A divorced dad returns home to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter, but there’s one problem: she’s a serial killer who feeds tourists to the local lake monster.

People pursuing LGBTQ+ rights in the United States have faced triumphs and setbacks over time but now face equality-restricting legislation in several regions. Previous researchers have studied LGBTQ+ college students and LGBTQ+ identity as a master status, but less on how queer identity competes for salience with other identities. This study uses qualitative and quantitative secondary data on student responses to a university-wide climate survey (n=1699) conducted in the Fall semester of 2022. I analyze LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ student experiences and satisfaction with their school. The quantitative results of this research find that LGBTQ+ students have a markedly different campus experience, while the qualitative results find that student identity takes precedence over gender and sexual identity when assessing East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Data analysis includes personal narratives from LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ students on their college experiences with belongingness, academics, and campus political landscape.

This essay examines how sexuality and sexual identity is expressed in the two young adult novels Ingen normal står i regnet och sjunger by Sara Ohlsson, and Leah on the offbeat by Becky Albertalli. The main purpose with the essay is to do a comparative analysis of the two novels to examine how they differ in their portrayals of lgbtq-characters and their portrayals of sexuality in adolescents. The analysis is based on gender and queer theory, with Judith Butler’s gender theories as a main basis, and references to other theories and authors in and around the field. The two novels are being put in comparison to each other with the help of a close reading and by the examining of different scenes and phenomenon’s that are important to the essay’s purpose. The analysis shows an evident similarity in the novels regarding the plotlines and the portrayals of the main characters as two confident, independent, bisexual teenage girls, while the novels differ more in the terms of how the discussion about sexuality and lgbtq-questions is being used, how much focus it gets in Leah on the offbeat compared to Ingen normal står i regnet och sjunger. In conclusion, the essay highlights the most evident differences and similarities in the two novels, and how they are manifested.

Hungers and Desires: Excavating and Creating Queer Food Histories on the Borderlands creates a conversation between queer studies and food studies. It is divided into two parts, (I) Excavating and (II) Creating, each representing an engagement with historical methods. First, it offers a framework for reading food practices in the field of LGBTQ history, and queer studies, more broadly. Then, it excavates past food practices hidden within the LGBTQ archives in El Paso, Texas and applies the framework. By centering food practices in an analysis of LGBTQ documentary sources, hidden histories of care, labor, community building, and agency become visible. Then, this dissertation shares queer food history sources created through oral history methods. The interviews document how some gay men and lesbians in El Paso, Texas think about and relate to food. Taken together, the two parts illustrate how queer studies and food studies can engage with one another more deeply.

This thesis investigates the impact of traditional societal norms on LGBTQ+ hate crimes in Armenia. Grounded in anthropological and human rights theories, it employs a qualitative methodology, utilizing semi-structured interviews and secondary sources such as human rights reports and academic literature. The research reveals that deeply entrenched societal norms and institutional barriers significantly contribute to the prevalence of hate crimes against LGBTQ+ individuals. Findings indicate that while LGBTQ+ organizations provide essential support and advocacy, their efforts are often hindered by legal and societal challenges. This study concludes that comprehensive legal reforms and increased societal awareness are crucial for improving the safety and rights of LGBTQ+ individuals in Armenia.

This thesis is a qualitative case study that examines the relationship between sexual citizenship and the formation of belonging for Russian LGBTQ people, which is a relatively understudied group, in Sweden. The thesis employs semi-structured interviews to explore the factors influencing the sense of belonging among Russian LGBTQ migrants, particularly focusing on the potential influence of sexual citizenship rights on their formation of belonging into Swedish society. Theoretical frameworks guide the analysis, bridging the concepts of sexual citizenship and belonging at the interface of migration. The results indicate that sexual citizenship rights positively influence migration to Sweden and the formation of belonging among Russian LGBTQ individuals. Sweden's reputation as a country that upholds human rights, and especially its supportive stance on LGBTQ rights, the freedom to live openly as an LGBTQ person and to express one's values were identified as important factors in forming a sense of belonging in Sweden.

