This project explores how a retreat ministry grounded in Theological Action Research (TAR) may help ameliorate the harmful effects of negative religious experiences among transgender persons. As a method of practical theology, TAR is interactive and participatory; in this study, TAR fostered agency and ownership among retreat participants. The study identifies larger implications of employing TAR to inform the practice of ministry, particularly among marginalized communities. Data and feedback from retreatants indicate that a retreat created through TAR and drawing upon spiritual autobiography, is a helpful model and method for ministry with transgender and gender non-conforming people seeking spiritual companionship

Work toward ecumenical liturgical convergence may be traced back to at least 1910; however, this project thesis expands upon the concept of full, active, and conscious participation in worship found in the 1963 Second Ecumenical Vatican Council’s Sacrosanctum Concilium to illumine how shaping the worship practices of the Church can make our communities of faith inclusive of all sexual orientations and gender expressions. This thesis presents the design of a curriculum for worship leaders to reflect upon the worship practices of these local context, and move from their current state to a place where all members of the beloved community are valued.

<p> In the Middle East and in many majority Muslim nations, homosexuality, including homosexual acts, identities, desires, and discussions of those, is considered taboo. Utilizing a feminist theoretical orientation, this project examined the ways in which same-sex desiring women in Amman, Jordan view the concept of sexually desiring and its relationship to identities. It also examined the pressures placed on them to abide by and navigate familial and religious expectations that conflict with their sexuality. This project drew upon 15 interviews from Muslim and Christian women in Amman using semi-structured and unstructured interviews and participant observation. After analysis, it was concluded that the majority of informants believe in innate sexual desires and sexuality and that all people sexually desire in similar ways. It was also concluded that informants face more pressure from family than from religion, and therefore, find it easier to balance religious obligations than familial obligations with their sexuality.</p><p>

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

<p> This study examined sexual victimization, resilience, and revictimization in the transgender community. Participants were recruited nationally through targeted Facebook advertising. This study observed that transgender participants were more likely to experience victimization and revictimization when compared to cisgender participants. It was also observed that transgender participants had more positive attitudes toward help-seeking but scored lower on a resilience scale than cisgender and sexual minorities. Implications will be discussed. </p><p>

<p> In recent decades, there has been a significant rise in the prominence and visibility of gay-identified men choosing to become fathers. The rise in planned gay fatherhood may be partially due to young gay men&rsquo;s radically evolving views of fatherhood (Berkowitz, 2011a). The current research is a phenomenological investigation in to the lived experience of gay fathers and community. Research questions include: How do gay men re-orient to evolving sources of social support over the transition to parenthood? How does the experience and quality of social support affect the process of becoming a father for gay men? Do gay fathers experience a sense of inclusion or exclusion in various social settings? How do gay fathers experience social milieus differently than before having children? Data collection consisted of interviews with 12 gay identified cisgender men who became fathers in the context of a previously established gay or queer identities. Interviews were in-depth and semistructured. While some fathers have described the process of becoming a parent as a second coming out process that allows a casting off of internalized oppression, others have described feeling alienated from previous social networks. Participants did not describe a distancing from a gay community, nor did a majority appear to feel embedded in a gay community describing diverse group of friends before and after having children. Participants experienced varying levels of family support in which future parenting identity became paramount to maintaining connections and approval from family members. Several fathers described interactions, particularly in public, that fall under the category of microaggression laden with stereotype threat. Such intrusions were disorienting and threatened to undermine an emerging sense of competence at critical stages of establishing a new fatherhood identity. Suggestions for further research and implications for therapeutic interactions are considered.</p><p>

<p> To examine the influence sexual identity has on the relationship between victimization and aggression in queer Black Men, thirty-eight participants (31 queer Black men, 7 straight Black men) completed a survey designed to assess experiences of victimization and current aggressive attitudes and behavior. This study hypothesized the following: (1) Queer Black men experience higher levels of victimization, (2) sexual orientation affects the strength of the relationship between victimization and aggression, and (3) there is a positive correlation between victimization and aggression. Findings indicated that queer Black men did not report higher rates of victimization and that sexual orientation did not moderate the strength of these two variables. Despite these findings, results indicated a positive relationship between victimization and aggression in both groups, with queer Black men exhibiting a stronger correlation. These significant findings further reinforce theoretical models and set groundwork for future research to address challenges that confront this understudied population.</p><p>

