Browsing by Subject "Gay"
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Item A-AVOIR Resistance : a cross cultural study of sexual citizenship in North America and France(2012-05) Batiste, Dominique Pierre; Strong, Pauline Turner, 1953-; Speed, Shannon, 1964-; Johnson, MichaelWhat forms of resistance are gay men in France and North America enacting against heteronormativity and homophobia? And why are they enacting these particular forms of resistance? To answer these questions, this thesis aims to draw connections between gay men's resistance strategies and larger socio-political phenomena in both France and North American cultures. First I focus on the discursive construction of citizens, both heterosexual and homosexual, in order to illustrate how gay men are relegated to second-class citizenship based on their sexual identities and practices. My focus, here, is cultural citizenship and sexual citizenship, two themes that run throughout this thesis. Next, I use Foucault's theories of knowledge-power to reveal how power relations in society discursively create subject positions, such as 'homosexuals' and 'heterosexuals', utilizing structures of control, norms, rewards, and punishments in order to champion heterosexuality to the detriment of homosexuality. In order to contest exercises of power, gay men engage in acts of resistance. i examine scholarly debates centered on resistance, and create a list of criterion for overt resistance, which I dub A AVOIR Resistance on account that it includes the characteristics of Action, Alternatives, Visibility, Opposition, Intent, and Recognition. Utilizing my rubric for overt resistance, as well as Foucault's notions of power, I analyze interview transcripts from a sample of gay men in North America and France to reveal that some gay men, living outside of large metropolitan areas, are rejecting hegemonic ideals of 'gayness' and integrating into mainstream heteronormative society. These men are creating what I call 'authentic communities' where many individuals from various backgrounds and lifestyles live together harmoniously based primarily on access to resources rather than identity markers such as sexual identity. this research shows a split between the ways that urban and suburban gay men embody their homosexuality. Since research on gay men focuses on those living in urban areas, my research calls, instead, for focus on suburban gay men and their resistance to homo-normative ideologies of what it means to me gay.Item And Patroclus: A Portfolio(2020-10) Pratt, LeoItem Bodies, identities, and voices on American idol(2010-08) Boyd, Maria Suzanne; Staiger, Janet; Fuller, JenniferThis thesis examines the ways in which American Idol producers rely on the white, Christian, heterosexual, middle-class, Americanness of contestants’ bodies and identities to advance the show’s American Dream narrative. When contestants do not meet all four of the components of Americaness, producers highlight some aspects of the contestants’ identities while hiding other truths about who they are. Additionally, those contestants who are able to adhere simultaneously to their producer-constructed personas while also asserting their individuality tend to fair best in the competition.Item Concealed campus carry and the academic freedom of LGBTQ+ faculty : a case study(2017-08) Phelps, Nicholas Daniel; Somers, Patricia (Patricia A.); Sharpe, Edwin Reese; Reddick, Richard J; Carroll, Claudia EThis study explores the perceptions of faculty who identify as LGBTQ+ of the impact of campus carry on their academic freedom and feelings of safety. This study employed a case study methodology, guided by self-determination theory’s (Deci and Ryan, 2000) tenets of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This study explored three research questions: 1. To what extent do LGBTQ+ faculty perceive campus carry to influence their ability to freely teach, challenge, and otherwise interact with students in and out of the classroom? 2. To what extent do LGBTQ+ faculty perceive campus carry to influence their ability to freely pursue their research agenda? 3. To what extent to faculty believe their identity as LGBTQ+ influences their sense of safety and security at a campus on which campus carry has been implemented? Data were collected from ten total faculty interviews, an analysis of department statements regarding campus carry, and observations of two previously-recorded public forums on campus carry. Results indicated campus carry negatively impacts faculty perceptions of competence in teaching in potentially armed classrooms as well as faculty perceptions of safety and relatedness to their campus community. Results also indicated faculty are ardently striving to maintain and pursue autonomy in their research agendas. Faculty also expressed considerable concern for the safety of their LGBTQ+ students, students of color, and students from other marginalized backgrounds. Finally, faculty expressed a general perception of campus carry as a symbolic affront to them as academics by a conservative Texas legislatureItem DAC Blog 2016-06(2016-06) Diversity Action Committee (DAC)Item Domestic violence in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community(2010-08) Pal, Hoimonti; Awad, Germine H.; Sherry, AlissaDomestic violence is considered a serious health and social problem in the United States and around the world. Annually, domestic violence costs in the U.S. are estimated at 8.3 billion dollars. Domestic violence issues first came to modern attention with the women’s movement of the 1970’s. Much of the literature focuses on domestic violence within heterosexual relationships. There has not been much attention directed towards domestic violence in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This report reviews information about domestic violence, its causes, theories, and how domestic violence affects individuals in the LGBT