The human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic has surpassed forty years with many medical advancements in prevention and treatment. Often believed to be at negligible or low risk by society at large, sexual minority women have remained understudied regarding their risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), leaving their sexual health inadequately understood and supported in healthcare and social services. The sexual health of young South Asian sexual minority women, who are multiply minoritized due to their intersecting identities, has been entirely overlooked. This qualitative study aimed to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of young South Asian sexual minority women as it pertains to their HIV/STI risk. Barriers and facilitators to accessing community-based sexual health supports and services were also investigated. A community-engaged approach was taken to develop this study in partnership with the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention to investigate the HIV/STI risk context and sexual health needs of this group residing in the Greater Toronto Area. A maximum variation sampling strategy was used to recruit six young South Asian sexual minority women and semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to collect narrative data. Narrative analysis of the data found socio-cultural and structural influences which guide the HIV/STI risk context for this group. The participants illuminated an inadequate understanding of sexual health when engaging in sex with women, an overall low HIV/STI risk perception, barriers to adequate sexual healthcare and health promotion resources, and multiple minority stressors which impacted their access to safe sex. These findings have major implications for school-based sexual health education, medical training for healthcare practitioners, and sexual health support and services provided by community-based sexual health organizations in the Greater Toronto Area. / Thesis / Master of Public Health (MPH)

Bakgrund: I Sverige ses de senaste åren en ökning bland ungdomars sexuella risktagande, detta samtidigt som sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen visat sig brista i kvalité och utformning. Att sex- och samlevnadsundervisning håller hög standard är av stor betydelse för ungdomars utveckling, hälsa och välbefinnande samt bidrar till att förbättra den sexuella hälsan i Sverige. Syfte: Undersöka elevers uppfattning av den sex- och samlevnadsundervisning som ges i grundskolan. Metod: En mixad metod tillämpades. Data insamlades via anonyma enkäter, totalt 59 svar inkom. Resultat: Elevernas inställning till sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen var övervägande neutral. De ansåg att de genom undervisningen erhållit ett ökat risk- och konsekvenstänk samt en ökad förståelse, trygghet och självsäkerhet till sexuella relationer. Eleverna önskade dock mer kunskap om hbtq samt en mer elevcentrerad undervisning med möjlighet till diskussion och reflektion. Slutsats: Sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen bör utgå från ett elevcentrerat perspektiv där olika professioner arbetar över kompetensgränserna för att tillsammans stärka elevernas sexuella hälsa. / Background: In recent years an increase in young people’s sexual risk-taking has been seen in Sweden, at the same time the sex education in primary school has proven to be deficient in quality and design. The fact that the sex education maintains high standard is of grate impotance for young people’s developement, helt and well-beeing and also contributes to improving sexual health in Sweden. Purpose: To investigate students’ experience of sex education in primary school. Method: A mixed method was applied. Data were collected by an anonymous survey, a total of 59 surveys were included. Results: The students attitude to sex education was predominalty neutral. They considered that through the education they had gained an increased sense of risk- and consequence thinking, as well as an increased understanding, safety and self confidence in sexual relationship. However, the students wanted more knowledge about LGBTQ, and a more student-centered teaching with the opportunity for discussion and reflection. Conclusion: The compulsory schools sex education should be based on a student-centerd perspective where different professions work across to strenghten students’ sexual health.

As a fairly new form of media that is currently increasing its number of LGBTQ characters, digital games and their queer representation is an interesting research are, in equal parts in order to see what potential stereotypes and tropes may be in play aswell as to compare it to what has been done before in other forms of storytelling. The question at hand for this thesis is regarding Queer representation in the commercial game The Last of Us Part II, released in 2020. The game was analyzed through the use of a textual analysis. The main, queer, characters were analyzed through their dialogue, their backstory, their progression as well as the way they were presented and received by the rest of the game-world inhabitants. In order to fully understand the characters, the research includes media representation in film and tv that may have contributed to the way their storylines as well as characterization was created, ranging from the horror-genre itself to LGBTQ representation in both film, tv and games. The research provided interpretations of the main characters and the ways theirq ueerness can be interpreted. The characters and their narrative was deemed to contain both positive and negative portrayals, while similarities to real-life experiences of LGBTQ individuals could be seen as mirrored in this post-apocalyptic game-worldfilled with zombies.

