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?

The purpose of this study was to describe, from their perspectives, the experiences of lesbian physical education teachers who work in the public schools and the meanings they made of their experiences. The participants were elementary and secondary school physical educators who identified themselves as lesbians. Twelve teachers were interviewed using an in-depth phenomenological approach. The teachers interviewed were women of various ages, races, and social class backgrounds who taught in rural, urban, and suburban schools. The interview materials were presented in two ways: individual profiles of eight participants and common themes. Several key points from the data emerged. First, the participants made two assumptions about being a lesbian physical educator: (a) as a lesbian, you will lose your job if you are open about your sexual orientation, and (b) female physical educators are stereotyped as being lesbians. Second, the participants actively attempted to separate their personal and professional lives. Third, the participants used a variety of strategies to manage their lesbian identities within school settings. These strategies were used both to conceal and reveal their sexual orientation. Living in two worlds was an accepted reality for the lesbian physical educators in this study. A conceptual model outlining the process by which the participants made decisions about managing their identities as lesbian physical educators was presented. Feminism and oppression theory were used to discuss the participants' experiences. The participants' descriptions revealed the prevalence of homophobia and heterosexism within physical education environments. The lesbian label was specifically used to intimidate or harass women in physical education. The homophobia and heterosexism the participants encountered in their worlds kept them silent, isolated, fearful of discovery, and powerless. Consequently, the participants in this study did not share a collective identity as a subordinate or oppressed group. Developing a collective identity was described as a critical next step in changing the conditions of their oppression as lesbian physical educators.

The purpose of the study was, having elaborated a theoretical rationale, to assess the impact of a twelve-hour anti-homophobia workshop on the attitudes and professional practice of 16 staff participants at the public high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The theoretical aspect included an application of Kohlberg moral development theory and theories of sexism to an analysis of homophobia. The resulting Stage Model of bigotry was used in conducting the voluntary staff development workshop, "Gay and Straight at CRLS: Creating a Caring Community." The methodology included analysis of the responses to a questionnaire and interview given two years after the workshop was conducted. The results show that participants were more likely to be female, politically and religiously liberal staff members with little or no academic experience with the topic of homosexuality. Response to the workshop was very positive with an emphasis on empathizing with families of gay/lesbian people, being moved by testimony of co-workers dealing with their own experiences as gay/lesbian teachers or as parents of gay/lesbian children, and recognizing the inhospitable environment at the high school for gay/lesbian students. Most of the participants felt the workshop sharpened their view of homosexuality as an issue at the school and made them more likely to confront homophobic attitudes/behaviors around them. Participants' near unanimous support for a gay/lesbian student support group, which has been formed at the school as a consequence of the workshop, underscores the idea that a community of caring (Kohlberg Stage 3) was the moral atmosphere created by the workshop.

This dissertation theorizes political resistance in the wake of critiques of the transcendental subject made by poststructuralist theorists. After a review of the theoretical approaches among U.S. rhetoricians to the "rhetoric of social movements" (1965-1985), I review the contributions of three French post-structuralists (Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, and Jean Baudrillard) to theories of discourse and resistance, concluding with Michel de Certeau's correctives to them. The final two chapters propose a theory of political resistance which distinguishes rhetorical performance from rhetorical performativity to account for two forms of resistance in tension within the post-WWII "new social movements" in the U.S. Focusing specifically on the gay liberation movement, one chapter analyzes dance and popular culture (through Madonna's "Vogue" video and the cult it stems from/spawns) as sites of resistance where signifiers of gender, race, and sexuality are deployed, but evade the essentializing rhetorics and institutional forms of power seen in the field of identity. The final chapter analyzes the modes through which new right identity construction and gay liberation identity construction work in tandem, and in relation to black civil rights identity to constitute a contested field of power. I argue that identity is not a developmental accomplishment, but a deontic closure which both constitutes and is constituted by the discourse of "minority" in the U.S., and, therefore, related to a range of social practices from segmented advertising to legal claims to civil rights.

