Despite recent advancements in legislation and policies regarding gay and lesbian Americans, negative attitudes and perceptions toward this population still exist. Anecdotal information from social work classroom interactions suggests that biases against gays and lesbian families may exist among those being trained as helping professionals. This study examined social work student comfort with gay and lesbian families. The researcher used an exploratory-descriptive research design, with a sample of 85 Bachelors level social work students (BSW) and Masters level social work students (MSW) who completed the 52 item online questionnaire related to gay and lesbian parenting. The findings from the research suggest the presence of a statistically significant relationship between students' attitudes towards gays and lesbians and students' comfort level with same sex parents. The researcher discusses the significance of the study and the implications for social work practice and education.

Latinx lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) queer community members have unique health needs compared to non-Latinx heterosexual patients, including sexual and mental health issues, and challenges in ability to access healthcare. But research is unclear whether LGB Latinx patients may also face double stigma related to their sexual orientation and race. This study examined this issue in experiences of queer and Latinx adults with healthcare providers. I conducted semistructured in-depth interviews with 13 LGB Latinx adults between November 2018 and February 2019. Interviews were audio-recorded, and transcribed. Transcripts were coded, and data analyzed for themes using the Grounded Theory approach. My findings indicate that the quality of individual experience depends on key factors of the provider, in particular the provider's sexuality, gender, age, race, and ability to empathize. When LGB Latinx patients interact with like-identified providers, their experience is significantly more satisfactory, however, differently-identified providers who create open and non-judgmental communication with patients have the ability to provide this level of satisfactory service. More diverse staff in clinics also contributes to a better experience for LGB Latinx patients. This study calls attention to the need for greater diversity of healthcare providers as well as new non-judgmental approaches in care delivery to address LGB Latinx patients' needs.

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Thesis (MA)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The concept of what constitutes a “normal” family has changed within recent years. This is because various family forms have been found viable. The current study is exploratory and focuses on the planned lesbian family. It aims to describe lesbian mothers’ lived psychological experience of planned motherhood. Utilising a feminist phenomenological approach, the narratives of 10 lesbian couples were obtained. Their emotional experiences are discussed under four headings, namely; the decision to become mothers; the actual process of becoming mothers; motherhood experience; and the anticipation of and actual responses to lesbian motherhood, lesbian families and children of lesbian mothers. Significant findings reveal the decision making involved in becoming mothers; the influence the type of donor has on the couple and their child; the joys and challenges of raising children; the fair division of childcare and household chores; the importance of partner support; the level of bonding with social and adoptive mothers; society’s lack of parental validation; the issue of homophobia and the preparation of their children against homophobia. Lesbian mothers seem to experience motherhood in very similar ways to heterosexual mothers, except that they do not seem as lonely and isolated. The aim of this study was not only to explore the experiences of lesbian mothers, but also to give them a voice within the psychological literature and to strive towards the acceptance of diverse families within mainstream psychology and the broader South African community. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die konsep van wat ’n “normale“ familie behels het in die afgelope jare verander. Die rede is dat verskeie gesinsvorme as lewensvatbaar bevind is. Die gesinsvorm onder bestudering is die beplande lesbiese gesin. Hierdie was ’n verkennende studie wat gefokus het op die beskrywing van lesbiese ouers se sielkundige ervaring van beplande lesbiese moederskap. Daar is gebruik gemaak van ’n feministies-fenomenologiese benadering om die verhale van 10 lesbiese paartjies te verkry. Hulle ervarings word onder vier adelings bespreek, naamlik; die besluit om moeders te word; die werklike proses om moeders te word; moederskap ervarings; en die verwagte en werklike reaksies tot lesbiese moederskap van lesbiese families en kinders van lesbiese moeders. Noemenswaardige bevindings onthul die besluitneming betrokke om moeders te word; die invloed wat die tipe skenker op die paartjie en hulle kind het; die vreugde en vereistes van kinders grootmaak; die regverdige verdeling van kindersorg en huishoudelike take; die belangrikheid van lewensmaat ondersteuning; die krag van kinders se band met sosiale en aangenome moeders; die samelewing se tekort aan ouerlike bekragtiging; die kwessie van homofobie en die voorbereiding van hulle kinders hierteen. Dit wil voorkom of lesbiese moeders moeders in baie opsigte dieselfde ervaar as heteroseksuele moeders, behalwe dat hulle nie so alleen en geïsoleerd voorkom nie. Die studie se voorneme was nie net om die ervarings van lesbiese moeders te verken nie, maar ook om aan hulle ’n stem te bied binne die sielkundige literatuur en om te streef na die aanvaarding van uiteenlopende gesinsvorme binne hoofstroom sielkunde asook die breër Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskap.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Field study. Includes bibliographical references.