Tidigare forskning visar att lärare uppfattar många hinder i att undervisa i HBTQ samtidigt som undervisningen i större utsträckning är begränsad till skönlitteratur. HBTQ-elever är emellertid ofta måltavlor för våld och kränkningar. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad lärare i fritidshem har för syn på de nya formuleringarna i 2022 års läroplan och hur undervisning med HBTQ-relaterat innehåll bedrivs i fritidshemmet. Studien använder sig av en kvalitativ metod och är genomförd med semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem intervjudeltagare. Resultatet visar att lärare i fritidshem är positivt inställda till de nya formuleringarna i läroplanen som rör HBTQ. Resultatet visar även att HBTQ-undervisning främst utförs i informella sammanhang eller undervisning genom olika medier som filmer och tv-serier.

This study examined patterns of framing in newspaper articles that mention gay teen suicide, gay bullying, and the "It Gets Better" campaign. A content analysis of randomly selected newspaper articles from 2009-2011 was performed. After presenting the frequency of content themes, emergent patterns are discussed. The most consistent theme--an evasive frame-- occurred with regard to homophobia, heterosexism, and meaningful solutions to anti-gay bullying. The day-to-day discrimination that LGBTQ people face was rarely addressed; instead, hot-button political topics such as same-sex marriage and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" were presented as signs of social progress. This research shows the importance of media framing, particularly the news media, in stories that report on gay bullying, suicide, and homophobia.

OBJECTIVE: To identify scalable interventions for improving sexual minority mental health and health-risk behavior, this study tested the efficacy of two self-guided online writing interventions-expressive writing and self-affirmation. To reach sexual minority young adults living in high-stigma, low-resource settings, we developed and tested these interventions in Appalachian Tennessee. METHOD: In consultation with sexual minority young adults (n = 10) and stakeholders (n = 10) living in Appalachian Tennessee, we adapted these two writing interventions that we then delivered to 108 local sexual minority young adults (Mage = 23.68, SD = 3.11). Participants, representing diverse sexual and gender identities and socioeconomic backgrounds, were randomly assigned to participate in a 3-session expressive writing intervention, self-affirmation intervention, or neutral control. Participants completed mental health and health-risk behavior measures at baseline, postintervention, and 3-month follow-up. RESULTS: Compared to the neutral control, expressive writing exerted 3-month improvements in depressive symptoms (d = 0.48) and general psychological distress (d = 0.36) whereas self-affirmation exerted improvement in suicidal ideation (d = 0.62) and drug abuse (d = 0.59). Participants who were exposed to greater contextual minority stressors common in rural regions (i.e., discrimination and victimization) experienced significantly greater 3-month reductions in depression from expressive writing and self-affirmation compared to control. Those who experienced greater discrimination also experienced significantly greater 3-month reductions in suicidality from self-affirmation compared to control. CONCLUSION: Brief writing interventions exert significant impact on the mental health of young adult sexual minorities, especially those exposed to minority stress. Future research can consider strategies for population-level implementation, especially in high-stigma, low-resource settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Sexual minorities face identity-specific stressors (minority stress). Minority stress often predicts worse health outcomes and behaviors, like increased substance use. The current study examined the relationship between proximal minority stress and hazardous alcohol use. Possible mediators were considered. The current study involved a secondary data analysis of data from 48 sexual minority women who completed an online survey. Measures included the Lesbian Internalized Homophobia Scale, the Connectedness to the LGBT Community Scale, the AUDIT-5, the Drinking Motives scale, and an item that measured frequency of drinking. Data, analyzed via R, included t-tests, correlations, regression, and mediational analyses. Results showed that internalized stigma significantly predicted concealment. Community connectedness was neither predicted by internalized stigma nor correlated with concealment. Concealment did not predict coping motives; coping motives significantly predicted problematic drinking. Limitations included a low sample size and low observed power. Therefore, significant results may be found with a higher sample size.

