The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community continues to experience worse health outcomes than their heterosexual counterparts. Inequities in health care include low health insurance rates, high rates of stress due to systemic discrimination and stigma, and a lack of cultural competency in the health care system. Gender and sexual minority (GSM) people are at higher risk of mental health disorders, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), substance use and abuse, cancer, suicide, and other disorders/diseases. A lack of cultural competency in health care systems perpetuates these health disparities and inequities in care that burden the LGBT community. This project?s purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of an online educational intervention on enhancing health professionals? cultural competence of GSM health. This study used a one-group pre-, post-, and follow-up survey intervention, quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention on improving health professionals? knowledge, clinical preparedness, and attitudinal awareness of GSM health. The study?s setting was at a primary care center with clinics spread across three rural counties in North Dakota with a combined population of less than 14,000. This study used convenience sampling, and the recruitment of participants included a project presentation at the health care organization where the project would take place and an email invitation. Thirty-six participants completed the pre-survey, 11 of those 36 participants completed the educational intervention and post-survey, and six of those 11 participants completed the follow-up survey four weeks after completing the educational intervention. The instrument used for the presurvey, post-survey, and follow-up survey was the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Development of Clinical Skills Scale (LGBT-DOCSS). A paired sample t-test was used to compare pre, post, and four-week follow-up LGBT-DOCSS mean scores. The results indicated a statistically significant improvement in LGBT-DOCSS mean score on the post-survey (p = 0.0011) and four-week follow-up (p = 0.01) compared to the pre-survey. Additionally, the majority of participants reported that this educational intervention was valuable to their practice. This project revealed that an online educational intervention effectively enhanced health professionals? cultural competence of GSM health.

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Research on diversity in the workplace is expanding to include multiple categories including, race, gender, and LGBT identities. Government agencies should have a workforce that represents a diverse public. This is a challenge because agencies and their employees are not immune to the social processes that produce inequalities. A central question in public administration is how to improve practices in the recruitment, management, and retention of a diverse workforce. I theorized that employee perceptions are affected by inequalities based on the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. The purpose of this study was to determine if employee perceptions were influenced by intersectional identity patterns. The dominant framework in the literature proposes that the separate and additive effects of stigma, stereotypes, and bias influence employee perceptions at work. Intersectionality challenges this approach by conceptualizing social identity as the combination of identity categories. I provide a methodology for comparing the difference in fit between additive and intersectional models.The findings of this study demonstrate the greater explanatory power of intersectionality through replication and extension of Sabharwal et al.'s (2019) study of turnover intention. The replication analysis finds errors in the original models that, when corrected, provide stronger evidence for their hypotheses. Tests indicate that the intersectional model fit the data better than the additive model. The models show that patterns of turnover intention are conditional, shaped by intersectional combinations of race, gender, and sexuality. The patterns of diversity revealed in these models show that the effect of diversity is complex—it is more than the sum of its parts. The results change our understanding of diversity inclusion within the federal workforce, employee retention, and satisfaction. I discuss recommendations for managers in government agencies seeking to improve diversity inclusion practices in the federal workforce.

This thesis analyses a dialogue between the US ambassador to Zambia and two Zambian officials, regarding LGBT+ rights, following the sentencing of a same-sex couple by the Zambian high court. The theoretical framework utilizes postcolonial theory and a few of its concepts, namely cultural imperialism, and colonial discourses. To analyse the material, critical discourse analysis was conducted to examine if colonial discourse is present in the dialogue, and if so, how the discourses are used to reproduce or challenge the uneven power relationship between the West and Zambia. The thesis could conclude that discourses of cultural imperialism as well as colonial discourses were indeed present in the dialogue. The US ambassador reproduced the uneven power structure and the Zambian officials both reproduced as well as challenged it. The findings aim to contribute to the field of global LGBT+ advocacy, especially when conducted in a postcolonial context.

In this thesis I am putting the sexual and gender minorities in South Korea and Japan under the limelight. I am discussing the topic of LGBT social acceptance, and the connection between the level of social acceptance and how the sexual and gender minorities have been perceived through history, and are currently being perceived within the law, culture and religion, politics, and Socio-economic areas in South Korea and Japan. In both countries there is still a visible lack of social acceptance towards LGBT persons, and the hypothesis of this paper is that all of the factors contributing to that outcome, except for religion, are evidently similar. The aim is to analyze and show the connection between these factors and how the sexual and gender minorities are viewed and treated, as well as to compare the outcome in respective country and discuss the similarities and differences.

This thesis examines the rhetoric surrounding sex education crafted by two major types of advocacy groups: the Christian Right and the Liberal Left. I conducted a qualitative analysis of content on sex education produced by six high-profile organizations: The Heritage Foundation, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, American Civil Liberties Union, the Guttmacher Institute, and Planned Parenthood. I found that these polarized organizations do not debate each other; instead, they focus on parents whose political leanings match their own. Sex education is at the center of other issues that also divide the Christian Right and the Liberal Left: healthcare, morality, marriage, education, and STIs. I analyze the arguments advocacy organizations make, the liabilities of their appeals, and their strategies to mobilize parents emotionally. Both conservative and liberal organizations aim to secure the beliefs of the next generation through their parents, not to find common ground.

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The adoption of laws in the Russian Federation prohibiting propaganda of homosexuality and “non-traditional sexual relationships” to minors at the regional and federal levels, respectively, has raised questions regarding the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in politics. This project shall evaluate public statements by clerics and other figures serving in the Orthodox Church from 2011 through 2013, as well as interviews conducted with clerics of the Moscow Patriarchate in order to analyze the strategies employed when arguing against public expressions of homosexuality. Drawing upon the concepts of framing and morality policy, I will argue that secular, rational-instrumental arguments have prevailed over moral-religious and procedural appeals. In addition, I will show that transformative framing by some Church figures points to ambitions for more comprehensive moral and religious changes at the individual level, and religious, societal, and legislative changes at the national level in Russia.

This study is an ideological criticism of the acclaimed Amazon digital television series Transparent. Transparent is a series that focuses heavily on LGBTQ+ issues, including a transgender protagonist and several LGBTQ+ characters. Recognizing the importance of LGBTQ+ representation in media, this study draws from a methodological framework in Kenneth Burke’s rhetorical concept of identification as well as Judith Butler and John Sloop’s theories pertaining to gender identity in order to assess how this series represents gender. Analyzing key scenes in Transparent’s first and second seasons, this thesis argues that Transparent offers several sympathetic portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters, depicts gender as culturally constructed, and queers heteronormativity with its focus on LGBTQ+ issues. However, Transparent frequently relies on underdeveloped and often stereotypical depictions of LGBTQ+ characters, does not display LGBTQ+ actors in major roles, and often reinforces dominant ideologies such as heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity in its identification. As a result, this series ultimately is mixed in advancing LGBTQ+ representation on television.

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