la “palabra empeñada”, como moneda de intercambio que posibilita no sólo diversas performances por parte de la autora, sino también por parte de sus interlocutores.
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Title: Black Lesbian Aesthetics
Creator: Jones, Briona Simone
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Black Lesbian Aesthetics argues that after the groundbreaking formation of the Combahee River Collective in 1974, Black lesbian writers who—inspired by the Black Arts Movement—created a literary movement in response to, and which transcended, the limits of the radical politics of the mid-sixties and seventies. By historicizing this era within the context of earlier Black lesbian writings through a sustained engagement with the work of Pat Parker (1944-1989), Audre Lorde (1934-1992), and...
Show moreBlack Lesbian Aesthetics argues that after the groundbreaking formation of the Combahee River Collective in 1974, Black lesbian writers who—inspired by the Black Arts Movement—created a literary movement in response to, and which transcended, the limits of the radical politics of the mid-sixties and seventies. By historicizing this era within the context of earlier Black lesbian writings through a sustained engagement with the work of Pat Parker (1944-1989), Audre Lorde (1934-1992), and Cheryl Clarke (b. 1947), I develop the concept of “Black lesbian aesthetics” to argue that this proliferation of literature produced by women of color from 1974-1988 evidence heretical shifts in self-definition. Black lesbian writers were operating within [re]creative and [re]productive modes of being and Black consciousness. My understanding of aesthetics is shaped by Audre Lorde’s 1984 seminar at the Free University of Berlin, where she posits that aesthetics should be measured from the “outsider position.” Through Black Feminist Thought and criticism, queer of color critique, and decolonial theory, I elucidate the ways in which “Black lesbian aesthetics” offers new insights about political and erotic practices between Black women.
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Title: Future teachers' attitudes and anticipated behaviors toward sexual minority youth
Creator: Hirsch, Amanda Jane
Date: 2007
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: The relationship between lgbtq identity, service utilization, and mental health and substance use impairment over time among homeless youth
Creator: Prock, Kristen Ann
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Homeless youth who identity as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) face considerable issues including victimization, mental health needs, and substance use, yet are less likely than their heterosexual, cisgender homeless peers to utilize services. Although research in this area is growing, studies are largely cross-sectional and tend to focus on the experiences and service use of homeless youth in drop-in or emergency shelters, instead of longer-term transitional living...
Show moreHomeless youth who identity as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) face considerable issues including victimization, mental health needs, and substance use, yet are less likely than their heterosexual, cisgender homeless peers to utilize services. Although research in this area is growing, studies are largely cross-sectional and tend to focus on the experiences and service use of homeless youth in drop-in or emergency shelters, instead of longer-term transitional living programs (TLPs). Therefore, the purpose of this study was two-fold: 1) to examine the differences in sociodemographic characteristics, victimization, mental health and substance use histories, and service utilization patterns by LGBTQ identity of homeless youth in a TLP, and 2) explore the relationships between their LGBTQ identity, service utilization, and mental health and substance use impairment over time. This study used secondary longitudinal data, which I extracted from the closed case files of runaway and homeless youth (N = 101) between the ages of 16 and 20 who accessed services in a mid-Michigan TLP between 2011 and 2018. I used independent sample t-tests and Chi-square to assess differences by LGBTQ identity in sociodemographic characteristics, victimization, mental health, and substance use histories. I used multilevel modeling (MLM) to examine the relationship between LGBTQ identity, service utilization and mental health and substance use impairment over time. LGBTQ homeless youth in this sample were more likely than their heterosexual, cisgender homeless peers to identity as female, report being sexually victimized, and have greater mental health-related issues. Overall, youth underutilized available services, but LGBTQ youth had higher mental health impairment at intake and their use of services did not reflect this difference. LGBTQ identity was associated with increased mental health impairment at intake, but not substance use impairment at intake. LGBTQ identity was not associated with a change in mental health or substance use impairment over time. Number of months in the program was inversely related to mental health and substance use impairment over time, regardless of LGBTQ identity. Utilization of substance use treatment was associated with a decrease in mental health and substance use impairment over time for all youth. Finally, average number of clinical sessions per week was inversely related to substance use impairment over time for both LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ youth, but no relationship was found between average number of clinical sessions per week and mental health impairment over time. The findings from this exploratory study confirm the vulnerability of LGBTQ homeless youth in TLPs and provide essential information regarding service utilization for homeless youth practitioners and policy makers including the need for trauma-informed and LGBTQ-specific services. Additionally, the data suggest that service providers must engage and encourage youth participation in services that are offered within TLPs. Future studies should include larger and more diverse samples of homeless LGBTQ youth in TLPs, examine youth experiences sequentially in relation to identity disclosure, and include youth perception of the usefulness of services within TLPs.