community.Item Education, labor, and health disparities of racial and sexual minorities(2020-06-25) Delhommer, Scott Michael; Murphy, Richard J., Ph. D.; Trejo, Stephen J., 1959-; Oettinger, Gerald; Black, Sandra; Vogl, TomThe three chapters of this dissertation explore the applied economics of inequality in educational attainment, labor market outcomes, and sexual health for racial and sexual minorities. In the first chapter, I explore the role of same-race teachers reducing gaps in minority education, presenting the first evidence that matching high school students with same-race teachers improves the students’ college outcomes. To address endogenous sorting of students and teachers, I use detailed Texas administrative data on classroom assignment, exploiting variation in student and teacher race within the same course, year, and school, eliminating 99% of observed same-race sorting. Race-matching raises minority students’ course performance as well as improves longer-term outcomes like high school graduation, college enrollment, and major choice. My second chapter examines how public policy can reduce labor market inequality across sexual orientation. I present the first quasi-experimental research examining the effect of both local and state anti-discrimination laws on sexual orientation on the labor supply and wages of lesbian, gay, and bisexual workers. To do so, I use American Community Survey data on household composition to infer sexual orientation and combine this with a unique panel dataset on local anti-discrimination laws. Using variation in law implementation across localities over time, I find these laws significantly reduce inequalities in the labor supply and wages across sexual orientation for both men and women. The last chapter explores the moral hazard and health inequality implications of a life-saving HIV prevention drug, PrEP, for gay men. We document the first evidence of PrEP on aggregate STD and HIV infections. Using the pre-treatment variation in the gay male population, we show that male STD rates were parallel in states with high and low gay population before the introduction of PrEP and begin to diverge afterwards. However, HIV infections were consistently downwardly trending before PrEP with no break at the introduction of PrEP, making inference of the effect of PrEP on HIV infections difficult. Specifically, we show that one additional male PrEP user increases male chlamydia infections by 0.55 cases, male gonorrhea infections by 0.61 cases, and male syphilis infections by 0.03 cases.Item Finding Satan : from cult to cult culture(2022-05-06) Collins, Ronald Gene; Habeck, Michelle M.; Dawson, KathrynGay bars are regarded as special places for the LGBTQ community who frequent them and have existed for many years to serve a multitude of purposes including places of celebration, refuge, health clinics, and venues for fundraisers. In this thesis project, I use autoethnographic methods and theatrical installation to explore my coming out story: from my exit from a religious cult to my acceptance into the gay community and culture. Working from personal reflection and research, this paper explores the design and implementation of the Finding Satan immersive installation. The installation reflects on gay bar culture from the 80’s to now, sharing examples of small-town bars, how people connect, and how the AIDS epidemic affected how gay bars were utilized. I share my story and journey with others within the installation, as my personal history often echoes and aligns with the experience of other gay people in the United States.Item From public bathhouse to smartphone apps, has the destiny of Chinese gay men really changed during the past 50 years?(2013-05) Jiang, Liefu; Todd, RussellBecause of the pressure from the traditional value, the suppression by the authorities and the misleading propaganda for spreading AIDS, Chinese gay community has gone through more severe misery and discrimination than their western peers during past 50 years. Although a more tolerant social attitude towards homosexuality is slowly taking shape in this country, most Chinese gay men still have to keep their sexual orientation in dark and would not publicly interact with other gay men. The four main characters in this story -- Nian, Sa, Cui Zi-en and Xiao -- represent gay men of four different generations, born in 1990s, 1980s, 1960s and 1930s, respectively. Their personal experiences of cruising in public restrooms and bathhouses, gay bars and clubs, on the Internet and through smartphone apps demonstrate the evolution of methods for social intercourse in Chinese gay community during the past 50 years. Although the new technologies enable Chinese gay men to enjoy more freedom than ever before, there is still a long way to go before real equality and tolerance could ever be achieved.Item Gay American gothic : a movement returns to its past(2016-07-29) Araiza, José Andrés; Rivas-Rodriguez, Maggie; Jensen, Robert; Bock, Mary A; Landuyt, Noel; Byrd, RobertThis discourse analysis seeks to understand how depictions of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) people within news coverage changed over the past 60 years and what those depictions mean for the future of a group of individuals who still face violence and bigotry and struggle to gain equal access to laws and rights. News stories are a salient tool to translate the unknown to known. This research approaches news stories as social constructions, which often times reflect existing power structures and shape social reality. Through the qualitative analysis of news coverage from four historically significant moments in Austin, Texas, this research demonstrates the path that gay and lesbian people experienced in the media—from being portrayed as sexual deviants to a homonormative monolith in the form of patriotic, domesticated, depoliticized, and desexualized couples. The news discourse over