Previous research has indicated the prevalence of customer violence towards workers in the service sector, but few studies have looked at the impacts of this violence for LGBTQ2S+ workers. Drawing from survey results (n=208) and interviews (n=11) with LGBTQ2S+ service sector workers in Windsor and Sudbury, Ontario, this thesis explores the rates and experiences of customer violence for these workers, using chi-square analyses to identify relationships between customer violence and independent variables related to workers’ identity and workplace. Further analysis was conducted on qualitative interview data to understand how this violence was experienced, as well as how workers resisted and perceived management’s response. Customer violence was found to be widespread among survey and interview participants, with participants who were racialized as non-white, union members, and in precarious work situations reporting higher levels of violence. Interviews also showed how participants often resisted customer violence through individual means, and perceived support from management to be lacking and contingent upon economic motivations. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / This project explores the rates and experiences of customer violence against service sector workers in Windsor and Sudbury, Ontario, using data drawn from a survey and interviews. Customer violence was found to be common in the sample, and rates of violence were higher for participants who were racialized as non-white, members of a union, and in precarious work situations. Interviews showed how participants often resisted customer violence individually as opposed to with co-workers, and perceived support from management to be lacking and determined by economic considerations.

Despite Canada’s universal healthcare system, there exist numerous barriers that prevent LGBTQ2S+ populations from accessing healthcare services such as sexual health. Through pulling from community-based research principles and utilizing a critical social science framework, this research explores the availability and accessibility of sexual health services for LGBTQ2S+ individuals living in a rural Ontario community. After extensive consultations with multiple key informants, two focus groups were conducted with individuals from a community-based collaborative where members had the dual role of being service providers and community members. It is important to note that gaining access to the collaborative was made possible due to the resources and networks provided by the AIDS Network, a community charitable organization. Using a thematic analysis of the data, three major themes surfaced: the negative effects of heteronormativity, queerphobia, and transphobia within healthcare settings; barriers to accessing sexual healthcare; and community responses and strategies. These findings are reflected in the literature concerning issues of healthcare access for LGBTQ2S+ populations, but these research findings are unique given they are specific to both sexual health and rural communities. Implications for social work education, practice, and research include tapping into the potential of collaboratives; creating LGBTQ2S+-specific policies; making space for community voices, especially within academia; and recommendations for healthcare providers. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Who uses they, and who can they be (or not be) used for? Singular they has been proscribed in formal grammars since the mid-18th century, yet it dates to at least the 14th century (Balhorn 2004; Curzan 2003), persevering in both writing and speech (e.g., Baranowski 2002; Balhorn 2009; Lagunoff 1997; Matossian 1997; Newman 1992; Strahan 2008). This thesis investigates the envelope of variation (e.g., LaScotte 2016; Maryna 1978; Meyers 1990) in which speakers make choices of third person singular pronouns based on a multiplicity of both linguistic (e.g., gender stereotypicality, antecedent type) and social (e.g., gender, age, LGBTQ2S+ identity) factors. The analysis is based on data from 620 participants from across Canada and the US between the ages 13 and 79. An online survey sought responses related to three occupations: LaScotte’s (2016) open ended ideal student question was replicated, and Martyna’s (1978) fill in-the-blank style was modelled for mechanic and secretary—nouns with observed and unambiguous gender stereotypes (masculine and feminine respectively; Deaux & Lewis 1986; Haines, Deaux, & Lofaro 2016). Participants self-identified their gender and were categorized into a ternary grouping: men (e.g., cis, trans, transmasculine), women (e.g., fem, cis, trans, female ish), and non-binary (e.g., genderqueer, genderfluid). LGBTQ2S+ identity was also collected, as well as personal pronouns. Use of third person pronouns in the survey responses is quantified by consistency (i.e., maintaining use of the same pronoun throughout a participant’s response) and by proportional frequency of use—the latter explored in depth. The most important quantitative finding is that singular they is the most consistently and frequently used third person pronoun overall. But, its patterns of use are not parallel across test occupations or participant social groups. The results indicate that student is gender-neutral, whereas mechanic and secretary remain gendered (he:they; she:they), results that are reflected by perceptual ratings: student remains neutral (they), mechanic skews masculine (he), and secretary skews feminine (she). The impact of social characteristics adds layers of complexity about the groups leading sociolinguistic change at societal levels and/or within their own communities and networks: Non-binary, LGBTQ2S+, users of gender neutral personal pronouns, and/or younger. Collectively, these findings suggest that gender stereotypical roles are not unilaterally weighted and biases can manifest through pronominal choice. There are multiple dimensions of influence, such as the referent, one’s identity, and the communities to which individuals are connected. Thus, this thesis both uncovers persistent gender biases and creates a dynamic display of pronominal variation across speakers. / Graduate

