Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Donna Augustine-Shaw / Much of the research on gays and lesbians in education has focused on their experiences as a marginalized group. There has been much progress in the understanding of gays and lesbians as a whole and the research shows that indeed this group has shown great contributions to the field. However, a close examination of the history of gays and lesbians also presents considerable evidence that the civil rights of gays and lesbians can indeed influence their professional lives regardless of occupation. This qualitative multiple case study examined the life experiences of the gay or lesbian educator in light of civil rights legislation that continues to influence our lives. Tenured educators were interviewed regarding their lived experiences early in life, during their education and growth in the profession, and currently as educators. The research used reputational snow ball sampling to discover these educators. The concepts behind Queer Theory and Queer Legal Theory were used in examining data in the context of civil rights involving gay and lesbian teachers. This study adds to the body of literature regarding sensitivity and tolerance for gays and lesbians as well as materials designed to enlighten teacher training in sensitivity, and awareness of gay, and lesbian teachers and administrators.

Applying a queer Muslim feminists lens, this thesis interrogates ways in which a heterosexual world-view appropriates the domain of sexuality within two specific Muslim contexts. The study focuses on, is informed and enriched by the experiences of Queer Muslim women who navigate within the contextual spaces they inhabit, multiple sites which ultimately propel them to question and contest the heterosexual norms that they are expected to repeatedly perform in the name of religion. Through their questioning, they name the various challenges they experience and the strategies they employ in navigating realms of family, state and society, as well their relationship with the Divine. This study, both foregrounds and contributes to understanding Muslim queer women's subjectivity in the production of religious meaning. More succinctly, this thesis contributes to appreciating how Queer Muslim women understand their existence in the face of religious and societal criticism, and how their experiences can serve as the threshold from which to formulate ethically and theologically enriched considerations deeply rooted in the Qur'ān. By looking at two specific contexts, namely Malaysia and Lebanon, this thesis carefully uncovers multiple sites of oppression, layer by layer. The purpose is to lay bear the political personality of states, which often employ religion to coerce those it deems different and thus a threat, in this case to standards of sexual morality. In direct tension with the two nation-states in question, are alternative fringe actors who occupy contested middle spaces. It is from these crucial middles spaces i.e. spaces of potential friction and tension that subliminal spaces for dialogue and discussion then arise. Finally, remaining within an Islamic frame of reference, this thesis takes a nuanced route via Queer Theology, to argue that alternative queer sexual subcultures need not be a source of fear, or threat, or condemnation, but can quite possibly and realistically live alongside a diverse range of sexual subjectivities, ethically and conscientiously, no more, no less than anyone who defines or sees themselves as Muslim.

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Praxis queer s'intéresse à l'utilisation de pratiques artistiques au sein du militantisme queer. La réflexion s'organise en trois axes : artistique, militant, et quotidien. L'axe artistique analyse les techniques d'invention de soi, de subversion des normes corporelles, sexuelles et de genre. Les militant-es établissent des jeux entre la performativité et la performance. L'axe militant met en évidence l'utilisation de l'art en tant qu'outil de lutte queer, ce qui questionne les stratégies de lutte et l'efficience politique de l'art. Le troisième axe se concentre sur les pratiques quotidiennes de résistance. Ces pratiques sont analysées à la fois sous l'angle de la micropolitique et de la performance artistique, questionnant les limites de l'art. Certains thèmes transversaux se retrouvent dans ces trois axes : la performance, l'enjeu des archives au sein des luttes queers, l'utilisation militante des nouvelles technologies et la figure du cyborg. De nouveaux enjeux du militantisme queer, comme les affects, l'écologie et l'anticapitalisme, sont abordés. Cette thèse est un geste militant. Elle s'adresse autant au monde universitaire qu'aux activistes et elle correspond à un engagement personnel. Elle se base sur des entretiens réalisés avec des militant-es de France et d'Espagne. Ces entretiens sont utilisés de façon à valoriser les savoirs militants et à les mettre en parallèle du savoir "légitime" que représentent les auteur-es comme Judith Butler, Jack Halberstam, Paul Preciado ou Amélia Jones. Les outils de l'histoire des arts sont utilisés pour analyser des actions militantes. La dimension politique ou militante des oeuvres est systématiquement analysée. / Praxis queer questions the use of artistic practices in queer activism. The reflection is organized around three lines of thought : artistic, militant, and daily life resistance. The artistic axis analyses the techniques of self-invention and subversion of corporal, sexual and gender norms. Activists establish games between performativity and performance. The militant axis highlights the use of art as a tool of queer activism, which interrogates the strategies of struggle and the political efficiency of art. The third axis focuses on daily life resistance practices. These practices are analysed from both a micropolitical and artistic performance point of view, questioning the limits of art. Some cross-disciplinary themes can be found in these three areas : performance, the issue of archives in queer struggles, the militant use of new technologies and the figure of the cyborg. New issues of queer activism, such as effects, ecology and anticapitalism, are discussed. This thesis is a militant act. It is dedicated to academics as well as activists and is a personal involvement. It is based on interviews with activists from France and Spain. These interviews are analysed in such a way that it enhances militant knowledge and put it in parallel with the "legitimate" knowledge represented by authors such as Judith Butler, Jack Halberstam, Paul Preciado or Amelia Jones. The tools of art history are used to analyse militant actions. The political or militant dimension of works is systematically analysed.