the past five decades demonstrated how stories slowly shed all radical politics from the gay liberationist past and adopted an assimilationist orientation. Bisexuals, transgender people, individuals who suffered from and died because of AIDS, and all other queer people who don’t adhere to the homonormative construct have been symbolically annihilated throughout history and continue to be. Journalists from mainstream, collegiate and alternative publications continue to utilize reporting practices that marginalize and delegitimize LGBTQ people. Nearly 70 years after making their first appearance in the mainstream press, framed as perverts and deviants, LGBTQ people continue to be subjected to homophobic discourse. By understanding changing news frames through the past six decades, this analysis attempts to weave an explanation of how the depictions may have and may continue to perpetuate false perceptions of LGBTQ people. This research interrogates the very power of the press, as an institution of power in society, to reflect hegemonic values, not challenge them.Item Gay by any other name?(2014-12) Stone, Lala Suzanne; Dahlby, Tracy; Jensen, Robert, 1958-It has long been a tool of the LGBTQ rights movement to loudly proclaim and own one’s sexual orientation label. However, there is a new generation of young sexual minorities who feel a label is no longer necessary. Are these no-labelers headed in the right direction? Or are they hurting the fight for LGBTQ equality?Item GLBTQ representation on children's television : an analysis of news coverage and cultural conservatism(2015-05) Mayer, Christopher John; Tyner, Kathleen R.; Fuller-Seeley, KathrynThe invisibility of GLBTQ characters on children's television stands in stark contrast to trends in adolescent and adult television over the past decade. A deep cultural ambivalence exists as to whether or not sexual identities are appropriate topics for young children on preschool television programming. For example, a marriage between Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie has been the topic of many petitions, political debates, and academic studies over the years. This analysis seeks to reconcile the cultural ambivalence through analysis of news coverage over the most prominent children's shows associated with latent and/or manifest GLBTQ content. New stories that make up the research sample are analyzed for "Anti-GLBTQ" logics, and placed in a broader discourse analysis of societal expectations for children’s television, and what is considered to be appropriate content. The goal of this study is to draw greater attention to debates over how to best serve the educational needs of young children, and posits that the increasing numbers of children living under same-sex parented households are underserved by the children's television industry. The ambivalence by the industry seems suspect given prior, and well established efforts, of children’s shows, such as Sesame Street, and the ability of educational programming to bridge cultural, class, and racial divides. This study represents a preliminary effort to extend the conversations about children’s television content to be more inclusive of GLBTQ identities.Item The impact of minority stress and conceptual complexity on developing a positive gay and lesbian identity(2013-05) Acebo, Victoria Alicia; Sherry, Alissa René; Daleu, Nancy; Ainslie, Ricardo; McCarthy, Chris; Aguilar, JemelContemporary research on gay men and lesbian women features an increased focus on the manifestations of antigay stigma in their lives. In particular, the development of gay and lesbian identity within a cultural context that may be shifting but remains one that includes intolerance, or at best, indifference (Garnets & Kimmel, 1993). Internalization of anti lesbian and gay prejudice has been termed "the most insidious" form of minority stress (Meyer & Dean, 1998). Most models of lesbian and gay identity suggest that these individuals follow a unique trajectory due to their experiences of prejudice and social oppression (Potoczniak, Aldea, & DeBlaere, 2007). One question not typically addressed by these models, however, is how homosexual individuals vary so markedly in their progression through the phases of sexual minority development and/or the degree to which that identity is a positive one. This study was an attempt to explore the relationship between minority stress, cognitive style, and lesbian or gay identity development. 272 adults identifying as a lesbian woman or gay man participated in this study. A measure, The Lesbian and Gay Salient Experiences Questionnaire (LGSE), in order to examine the management of a sexual minority identity and the interactions or experiences related to identifying as a member of this population. Participants' lesbian or gay identity development and their capacity for cognitive complexity were also measured. Results yielded a significant relationship between three of the five scales of the LGSE and negative lesbian or gay identity but there was no relationship between conceptual complexity and negative identity. Significant sex differences were found on both the measure of negative identity and salient experiences with men reported higher levels on both. The relationship between salient experiences and negative identity were also different between men and women. This finding in particular suggests that men and women may not only have a different trajectory in forming their lesbian or gay identity, but that the experiential factors that influence their identity development may also be different. Therefore, further research is suggested in order to investigate whether gay men and lesbian women should be studied separately.Item It’s the law? : a study of policy, minority stress, and gay men’s barriers to parenthood in the United States(2023-08-13) Arriaga, Andrew Steven; Parent, Mike C.; Cokley, Kevin O; Umberson, Debra J; Whittaker, Tiffany