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Of growing interest in the study of sexual minority experiences is the concept of community connectedness. Community connectedness reflects the cognitive and affective components of being affiliated with a particular community of similar others. Within the limited work that has been done, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community connectedness has typically been looked at as a predictor of positive outcomes, such as increased psychological well-being. However, there is limited evidence that LGBT community connectedness may be related to higher levels of substance use. This study aimed to explore the relationship that LGBT community connectedness has with alcohol use, taking into account a variety of potential confounding variables, including race, socioeconomic status, religiosity, and positive feelings towards one's sexual orientation. A total of 243 sexual minority participants (19.8% asexual, 29.2% bisexual, 22.2% gay/lesbian, 16.0% pansexual, and 12.8% other) were gathered through the use of targeted online social media advertising. A directed acyclic graph (DAG) was created to identify implications regarding variable covariance. Following the creation of the DAG, the implications were tested using bivariate correlations and the DAG was adjusted based on significant statistical relationships between variables. After the testing of the implications, we tested the hypothesis that LGBT community connectedness would predict alcohol use by regressing alcohol use on community connectedness controlling for the confounding variables identified using the DAG (age, LGB positive identity, race, religiosity, SES, and sexual orientation). The variables accounted for 11.37% variance in alcohol use, and higher community connectedness predicted more alcohol use (b=0.81, SEB=0.33, p=0.01). While connection to the LGBT community is typically explored as a positive form of social support, the current work found positive relationship between community connectedness and alcohol use for sexual minorities. The relationship between LGBT community connectedness and alcohol use should be explored in more depth to understand the pathways between a sense of connection and alcohol use. The work may indicate the need for non-alcohol based LGBT spaces to be more prevalent, so that community connection is not reliant on the use of alcohol-based spaces such as gay bars.

Within the historically conservative city of Córdoba, Argentina, LGBTQ activism has grown in the past year during a period in which the movement has achieved significant advances nationwide. This thesis examines how a new LGBTQ organization, Encuentros por la Diversidad en Córdoba, formed its identity by creating boundaries between itself and other organizations in Argentina through a frame of diversity and horizontalism, in which members have an equal opportunity to participate. While the group was able to maintain diversity through its activities, its attempts to create and follow a horizontal structure were not successful. Because of this failure, hierarchies based on members’ social and political capital developed within the group, despite the organization’s commitment to equality. / text

‘Gay identity’ is an often taken-for-granted concept in research. When researchers refer to gay men’s identities, the term is used in relation to sexuality, as a labelling process, and operationalised through reference to homosexual relationships. But what do those relationships mean to gay men? What does ‘being gay’ mean to gay men? Those questions, for the most part, remain unaddressed. My review of literature shows that ‘being gay’ has been commonly equated to ‘being homosexual’ and, although sexual relationships are one of the most common themes in research about gay men, studies often investigate them from epidemiological perspectives. In this thesis, I draw attention to the limits of those perspectives and explore the contributions that sexual, erotic, and romantic connections make to gay men’s sense of identity. From a narrative approach, this thesis is concerned with how self-identified gay men give meanings to their romantic, erotic, and sexual relationships and how those meanings become entangled with their sense of who they are. To conduct this study, I interviewed ten gay men of different ages and backgrounds living in the United Kingdom, each of whom provided narrative data during unstructured one-to-one, one-off interviews. Drawing upon a narrative structural analysis, my findings are presented in two ways: first in the form of idiographic narratives concerning five participants and, secondly, as an overarching analysis with central themes identified across participants’ narratives. My findings show that gay men construct a sense of identity through their sexual, erotic, and romantic relationships and that being gay pervades the self in a way that affects their entire life stories. This study concludes by challenging the conception of ‘being gay’ as a sexual orientation because it describes in sexual terms an identity that is not only, not always, and not predominantly sexual.

The VHA Directive 1341 (2018a): Providing Health Care for Transgender and Intersex Veterans, outlines care for transgender patients. Staff members at the project site lacked knowledge of the directive and available resources, making their care of transgender veterans inefficient. The purpose of the project was to implement staff education about the directive and resources to increase transgender patient visits and access to care. The practice-€focused question asked whether the development and implementation of staff education about the national directive and transgender services would affect the number of transgender patient visits in a 2-€month period. The Iowa and Community Readiness Models provided structure for the practice change. The Community Readiness Assessment tool was used to assess staff education needs regarding transgender services. The results indicated that staff have knowledge about community experts, no knowledge about federal funding, and inadequate knowledge about support from staff and leaders, qualified professionals, and laws/practices. The staff education about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) resources tool was created and disseminated via meetings and e-€mail. ICD-€10 codes for gender identity disorder were evaluated for the number of transgender patient visits, which showed an increase in visits by 0.7 per month. Recommendations include continuing staff education during LGBT events and ICD-€10 data reports. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to increase transgender patient visits to the site, which could lead to quality, comprehensive care to promote health and prevent disease.

Limited research describes the impact of ethnic groups and mores, especially those of Asian ethnicities, on the development of a global queering theory of sexual-identity development. The purpose of this grounded-theory study was to investigate the sexual-identity development of homosexuals in a non-Western collectivist culture and the extent of influence Western gay expatriates have on Chinese gay males' sexual-identity development. Five identity-development models served as the theoretical foundations of this study: Cass, Troiden, McCarn and Fassinger, D'Augelli, Gock, and the conceptual theory of global queering. NVivo aided in data organization, while coding and analysis were applied to the data. Individual, Skype interviews were held with 22 Chinese gay men. Participants explained how Western influence changed and was adapted to cultural norms even when no similarities emerged in the combining cultures. This research increases understanding of collectivist cultures and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities embedded in them. Understanding can create positive social change affecting the coming-out process, cultural diffusion, and same-sex couples in collectivist cultures. This study may spur a call for additional research into LGBT communities globally on sexual-identity development, particularly in relation to race and culture.