Thesis advisor: Jon M. Wargo / Thesis advisor: Patrick Proctor / Book banning has exploded in recent years. Conflicts over what texts belong in schools have caused rifts in communities around the nation. Within English language arts (ELA) classrooms specifically, many teachers have been under scrutiny with local groups and national organizations demanding that some teachers be monitored, fired, or even arrested. Backdropped by this socio-historical moment wherein calls for book censorship and attacks against school teachers are commonplace, this three-article dissertation joins the growing scholarship that explores the challenges that arise when teachers and students dare to address topics of race, racism, gender, and sexuality in the ELA classroom. Designed as an ethnographic case study, this dissertation explores how one White ELA teacher and her sixth-grade students engaged with two regularly banned novels in a racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse classroom. The first paper employs critical Whiteness theory to examine the challenges, opportunities, and contextual factors that one White novice teacher encountered as she employed an antiracist approach to literature instruction. It offers a structural understanding of why so many White teachers attempt but fall short of delivering antiracist pedagogy effectively. The second paper traces how three students of Color in the class negotiated their emotions during conversations about race as it emerged within a literature unit. Using critical discourse analysis, I examine how language was mobilized to invite some emotions (e.g., surprise) and inhibit others (e.g., anger), manifesting as “emotional rules” that regulated students' responses to texts. The third paper examines how two LGBTQ+ youths engaged in literacy not only as a medium for identity work, but as a way to speak back to the social, political, and institutional contexts of their schooling. Placing the theatrical performances that queer youth wrote and directed at the center of my analysis, I submit that these literacy activities are a means of understanding how youth see themselves in the world. Taken together, these articles extend the scholarship on how teachers engage their students on issues of difference through literature, raising important questions about how sociopolitical tensions take shape through moments of silence and cheer in the ELA classroom. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teaching, Curriculum, and Society.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att öka kunskapen om hur unga transpersoner upplever bemötandet vid hbtq-certifierade och hbtq-diplomerade ungdomsmottagningar. Transpersoner har upplevt att personal brister i sitt bemötande mot dem, särskilt i vården och även i verksamheter som har genomgått en hbtq-certifiering. Tidigare forskning, både nationellt och internationellt, har visat på att transpersoner har upplevt diskriminering och ifrågasättande i kontakt med vården och andra verksamheter inom socialt arbete. Dessutom har personal inte haft kunskap i hbtq-frågor och i vissa fall har transpersonerna själva behövt undervisa dem. Det här bristande bemötandet har lett till att transpersoner har förlorat förtroendet till vården och vågar därför inte söka hjälp. Dessa studier har även visat exempel på transpersoner som upplevt ett bra bemötande av personal som respekterat och accepterat deras könsidentitet. Det här är en kvalitativ studie som genomförts via semistrukturerade intervjuer per telefon med sex personer som identifierar sig som transpersoner, men har olika definitioner av sin könsidentitet. De har varit i kontakt med en hbtq-certifierad eller hbtq-diplomerad ungdomsmottagning nyligen eller flera år innan den här studien genomfördes. Den här studien har gjorts med induktiv metod då en teori har valts ut utifrån datamaterialet. Den teorin som har valts ut är erkännandeteorin, som handlar om att bli erkänd för sin identitet eller att bli moralisk kränkt. Slutsatsen är att unga transpersoner har olika upplevelser av bemötande vid hbtq-certifierade och hbtq-diplomerade ungdomsmottagningar. De flesta har fått ett bra bemötande då personal har visat omtanke, respekt, acceptans och förståelse för transpersoners könsidentitet. Några av dem har även upplevt brister i bemötandet då personal har antagit deras kön, felkönat och ifrågasatt. Viss personal har saknat kunskap i transfrågor men några få av dem har ändå behandlat unga transpersoner med respekt. Det verkar som att unga transpersoner anser att det är viktigast att personal behandlar dem med respekt, det vill säga deras värderingar är viktigare än kunskap. / The aim of this study is to increase knowledge about how young transgender people experience the treatment at youth guidance centers which have a lgbtq-certification. Because in Sweden transgender people have bad experience with the treatment from the staff, especially in health care centers such as the youth guidance center, and even at centers which have a lgbtq-certification. Previous research in, both Sweden and other countries, show that transgender people, in contact with the health care and other social work centers, have experienced discrimination, questioning and lack of knowledge which on these occasions they needed to teach the staff about lgbtq-issues. Because of this kind of bad treatment transgender people have lost trust in health care centers and don’t dare to seek help. These studies have even shown that other transgender people have experienced good treatment when the staff have respected them and accepted their gender identity. This is a qualitative study, based on semi-structured interviews that have been made through the phone with six persons who identify as transgender but have different definitions about their gender identity. They have been in contact with youth guidance centers which have a lgbtq-certification one or several years before this study was done. This study has been made with inductive method where a theory has been chosen from the data. The theory which has been chosen is recognition, which is about when an individual’s identity is being recognized or morally hurt. The conclusion is that young transgender people have different experiences of treatment at the youth guidance centers. Many of them have experienced a good treatment where the staff have shown concern, respect, acceptance and understanding for their gender identity. Some of them have experienced bad treatment where the staff have presumed their gender, misgendering and questioning. Some staff have lack of knowledge in trans-issues but some of them have treated the young transgender people with respect. It seems that the most important thing for transgender people is that the staff treat them with respect, more based upon their values rather than their knowledge.