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Title: Through working closets : examining rhetorical and narrative approaches to building LGBTQ & professional identity inside a corporate workplace
Creator: Cox, Matthew Byron
Date: 2012
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Through Working Closets: Examining Rhetorics of LGBTQ Professional Identities Inside a Corporate Workplace is itself a story about how rhetorical practices (such as storytelling) help us negotiate and form identity(ies). I call for a new understanding of identity-building practices in the workplace. This research is a qualitative study based in interviews and site visits around one major Fortune 500 American discount-retail corporation. I introduce the concept of Show moreThrough Working Closets: Examining Rhetorics of LGBTQ Professional Identities Inside a Corporate Workplace is itself a story about how rhetorical practices (such as storytelling) help us negotiate and form identity(ies). I call for a new understanding of identity-building practices in the workplace. This research is a qualitative study based in interviews and site visits around one major Fortune 500 American discount-retail corporation. I introduce the concept of Working Closets, which my participants and I show through stories and experiences to be spaces, risks, situations, and relationships negotiated through moments of closetedness and outness. This challenges and dismantles the notion of "the closet" as a singular space one is either in or out. This work is an example of a cultural rhetorics approach interrogating professional identity building practices and the reconciling of that with personal/non-professional identity. Ultimately, these stories are about rhetoric and power. I seek to theorize about who gets to define "professional" and when and where. How do LGBTQ professionals survive or even succeed in heteronormative or hostile workplaces? How do LGBTQ persons challenge or work around the moments when their identities are covered over or contested? My participants' data speaks to these situations and tells the stories around them. Through threads of both commonality and difference, my participants build a conversation around the contemporary LGBTQ professional and the issues confronting them. Both the American and the global workplaces are increasingly destabilized and diverse, as are notions of LGBTQ identity and the lived experiences of LGBTQ lives.
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Title: What ex-exgays can teach us about gay, lesbian, and queer rhetorics
Creator: Webster, Travis
Date: 2012
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: What Ex-ExGays Can Teach Us About Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Rhetorics is an interview-based research project, where I assemble a gay, lesbian, and queer (GLQ) rhetoric grounded in what I call "gay, lesbian, and queer rhetorical responsibilities"--activist rhetorical practices related to interrupting historic homophobic forces. I locate my research at the virtual site, Ex-Ex-Gays--a Facebook community made up of gay men and lesbians, myself included, who participated in but ultimately oppose the...
Show moreWhat Ex-ExGays Can Teach Us About Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Rhetorics is an interview-based research project, where I assemble a gay, lesbian, and queer (GLQ) rhetoric grounded in what I call "gay, lesbian, and queer rhetorical responsibilities"--activist rhetorical practices related to interrupting historic homophobic forces. I locate my research at the virtual site, Ex-Ex-Gays--a Facebook community made up of gay men and lesbians, myself included, who participated in but ultimately oppose the ex-gay movement. This movement centers on a western phenomenon linked to conservative organizations that claim to assist gay men and lesbians with sexual conversion through ministry and therapy. From my data, I argue that research participants (whom I call participatory theorists) tell stories meant to inform, to persuade, and to enact change within particular audience networks, share difficult perspectives based on histories of violence, employ queer narrative practices intended to disrupt and to revise grand narratives about ex-exgay activism, and use stories as a way to mediate and reclaim shame.
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Title: Connective composition(s) and sitings of selves : elastic literacies, queer rhetorics, and the online/offline politics of LGBT youth writing
Creator: Wargo, Jon M.
Date: 2016
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "Given the increasing presence and seemingly ubiquitous status new media and digital technologies have in mediating contemporary lives, this longitudinal connective ethnography explores how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer youth of color engage in varying levels of mediation as they navigate and negotiate community, construct visibility, and orchestrate convergent identities." -- Abstract.

Title: Why do we still call it homophobia? : exploring the evidence for a state-trait model of sexual prejudice
Creator: Bluestein, Brooke M.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Sexual prejudice occurs when one makes automatic or intentional negative evaluations of sexual minority (i.e., non-heterosexual) individuals due to their actual or perceived sexual orientation. The current study sought to extend the extant literature on sexual prejudice by using an experimental design to concurrently examine factors associated with two of the most prominent models of sexual prejudice: the personality model of homophobia and the negative affective response model of homophobia....
