<p> It is within the scope of practice of a speech-language pathologist to work with a client who is transgender for voice. However, regardless of the setting, a speech-language pathologist is likely to encounter a person who is transgender on their caseload. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association mandates that all of its members be culturally competent when working with clients from different cultural backgrounds, including those from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. </p><p> This thesis pulls from sociological, linguistic, and queer theory literature to provide an in-depth understanding of identity, gender, and transgender identity formation. With this nuanced understanding of these topics, the thesis explores the practical implications to cultural competency, and voice and communication therapy. Additionally, this thesis reviews current topics for debate in Gender Spectrum Voice and Communication therapy.</p><p>

<p> Large bodies of literature reveal two salient experiences during adolescence and young adulthood for many men who identify as gay and bisexual: disclosing one&rsquo;s sexual identity to parents and going to college. Research suggests the reaction of one&rsquo;s parents to sexual identity disclosure serves as a powerful indicator of subsequent health-related and psychosocial outcomes, yet little is known regarding the relationship between parental reaction and accessing college and financial aid. This study explores the lived experiences of White gay and bisexual young men and how they navigated the college choice and financial aid processes. The study investigates three interconnected constructs with regard to one&rsquo;s sexual identity disclosure to his parent: the nature of the college choice process; the navigation of financial aid and scholarships; and other experiences that work to facilitate or restrict the college choice and financial aid processes. This qualitative study employs a phenomenological lens to retrospectively gather data using semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 18 gay and bisexual-identified men, ages 18 to 24 years old, from a large U.S. metropolitan area. Participants were selected using online and phone-based social media dating applications, popular in gay and bisexual men&rsquo;s communities. The findings of this study suggest that prior to disclosure, the young men expressed a perceived fear in coming out to their parents. After disclosure, most participants reported that families were supportive of their sexual identities as well as their college choice process, and all participants went to college with financial aid support from their parents. Due to the limited sample size and specific characteristics of men in this study, future research must be conducted to explore this relationship of sexual identity disclosure and college access further. This study concludes with a set of suggestions and recommendations for parents, counselors, and higher education leaders.</p><p>

<p> The historic 2015 Supreme Court ruling in the case of <i>Obergefell v. Hodges</i>&mdash;which extended marriage equality to every state nationwide&mdash;coupled with an increase in the number of reported same-sex parent households in America (Gates, 2013) has resulted in greater social, political, and academic visibility for same-sex families in recent years (Breshears &amp; Braithwaite, 2014). Despite this increased cultural visibility, because gay parent families (GPFs) fall outside the parameters of the traditional family model (i.e., a married heterosexual husband and wife couple raising biological children) (Baxter, 2014a), they necessarily rely more heavily on discourse to manage their nontraditional family identity (Galvin, 2006; 2014). To date, little is known about how married gay male parents discursively create and sustain family identity and how they position their families in relation to the dominant heteronormative discourses of traditional marriage, family, and fatherhood. Framed by Baxter&rsquo;s (2011) relational dialectics theory&mdash;a heuristic communication theory useful for investigating the meaning-making process&mdash;this study explored the meaning(s) of marriage, family, and fatherhood in married gay fathers&rsquo; relational talk. I interviewed 13 married gay parent dyads twice to collect data from the couples across time as well as member check initial results during secondary interviews. Using contrapuntal analysis, I identified the following discourses at the three sites of meaning-making in the data: the discourses of marriage as symbolic and marriage as practical ; the discourses of traditional family structure and nontraditional family structure ; and the discourses of gay culture and gay fatherhood in addition to the discourses of heteronormative fatherhood and co-parenting. I argue that the couples&rsquo; talk reflected discursive struggles and, in one case, transformation, to generate relational meanings for their family identities. </p><p>