Ce mémoire de maitrise explore l’hétérogénéité et la diversité dans le Village de Montréal. Il s’intéresse à ce quartier au-delà de ce que sa vitrine commerciale laisse voir. Ses lieux de sortie et de rencontres, tout comme ses autres commerces et ses tissus résidentiel et communautaires, ne seraient pas des blocs homogènes, mais des mosaïques qui sont investies par une multitude de personnes, de groupes et de communautés. Ceux-ci, dépendamment de leurs trajectoires et de leurs parcours, ont des perceptions et des vécus forts différents les uns des autres des mêmes lieux, d’une part, et du Village dans son ensemble, d’autre part. Sur la base d’une analyse documentaire et de six (6) entrevues menées auprès de personnes qui fréquentent les milieux communautaires et activistes LGBTQ, ce mémoire révèle les multiples stratégies et manières d’occuper l’espace urbain dans le Village, et les réseaux et les lieux où s’observe cette diversité. / This Master’s thesis explores the diversity and heterogeneity of space within Montréal’s (gay) Village. It seeks to analyze this neighborhood beyond what its ‘commercial showcase’ might reveal at first sight. The Village’s bars and clubs, as well as its shops, community organizations and sociodemographic composition, are not thought as homogeneous, but rather mosaics of multiple people, groups and communities across space. These latter, depending on their trajectories and routes, often have different perceptions and experiences of a single place or of the Village as a whole. Based on a document analysis and interviews with six (6) LGBTQ activists, this thesis reveals multiple strategies and ways to engage space, as well as the networks and spaces within Montreal’s Village where this diversity can be experienced.

I denna studie är syftet att undersöka hur personal från behandlingshem för missbruk samtalar kring kön och sexualitet. Studien utgår från behandlingshem med inriktning på enbart kvinnor eller enbart män. I Sverige har homo-, bi- och transsexuella personer sämre psykisk hälsa än heterosexuella personer. Psykisk ohälsa ökar risken för missbruk och hbtq-personer har en ökad risk för missbruk jämfört med den generella befolkningen, varför det har varit av relevans att undersöka normer gällande kön och sexualitet på behandlingshem för missbruk. Det empiriska materialet, som har analyserats genom en kritisk diskursanalytisk ansats, har samlats in genom tio semistrukturerade intervjuer med personal inom behandlingshem för missbruk. I resultatet framgår att diskurserna kring kön och sexualitet till stor del fortfarande är heteronormativa, bland annat genom att utgångspunkten är att brukarnas relationer är heterosexuella samt i diskurser kring att visa sin nakna kropp vid övervakade urinprov. Resultatet lyfter att det kan finnas en osäkerhet kring bemötande av transsexuella personer utifrån vilket pronomen som ska användas samt på vilket behandlingshem en transperson ska placeras. Slutsatsen pekar på att det kan finnas ett behov av kunskap om det heteronormativa privilegiet för att det ska bli möjligt med förändring av ojämlika maktstrukturer kring kön och sexualitet. / The aim of this study is to explore how professionals, from health and rehabilitation clinics for addiction, talk about sex and sexuality. The study includes health and rehabilitation clinics for only women or only men. In Sweden, mental illness is more prevalent among the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual population than for the heterosexual population. Mental illness increases the risk for alcohol and drug addiction and people within the LGBT community have an increased risk of addiction than the rest of the population, thus it is of relevance to explore norms regarding gender and sexuality in rehabilitation clinics. The empirical material has been collected via ten semi-structured interviews with professionals of health and rehabilitation clinics for addiction. The result indicates that the discourses regarding sex and sexuality still in many ways are heteronormative and it shows among others by the assumptions that the relationships of the clients are heterosexual. It also shows when it is assumed that the clients are cis in the discourse regarding showing the naked body when leaving monitored urine samples. The result illustrates that there could be an insecurity among the professionals when it comes to use the correct pronoun when talking about transsexual people and in which health and rehabilitation clinic a transsexual person can be accepted for treatment. The conclusion indicates that knowledge about the heteronormative privilege could be necessary to enable change of unequal power structures regarding sex and sexuality.