Within this essay a study is made of an LGBTQ-orientated Christian service in Stockholm called Queer Service. The following questions seek to be answered: What reasons does an individual set for his/hers participation in Queer Service? Which aspects of a queer service highlight the participants as important to them? As a method to answer these questions, the author has observed a number of queer church services in autumn of 2012. Moreover communication within the group of the assembly on the social media page Facebook has been followed and five individuals from the Queer Service congregation have been interviewed. As a background to the study, the European religious climate seen from Grace Davies eyes is depicted.  The reader also learns of how the Swedish church has handled questions about homosexuality and bisexuality and what liberation theology is. An (incomplete) section on other existing services with LGBTQ orientation in Sweden and the USA has been added as well as background information on Queer Service. The results from the gathering of material and the analysis of it show that the interviewees perceive themselves in need of a safe place free of harassment or suspicion linked to sexual orientation or gender identity. Several interviewees also experienced a conflict between Christian faith and an LGBTQ personality - a conflict the service could help solve. Participation in the service was also motivated as a way to resist structures that confirmed heterosexuality as a norm. Another aspect important to the interviewees is Queer Service's emphasis on internal authority and its lack of a clear hierarchy.

Officially founded in 1997, the Pride Library is a pioneering Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ) Canadian information-based organization. Although located within D.B. Weldon Library at the University of Western Ontario, the library maintains a primarily grassroots framework. The Pride Library case study reflects a tradition within LGBTQ communities towards preserving and disseminating information otherwise marginalized by larger society. Operating outside of conventional professional informed and institutionally-dominated models, LGBTQ communities create unique grassroots information organizational contexts. In order to develop a deeper understanding of LGBTQ information organizations, an ethnographic study of the Pride Library was developed. The thesis addresses the library’s use patterns, and approaches to space, materials and labour relations. Findings demonstrate that the Pride Library is not only valued for providing LGBTQ-specific information resources, but also for creating a symbolically significant, socially-oriented and community-based LGBTQ environment.

Officially founded in 1997, the Pride Library is a pioneering Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ) Canadian information-based organization. Although located within D.B. Weldon Library at the University of Western Ontario, the library maintains a primarily grassroots framework. The Pride Library case study reflects a tradition within LGBTQ communities towards preserving and disseminating information otherwise marginalized by larger society. Operating outside of conventional professional informed and institutionally-dominated models, LGBTQ communities create unique grassroots information organizational contexts. In order to develop a deeper understanding of LGBTQ information organizations, an ethnographic study of the Pride Library was developed. The thesis addresses the library’s use patterns, and approaches to space, materials and labour relations. Findings demonstrate that the Pride Library is not only valued for providing LGBTQ-specific information resources, but also for creating a symbolically significant, socially-oriented and community-based LGBTQ environment.

<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>

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This thesis illustrates how Melodrama and the melodramatic mode have been adapted within contemporary cinema as both a means of commenting on prior LGBTQI representation, and of exposing mainstream audiences to the issues still faced by many within this spectrum. Through my analyses of Carol (2015), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and A Single Man (2009), I examine how filmmakers have drawn on Melodrama as both an aesthetic form, and as a reference to the broader field of generic history and criticism which ground it as a subversive form of societal critique. By focusing specifically on how these three films portray ideological issues of gender, stereotyping, parenthood, aging, and personal shame, my thesis argues that these films are making a commentary on the damaging effects of these discourses on broader society. I also simultaneously question whether the Period Melodrama as a genre can ever fully escape the conservative nature of this form, as well as the implications of continuing to portray those on the LGBTQI spectrum as victims.

This dissertation is a multi-methodological project that examines the experiences of being both LGBTQ+ and disabled from an intersectional perspective through narratives constructed in virtual spaces. In this project, I address the question ‘how do individuals who identify as both disabled/chronically ill and LGBTQ+ negotiate these often contradictory identities?’ I also complexify this intersectional analysis by examining how LGBTQ+/disabled identities are constructed in relation to race, class, and gender. Additionally, by conducting virtual ethnography as the primary method of data collection, I explore questions pertaining to how members of LBGTQ+ and disability online communities engage in virtual identity construction and virtual community building. Through these projects I seek to bring disability and LGBTQ+ identities into the intersectionality literature and discourse that has frequently excluded, and at times even ignored, these positionalities.