Throughout the first decade of the 2000s, LGBTQ+ visibility has steadily increased in North American popular culture, allowing for not only more LGBTQ+ characters/figures to surface, but also establishing more diverse and nuanced representations and storylines. Bisexuality, while being part of the increasingly popular phrase of inclusivity (LGBTQ+), however, is one sexuality that not only continues to be overlooked within popular culture but that also continues to be represented in limited ways. In this doctoral thesis I examine how bisexual women are represented within mainstream popular culture, in particular on American television, focusing on two, popular programs (The L Word and the Shot At Love series). These texts have been chosen for popularity and visibility in mainstream media and culture, as well as for how bisexual women are unprecedentedly made central to many of the storylines (The L Word) and the series as a whole (Shot At Love). This analysis provides not only a detailed historical account of bisexual visibility but also discusses bisexuality thematically, highlighting commonalities across bisexual representations as well as shared themes between and with other identities. By examining key examples of bisexuality in popular culture from the first decade of the twenty-first century, my research investigates how representations of bisexuality are often portrayed in conversation with hegemonic understandings of gender and sexuality, specifically highlighting the mainstream "gay rights" movement's narrative of "normality" and "just like you" politics. Finally, it is in recognizing how representations of bisexuality are framed by specific reoccurring themes/tropes, as well as how these themes/tropes work together within larger social, cultural, and political climates, that it becomes possible to challenge existing gender and sexuality norms and ideals and create a more nuanced and complex understanding of bisexuality.

This dissertation addresses how the institution of the modern, nuclear family is accepted and contested in contemporary society. In particular, the dissertation focuses on the recent movement within the lesbian and gay community to gain access to the social, economic, and legal benefits of marriage. The research entailed structured open-ended interviews with 90 lesbians and gay men living in Massachusetts. The dissertation addresses three central questions: (1) How do the practices of lesbians and gay men (including same-sex ceremonies and struggling for the legal right to marry) reflect larger structural changes occurring within the institutions of marriage, family, and gender in the United States?; (2) Why and how are lesbians and gay men creating new meanings of marriage and family for themselves?; and (3) To what degree does gender influence lesbians' and gay men's conceptions of marriage and family?

Sexual minorities consistently report more alcohol use than heterosexual individuals, and sexual minority women tend to report more alcohol use than sexual minority men (Amadio, 2006; Kerr et al., 2015; Rosario et al., 2014). Some evidence suggests that this disparity in comparison to heterosexuals may be problematic drinking, such as binge drinking and alcohol dependence, rather than just higher consumption of alcohol. Thus, it is important to examine which variables are related to problematic drinking among sexual minority women. One factor that may explain problematic drinking for sexual minority women is proximal minority stress, such as anticipated stigma (expectations of unfair treatment) and internalized stigma (negative attitudes toward the self about one’s sexual orientation) (Meyer, 2003). Previous research has found that internalized stigma predicts more problematic drinking (Feinstein & Newcomb, 2016; Lea et al., 2014). Additionally, proximal minority stress may be indirectly related to problematic drinking through variables like depression, social support, and drinking motives (Lehavot & Simoni, 2011; Lewis et al., 2016). However, findings on anticipated stigma have inconsistently shown a relationship with problematic drinking (Hatzenbuehler et al., 2008; Reisner et al., 2015). The current study tested a path analysis model examining how proximal minority stress may be related to problematic drinking among sexual minority women. Participants included 101 women who identified as lesbian, bisexual, and other non-heterosexual orientations. Participants were mainly white, and came from all regions of the United States (Northeast, South, Midwest, West). They completed the following measures: the Internalized Stigma Subscale of the Perceived Stigma Scale (Mickelson, 2001), the Discrimination Scale (adapted from Williams, 1997), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988), the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (Radloff, 1977), the Drinking Motives Questionnaire (Cooper, 1994), and the AUDIT (Saunders et al., 1993). The final model tested anticipated stigma and internalized stigma as predictors of social support and depression; depression significantly predicted coping and enhancement motives, which in turn predicted problematic drinking. Age, living in the Northeast, and being a racial/ethnic minority were covariates of depression, internalized stigma and social support respectively. A path analysis conducted via EQS determined that the model had good fit (Chi-square/df = 1.10, p = 0.32, CFI = .988, SRMR = 0.082, RMSEA = .032 (90% CI [0.001, 0.082]). These results support the hypotheses that minority stress is related to more problematic drinking through depression and substance use motives. Findings could suggest that future research and interventions should examine the replacement of negative coping mechanisms, like drinking, with more positive coping mechanisms among sexual minority women.