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.

<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>

This dissertation examines the use of gender-based humor in eight Mexican novels published between 1979 and 2007, examining the way the texts attempt to use this humor in sympathetic portrayals of male homosexuality. The introduction presents the theoretical framework for the analysis of the novels--based on linguistic theories of humor and queer and gender theory-- and suggests the autobiography of the early 20th-century intellectual Salvador Novo as a precursor to later sympathetic humorous portrayals of male homosexuality in Mexican literature. The following four chapters each juxtapose two novels which are related through thematic or formal similarities. The first chapter focuses on El Vampiro de la colonia Rama by Luis Zapata and Matame y veras by Jose Joaquin Blanco, two novels whose narrators unconsciously and ironically reiterate homophobic and masculinist values through their narrations, showing the instability of their own sense of identity and how homophobia is often reiterated by gay culture in Mexico. The second chapter examines Brenda Berenice o el diario de una loca by Luis Montano and Luis Zapata's La hermana secreta de Angelica Maria, two texts that depict transvestism and transsexuality in a humorous manner, questioning the validity and appropriateness of the use of camp and ironic gender performance by homosexual men in the Mexican context. The third chapter looks at Utopia gay, by Jose Rafael Calva, and La historia de siempre, by Luis Zapata, two novels whose plots center on same-sex unions, questioning their viability as a path to homosexual liberation and critiquing the authoritative use of discourse to define love, sex and identity. The fourth chapter analyzes Purpura by Ana Garcia Bergua and Fruta verde by Enrique Serna, two coming-of-age novels in which young male protagonists who are influenced personally and artistically by sexual and emotional relationships with older men ultimately refuse to define themselves as either homosexual or heterosexual: In the consideration of each text close attention is paid to the ways in which gender-based humor disturbs or questions dominant views of sexuality and gender in Mexican society, in which male homosexuality is normally devalued through association with femininity / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation examines same-sex desire through the course of the twentieth century in the city of New Orleans. In some ways the history of same-sex desire and homosexuality in New Orleans is unique and in other ways it is demonstrative of the rest of the country. Chapter one introduces the city itself as a character in this history so that the unique and the ubiquitous can be more easily discerned. Chapter two examines same-sex desire in the 1920s and suggests that same-sex desire existed in many forms and places without an overarching culture of homosexuality. Chapter three discusses cross-dressing at carnival and the implications for the history of same-sex desire in New Orleans. Chapter four and five examine the regulation of homosexuality through formal and informal methods and suggests that 1958 was a pivotal year in the history of homosexuality in New Orleans. Finally, chapter six qualifies the dominant narrative of political activism in the historiography of homosexuality and describes New Orleans's unique contribution to the history of same-sex desire in the United States. The appendix is a discussion of the regulation of same-sex desire and physical acts of sexuality through legislation in Louisiana / acase@tulane.edu

No Place Like Home: A Cultural History of Gay Domesticity, 1948-1982, explores the development of gay male domestic spaces and their representation in American culture, from the publication of the first Kinsey Report to the AIDS epidemic. Through archival research, and analysis of periodicals, books, and film, it shows that gay men frequently experienced their homes as key sites in the construction of sexual identities, relationships, and communities. Social scientists, journalists, and filmmakers of the 1950s and 60s typically depicted gay men as outsiders, if not threats, to the ideal heterosexual household, either anti-domestic (lonely figures who lurked city streets, bathrooms, and bars in search of a one-night stand), or hyper-domestic (prissy interior decorators whose work alienated "real" men from their homes). Such images, however, overlooked the actual range of social and political possibilities gay men found in the supposed privacy of apartments and houses. No Place Like Home uncovers these domestic performances in order to reconsider the evolution of gay culture and domesticity in the postwar period. Each chapter advances chronologically while tracing the lineage of five tropes of gay male home-making: (1) the interior decorator; (2) homosexual marriage; (3) camp humor and cooking; (4) communes; and (5) vacation homes. In practice and representation, domesticity provided a stage for gay men and their observers to negotiate social anxieties around masculinity and sexuality, and debate conventional conceptions of home and family.