This is an exploratory study and qualitative investigation of the social construction and enforcement of gender through social interactions with a specific focus on how gender policing is experienced within the LGBTQ community in Riverdale (pseudonym), the specific location of this study. Gender policing refers to the implicit and explicit feedback that one is accomplishing gender inappropriately according to contextual norms, expectations, and ideals, with the implied meaning that not conforming will result in real or assumed negative consequences. Two focus groups comprised of five people each who self-identified along the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer spectrum(s) in at least one context in their lives were used as the primary method for data collection. Inclusion criteria were based on those who identified with the LGBTQ community in Riverdale or who had had experiences in Riverdale in spaces that were predominantly LGBTQ. Focus group questions attempted to elicit participants' experiences within the LGBTQ community in Riverdale as they negotiated a sense of self in relation to others in the LGBTQ community. The content of the focus group discussions were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as described by Smith and Osborn (2003). This study illuminates how gender as a system of power is experienced and assigned meaning within interpersonal relationships in service of developing a social identity through inclusion within an LGBTQ community. Results from the data analysis yielded five broad themes: (a) gender oppression, (b) discouragement with community, (c) attempts to cope, (d) queer, and (e) change. These themes reflect narratives of oppression in the dominant culture and the impact of oppression on identity work in the LGBTQ community in a rural college town. Results are presented within the context of gender and gender policing on structural levels, interpersonal levels, and the level of internalized self-policing. Instances of gender policing on an interactional level were often associated with the assumed threat of social rejection and isolation and the experience of disappointment, pain, and disconnection. Results from this study support the literature on (a) the accomplishment of gender, (b) the maintenance of power differentials through the regulation of perceived differences between sex and gender categories, (c) the development of identity as group process, and (d) perceived problems within the LGBTQ community such as the maintenance of oppression and barriers to social change through the process of inclusion and exclusion.

On Valentine’s day 2018, Swedish watchmaker Daniel Wellington posted a photo of a gay male couple followed by a caption celebrating the love between the two subjects. The photo was posted to the brand’s Instagram account reaching an audience of four million followers. The brand’s followers responded with great amounts of engagement ranging from excitement and support for featuring a same-sex couple, to almost equal amounts homophobic disapproval. This thesis, a case study of Daniel Wellington’s social media and social media staff, examines the effects of including same-sex couples in social media marketing. Previous research on LGBTQ+ representation in advertising has identified the polarizing reactions same-sex couples in marketing usually evoke. Using existing literature on the subject as a theoretical framework, this thesis analyzes the effects of including two photos of same-sex couples, one male-male couple and one female-female couple, in Daniel Wellington’s Instagram account. A statistical analysis of the reactions to these photos on Instagram will be followed by interviews with the brand’s social media staff in order to explore the corporate response to the reactions to the social media representations of same-sex couples. This thesis will suggest, partially in line with previous research, that the social media content featuring same-sex couples created a lot of engagement among its followers, with comparatively high levels of polarization. The data identified a significant difference between how the gay male couple and the same-sex female couple were evaluated. Additionally, the interviews with the social media staff suggest that, despite the high levels of negative reactions, including same-sex couples in their social media channels did not have a deterring effect on their commitment to include more types of diversity in the brand’s social media feeds. The interviews with the social media staff indicate that the experience of including same-sex couples in the brand’s social media marketing efforts had the effect of raising awareness of issues of homophobia among the staff members.

abstract: Employing Queer Intersectionality, this study explored how undocuqueer activists made sense of, interacted and worked within the intersection of their LGBTQ and undocumented experience. Participants ascribed three overarching self-meanings: Vulnerability, Complexity, and Resilience. These self-meanings describe the ways participants perceived the interplay of their gender, sexuality and immigration status within the current sociopolitical context of the U.S. Recognizing their vulnerability within a state of illegibility, participants described a sense of exclusion within spaces of belonging, and wariness managing relationships with others; opting for more complex self-definitions, they resisted simplistic conceptions of identity that rendered their social locations invisible (e.g., homonormativity, heteronormativity, DREAMer); and describing themselves as resilient, they described surviving societal as well as familial rejection even when surviving seemed impossible to do so. Interacting and working within the intersection of gender, sexuality and immigration status, participants described identity negotiation and coming out as a form of resistance to institutionalized oppression, and resilience amidst simultaneous anti-immigrant, xenophobic and heterosexist power structures. Participants learned to live in multiple worlds at the same time, and embrace the multiplicity of their undocuqueer identity while seeking to bridge their communities through stories, activism and peer education. This study has implications for further understanding the way that queer politics and identity interact/ relate with various axes of inequality. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2015