abstract: Bisexuality is a unique kind of sexual identity, as a gray area between heterosexuality and homosexuality. The piece You made up the Story and I Played with all the Parts explores bisexuality as a lived artistic experience based on my sexual journey within a society that advocates heterosexuality. The piece includes movement phrases and text derived from conversations with intimate partners, characters based on former partners, storytelling, a 1950s-style sex education video parody, and audience participation via dialogue. The creation of movement and dialogue manipulated heteronormative social stigmas into a canny social acceptance of bisexuality. The multifaceted nature of the piece provokes viewers to consider how sexuality is constructed socially through my own interpretation. As a result, the work suggests that bisexuality is a legitimate sexual identity and represents a culture within American society. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.F.A. Dance 2011

abstract: The current study sought to reevaluate Cass' Theory of sexual identity formation in terms of lesbian identity development over the past twenty years and how media acts as mediation in lesbian identity development. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with only nine useable transcripts analyzed for this thesis. This study is an explanatory investigation into linear stage theory, specifically Cass' theory, as well as the impact of media as a mediator during lesbian identity development. This study had three objectives 1) to gain an understanding of the theory and its components related to lesbian identity development 2) to understand the lesbian identity formation process and 3) to understand the impact and influence if any, media has had on lesbian self-reported identity development. Qualitative methods were used to obtain information and analyze the responses. Results indicate that the participants in this study believed that the coming out process was important. This study's results showed that several of the participants entered each stage of the theory, while others did not. Media had little influence on the identity development, and the participants had mixed reviews of medias portrayal of lesbians. Implications for practice and further research are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / IRB Approval / M.S.W. Social Work 2011

The video game as a medium is young compared to film or literature. As such there is less research available on the subject, particularly in the area of video game criticism related to sexualization and gender issues that underscore stereotypical portrayals of women, ethnicity, and overall gender roles. What research there is regarding video games primarily uses still images or short gameplay segments as data sources. Given the long form narrative that many video games employ to engage players, such data sources do not give a full picture of the video game's content. The purpose of this project is to create a tool that can be used by academics and industry professionals to collect data on various aspects of video game content easily and reliably. Inspired by the objectivity and unambiguous construction of the Bechdel-Wallace test, the Prototype Stark Gaming Metric (pSGM) has been constructed following the same principles. The pSGM is an instrument of various categories informed by previous media research. These categories are then coded to reflect a video game's content that is "typical" and "atypical" (as defined by previous research). Once coded, the metric produces a single numeric value representing what amount of a video game's content is "typical" or "atypical." The metric was applied to two contemporary video games to both assess the usefulness of the metric's coding itself and reveal any major issues with the method, coding system, and coding categories.

abstract: This study situated a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) softball league within the logic of homonormativity and queer futurity and explored how community and identity were constituted, practiced, negotiated, and problematized. The project endeavored to address the questions: What is the meaning and significance of community for the League participants? To what extent and how does participation in the League affect gender and sexual identity discourse and practice? And, in the context of the League, how are dominant ideologies and power structures reinforced, disrupted, and produced? A critical ethnography was undertaken to render lives, relations, structures, and alternative possibilities visible. Data was collected through participant observation, interviews, open-ended questionnaires, and archival document analysis. A three stage process was employed for data transformation including description, analysis, and interpretation. LGBT identified sports clubs, formed as a result of identity politics, are understood to be potential sites of transformation and/or assimilation. Although the League was imbued with the discourses of inclusion and acceptance, the valorizing of competition and normalization led to the creation of hierarchies and a politics of exclusion. The League as an identity-based community was defined by what it was not, by what it lacked, by its constitutive outside. It is possible to learn a great deal about community by looking at what and who is left out and the conspicuous absence of transgender and bisexual participants in the League highlights a form of closure, a limit to the transformative potential of the League. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Recreation and Tourism Studies 2015

abstract: This study aimed to fill the gap in research with regards to how individuals who define themselves as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) and devoutly religious (either currently or in the past) manage the interaction between these two conflicting identities. The researchers conducted 8 semi-structured qualitative interviews to examine how these individuals manage this conflict and what affects these individuals experience internally and externally. To analyze the interviews, researchers used an open coding method to determine the common themes amongst the participants. Results indicated that these participants traveled a similar path when attempting to manage the conflict between their religion and sexuality and similar internal and external affects were experienced amongst the participants. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S.W. Social Work 2013

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Homophobia plays a significant role in the treatment of individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). The purpose of this study is to explore the presence of these types of negative attitudes as they present themselves in the nursing workforce. 520 registered nurses were contacted via email to partake in a survey assessing homophobic attitudes and perceptions regarding nursing care of LGBT persons. A total of 27 registered nurses responded and the resulting data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. A majority of registered nurses were female (89.3%), greater than 40 years of age (75%), white (75%), heterosexual (96.4%), and Christian (67.9%) with a Bachelor’s degree or less (57.1%). Homophobia scores averaged 27 on a scale from 12-60, higher scores translating to greater homophobia levels. This value is on the lower end of the scale, which interprets to lower levels of homophobia among the participants. While some of these scores did show the existence of negative attitudes toward LGBT individuals among participants, further investigation is needed with a larger, more representative sample. As a result, it is difficult to determine whether LGBT relations are improving with registered nurses.

No description available.

No description available.