<p> The aim of this research is to explore whether and how gay and bisexual men experience street harassment&mdash;those public interactions committed by strangers that are targeted at individuals with specific (perceived) identities <i> because</i> of those identities. Street harassment is unwelcome and intimidating and makes people feed scared, uncomfortable, and humiliated, and research up to this point has mainly focused on the harassment of women by men. This study was conducted using only online methods, using a survey to interact with 331 gay and bisexual men from at least 42 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and 22 countries, in addition to follow-up interviews with 24 of those survey-takers. Ninety percent of the survey respondents reported sometimes, often, or always feeling unwelcome in public because of their sexual orientation, and 71.3 percent said they constantly assess their surroundings when navigating public spaces. This is not the case for everyone, though. Some men don't report these feelings because they may view victimization as inconsistent with their male identity, or they may just not experience it at all. The results also suggest important differences between the harassment of women vs. the harassment of gay/bisexual men. They also show interesting variety in experiences across identity categories&mdash;including age and race&mdash;in addition to differences depending on how men view their own masculinity and legibility of sexual orientation. Much more research is required to fully understand the experiences of particular groups, including transpeople, but that degree of focus was unfortunately beyond the scope of this study. </p>

Abstract not available.

Cette étude qualitative exploratoire a pour but de mettre en lumière les impacts de consommation de pornographie gaie à l'aide d'entretiens avec 20 consommateurs. En ce qui concerne la pornographie gaie, la perspective des consommateurs brille par son absence. Tout un amalgame de discours théoriques, souvent discordants, existe entourant la pornographie gaie mais l'expérience vécue s'avère sous-théorisée et peu comprise. Selon certains, les hommes gais consomment plus de pornographie que les hommes hétérosexuels et semblent plus confortables avec ce medium; la pornographie semble normaliseée à l'intérieur du milieu gai. Les indicateurs utilisés pour qualifier les impacts possibles renvoient à des concepts liés à la santé sexuelle et la santé mentale. Notre recherche vise donc à explorer à travers la voix des hommes gais les impacts possibles de leur consommation de pornographie sur leur santé mentale et santé sexuelle prises au sens large. L'impact de la consommation de pornographie dans la population hétérosexuelle constitue un thème relativement bien documenté mais où les conclusions sont souvent contradictoires et ou le paradigme de recherche post-positiviste domine Notre étude utilise un cadre de sociologie des médias, ce qui situe la pornographie comme objet culturel de consommation. Trois auteurs dans la tradition postmoderne ont guidé l'analyse de nos données: Foucault (1976) et ses notions d'ars erotica et de scientia sexualis, Debord (1967) et sa notion de société du spectacle et finalement Baudrillard (1970) et sa notion de société de consommation. Utilisant un devis inspiré de l'ethnographie et une approche poststructuraliste, l'exploration des récits à l'aide de l'analyse thématique et l'analyse critique de discours nous ont permis de dégager des résultats de recherches en lien avec les impacts psychosociaux de consommation de pornographie gaie, les motivations relatives à la consommation de pornographie et enfin, la pornographie gaie comme véhicule de stéréotypes sur la masculinité, la race/ethnicité, le milieu gai et le genre.

At present, HIV rates within the population of men who have sex with men continue to rise despite increased resources being dedicated to stopping this trend. Previous research has indicated that drug use, particularly within the context of gay circuit parties (GCP), may be a central factor in this rise in HIV rates. Further research has revealed that one reason for this phenomenon is that much of the research that has been undertaken to-date ignores the role of desire. In fact, an in-depth review of previously undertaken research that aimed to understand men's motivations for sexual practices revealed a strong, uncritical reliance, on the assumption that individuals are inherently driven to act in healthy ways. In response, this research project undertook an ethnographic study of GCPs, and engaged in direct observation, surveying, and interviewing guided by a poststructuralist perspective. The goal was to challenge mainstream assumptions about health, drug use, unprotected sex, and GCP party attendance. To accomplish this, a theoretical framework was developed drawing primarily on the work of Deleuze and Guattari, and supported by the theoretical work by Bataille, Foucault, Grosz, and Lupton. After this groundwork was laid, two days worth of direct GCP attendance was undertaken, followed by the administration of 209 auto-administered surveys, and the completion of 17, hour-long, formal interviews. The major findings of this study are (1) that desire is not necessarily a reaction to previous negative situations as is posited by psychoanalysis, and drawn upon by mainstream sexual health researchers, and (2) that drug use and GCP attendance do not cause individuals to engage in unsafe sexual practices, but rather, that individuals use drugs and attend GCPs with the pre-established goal of engaging in unsafe practices. In this way, drugs and GCPs become mechanisms that are used to allow individuals to indulge in their desires, not causes of what they desire. Therefore, the findings of this research indicate that GCPs should be capitalized on as important sites of health promotion work for nurses, and that this work should not be based on the conjecture that drug use or unsafe sex is irrational or deviant, but rather, that its use follows the dictates of desire.

Gendered “realness” and its social and political effects are at the heart of transgender issues. “Realness” operates both as a structure for trans intelligibility and its process of containment, for its representation and its erasure. Power works through the concept of gendered “realness” in ways that force trans people to evoke a core, stable gender identity in order to prove their social and legal legitimacy; at the same time, the slippery nature of “realness,” its cultural power, and its ability to escape the parameters of determinacy, allow it to be harnessed in social, legal and institutional contexts in ways that undermine trans identities. By looking at what I refer to as “the politics of the real” I analyze gendered “realness” as an operation of power which circulates throughout United States having particular concrete, material effects for trans people. Through an analysis of transgender representation in photography, popular film, feminist theory, and legal cases, I explore the paradoxical nature of “realness” and its function in both dominant culture and transgender communities. As a driving concept for transgender representation and as a strategy for resistance, “realness” needs to be analyzed and evaluated.