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Com a discussão sobre as pautas LGBT vigentes na sociedade brasileira, no início do século XXI, encontram-se no teatro, diferentes temáticas que abordam aspectos do universo homoafetivo sobre diversas perspectivas. Entretanto, é possível observar que estes espetáculos contemplam identidades gays, trans e queer, enquanto pouco se fala sobre as temáticas lésbicas. Sendo o teatro um espaço simbólico de transformações sociais, a representatividade das pautas lésbicas se torna um assunto primordial a ser pensado e discutido como um meio de construção de memória e visibilidade na Pós-Modernidade, já que dialoga com a sociedade em geral, bem como com os Estudos Culturais. É nesta dimensão que se discute a visibilidade das temáticas lésbicas em contraponto a quantidade de produções de peças que abarcam a representatividade de outras identidades que se enquadram na categoria LGBT. Seguindo a corrente Pós-Estruturalista, a metodologia adotada é o construcionismo, de caráter qualitativo, utilizando da análise de práticas discursivas. Para tanto, adotou-se como procedimento um levantamento de peças com temáticas LGBT, servindo-se do banco de dados OFF Guia de Teatro SP, com a coleta de dados de espetáculos decorrentes do período 2012 a 2018. Foram realizadas também seis entrevistas semiestruturadas com atrizes que atuaram em alguns desses espetáculos catalogados. Como resultado, compreende-se que existe uma visibilidade das temáticas lésbicas no teatro, do ponto de vista da interação e envolvimento do público, capaz de causar transformações sociais, mas que ainda é limitada pela reprodução da heteronormatividade e do machismo estrutural manifestado por meio da hegemonia gay, resultando, principalmente, na falta de incentivo e investimentos por produtores culturais / With the discussion about the current LGBT agenda in the Brazilian society, at the beginning of the 21st century, different themes that approach aspects of the homo affective universe in different perspectives were found in the theater. However, it is possible to observe that these spectacles contemplate gay, transsexual and queer identities, while little is said about the lesbian themes. Since the theater is a symbolic space of social transformations, the representativeness of the lesbian agenda becomes a primordial subject to be thought of and discussed about as a means of building memory and visibility in postmodernity, since it dialogues with the society in general, as well as with Cultural Studies. It is in this dimension that the visibility of lesbian themes is discussed in counterpoint to the quantity of productions of pieces that encompass the representativeness of other identities that fall into the LGBT category. Following the poststructuralist flow, the methodology adopted is constructionism, of qualitative character, using the analysis of discursive practices. To do so, it was adopted, as a procedure, a collection of LGBT-themed pieces, using the database OFF - Guia de Teatro SP, with the gathering of data from shows within the period from 2012 to 2018. Six semi-interviews were also conducted - structured with actresses who acted in some of these cataloged shows. As a result, it is understood that there is a visibility of lesbian themes in the theater, from the point of view of interaction and public involvement, capable of causing social transformations, but still limited by the reproduction of hetero normativeness and structural chauvinism manifested through gay hegemony, resulting, mainly, in the lack of incentive and investments by cultural producers

Gay-straight alliance (GSA) clubs may positively affect mental health for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBT) students, but little research has studied schools that primarily enroll LGBT students. Guided by neofunctional and sexual stigma theory, the purpose of this study was to determine if graduates of LGBT high schools have better mental health than LGBT and heterosexual graduates of mainstream high schools. A snow ball sample, of 183 graduates of high schools in the United States and 95 graduates from high schools in other countries, 80% who identified as LGBT, completed an online survey consisting of 5 short mental health assessments, measuring anxiety, depression, self-esteem, internalized homophobia, and life satisfaction. Including demographic variables as covariates, ANCOVA was used to test for significant difference in the mental health of former students who have attended high schools with GSAs (GSA+) compared with graduates of high schools without GSAs (GSA-). Research results found that U.S. graduates of GSA+ high schools had significantly higher self-esteem (p = .034) and life satisfaction (p = .026) than U.S. graduates of GSA- high schools. Graduates of non U.S. GSA+ high schools had significantly lower levels of depression (p =.016) than graduates of U.S. GSA- high schools. Students who identified as gender conforming had significantly higher levels of self-esteem (p =.004) and significantly lower levels of depression (p = .000) than students identifying as nongender conforming. The social change implications of these findings include urging school administrations across the country to support GSAs as they may improve the mental health of students who identify as LGBT or nongender conforming.

Background LGBTQ-persons have been treated differently in both society and health care throughout the history. Just a few years ago it was illegal to be gay. Today the attitudes have changed toward an openness and positive society, but does that mean that LGBTQ-persons get the same treatment in the health care? Aim The aim of this study is to illuminate LGBTQ-patients' experiences when encountering health care. Method A literature study method was used for this study. Results Six themes emerged, feeling of not being able to influence, feeling different, feeling offended, feeling of uncertainty, feeling welcome and feeling understood. Both positive and negative result were found. Ways to include and welcome these patients emerged. Understanding and compassionate personnel gave LGBTQ-patients a positive experience when they accepted the patient's lifestyle. Conclusion Specific LGBTQ knowledge and education among healthcare professionals is needed to encounter LGBTQ- persons with dignity.