Show moreSexual prejudice occurs when one makes automatic or intentional negative evaluations of sexual minority (i.e., non-heterosexual) individuals due to their actual or perceived sexual orientation. The current study sought to extend the extant literature on sexual prejudice by using an experimental design to concurrently examine factors associated with two of the most prominent models of sexual prejudice: the personality model of homophobia and the negative affective response model of homophobia. Although the extant literature often portrays them as competing models, this study examined whether integrating elements from both models would create a more comprehensive, state-trait model of sexual prejudice that would better predict endorsement of anti-gay attitudes and negative reactions to lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) stimuli. Participants (n = 350) were invited to participate in a two-part online study that examined the relationships among two individual-level personality factors (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism [RWA] and social dominance orientation [SDO]), negative affect (i.e., fear, hostility, guilt, and cognitive and somatic symptoms of anxiety), and exposure to gay male video stimuli. This study utilized video clips drawn from mainstream news media stories about gay men; the videos were empirically selected during a pilot study that examined the reactions of participants (n = 147) who were high on either RWA or SDO to six potential videos about gay men. Results from the full study indicated that double high participants (i.e., individuals who were simultaneously high on RWA and SDO) and participants who were high on RWA alone endorsed greater levels of sexual prejudice than participants low on both RWA and SDO; participants who were high on SDO alone did not endorse more sexually prejudiced attitudes. However, neither sexual prejudice nor emotion regulation significantly moderated the relationship between exposure to gay male material and negative affective response. Finally, although the results indicated that the relationship between personality and sexual prejudice was significant in the integrated state-trait model, the simplified model (i.e., the model that did not include the categorical personality variable as a predictor) was an overall better fit for the data. Nonetheless, because sexual prejudice can have negative implications for both sexual minority individuals and those who hold these prejudiced attitudes, it is imperative that research continues to explore which factors contribute to stigma, prejudiced attitudes, and discrimination against sexual minority individuals.
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Title: The effects of bias crimes on sexual minority individuals : a study of minority identity, discrimination, and fear response
Creator: Lannert, Brittany Kay
Date: 2014
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Vicarious traumatization of non-victim members of a community targeted by bias crimes has been suggested by previous qualitative research (Noelle, 2002). The present study extended this research in a quantitative examination of a model of proximal physiological, emotional, and cognitive responses among lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual participants during and immediately following exposure to bias crime information, using a novel quasi-experimental, mixed-factorial design with...
Show moreVicarious traumatization of non-victim members of a community targeted by bias crimes has been suggested by previous qualitative research (Noelle, 2002). The present study extended this research in a quantitative examination of a model of proximal physiological, emotional, and cognitive responses among lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual participants during and immediately following exposure to bias crime information, using a novel quasi-experimental, mixed-factorial design with ecologically-valid stimuli. Participants listened to news information about neutral, general threat, and bias threat events while skin conductance level (SCL) and startle eyeblink magnitude were recorded, providing reports of affect following each clip. Participants reported pre-task negative beliefs about the world and completed post-task measures of negative cognitions, identity centrality, public regard, and additional variables of interest (e.g., past victimization). I hypothesized that responses would differ between LGB and heterosexual participants, such that LGB participants would show exaggerated defensive mobilization to bias threats. I further hypothesized that collective identity would magnify defensive responses. Group differences were observed in startle, affect, and SCL. LGB participants' affective response and startle magnitude across conditions were consistent with defensive mobilization, while their pattern of SCL was inconsistent. Both groups demonstrated declines in negative cognitions, opposite of prediction. No relations were observed between collective identity and these responses. Results are discussed in light of defensive mobilization to threat, nonlinear relations between trauma and physiological responses to threat, social identity, and threat-related cognition. These results suggest that LGB participants experience bias crime events differently from heterosexual participants, and indicates that they respond to them as threats, with subjective and physiological markers of defensive mobilization. Changes in worldview are not consistent with known responses to acute trauma exposure. Long-term consequences of exposure to bias crime information for mental health and well-being among LGB young adults are unclear. Potential pathways to mental health outcomes, such as stress-related dysregulation of the stress response, are discussed. Future research further explicating this phenomena is strongly recommended. The present study contributes to the growing literature on minority mental health and may have implications for clinical practice by informing clinicians of stress-related experiences of LGB individuals.
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