Submitted by Zuleide Paiva da Silva (eidepaivasilva@gmail.com) on 2017-08-16T19:17:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE SAPATÃO NÃO É BAGUNÇA.pdf: 3180173 bytes, checksum: 671e82a44c6bffe5bdaa820f6f8ff3ca (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Auxiliadora da Silva Lopes (silopes@ufba.br) on 2017-08-18T13:49:23Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE SAPATÃO NÃO É BAGUNÇA.pdf: 3180173 bytes, checksum: 671e82a44c6bffe5bdaa820f6f8ff3ca (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-18T13:49:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE SAPATÃO NÃO É BAGUNÇA.pdf: 3180173 bytes, checksum: 671e82a44c6bffe5bdaa820f6f8ff3ca (MD5) / UNEB / Esta tese utiliza como estratégia a escrita de si para tomar os movimentos de lésbicas como objeto de estudo e as lésbicas politicas, também chamadas sapatão, como sujeitas da pesquisa. O propósito do estudo é cartografar as primeiras organizações lésbicas da Bahia, surgidas entre 1970 e 2003. O problema teórico e empírico está centrado na “invisibilidade lésbica” percebida como expressão da lesbofobia, um fenômeno social, cultural e político que exige uma soma de esforços da sociedade para a sua erradicação. O argumento central está na afirmativa de que os movimentos de lésbicas no Brasil têm sua história imbricada aos movimentos heterofeministas e LGBT, embora sua trajetória seja invisibilizada por todos eles. Ao ressaltar que “sapatão não é bagunça”, esta tese afirma que lésbica política é resistência, potência que visibiliza e promove a existência lésbica em diferentes tempos históricos. Com o desafio de quebrar o silêncio acadêmico em torno da existência lésbica na Bahia, o estudo assume a crença na impermanência das coisas e a experiência subjetiva como ponto de partida na produção de conhecimento situado, focando a análise nas dimensões histórica, política e formativa das organizações lésbicas, sem desconsiderar que essas dimensões estão imbricadas e são inseparáveis na construção do objeto de estudo. Para tanto, nega toda e qualquer noção essencializante da sexualidade, ao tempo em que reconhece a identidade como uma produção que está sempre em processo e nunca se completa. Situada no campo dos estudos feministas, desenvolvida a partir de pesquisa qualitativa, a tese mantém resistência aos regimes de normalidades e reconhece a necessidade de uma epistemologia lésbica baseada na interseccionalidade das categorias. Seguindo um impulso desconstrucionista, o horizonte metodológico é inspirado pela Filosofia da Vida e orientado pelos paradigmas “O pessoal é político”, Exu e “Latino Americano”, apreendendo as fontes não como provas, ou verdades, mas discursos que se conectam uns aos outros na formação de novos discursos sobre a realidade analisada. O resultado sugere que o conjunto de organizações lésbicas analisadas constituem uma expressão do corpo politico das lésbicas, um corpo coletivo que nasceu nos tempos de ditadura, orientado pela bandeira do lesbofeminismo, de forma não institucionalizada, através da solidariedade entre lésbicas e gays. Sugere, ainda, que, nos anos 90, este corpo se institucionalizou em ONGs e, a partir de 2003, passou a se constituir em rede e, desde então, estreitando o diálogo com o governo federal segue em movimento contínuo de afeto e luta por políticas públicas. Sugere, ainda, que o ENLESBI – Encontro de Lésbicas e Mulheres Bissexuais da Bahia é a expressão mais potente do corpo político das lésbicas que, desde o seu surgimento, investe em um projeto de sociedade formulado em modos de viver e pensar lesbofeminista e antirracista, que se firma na construção de coletivos, grupos só de mulheres. Esses grupos, pelas lentes de Arroyo (2012) e Gohn (2012, 2012a) são percebidos como territórios de produção e difusão de pensamento e movimento que tornam visível a existência lésbica para além da vida privada e, como tal, são espaços de empoderamento feminino, estratégias de enfrentamento aos sistemas heteropatriarcal, racista e capitalista. Escrita na primeira pessoa, sem pretensão de verdade, a tese é caracterizada como saber militante, conhecimento situado desde o corpo sapatão. / ABSTRACT The writing of this thesis is, in itself, a strategy to make lesbian movements an object of study and political lesbians, also known as “dykes”, the subject of research. The intention is to map the first lesbian organizations in Bahia, which emerged between 1970 and 2003. The theoretical and empirical question is centred around “lesbian invisibility”, perceived as an expression of lesbophobia - a social, cultural and political phenomenon that can only be eradicated by joint social action. The central argument is the assertion that the history of lesbian movements in Brazil is enmeshed in the hetero-feminist and LGBT movements, although its trajectory has been made invisible by these very movements. By emphasizing the political slogan “dykes don’t mess up”, the thesis asserts that lesbian politics concerns resistance, the power to make visible and promote lesbian existence at different historical moments. Given the challenge to break the academic silence about lesbian existence in Bahia, the study manifests a belief in the impermanence of things and in subjective experience as a departure point for the production of situated knowledge, focusing its analysis on the political, historical and formative experiences of lesbian organizations, while not forgetting that these dimensions are enmeshed and inseparable within the construction of the study object. To this end, it denies any and all essentialized notions of sexuality, while recognizing identity as something continuously produced and never complete. Situated within the field of feminist studies and developed from qualitative research, the thesis remains resistant to codes of normality and recognizes the need for a lesbian epistemology based on the intersectionality of categories. Following deconstructionism, the methodological approach is inspired by the philosophy of life and guided by “personal and political”, Exu and “Latin American” narratives, understanding that sources are not proofs or truths, but rather discourses that connect to one another and shape new discourses about the analysed context. The results suggest that the group of lesbian organizations analysed here constitute an expression of the lesbian political body, a collective body born at the time of the dictatorship, under the lesbian feminist banner, in an non-institutionalized fashion, through solidarity between lesbians and gays. It also suggests that, in the 1990s, this body became institutionalized into the NGO, and from 2003 onwards began to constitute itself as a network, entering into close dialogue with the federal government and becoming a continuous movement of affect and struggle for public policies. It further suggests that the Meeting of Lesbian and Bisexual Women of Bahia (Encontro de Lésbicas e Mulheres Bissexuais da Bahia: ENLESBI) is a more potent expression of the lesbian political body, which, since its emergence, has invested in a societal project formulated through lesbian feminist and anti-racist modes of living and thinking, which have taken root in the construction of women-only collectives and groups. Through the lens of Arroyo (2012) and Gohn (2012, 2012a), these groups are seen as territories for the production and dissemination of thought and movement that make lesbian existence visible outside private life and, as such, are arenas for female empowerment and strategies to confront hetero-patriarchal, racist and capitalist systems. Written in the first person, with no attempt at the truth, this thesis is characterized by activist knowledge; knowledge situated in the body of the dyke.