<p> Sustained gay activism in Charlotte, North Carolina, only emerged in response to the HIV AIDS epidemic. Community building among Charlotte&rsquo;s closeted gays and lesbians began in the 1970s with the emergence of safe spaces, particularly gay bars. However, before the mid 1980s, activism was intermittent, largely inward facing, and suffered from over-reliance on a few leaders. As the reality of AIDS gripped the community after 1985, two imperatives created by the epidemic gave rise to sustained gay and lesbian activism. First, the critical need to provide care for people suffering from AIDS galvanized the gay community into action and led to the creation of the Metrolina AIDS Project (MAP). MAP became the first outward looking and visible gay organization in Charlotte, and, critically, it enjoyed a degree of civic legitimacy. However, this civic legitimacy did not extend to the second imperative, the more contentious terrain of AIDS education. In this arena Charlotte&rsquo;s gay activists came into conflict with the Religious Right and the county government, which forced activists to become more politically organized. By the early 1990s, it became clear that further progress would require partnerships with straight allies, but because these allies were motivated largely by sympathy for AIDS there was limited progress on the broader gay rights agenda. The timing of gay activism and the necessity for straight alliances shows that Charlotte&rsquo;s experience as a mid-size Southern city differed from larger metropolitan areas and progressive university/capital cities that have been the focus of previous historiography. </p><p>

abstract: Through the lived experiences of Georgian queer migrants, this thesis argues that the international and national refugee laws and practices are an essential starting point but remain weak and, in some cases, even exclusionary when it comes to protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQI) individuals. Specifically, this thesis documents the experiences of Georgian LGBTQ migrants to reveal the social, political, cultural, and economic factors in Georgia and recipient countries essential to shaping their experiences with belonging and protection. It critically explores how one’s LGBTQ identify shapes their sense of belonging in Georgia, how their identity played a direct role in deciding to migrate, and how queer migrants’ identities shape processes in migration and resettlement. Engaging the academic scholarship on citizenship and migration, this thesis contributes new insights for understanding how international and national institutions and laws overlap to create a restrictive regime that forces Georgian migrants to navigate asylum by detaching their claims from their persecution as LGBTQI individuals. Through centering the experiences LGBTQI, this thesis reveals injustices and harms as well as possible top-down legal remedies to improve identity-based protections in national anti-discrimination law and international asylum law. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2020

abstract: On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen entered Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL and shot and murdered 49 people and wounded over 50 more. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting ever to occur on U.S. soil. That particular evening, Pulse, a queer nightclub, was hosting a “Latin Night,” which resulted in over 90 percent of the victims being Latinx in descent and many that identified as Afro-Latinx or Black. Essentially, Pulse is the most lethal act of violence against queer and trans bodies of color in this country. Pulse reminds queer and trans people of color of the conditions of the world that position Brown and Black queer and trans death as mundane. That is to say, the lives of trans and queer bodies of color are lived in close proximity to death. And yet, Pulse was anything but mundane. In every practical sense, it was a fantastical event of radical violence. The tension between these and the implications found within is what this project seeks to engage. Utilizing critical/performance-based qualitative methods and data derived from the queer and trans of color communities in Phoenix, AZ, this project investigates the performative afterlife of Pulse. I apply and name the term performative afterlife to suggest that the events at Pulse are connected to material conditions and consequences that get performed by and through queer and trans bodies of color. Interlocutors share the afterlife is performed within the context of ubiquitous whiteness found in Phoenix, often manifesting as a survival mechanism. Additionally, many interlocutors express the mundane threat of violence everyday has prevented a thorough engagement of what it means to live in a world after the events at Pulse nightclub have occurred. Ultimately, the performative afterlife of Pulse gets performed by queer and trans bodies of color in Phoenix through a co-performance between one another. Much like the dancing that occurred at Pulse, the performative afterlife is a performance that moves the world towards queer or color futures not yet here. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication 2020

<p> Parents raising a self-identified sexual minority child face unique challenges, such as stress, shame, and guilt, when compared to parents with heterosexual children. While literature exists regarding parents&rsquo; experiences in raising a sexual minority child, little is known about the specific challenges faced by first generation Latino parents. To address this gap, the current study explored the experiences of first generation Latino parents (N = 9) raising a sexual minority child, from the parent&rsquo;s perspective. In-depth interviews were conducted by telephone and audio-recorded. The qualitative findings suggest that Latino parents face stigma from their family and community. In addition, Latino parents rely on their sexual minority child as a means of information regarding the LGBTQ community. These findings may be useful to inform the way service professionals and social service programs are developed to meet the needs of first generation Latino parents and LGBTQ youth. </p>