AMinority stress theory posits that sexual minority people are regularly subjected to elevated levels of stress that ultimately contribute to health disparities within this population. Recent research has indicated that the minority stress framework may further be useful in understanding how sexual minority people’s personal experiences with and perceptions of systemic, local, and government policies uniquely contribute to minority stress processes. Indeed, state-level legislation and child welfare policies have particularly posed challenges for gay men seeking to form families, especially through such means as adoption. Further work is thus necessary to identify ways in which such policy-related barriers to parenthood impact the wellness of this population, notably through involuntary childlessness. Informed by research on gay men’s parenting practices, adoption and foster care policy, and sexual minority stressors, the following study explores the role of policy in the minority stress framework and its impacts on gay men’s family planning decisions. Using minority stress theory as a guide for the present study model, I evaluate how proximal stress (fear associated with government intervention in gay men’s legal parenting status) and distal stress (perception of whether discriminatory state policies targeting gay parents exist) influence the relation between parenting desire and parenting intention. Results from a moderated multiple linear regression show that parenting desire significantly predicts parenting intention at the 5% significance level, proximal stress predicts parenting intention at the 10% significance level, and race and age significantly adjust the relationship between parenting desire and intention among the present sample of gay men. The present study has notable implications for further clinical work and research with gay men and other sexual minority communities with respect to family planning, navigation of potentially discriminatory public policies, advocacy efforts, and education.Item Let's have a gay old time : how lesbians shaped early Hollywood(2021-07-30) Reinschmidt, Janet; Isenberg, Noah WilliamThis thesis puts forth Alla Nazimova, Kay Francis, and Greta Garbo as case studies for early Hollywood lesbian stardom and reception and unpacks how their star personas were constructed as well as the fan responses to their image and work. Through intersections of star studies, reception studies, classic literature, and queer historical texts, I discuss each star’s life and career with textual analysis of their films and primary sources such as fan letters, fan magazines, advertisements, and newspaper articles. I argue that each star represents a queer, and more specifically lesbian and bisexual, sensibility within the early Hollywood film industry that deserves more scholarly attention. The fan letters columns within old Hollywood fan magazines such as Photoplay and Modern Screen particularly illustrate the construction of queer star personas and the impact that they had on informed movie fans. Nazimova, Francis, and Garbo were all-powerful and influential figures in the film industry during significant periods of change such as the rise of the studio era, the arrival of sound, and the shift from pre-Code to the production Code era. Their star personas reflect how they were influenced by and went on to influence these critical transitions in Old Hollywood. There is a fundamental activist function to this work, to remind audiences that queer people have always existed, even without a framework to discuss identity, and this work endeavors to show a dedicated lesbian influence and audience of early Hollywood.Item "Listen to what your jotería is saying” : pain, social harm, and queer Latin@s(2015-05) Glisch-Sánchez, David Luis; Rudrappa, Sharmila, 1966-; Rodríguez, Néstor; Ekland-Olson, Sheldon; Carrington, Ben; Peña, SusanaIn this dissertation, I investigate how transgender, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (TLGBQ) Latin@s have experienced social harm during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, what is the socio-historical context for their experiences, and how have ideologies of Latin@ gender and sexuality shaped these experiences. This is accomplished through the analysis of twenty-six (26) life story interviews where TLGBQ Latin@s provide a testimonio account of their encounters with social harm. Using a social harm framework and centering markers of pain, I develop the theoretical concept algorithms of pain to understand the dynamic and complex experiences TLGBQ Latin@s have with harm rooted in the everyday and institutional realities of racial, gender, sexual, and class inequalities. Algorithms of pain asserts that the totality of social harm TLGBQ Latin@s encounter shapes the meaning they assign to any individual harmful event, informs evaluations of pain and potential harm, and structures daily behavior and attitudes. Algorithms of pain reveal the myriad of ways TLGBQ Latin@s can and do express, communicate, and narrate pain; thus, countering the dominant presumption that pain manifests and is communicated in very narrow terms. This is exemplified in what I have observed as racial utterances, where TLGBQ Latin@s narrate in ways that make use of silence, brief remarks, or stories in passing as ways to index racial social harm, instead of stories thick with detail, description and explicit accounts of pain. Additionally, algorithms of pain establish the centrality of racism, patriarchy, transmisogyny, homophobia, class exploitation, and xenophobia to constructing the full spectrum of emotions that represent pain. Lastly, the dissertation documents through an analysis of governmental mission statements why the state is unable to intervene into the social harm effecting TLGBQ Latin@ lives. The state represents the institutionalization of an algorithm of pain that privileges