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Social support is a key factor influencing older adults’ health and well-being. Disclosing one’s lesbian, gay, or bisexual identity at any age has great potential for altering, if not destroying, existing relationships with family, friends, and others. With long-established social roles and personal relationships, the potential risks may be accentuated for those who come out in mid- or later-life. Yet, researchers have paid scant attention to this phenomenon. This exploratory qualitative study examines the impact of coming out “late” on older adults’ social networks. In-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of fourteen older adults who disclosed their non-heterosexual identity at or after age 39. Interviews inquired about participants’ past and present social networks and the coming out process, particularly the influence of coming out “off time.” Findings show coming out is a dynamic, continuous, and non-linear process that simultaneously characterizes and is characterized by social network gains and losses.

LGBT* youth are over-represented among homeless youth and they face unique circumstances from their non-LGBT* homeless peers, such as increased risks of psychological distress (Fredriksen-Goldsen et al. 2014). Through multi-group, structural equation modeling, I compare the effects of time homeless on mental health outcomes (e.g., psychological distress) as measured by the Kessler 6 (K6) scale mediated by social support across non-LGBT*, LGB, and trans* groups. Findings indicate that social support is a significant mediator between the time a youth is homeless and their mental health outcomes, regardless of LGBT* status. Youth who are homeless six months or longer have worse mental health and fewer social supports than youth who are homeless less than six months. Additionally, the more social support a youth has, the higher their mental health is; however, individuals assigned female at birth have fewer social supports than males.