INTRODUCTION: Neovaginoplasty, is a gender affirming surgery provides a way for transfeminine persons to remove masculine appearing genitalia and replace with a more gender congruent appearance. As of 2019 “bottom” surgery was reported in transgender and non-binary persons at a rate of 4-13% with prevalence increasing rapidly (Nolan et al., 2019). The benefits of combined general and epidural anesthesia for neovaginoplasty has been well described (Salgado et al., 2019). In this study we examined dosing strategies for epidural infusions at our institution for patients undergoing neovaginoplasty. METHODS: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at our institution. Non-experimental retrospective chart reviews were conducted and all trans-gender patients who underwent neovaginoplasty procedures between 2014-2019 and were over the age of 18 at the time of chart review were included. Patient demographics including age, ethnicity, BMI were collected as well as comorbidities, history of hormone use, DVT, and nausea. Lumbar Epidurals were placed preoperatively and dosed after incision. Epidural start and stop times were collected along with pain scores measured on a visual analogue scale, and blood loss was recorded. RESULTS: The final cohort consisted of 154 cases that matched the eligibility criteria of this study. About half of these patients, 49.3%, spent 2-4 hours in the PACU after their procedures. The most common ASA status was 2. As expected, an overwhelming number of patients, 141 of 154 (91.6%) reported using hormone therapy. Epidural infusion duration prior to first pain score assessment was 0 to 701 minutes. Median epidural infusion duration was 285 minutes. Patients whose epidural was begun early had an average pain score of 5.06/10 (+2.11). Epidurals which were started late had an average pain score of 5.16/10 (+3.04). Maximum EBL noted for all cases was 450 mls. CONCLUSION: Overall, pain score was not significantly impacted by epidural start time post incision. Average initial pain scores were high in both cohorts, despite good pain relief on postoperative day 1. Observed EBL for these procedures was low at our institution, with no patients requiring blood transfusion. Central sensitization may play a large role in the initial pain scores and PACU length of stays for neovaginoplasty patients. Our future protocols will move towards dosing epidurals prior to incision for these procedures.

The minority stress theory proposes that higher rates of mental illness among individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual result from various factors that one may experience as a function of their minority status (Meyer, 1995, 2003). Such factors include internalized homophobia, concealment of one’s sexual identity, and the experiences of discrimination and rejection, whether real or perceived. This study investigated the relationship between minority stress and working memory. Based on the well documented research finding of the higher prevalence of mental illness among individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, relative to their heterosexual counterparts (S. D. Cochran, Sullivan, & Mays, 2003; Hatzenbuehler, 2009; Mays & Cochran, 2001), it was hypothesized that higher levels of minority stress would predict higher levels of psychological distress. In addition, models of chronic stress have predicted that individuals who are under constant stress conditions are more likely to have working memory deficits (Egeland et al., 2005; Schmader & Johns, 2003). Thus, it was hypothesized that the relationship between minority stress and working memory would be mediated by psychological distress. Identity valence is the evaluation of one’s identity and could be either positive or negative (Ashmore, Deaux, & McLaughlin-Volpe, 2004; Meyer, 2003). It was hypothesized that identity valence would further mediate the relationship between minority stress and working memory. Participants included 309 adults who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB), recruited via community-based and snowball sampling techniques (Meyer & Colten, 1999; Meyer & Wilson, 2009). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to examine direct and indirect effects of the relationship between minority stress and working memory. Results indicated that higher levels of working memory predict higher levels of psychological distress. Further, the relationship between minority stress and working memory was mediated through psychological distress and rumination. Finally, identity valence did not have the protective factor that was hypothesized and demonstrated in previous literature (Kertzner, Meyer, Frost, & Stirratt, 2009; Meyer, 2003). Rather, higher levels of identity valence predicted higher levels of psychological distress. Implications, strengths, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed. / School Psychology

Queering the Museum: Utopian Futurity in Contemporary Exhibitions expands the history of American art beyond its tightly policed borders to include curators, viewers, artists, and artworks as key players in contemporary queer exhibition surveys in U.S.-based museums. Exhibition histories are not the sole domain of museum or curatorial studies, and are as much a part of art history as artists and art objects yet they remain understudied and under-analyzed within the field. I posit that a queer art history not only analyzes the relationship between works of art, but it also engenders the potential to queer the visitor (through the viewing of artworks), considers the production and circulation of artworks within the institution, and disrupts a normative experience of time and space in the museum. Working interdisciplinarily through queer, feminist, and critical theory, my intervention offers an analysis of exhibitions, not as a history per se, but as a constellation of projects that unfolded across U.S.-based museums located in Philadelphia and New York from 2017 through 2019. Placed within the longer context of queerness in the museum I analyze three case studies: Johanna Burton’s, Sara O'Keeffe's, and Natalie Bell's Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon (2017) at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Nayland Blake’s Tag: Proposals on Queer Play and the Ways Forward (2018) at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Philadelphia; and the collectively curated (Margo Cohen Ristorucci, Lindsay C. Harris, Carmen Hermo, Allie/ A.L. Rickard, and Lauren Argentina Zelaya) exhibition Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years after Stonewall (2019) at The Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center. I parse what this particular constellation of exhibitions did at that specific moment in time, one right after the other, all clustered together both physically (within the northeast corridor) and also conceptually. While institutional critique has primarily been applied to the production of artwork by artists who intervene in and critique various artworld structures from museums to galleries, my dissertation proposes the term to encompass the entire exhibition as a critique of normative exhibitions and the institutions that present them. The curators of these queer exhibitions engage in deterritorializing traditional museum spaces thereby reterritorializing them with nontraditional artists and artworks. In doing so, the curators construct queer sites of discourse as heterotopias both within and outside of the museum structure offering glimmers of hope, if only momentarily, for ways of being in the world. / Art History