whiteness, cisgenderness, heterosexuality, wealth, and citizenship, which results in harm management being the overall orientation and function of the state in social harm.Item Lost pines(2013-05) Lundin, Britta Kjersten; Kelban, StuartThis report summarizes the script development, pre-production, production, and post-production stages of making the short film Lost Pines. The short was produced as my graduate thesis film in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at The University of Texas at Austin in partial fulfillment of my Master of Fine Arts degree in Film Production.Item Minority stress, gender role strain, and visibility management : causes and concerns of body dissatisfaction among gay men(2011-12) Rainey, Josh Craig; Tharinger, Deborah J.; Sherry, Alissa R.Body dissatisfaction is a growing problem in the gay male population, with serious implications for psychological and social well-being. Gay men tend to be at higher risk of body dissatisfaction than their heterosexual counterparts. They report lower levels of body satisfaction and have higher rates of risky behaviors such as anabolic steroid use, eating disorders, and over-exercising (Gil, 2007; Willoughby et al., 2008; Kaminski et al., 2004). It is difficult to determine the cause of this issue in the gay community; however, two theories have been proposed to help explain this phenomenon. Minority stress theory posits that it relates to added stress involved with being part of a minority group. Gender role strain theory identifies these concerns with the strain to conform to masculine gender roles. A common link to bridge the two theories together may be visibility management, which is the way gay men carefully disclose behaviors that would identify their sexual orientation (Lasser & Tharinger, 2003). The proposed method will include participants that will be approximately 130 gay men 18-23 years of age. Participants will be sought through online collection from universities in the United States. Participants will respond to empirically validated measures in regards to Minority Stress, Gender Role Strain, Visibility Management, and Body Dissatisfaction to help determine if what links there are between these variables.Item Negotiating a contested identity : lesbian and gay parents' definitions of family(2014-08) Wagner, Sarah N.; Epps, Patience, 1973-This dissertation examines changes in the meaning of family and what this reveals about the complex, socially grounded mechanics of meaning-making more generally. Examining the discourse from interviews with 23 gay and lesbian parents, I show that they have very concrete and definable ideologies of family that reflect an American/ Western concept of kinship in which family is made up of those who are related by blood, marriage or adoption; as well as an understanding that family can also be chosen and therefore outside of traditional biogenetic structures. For these men and women, family of choice and the dominant American kinship structure are not mutually exclusive. Through an analysis of the participants' definitions of family, this dissertation finds that the parents gave both a narrow definition (that which includes only blood and legal relationships) and a broad definition (that which includes those not related by blood, marriage or adoption). Based on these definitions, both from the participants themselves and from those who have spoken out nationally against same-sex marriage and parenting, I apply Lakoff's Prototype Theory to offer a way to understand the disconnection between those who believe being gay and being a parent are incompatible, and those who see it as one of many types of family that do not conform to a dominant ideology. I identify a prototype of FAMILY made up of two radial categories to account for two central, yet opposed, ideologies, separated solely by whether parents could be the same sex. I also discuss the parents' positioning of their narratives toward local and nonlocal interactants and their use of generic and personal features in their discourse. The parents both draw upon external influences and become meaning-makers themselves through negotiations of their family identities in the context of dominant ideologies of family that often regard them as illegitimate. The outcomes of the negotiations that the parents undertake do not reflect a new, radical kind of family on the whole, but often a traditional sense of family that sometimes gets more broadly defined to include a supportive network of family and friends. The discursive micro-shifts in definition that these parents perform inform our understanding of the bridge between local negotiations and global shifts in ideology.Item Out on the court : progress for gay college basketball players comes in fits and starts(2015-05) Capraro, Joseph James; Bock, Mary Angela; Cash, Wanda GGay college athletes have often faced homophobia from fellow players, coaches, and others on campus. Barriers are still being broken; there have been just two out gay men's basketball players at the college and professional levels combined, and some conservative institutions continue to force gay students into the closet. LGBTQ and questioning youth are already at increased risk for suicide and drug abuse, and those in hostile environments are significantly more likely to do self-harm than those in supportive or neutral settings. The responsibility for care of these students lies in part with the coaches and schools that provide the arenas and uniforms. While at some schools policies have changed with the times, Baylor serves as a high-profile example of a university that remains hostile to LGBTQ students. This report examines the experiences of two former Baylor women's basketball players and one graduating University of Massachusetts player, who came out before this past season. Context will be established by examining studies done on scholastic and collegiate out gay athletes in 2002 and 2010.