The understanding of the experiences of queer Arab Americans and the ways in which they navigate cross cultural expectations of gender and sexuality is limited in the anthropology or social sciences scholarship. The available scholarship focuses primarily on queerness in juxtaposition to Islam, which is not relatable to all Arab Americans as they are a religiously diverse group. Through an intersectional approach, this research, conducted from April 2020 to May 2021, explores the lived experiences of queer Arab Americans from across the United States (U.S.) while seeking to identify potential commonalities that could encompass a more general queer Arab American experience in an attempt to broaden the understanding of an underrepresented population. Over the course of four months from June to September 2020, I conducted 16 semi-structured interviews that explored how participants navigated their worlds as queer Arab Americans. I conducted media analysis to contextualize the primary data. The narrative data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed to identify significant themes and subthemes, and capture the diversity of explanations. The findings in this study were divided into two article manuscripts. The first article examines participants' experiences through their interpersonal connections with their families of origin and communities. I argue that, although religion plays a role in anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes, Arab families are predominantly anti-LGBTQ+ to prevent social ostracization from their communities. Additionally, a lack of public representation for queer Arab Americans creates hardship and delay in coming to terms with their gender identities and sexualities and perpetuates this population's invisibility. Ultimately, acceptance by an inclusive community strengthened individuals' confidence in their identities and helped alleviate the effects of rejection and isolation felt by the participants. The second article examines the positionality of queer Arab Americans resulting from cultural othering due to historically strained U.S. relations with the Arab world. As a result, participants felt invalidated and alienated by people from both Arab and American communities, however they felt their existences as queer Arabs defied the opposition aimed at them. Additionally, they perceived American stereotyping of the Arab world hypocritical as the Queer community is still marginalized and without nationwide legal protections in the U.S.

Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, and other non-heterosexual orientations (LGBQ+) are significantly more likely to experience a sexual assault. To date, research on barriers to sexual assault disclosure (i.e., telling someone about a sexual assault) has been conducted almost exclusively on heterosexual women. Participants ages 18 to 30 participated in a cross-sectional, online study that assessed unwanted sexual experiences, disclosure of those experiences, perceptions of the police and perceptions of belonging to the LGBQ+ community. Findings demonstrated that survivors who identified as LGBQ+ took longer to initially disclose their sexual assault and had greater negative perceptions of police than survivors who identified as heterosexual. Also, among survivors who identified as LGBQ+, the degree of "outness" of sexual orientation was positively associated with sexual assault disclosure. However, perceptions of the police were not associated with disclosure of sexual assault to the police among people who identified as LGBQ+. Perceptions of belonging to the LGBQ+ community were also not associated with disclosure likelihood. The results of this study help to better understand how the sexual assault disclosure process differs by sexual orientation and suggest that providers who work with survivors who identify as LGBQ+ need to keep in mind the unique concerns faced by survivors who identify as LGBQ+ who may be considering disclosing their trauma. These findings also call attention to the negative perceptions of police that continue to be held by people who identify as LGBQ+. Due to limited research on the topic of sexual assault and the LGBQ+ community, this study may encourage future researchers to examine additional barriers to sexual assault disclosure that may be unique for survivors who identify as LGBQ+ and how disclosure is received by both formal and informal support.

Previous research suggests that suicide is more prevalent among those in the LGBTQ+ community (Abelson et al., 2006), and they are also more likely to experience bullying and psychological symptoms while less likely to have adequate social support. Although many studies have examined risk factors for suicidality, the current study aimed to compare the impact of the risk factors among those in the LGBTQ+ community with those who are not. Further, this study examined the role of identity in conjunction with these other risk and protective factors. College students (N = 501) completed an anonymous online survey battery. Suicidality was significantly correlated with microaggressions, childhood bullying, internalized symptoms, identity distress, and negatively correlated with social support. Close to a third of the sample (31%) identified as LGBTQ+, which was higher than anticipated and may be reflective of recent changes in young people being more open to exploring their gender and sexuality than in the past. Those who identified as LGBTQ+ experienced greater suicidality and other risk factors, including identity distress, suggesting that despite the fact that identifying as LGBTQ+ is becoming more common, the risk factors for negative adjustment still remain.