This dissertation analyzes the relationship between academia and the state in creating and reinforcing what came to be known as “conversion therapy.” Combining intellectual and political history, Straight Talk argues that after World War II academics working in universities developed the theory and practice of sexual orientation change efforts and how this process made visible tensions between “expert authority” and individual choices related to sexual identities. This research project explores the rise, fall, and lasting impact of ideas, stereotypes, and expectations about sexual minority identities that psychoanalysts and psychiatrists with academic credentials promoted over several decades. By reinterpreting the development and practice of what came to be called conversion therapy, Straight Talk also reframes conventional understandings of the connections among sexuality, higher education, and religion. Contrary to popular belief, religious motivations did not initially fuel sexual orientation change efforts. Rather, religious leaders and professionals within religious universities took up the scientific and academic orthodoxy about sexual orientation change possibilities and deployed them in new settings. Political pressure from within and without the universities, including pressure from emergent and empowered gay and lesbian political groups (including gay and lesbian student groups on university campuses) of the late 1960s, forced secular universities to stigmatize and abandon therapy practices they had long taught as scientifically sound and therapeutically effective. By approaching this topic historically, with a chronological scope that extends from the mid-twentieth century to the present day, this project demonstrates how sexual orientation change efforts first emerged as a respected academic endeavor. Only later through a process lasting several decades did conversion therapy practices become a shadowy, unregulated, and stigmatized set of practices without institutional or mainstream support. Conversion therapy allows for a unique entry point for exploring the relationships between universities, medicine, and the state and how these three entities worked in tandem to stigmatize homosexual identities while simultaneously constructing heterosexual masculinity as the ideal citizen of the twentieth century. / 2026-09-30T00:00:00Z

<p>South Asian same-sex attracted women in the United States experience discrimination and marginalization that puts them at an increased risk for mental health issues. Research shows their rates of counseling and psychotherapy use are low due to perceptions of stigma, lack of knowledge, and concerns about culturally insensitive treatment plans. Mental health providers lack the literature needed to inform culturally sensitive treatment plans to address these concerning gaps in services, and an extensive literature review found no studies on the lived experiences of this population. Guided by feminist theory, this research study examined how discrimination, oppression, and marginalization mold women&rsquo;s lived experiences; this knowledge aims to serve as a means to advocate for social and political change for this population. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of this population. An emergent hand coding analysis, using experiential anecdotes, of data collected from interviews of 10 participants generated 10 major themes and 25 subthemes of experiences. Themes included importance of cultural values; familial relationships; marital life plan; intersectionality; and discrimination from gender disparity, patriarchal hierarchy, and sexual modesty. The study contributes to social change initiatives by providing culturally and contextually practical information to mental health professionals, counselor educators, and educational institutions that provide services to this population. </p>

<p> In this theoretical dissertation, the author identifies social problems that arise from patriarchy and that are attributed to what is called <i> gender culture</i>, which exists as a consequence of the gender polarization required for patriarchy. The dissertation demonstrates how beliefs and attitudes that emanate from gender culture, and are transmitted through patriarchal mythology, provide a template that shapes maladaptive decision-making in ways that warp the relational capacity of individuals and reinforce and perpetuate social injustice. Using examples from her own and others&rsquo; research investigating egalitarianism in the parenting and relationship dynamics of heterosexual couples, the author discuses how, despite the potential of egalitarianism in heterosexual relationships to subvert the patriarchal paradigm, unrecognized internalized patriarchal mythology acts as a force to pull egalitarian-minded couples back into traditional marital structures. Drawing on her own research (Ballantyne, 2004) exploring the effect of the romantic myth on women in same sex intimate partner relationships, and the realization of egalitarianism as exemplified by a couple in her research (Ballantyne, 2011), the author discusses the role of outcasts and misfits as way showers, who, as a result of their rejection from or inability to conform to the prevailing mythology of mainstream norms, have the potential to create alternatives that benefit society at large. Finally, the dissertation provides evidence of emerging mythology that is already visible, offers suggestions for imagery and storylines to sow into our culture, and proposes a framework for a new mythology that is requisite to the cultivation of egalitarian imagery in the internal psychological landscape of the collective. Cultivating a new mythology will support what the author believes is the evolutionary movement away from systems of oppression and towards democracy, not only for the sake of gender justice, but for the sake of earth justice and peace as well.</p>