<p> The current study examined the role that exposure to natural human sweat has on heterosexual and homosexual men&rsquo;s perceptions of sexual attractiveness. Seventy-two participants were included in the study. Participants engaged in 3 tasks; the first was to provide health history and sexual orientation information, the second task was to view photographs of men and women, and the third was to rate the previous images on level of attractiveness. The photograph viewing and rating tasks were done while participants were exposed to either human male underarm sweat, female Day-14 of the menstrual underarm sweat, female Day-27 of the menstrual cycle underarm sweat, or no sweat, using a small fan that blew air over the sweat pad and onto the participants face. Photographs of male and female faces were rated significantly lower by heterosexual men exposed to male underarm sweat. Heterosexual men rated photographs of female faces significantly higher than male faces in both the Day-14 and Day-27 female sweat conditions. Homosexual men showed no preference for male photographs in the male sweat versus no sweat conditions.</p>

<p> This study assessed sexual satisfaction for individuals 60&ndash;75 years of age in same-sex relationships and explored predictors of sexual satisfaction; associations between internalized homophobia, resilience, sexual communication, relationship satisfaction, and sexual satisfaction; and the effects of gender, exclusivity, and length of relationship on sexual satisfaction. Participants (<i>N</i> = 265) were from a non-random sample recruited online who reported high levels of relationship satisfaction and resilience, moderate levels of sexual communication, and low levels of internalized homophobia and sexual satisfaction. The means and standard deviations for each gender were similar. Relationship satisfaction was found to be a predictor for sexual satisfaction. Relationship satisfaction was found to be directly correlated with sexual satisfaction, inversely correlated with internalized homophobia, and directly correlated with resilience; internalized homophobia was found to be inversely correlated with resilience; and length of relationship was found to be inversely correlated with sexual satisfaction. Findings will inform clinicians, sexuality educators, policymakers, and same-sex individuals. Recommendations for sexuality educators, clinicians, and future research are included.</p>

<p> <b>Background:</b> Despite efforts by academic medical centers to adopt institutional policies and practices to create an inclusive environment for LGBT patients, students, staff, and faculty, the literature on the experiences of LGBT faculty with academic medicine is limited. Thus, this study examined the career experiences of gay physicians in academic medicine to further develop a narrative of the queer faculty experience. </p><p> <b>Methods:</b> A qualitative study was conducted with eleven full-time academic physicians from various AAMC accredited medical schools who openly identify as gay. In-depth interviews were conducted with each participant to understand their reasons for becoming a physician, their career progression and current roles, and their experiences with particular elements of faculty life such as promotion and tenure. </p><p> <b>Results:</b> A thematic analysis using interpretative phenomenological analysis techniques revealed that the lived experience of gay physicians can be grouped into two categories based upon the saliency of sexual identity. In the first, the academic physician&rsquo;s sexual identity is at the forefront, whereas in the second, sexual identity becomes almost invisible. The influence of sexual identity can be clearly seen in the service obligations of gay academic physicians as well as the relationships they create with learners, colleagues, and patients. While gay physicians in academic medicine struggle to find other LGBT mentors, they do often rely on a network of mentors similar to all academic physicians. Lastly, there did not appear to be significant consequences for gay physicians navigating a career in academic medicine nor being successful in the promotion and tenure process. </p><p> <b>Conclusions:</b> Findings from this study indicate that the environment for LGBT individuals within academic medicine is rapidly evolving. Yet, the results of this study still suggest opportunities for leaders within academic health centers to implement inclusive policies and benefit programs for LGBT individuals, develop active recruitment and retention programs for LGBT faculty, and infuse LGBT perspectives into institutional programming. By doing so, academic medical centers allow LGBT faculty to be their authentic self and ultimately be thriving clinical educators.</p>