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In 1952, at the height of the McCarthy era, Franz Kallmann, a Jewish psychiatrist and eugenicist who fled the National Socialist regime in Germany, published a study, in which he claimed to have found a one hundred percent concordance rate for homosexuality among forty pairs of identical twins. From this data, Kallmann concluded that homosexuality, which he saw as a pathological mental condition, had a genetic cause. As well as being a clear statement that sexual orientation is constitutionally based, Kallmann's study also reflected social and scientific conceptions of lesbians and gay men that had been extant for centuries. The twin study perpetuated the portrayal of homosexual women and men as insane in general, and in particular continued the stereotype that lesbians were masculine and that gay men were effeminate. Seven responses to Kallmann's study were published between 1960 and 1973, some in support of his genetic theory, others favoring environmental explanations based loosely on psychoanalytic theories. The environmental argument eventually gained ground in twin studies in the late 1960s concurrent with the widespread acceptance in the psychiatric community of the theory that homosexuality is caused by dysfunctional relationships between parents and children. The seven twin studies that responded to Kallmann retained his characterization of lesbians and gay men as gender transgressors. Simultaneously, homosexual activist groups began to question the pathological model of sexual orientation. Twin studies of this type ended in 1973, the same year that the American Psychiatric Association reversed its position on homosexuality and removed it from the diagnostic manual. / Graduation date: 2005

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Recently, the population of gay and lesbian persons who are open about their sexuality has increased (Evans and Wall, 1991). Student attitudes toward these subpopulations are of interest to educators and administrators who are involved in directly serving students. While several national studies have been conducted to assess general attitudes toward gays and lesbians, little research is aimed at assessing student attitudes toward this population. Past research has pointed up the need for an instrument that assesses attitudes toward gay men and lesbians as two distinct groups. Herek developed an inventory to address this issue. The attitudes of Virginia Tech’s Resident Advisors toward lesbians and gay men were assessed using Herek’s (1988) Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men scale. A three-way ANOVA was used to determine the degree to which gender, academic level, and tenure of experience were associated with scores on the inventory. No significant effects were revealed from this analysis. Overall mean scores fell in the "neutral" range suggesting a lack of support for both gay and lesbian persons. The results of this study should aid educators and other administrators at Virginia Tech in better understanding the attitudes of the Resident Advisors toward gays and lesbians and to consider the implications of this assessment data. / Master of Arts

On April 30, 1997, for the first time in television history, an actress on a popular television sitcom announced to the world that both se and the character she played were lesbians. This study offers an interpretation of the significance of Ellen DeGeneres' coming through a cultural studies analysis of the April 14, 1997 Time magazine article in which DeGeneres comes out and the April 30, 1997 "Ellen" television episode in which DeGeneres brings her character, Ellen Morgan, out. The study revealed sites of ideological differences between the two texts that could point to a struggle over the meaning of gayness in modern American society. The results suggest that mainstream attitudes and beliefs could be in the process of shifting toward a more normalized view of homosexuality.