abstract: There is currently a proliferation of images of transgender youth in popular discourse, many of which reflect the threat to capitalist heteronormativity that transgender young people pose to contemporary U.S. society. This veritable explosion in media visibility of transgender youth must be critically examined. This dissertation explores media economies of transgender youth visibility by examining media and self-represented narratives by and about transgender young people in contemporary U.S. popular discourse to uncover where, and how, certain young transgender bodies become endowed with value in the service of the neoliberal multicultural U.S. nation-state. As normative transgender youth become increasingly visible as signifiers of the progress of the tolerant U.S. nation, transgender youth who are positioned further from the intelligible field of U.S. citizenship are erased. Utilizing frameworks from critical transgender studies, youth studies, and media studies, this project illustrates how value is distributed, and at the expense of whom this process of assigning value occurs, in media economies of transgender youth visibility. Discursive analyses of online self-representations, as well as of online representations of media narratives, facilitate this investigation into how transgender youth negotiate the terms of those narratives circulating about them in U.S. contemporary media. This project demonstrates that increases in visibility do not always translate into political power; at best, they distract from the need for political interventions for marginalized groups, and at worst, they erase those stories already far from view in popular discourse: of non-normative transgender youth who are already positioned outside the realm of intelligibility to a national body structured by a heteronormative binary gender system. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Gender Studies 2016

abstract: This exploratory quantitative study examined the risks and needs expressed by gender/sexual minority emerging adults in Phoenix, Arizona. Differences in experiences and perceived service needs between gender minorities and cisgender sexual minority emerging adults were also identified. Respondents (N=102) completed a 78-item questionnaire in March and April of 2015. Individuals reported high rates of risk factors and physical needs, with those individuals who were both gender and ethnic minorities more likely to report having a perceived service need than their cisgender white counterparts. In addition, the study found significant positive correlations between housing factors (i.e., having experienced homelessness, ever/currently being in foster care, not having a safe/stable living situation) and other risk factors and needs. Risk factors were also correlated with wishing for a different gender identity or sexual orientation. With the majority of the respondents reporting a service need, implications include the need for culturally competent and accessible services, as well as services that continue to build on the protective factors of having an accepting family, friend group, and a sense of belonging to a community. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Work 2016

abstract: Sociopolitical involvement has been previously shown to be associated with experiences of discrimination. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) racial/ethnic minorities have faced multiple levels of discrimination from the mainstream community, racial/ethnic minority communities, and LGB communities. However, not many studies have investigated the association between intersectional forms of discrimination and sociopolitical involvement. The present study examines differences in perceptions of racism in the LGB community, sociopolitical involvement in racial/ethnic communities, and sociopolitical involvement in LGB communities among LGB racial/ethnic minorities (N = 203, MAge = 27.25). The sample included 107 (52.7%) men and 96 (47.3%) women; 41 (20.2%) lesbians, 89 (43.8%) gay men, and 73 (36.0%) bisexuals; 47 (23.2%) African Americans, 50 (24.6%) Asian Americans, 64 (31.5%) Latinos/as, and 42 (20.7%) from another race/ethnicity or mixed race. This study also looks at the association between perceptions of racism in the LGB community and sociopolitical involvement in racial/ethnic communities and/or LGB communities. Asian American participants reported perceiving higher levels of racism in the LGB community than Latino/a participants. No other differences in perceptions of racism in the LGB community were found between sexual orientation or by racial/ethnic group. No differences between racial/ethnic group or sexual orientations were found in sociopolitical involvement in racial/ethnic or LGB communities. When controlling for sexual orientation, gender, and race/ethnicity, perceptions of racism in the LGB community predicted sociopolitical involvement in racial/ethnic and LGB communities. By exploring correlates of discrimination from an intersectional perspective, this study provides a better understanding of the experiences of LGB racial/ethnic minorities. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Counseling Psychology 2016

abstract: This study utilizes semiotic phenomenology as a method of inquiry to describe the lived experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) gamers (gaymers). I begin by discussing my issues with the current gaming literature, arguing that the gamer community is a space that privileges cis, heterosexual, and hypermasculine men while oppressing those who may not fit this mold. I discuss the shortcomings of the current literature that attempts to critically look at race and gaming, noting that race in the gaming community is still portrayed as secondary. I focus special attention to how this space allows for more inclusion than the larger gamer and LGBTQ communities while also critiquing those whom this space privileges. Through interviews of members of the local gaymer organization, the Phoenix Gaymers, I discuss ways in which the gaymer community is more inclusive and conscious of others but still follows forms of what I describe to be gaymer privilege. I focus on gaymer privilege within the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, where I argue from the phenomenological descriptions, reductions, and interpretations that there are still overt issues of sexism and transphobia as well as implicit issues of white privilege. While I describe the issues that are found within the Phoenix Gaymers, I also attempt to provide suggestions for change within the organization as well as in academic scholarship to create more awareness and inclusion for female, transgender, genderqueer, and queer people of color gaymers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social and Cultural Pedagogy 2017