Given the primacy of Florida, and in particular Orlando, as an urban center with an above average rate of AIDS and HIV, this study examines how the outbreak of a deadly disease can affect a community. Complicating the response to this scourge, those who were most at-risk were marginalized groups such as those in the LGBTQ community, drug users, and often people of color. As a result, those who occupied positions of political power felt little incentive to curb the epidemic and mocked it by deeming it "the gay disease." As a result of neglect and the lack of investment in scientific and medical research to better understand the epidemiological contours of this deadly dis-ease, its growth and spread were exacerbated. Given the significant social stigma associated with AIDS, an analysis of the epidemic must be examined both an epidemiological as well as a social phenomenon. In Orlando and elsewhere, the refusal of the government and institutions to adequately address the AIDS epidemic, some people in the community formed grassroots organizations to help find relief for their community, family and friends. Whereas in previous generations, separation from the mainstream society was an explicit objective of many gay activists, in this era the gay community worked toward forming an inclusive coalition out of necessity to combat AIDS. Eventually, this effort forced the broader population and political establishment to begin taking decisive action. Eventually, declining rates of infection suggest that the resources invested in this effort, including scientific research and public information campaigns, worked. The public became more knowledgeable about AIDS and HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, even became manageable to the point that it no longer the equivalent to a death sentence; however, the AIDS epidemic left a legacy on communities across the country and globe. This analysis of the experience of Orlando, Florida, illustrates the effect of its aftermath; grief and mourning remains an ever-present reminder of this dark chapter in this community's history. Further, the grassroots organizations, strategies, and resources developed out of necessity during the 1980s remained and became important pillars of the community. The response to the PULSE Nightclub mass shooting that occurred decades after the height of the AIDS epidemic demonstrated the persistence and importance of these community organizations to the Orlando community.

For decades, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) + students attending institutions of higher education have been marginalized and have experienced hostility and outright discrimination, causing the need for student support groups for this population on college campuses. Recent laws passed at a national level have brought a greater level of equality to this minority group; however, feelings of marginalization, homophobia, heterosexism, and heteronormative culture persist. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to ask how students participating in an LGBT + support group within a Central Florida public state college perceive their experiences in college. The researcher also asked students participating in an LGBT + support group within a Central Florida public state college what issues or challenges have most significantly impacted them. This qualitative study focused on an LGBT + student support group at a public state college in the Central Florida area. The researcher conducted ethnographic interviews with seven student participants and selected these students through a volunteer sample. A focus group with four of the seven participants was also conducted. Data were collected through recording of the interviews and focus group, observations and other documents. The researcher sought permission from the participants to record the interviews, ensured them access to the written and auditory transcript of their own specific interview, as well as guaranteed that the recordings would be destroyed after the conclusion of the dissertation and publication.

In 2009, 713,220 new cases of cancer were diagnosed for women in the United States with more than a quarter million deaths. African American women and lesbians exhibit behavioral risk factors as well as diminished access to and utilization of breast cancer screening that reduces opportunities for early detection. This secondary analysis of a national convenience-based study examined screening compliance among 647 African American lesbian and bisexual women. Barriers to accessing screening represented the theoretical framework for this study. Bivariate chi square analysis was used to assess the association between independent variables: sociodemographic characteristics; participation in wellness activities; sexual orientation/gender identity; and experience with health care providers and the three dependent breast cancer screening compliance variables: breast self-examination (BSE), clinical breast examination (CBE), and mammography screening. Statistically significant associations between dependent and independent variables at the .05 level were further analyzed with logistic regression. Results of the ten regression models found that BSE was predicted by socioeconomic characteristics and participation in wellness activities. Compliance with CBE guidelines was predicted by sociodemographic characteristics, wellness activities, sexual orientation/gender identity and provider experience. Sociodemographic variables and provider experience also predicted mammography screening. Overall compliance was predicted by sociodemographic characteristics, namely insurance status. The social change implications of this research are an improved understanding of African American lesbian and bisexual women's screening behavior and guidance toward interventions that can improve and breast cancer screening compliance with guidelines.