Tout comme le mouvement féministe à la fin des années 1960, le mouvement LGBTQ+ est devenu un acteur politique important au Canada qui, depuis les années 1970, a interpellé directement les partis politiques, les élu/es et les gouvernements, les forçant ainsi à répondre et à prendre position sur une pléthore d'enjeux concernant la diversité sexuelle et la pluralité des genres. Cette thèse de doctorat s'intéresse aux mécanismes d'interactions qui régit la relation mouvement LGBTQ+ et partis politiques au Canada depuis 1960 jusqu'à 2019. Elle axe l'analyse de la relation mouvement-partis au Canada sur deux dimensions distinctes. La première dimension se consacre à la mobilisation du mouvement LGBTQ+ dans l'arène partisane (en portant une attention particulière à ses variations dans le temps). La seconde se consacre à la réponse des partis politiques face à cette mobilisation et les facteurs qui structurent ces réponses. La thèse démontre, dans un premier temps, qu'au Canada le mouvement LGBTQ+ a adopté une stratégie multipartisane pour se mobiliser dans l'arène partisane et ce, tout au long de son histoire. La mobilisation du mouvement LGBTQ+ auprès des partis politiques a été influencé par l'ouverture de fenêtres d'opportunités politiques surtout influencé par la présence d'acteur/ices clés au sein des partis, l'instabilité électorale de certaines décennies ainsi que la position sur l'échiquier politique des partis qui se sont déplacés dans le temps et dans l'espace. La thèse avance en particulier que la présence de personnel politique out a été un facteur crucial pour mobiliser le mouvement auprès de la scène partisane ainsi que la présence de député/es out. Dans un deuxième temps, la thèse démontre des variations importantes quant à la réponse des partis politiques face aux revendications portées par le mouvement LGBTQ+. La thèse soutient que les partis de masse et idéologiquement plus à gauche ont répondu plus tôt aux demandes du mouvement, alors que les partis de cadre ont eu tendance à générer des réponses influencées par l'opinion public ou la perception de l'électeur médian. Les partis qui ont mis sur pied des structures internes de représentation formelle et informelle LGBTQ+ ont également changer certaines positions structurantes par la suite, c'est le cas du Parti conservateur et de sa posture sur le mariage entre conjoint/es de même sexe ainsi que du Nouveau Parti Démocratique et de ses engagements électoraux par le biais des plateformes électorales.

<p>We all embody various intersecting visible and non-visible social identities. Those intersecting identities can place some individuals at the margins or borderlands of their other identities, causing dissonance and perhaps threatening their sense of belonging to a community. Compounding potential identity dissonances, a learner finding their fit in engineering will likely face engineering attributes such as meritocracy, heteronormativity, and a climate that prioritizes technical feats and dismisses social phenomena as outside the scope of engineering. These interactions can negatively impact their belonging, persistence, and degree</p> <p>completion.</p> <p><br></p> <p>However, completing an arduous engineering degree at the intersection of multiple minoritized identities is feasible. In my dissertation, I use three studies to investigate how gay Latinx engineers navigate the borderlands of their intersecting identities. Along the way, I explore how they bridge the borderlands between those and their engineering identities as I examine how they manifest and leverage their assets at this identity intersection. Initial findings suggest that learners at the borderlands of multiple minoritized identities are keenly aware of social identities and cope by leveraging some of their powerful identities (i.e., masculinity, math, and science identities) to increase their sense of belongingness, proving they are successful and valuable members of humankind.</p>

No description available.