This dissertation is an account of cultural change associated with incorporations of digital media and LGBT media into the commercial domain. As a production study of LGBT digital media at two networks, Bravo and Logo, it takes a multi-methods approach, including interviews with cultural workers, attendance at industry events, analysis of primary documents and site content, and the use of secondary sources. In addition to LGBT channel content, in recent years Bravo and Logo have purchased or launched LGBT-focused websites that began with the involvement of non-media professionals. A new cohort of LGBT cultural workers has emerged through economic and cultural convergence, bringing fan producers and writers from gay print into the networks. At the same time, with the increasing professionalization of digital media labor, boundary crossings associated with convergence have declined. The professional dispositions of Bravo's and Logo's cultural workers have informed programming strategies decentering LGBT-focused material. Besides commercial considerations, these developments reflect 'post-gay' integrationist discourses that also comprise mainstream narratives of gay identity. Furthermore, while digital media facilitates the targeting of specific audience segments, the expectation for web material to be "fluffy" militates against critical analysis at highly trafficked sites. Although social networking and crowdfunding platforms enable some content diversity, the potential of digital technologies is tempered by the interaction of norms for commercial online content with the habitus of key LGBT gatekeepers.

The purpose of the study was twofold: to explore how school counselors and athletic educators experienced implementing the 2010 Massachusetts Anti-bullying law and to explore how participants experienced using the Sharevision structured group reflection process as the format for group discussions. The Sharevision structured group reflection process provided the safety and support school counselors and athletic educators said they needed. Participants eagerly shared their experiences with one another. They used the Sharevision process to discuss the list of participant generated questions they posed during the individual interviews. They exchanged ideas and were able to generate new ways to respond to anti-LGBTQ bullying and gender-based harassment as a result of their reflective group discussions. The participants said that the Sharevision meetings relieved stress, were productive and inspired them to continue working together to take action on their ideas. After the study was over, members of the group met over the summer with the GSA Advisor to continue to work together. They designed and then co-facilitated their fall orientations for incoming students, athletes and parents proactively promoting diversity, their GSA and a positive LGBTQ school climate.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (or ‘queer’) youth are increasingly the objects of intense concern for ‘the state’, subjects of – and subject to – a panoply of interventional programs designed to mediate against queer youths’ ‘risk-taking’ behaviors. While the material and structural realities of queer youth’s lives are discursively absent in policy formation, they largely determine policy implementation and significantly shape policy reception, as there is an uneven distribution of state-based queer youth programming in Massachusetts. In the Commonwealth it is primarily rural and working-class community-based organizations that receive most of the interventional programs, and thus it is working-class and rural queer youth who remain the primary – yet unarticulated - targets of state intervention. This research project is designed as an ethnographic intervention into the discursive absence - yet implicit operationalization - of class and geography in queer youth policy discussions and programming, exploring how working-class rural queer youth experience both their lives writ large as well as the programs designed to ‘help’ them navigate their way to a ‘healthy’ adulthood. Incorporating principles of Participatory Action Research, the research methodology actively involved queer youth who were members of either a community-based queer youth organization or an education-based Gay Straight Alliance at a local high school, as well as a group of youth conceptualized as ‘policy refusers’ who attended neither organization. As class and geography can significantly shape the kind of engagement and messages that queer youth receive in policy and intervention programs, it may also determine the extent to which they participate in these programs. In exploring queer youths’ experiences with – or resistance to - such programs in a working-class and rural context, the project offers possibilities for understanding queer youth’s subjective realities as well the ways in which policies and programs often fail in attempting to reach such members of this ‘hidden population’. This collaborative project offers grounded insight into how queer youth coming-of-age in the economic and geographic margins of Massachusetts navigate their way to adulthood through, around, or in spite of the state’s programs of support and surveillance.

No description available.

<p> In September of 2011, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced the approval of the <i>Policy on Transgender Inclusion.</i> The NCAA published a handbook, which detailed the policy, policy interpretation, and best practice resources for implementation. The study examined the relationship of athletic directors' leadership frames to the presence of best practices for implementation of transgender inclusion policies at colleges and universities with NCAA athletics.</p><p> The study employed a correlational research design. The independent variables were the four leadership frames of athletic directors and the outcome measure was the presence of the best practices for implementing transgender inclusion policies. The participants were recruited from active member NCAA schools. In 2013, the NCAA reported that there were 1,066 active member schools; 340 in Division I, 290 in Division II, and 436 in Division III. All athletic directors, who served at active NCAA member schools as of March 2014, were invited to participate in the study, 119 athletic directors responded.</p><p> Results indicated participants were most likely to use leadership behaviors associated with the <i>human resource frame,</i> and least likely to use leadership behaviors associated with the <i>political frame.</i> Post hoc analyses showed that, with the exception of the <i>structural frame</i> vs. <i>human resource frame</i> and the <i> political frame</i> vs. <i>symbolic frame,</i> all pairwise comparisons were statistically significant. Multivariate analysis of variance showed no statistically significant differences among the three NCAA Divisions and between private and public institutions. Examination of the unique and combined contributions of the four leadership frames in explaining the variation in the outcome measure revealed that none was statistically significant.</p><p> While the four frames all provide a greater insight into the general behaviors of athletic directors, they do not necessarily help us to understand the extent to which best practices for implementation of the NCAA <i> Policy on Transgender Inclusion</i> is present in intercollegiate athletic departments. The infancy of the NCAA <i>Policy on Transgender Inclusion </i> may be a factor in the results of this study, however that should not prevent administrators from protecting the rights of student athletes and creating the most inclusive environment for athletic participation possible.</p>