Les pratiques de réorientation sexuelle et de genre (PRSG), souvent appelées thérapies de conversion, sont des pratiques qui visent à changer, nier ou supprimer des orientations sexuelles non hétérosexuelles, et des expressions de genre et des identités de genre transgenres. Les PRSG sont inefficaces et sont associées à des conséquences psychosociales négatives. Cette étude qualitative adopte un devis descriptif interprétatif pour explorer comment les individus qui ont vécu des PRSG se remettent de ces pratiques. Pour ce faire, nous avons mené des entrevues approfondies avec 20 adultes canadiens ayant vécu des PRSG. À l’aide d’une analyse thématique, trois thèmes ont été dérivés sur la base des expériences de rétablissement des participants : 1) reconstruire son cercle de soutien social et trouver de la force dans les communautés lesbiennes, gaies, bisexuelles, transgenres, queers et bispirituelles (LGBTQ2S+) ainsi que dans celles soutenant les personnes LGBTQ2S+  ; 2) surmonter les PRSG grâce aux thérapies et aux soins médicaux affirmant les identités LGBTQ2S+ ; et 3) gérer les relations avec les instigateurs des PRSG. Sur la base de ces résultats, nous proposons des pistes de solutions afin de faciliter le processus de guérison des personnes qui subissent des PRSG. / Sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts (SOGIECE)—often referred to as conversion therapy—are practices that aim to change, deny, or suppress transgender and non-heteronormative sexual orientations, gender expressions and gender identities. SOGIECE are ineffective and associated with negative psychosocial consequences. This qualitative study follows an interpretative description design to explore how individuals who have experienced SOGIECE recover from these practices. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 Canadian adult participants with experiences of SOGIECE. Using thematic analysis of the data, three overarching themes were derived pertaining to participants’ recovery from SOGIECE: 1) rebuilding social support and finding strength in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2S+) and LGBTQ2S+-affirming communities; 2) overcoming SOGIECE through affirming therapy and healthcare support; and 3) managing SOGIECE instigators. Based on these findings, we offer recommendations to facilitate the recovery process of people who experience SOGIECE.

Working at the intersection of queer feminist affect studies and queer Indigenous studies, this thesis focuses on theorizations and enactments of queer Indigenous joy in Billy-Ray Belcourt's A History of My Brief Body, Gregory Scofield's Love Medicine and One Song, and Joshua Whitehead's Jonny Appleseed. It explores how these contemporary texts uniquely emphasize the relational queer Indigenous body’s tenacious capacity for care and love in order to enact more breathable, collective, and ultimately joyful modes of embodied life, even amid the stifling settler colonial present. I argue that, in doing so, these authors foster joy as a rebellious and healing affective orientation that opposes injurious colonial constructions of queer Indigenous embodiment and contributes to the future-bearing project of radical Indigenous resurgence. By examining these authors' invaluable interventions with joy, which is largely an under-acknowledged positive affect, this thesis aims to convey why the young but burgeoning field of queer Indigenous literature merits far more critical attention than it has received thus far.