abstract: This phenomenological study explores the question: What are the lived experiences of Arizonans who identify their gender identities as ‘non-binary’? (‘non-binary’ defined here as anyone who identifies their gender as something other than ‘always and exclusively male or always and exclusively female’). The study explores the lived realities of four non-binary identified transgender people living in Arizona. Each participant took a short survey and conducted a 45-minute in-person interview, conducted through phenomenological questioning to evoke deep descriptions of experience. After analyzing the results through feminist hermeneutic phenomenology, this study suggests that the experience of non-binary gender identity presents an essential pattern of cultivating self-realization. The essential themes of internal recognition, external presentation, and movement toward wellness fell into this pattern. The United States has conceptualized transgender identity in many ways, from pathologizing to politicizing, to medically affirming views. Although the literature on this topic is quite small, there is no doubt that non-binary transgender people exist in U.S. public life. Ultimately, if non-binary people are to find affirming paths toward self-realization, they must be heard from their own experiences in their own voices. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social and Cultural Pedagogy 2017

abstract: This research study examines the interaction between youth queer narratives and young people through examining my core research question, How do young people engage, interpret, and respond to queer narratives? Applying a feminist narrative analysis to examine the qualitative data, I propose a methodological research shift where the voices of youth are valued as content experts; an artistic shift that moves content-creation away from a top down traditional media model and towards a youth-centered new media approach for art making; an aesthetic shift away from over-used stereotypes, tropes, and stale representations and instead innovate to represent intersectional, spectrum-based diversity of the LGBTQ+ experience. This qualitative research study utilizes questionnaires, focus groups, and case study interviews, to engage adolescent perceptions of queer narratives. The youth, ranging in ages from 15 to 18 years old and living in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area, explore and examine LGBTQ+ themes, characters, plots in traditional and new media. My dissertation examines youth interactions with queer narratives through three chapters. These address themes of: character, identity, and representation; plot and the search for accuracy; and the symbiotic exchange between narrative and community. Throughout the dissertation, young people analyze narratives, reflect on their own lives, and envision the future of youth queer narrative. The youth describe a move away from traditional media and towards new media platforms with user-created content, social network interaction, and the sharing of common experiences with peers. Finally, I examine the implications of both the research findings and the methodology on the future of youth-engaged qualitative research, as well as the performing arts. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Theatre 2018

<p> The advent of the <i>Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies</i> (Ratts, Singh, Nassar-McMillan, Butler, &amp; McCullough, 2016), the <i>American Counseling Association</i> (ACA) <i> Code of</i> Ethics (2014), and a more comprehensive emphasis on multiculturalism and social justice (Haskins &amp; Singh, 2015; Ratts, 2009, 2011; Ratts &amp; Pedersen, 2014; Smith &amp; Okech, 2016) within the counseling profession highlight a movement towards examining practices and social identities grounded in a formative understanding of intersectionality. The institutionalization of intersectionality emerges from a longstanding history of feminist scholars (Collins &amp; Bilge, 2016; Hancock, 2016) critiquing misconstrued gaps and revolutionizing the meaning of multiple social identities and social justice movements (Anzald&uacute;a, 1987; Collins, 1986, 1990, 2004; Crenshaw, 1989, 1991; hooks, 1981, 1984, 1989; Lorde, 1984; Moraga &amp; Anzald&uacute;a, 1983). Although intersectionality has richened the possibilities of social justice praxis, its theoretical connection has been largely absent in the context of empirical investigations. This current study utilized an intersectionality paradigm and methodological strategies of interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith, Flowers, &amp; Larkin, 2009; Pietkiewicz &amp; Smith, 2014) to examine the lived intersectional experiences of privilege and oppression of Queer Men of Color in Counselor Education and Supervision doctoral programs. Three participants were interviewed across nine interviews approximately consisting of 90 minutes in length. Findings indicated six superordinate themes emerging from the data analysis: (a) Multiple Dimensions of Privilege; (b) Multiple Dimensions of Oppression; (c) Context/System; (d) Complexities of Intersections; (e) Critical Incidents/Conflict; and (f) Congruity/Change for the Future. The discussion considers the themes emanating from the participants in light of previous forms of implementation utilizing intersectional approaches. Implications broadly for the counseling profession, the social context of counselor education and doctoral education, and the praxis of pedagogy are explored. Future directions for research and limitations of the study are also explicated.</p><p>