Wolf at the Door concerns a thirteen year old boy, Wilmer, during the summer of his sexual awakening, where he explores the boundaries of his sexuality and his attraction to violence and danger, primarily through an older teenage boy, Bricktone, all while young women from his working class community are being kidnapped, abused, and murdered by a human predator. Wilmer considers what kind of man he will become and whether can escape the influence of the wolf.

The character of James Bond which was first introduced in Ian Fleming’s first novel Casino Royale in 1953 and was then featured in 11 subsequent novels, 2 volumes of short stories, and 24 film adaptations has long been considered to be the ultimate man’s man. There is no feat he cannot conquer, villain he cannot best, or lady he cannot bed. However, in an examination of both the novels and the film, clues exist to Bond’s deeper psyche—most notably his repressed homosexuality. While much discussion has been had of Bond’s misogyny, in many ways it masks his true identity possibly even from himself. Utilizing a framework of theoretical analysis drawing upon Sigmund Freud, Jack Hallberstam, Judith Butler, Susan Sontag, Laura Mulvey, and Charles Klosterman (among many others), this dissertation will fully explore the character Fleming created. Additionally, by examining how the male gaze and camp elements have been utilized by the filmmakers in the Bond films, analysis will be conducted how those elements contribute to a “queerness” of the character’s film incarnations. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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This thesis uses the theory of abjection to understand differentiations in non-heterosexual identity performances in two distinct spaces - the 2005 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) parade and its associated press coverage, and latrinalia (graffiti found inside public toilets). At the same time, this thesis also presents evidence for a new concept of neo-normativity, where the stereotypical is normalised, both internally and externally, and actively reproduced. Neo-normativity, in turn, succeeds in explaining the many abjected relationships that between non-heterosexual communities and the stereotypical and quintessentialised performances. At the 2005 SGLMG parade such quintessentialised (or neo-normalised) performances were treated with both contempt - for being stereotypical and narrowly representative of the very diversity of non-heterosexual communities - as well as a tool for attracting commercial sponsorships which have growingly become an integral part to the continued survival of the annual parade. On a different level, another expression of abject was also revealed when these neo-normalised performances are persistently criticised by academics, news reporting and official photography for being stereotypical and non-representative which in itself are both a recognition as well as an ejection of the non-normative aspects of non-heterosexualities. Such an expression of abject was also evident in latrinalia found in several public toilet facilities throughout Greater Sydney were the interplay of desire and ejection were played out in a more covert manner, all the while highlighting the marginality of non-heterosexualities in these presumably heteronormative spaces. This application of abject theory emphasises neo-normative performances as permanently peripheral, a marginality of which makes these performances (and identities) intrinsically Queer.

Australia had the world’s first gay film festival at the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op in June 1976, part of a larger commemoration of the Stonewall Riots in New York City of 1969. In 1994, South Africa became the first country in the world to prohibit discrimination in its constitution on the basis of sexual orientation, whilst allowing for positive discrimination to benefit persons disadvantaged by unfair discrimination. South Africa and Australia, both ex-British colonies, are used in this analysis to explore the way local Queer Cinematic Cultures have negotiated and continue to negotiate dominant social forces in post-colonial settings. It is rare to have analyses of Queer Cinematic Cultures and even rarer to have texts dealing with cultures outside those of Euro-America. This study offers a unique window into the formations of Queer Cinematic Cultures of two nations of the ‘South’. It reveals important new information on how sexual minorities from nations outside the Euro-American sphere have dealt with and continue to deal with longstanding Queer cinematic oppressions. A pro-active relationship between Queer representation in film and social-political action is considered by academics such as Dennis Altman to be essential for significant social and judicial change. The existence of Queer and other independent films in Sydney from the 1960s onward, impacted directly on sexuality, race and gender activism. In South Africa, the first major Queer film festival, The Out In Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in 1994, was instrumental in developing and maintaining a post-Apartheid Queer public sphere which fostered further legal change. Given the significant histories of activism through Queer Cinematic Cultures in both Australia and South Africa, I propose in this thesis the existence of a new genus of cinema, which I term Fifth Cinema. Fifth Cinema includes Feminist Cinema, Queer Cinema and Immigrant/Multicultural Cinema and deals with the oppressions which cultures engage with within their own cultural boundaries. It can be informed by First Cinema (classical, Hollywood), Second Cinema (Art House or dual national cinemas), Third and Fourth Cinema (cinemas dealing with the decolonisation of Third World and Fourth World people), but it develops its unique characteristics by countering internal cultural colonisation. Fifth Cinema functions as a heterognosis, where multi-dimensional representations around sexuality, race and gender are used to assist in broader cultural liberation.

<p>Uppsatsen utgår från syftet att utforska queer femininitet och det sätt som icke-heterosexuella, feministiska tjejer förhåller sig till normativ och queer femininitet. Detta genomförs utifrån samtalsintervjuer, inriktade på hur dessa tjejer upplever samhälleliga och den lesbiska världens normer kring femininitet. Studien har Judith Butlers teorier kring genussubversivitet som utgångspunkt. Materialet tar upp femininitet som begränsande eller subversivt, det hårt reglerade normsystem som återfinns inom den lesbiska världen, butch/femme-fenomenet och bil-den av den icke-heterosexuella tjejen. Slutsatser som kan dras är att normer från den lesbiska världen, den feministiska sfären samt samhällsnormer i stort, alla kraftigt sampåverkar tjejernas förhållningssätt till femininitet. Respondenterna uttrycker att möjligheten till subversivitet hos queer femininitet och femme-positionen tycks finnas i att de, genom att utagera femininitet på icke-normativa ”felaktiga” sätt, kan förskjuta och destabilisera den traditionella inne-börden av femininitet.</p>