Thousands of children throughout the United States are currently awaiting placement with adoptive families. The literature indicates that gay- and lesbian-headed households can well meet the needs of these children. Research suggests that sexual prejudice, religious fundamentalism and attitudes about gay and lesbian adoption may influence practice decisions regarding placement. This dissertation study examined the influences of religious fundamentalism, sexual prejudice, contact with sexually diverse individuals, and attitudes towards gay men and lesbians as adoptive parents on intent to place children in need with gay and lesbian couples. A random sample of National Association of Social Workers (NASW) members was surveyed; 1000 surveys were distributed and 303 usable surveys were returned. Religious fundamentalism was measured using the Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale (Altemeyer & Huntsberger, 2004), sexual prejudice was measured using the Attitudes toward Gay Men and Lesbians (Herek, 1994) and attitudes towards gay and lesbians as adoptive parents was measured using Attitudes toward Gay Men and Lesbians as Adoptive Parents scale (Ryan, 2000). To assess willingness to use gay or lesbian couples as adoptive parents, respondents were asked to rank first and second choices on ten scenarios; two scenarios reflected easy to place children and eight hard to place children. A sizable minority of respondents failed to respond to the scenarios. Those opting out tended to score lower on religious fundamentalism, sexual prejudice, and held more positive attitudes towards gay and lesbian adoption. Further, some respondents never included gay or lesbian couples; these respondents tended to score higher on religious fundamentalism, sexual prejudice, and negative attitudes to gays and lesbian couples as adoptive parents than those choosing at least one gay/lesbian response. Religious fundamentalism predicted sexual prejudice, which predicted negative attitudes towards gays and lesbians as adoptive parents. Religious fundamentalism also directly influenced attitudes towards gay and lesbians as adoptive parents. In addition, personal contact with sexually diverse individuals partially influenced sexual prejudice. Overall, the results indicate that some professionals are inappropriately influenced by their personal values.

In recent years there has been a noticeable increase in Chinese-language films about lesbian romances. Many of these films have found commercial and critical success in Chinese markets such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as honors at international film festivals.In order to analyzes how these films reflect and shape Chinese lesbian identity, this thesis considers how a range of contemporary Chinese-language films produced in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and abroad deploys the figure of the lesbian. In particular, this study examines the production of such films by Chinese cultures outside of Mainland China as a means of promoting an alternative, inclusive Chinese identity in opposition to Mainland censorship.

This study was an attempt to begin to understand the phenomenon of coming out from the parental perspective. Specifically, it focused on the factors contained within a child’s disclosure of his or her sexual orientation and their impact on a parent’s satisfaction with the disclosure. Participants were eleven parents of gay and lesbian children. Participants were interviewed individually regarding their memories of the moment that their children revealed their sexual orientations to them. Participants were asked questions about the parent/child relationship prior to the disclosure, questions about the disclosure as it actually occurred, and were also asked to describe the most ideal coming out scenario that they could imagine. Interview data were analyzed according to the naturalistic inquiry process as outlined by Lincoln and Guba (1985). The results indicate that there are two types of components that influence parental satisfaction with the disclosure of a child’s sexual orientation: relational components and process components. Relational components are those aspects of the parent/child dynamic that influence a parent’s feelings of satisfaction regarding the disclosure experience. Process components are the specific elements of the disclosure moment that influence a parent’s ability to assimilate the information shared by the child and subsequently allow for the integration of that information into their schema of the child and the parent/child relationship. These two categories are discussed along with a proposed framework for understanding them as well as methods of integrating them into an individual’s coming out script. The findings of the current study may be useful in helping gay and lesbian children develop more successful and accessible coming out disclosures which are targeted towards their parents. In addition, these results may guide the interventions of mental health professionals as they work with individuals who are preparing to come out to their parents. Future studies that address the specific components mentioned within this study would be useful, as would studies which address the coming out phenomenon from the perspective of other family members.

Texte remanié de: Doctoral dissertation--Department of comparative literature--Berkeley--University of California, 1996. / Bibliogr. p. 345-371.

Texte remanié de: Dissertation--Uppsala, Suède--Uppsala Universitet, 2007. / Notes bibliogr.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Florida, 2006. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 116 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MPhil)--Open University.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Georgia, 2009. / Directed by Edward Delgado-Romero. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-163).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pennsylvania State University, 2009. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. Thesis advisor: Kathleen J. Bieschke.