This dissertation examines the contested terrain of family through qualitative analysis of child custody decisions. Legal parenthood was historically based on the heteronormative family ideal of a legally married monogamous heterosexual couple and their biogenetically related children. In the context of diverse family forms of the twenty-first century, however, courts struggle to draw the boundary lines of legal parenthood. Although previous research has examined the role of parental gender or sexual identity on child custody decisions, my research fills an important gap, as I analyze variations in gender, sexual identity, and path to parenthood for heterosexual, gay, lesbian, and bisexual mothers and fathers. Using the universe of state-level child custody decisions from 2003 to 2009, I created a unique data set in which I matched court cases involving gay and lesbian parents to cases in the same court and time period that involved heterosexual parents, resulting in 254 court decisions. This research design enabled me to illuminate how courts construct families and parents in the context of variations in parental gender, sexual identity, and path to parenthood. In addition, qualitative textual analysis demonstrates how the courts struggled to conceptualize family forms outside of heterosexual marriage and biogenetically related children. Indeed, biogenetics continue to remain central to legal constructions of parenthood. This research also reveals the continued legal regulation of family forms that deviate from the heteronormative ideal. Overall, this research elucidates larger questions about inequality, gender, sexuality, and family in the United States.

abstract: Teachers represent important agents of gender socialization in schools and play a critical role in the lived experiences of transgender students. What remains less clear, however, is whether the gender of the teacher impacts their response to transgender bullying and specifically how threats to gender identity might influence men who teach to respond negatively. The current study used a 2 (gender) x 3 (gender identity threat, no gender identity threat, and control) experimental design to assess whether the masculine overcompensation theory helps explain how men who teach respond to transgender victimization experiences. It was hypothesized that men in the gender identity threat condition would endorse more anti-trans attitudes (e.g., higher transphobic attitudes, lower allophilia [feelings of liking] toward transgender individuals, more traditional gender roles, less supportive responses to a vignette about transgender bullying, less support for school practices that support transgender students, and less likelihood of signing a petition supporting transgender youth rights) compared to the other conditions. It was also expected that they would endorse more negative affect but higher feelings of self-assurance. Women in the study served as a comparison group as no overcompensation effect is expected for them. Participants (N = 301) were nationally recruited through word of mouth, social media, and personal networks. Results from the current study did not support the theory of masculine overcompensation as there was no effect of threatening feedback. There were a number of significant gender differences. Men reported lower transgender allophilia, higher transphobia, more traditional gender role beliefs, less likelihood of signing the petition supporting transgender youth rights, and more self-assurance than women. No gender effect was found for negative affect or support for school practices supporting transgender students. There were also no observable differences in participant responses to the vignette by gender or condition. The implications and limitations of the current study were discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Counseling Psychology 2020

abstract: This dissertation project examines the cultural labor of the drag queen in the United States (US). I explore how the drag queen can be understood as a heuristic to understand the stakes and limits of belonging and exceptionalism. Inclusion in our social and national belonging in the US allows for legibility and safety, however, when exceptional or token figures become the path towards achieving belonging, it can leave out those who are unable to conform, which are often the most vulnerable folks. I argue that attending to the drag queen’s trajectory, we can trace the ways that multiply-marginalized bodies navigate attempts to include, subsume, and erase their existence by the nation-state while simultaneously celebrating and consuming them in the realm of media and consumer culture. In the first chapter I introduce the project, the context and the stakes involved. Chapter two examines representations of drag queens in films to unpack how these representations have layered over time for American audiences, and positions these films as necessary building blocks for queer semiosis for viewers to return to and engage with. Chapter three analyzes RuPaul and RuPaul’s Drag Race to outline RuPaul labor as an exceptional subject, focusing on his investment in homonormative politics and labor supporting homonationalist projects. Chapter four centers questions of trans* identity and race, specifically Blackness to analyze how Drag Race renders certain bodies and performances legitimate and legible, constructing proper drag citizens. Chapter five utilizes ethnographic methods to center local drag communities, focusing on The Rock and drag performers in Phoenix, Arizona to analyze how performers navigate shifting media discourses of drag and construct a queer performance space all their own. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Gender Studies 2020