A transgender person develops an identity over time and must overcome several obstacles such as stigma, transphobia, discrimination, and sexism, which can be even more difficult for transgender people who choose to come out and transition in a rural area. Grounded in queer theory, social constructivism, and rural identity development theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the lived experiences of 4 transgender persons who came out and transitioned in a rural area, and who accessed online communities as a source of information during their identity development. A 4-stage process was used to collect data, including a semistructured interview, artifact analysis, participant observations, and an art project created by the participants. The data were loaded into the NVivo qualitative data analysis software and analyzed using coding, memoing, within-case, and cross-case analysis from the case histories of the participants. The principle findings of the study were that these transgender people living in a rural area used the Internet for both gathering information and connecting to the larger transgender community. Many other significant details provided insight into the lives of these transgender people, such as shopping for clothes, spending time in public, dealing with personal safety, and managing family and friend relationships during their transitions. These findings may inform mental health professionals about the potential identity developmental trajectory of transgender persons living in a rural area; the findings also give a voice to a population that is often hidden in rural areas.

São Paulo, Brazil is currently pursuing a project of creative urbanism. Though city rhetoric insists this project is rooted in tolerance of sexual diversity, I suggest that city policy effectively perpetuates normative conceptions of family and respectability. Using data gathered through a series of qualitative interviews with transgender and travesti individuals living in São Paulo, I argue that the straight time of São Paulo’s creative urbanism generates exclusionary temporalities and spatialities in the city that render travestis out of time and out of place. Furthermore, I argue that travestis use their capacity to enact shame through scandals to generate temporalities and spatialities of their own, ones not aligned with the reproductive, progressive futurity of straight time. In doing so, travestis participate in their own kind of creative urbanism and provide an affective challenge to the hetero- and homonormativity of São Paulo’s creative urban project. Building on recent scholarship in queer urbanism and affect, this thesis adds to critical efforts to understand how creative urbanism sexualizes space and time in contexts outside of EuroAmerica and how a queer theoretical approach contributes to critiques of progressive modernity.

This thesis paper gives a brief history of the vampire narrative and its role in representing the collective anxieties of an age as well as serving as a metaphor for oppressed peoples. It uses Bram Stoker’s Dracula and J. Sheridan le Fanu’s Carmilla as historical examples of how the vampire adapts to suit issues of the day such as reverse colonization and female sexuality, respectively. The latter part of this paper speculates on the future role of the vampire in literature and proposes that the vampire could be used to discuss transgender issues as well as challenge the gender binary. It addresses the suitability of the vampire narrative in particular for representing gender as a spectrum using the lenses of Foucault’s heterotopias, Kristeva’s abject, and Freud’s uncanny and pulls examples of early evidence of this trend from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.

Navigating the process of coming out led to feelings of isolation, depression, and a loss of self-worth that were compounded by a period filled with negative social media and mainstream messaging. This thesis explores how an understanding of the systems and processes of nature as well as physical exposure to nature offered a place of healing and an avenue for understanding my identity as a Gay man: from identity confusion all the way through to identity synthesis. Using Scholarly Personal Narrative Methodology, I will interweave poetry and counter narrative storytelling to illustrate the significance of nature during my identity development. Sexual orientation is scrutinized and vilified through social media platforms, advertisements, and daily life under the basis of cultural ideology and social construction. This disregards the larger contextual importance of other species that exhibit similar behaviors. I maintain that a connection with nature can provide individuals with a broader and more balanced perspective of sexual orientation--whilst navigating through the coming out process leading to a confluent sense of identity with reduced internalized conflict.