Existing literature reveals that atheists are among the least accepted groups in America. This study examined the process atheists go through when disclosing their atheism to their religious family members. It is hoped that the information gained may benefit therapists who work with this population as they go through this potentially difficult time and adds to the currently insufficient body of research on atheism and atheists. Using the guided frameworks of grounded theory and social exchange and choice theory, a focus group was conducted with seven atheists and coded for themes. The data revealed the disclosure process as happening in three main stages which cover how the atheists arrived at the belief system, how it was disclosed and its reception, and how relationships have been impacted since the disclosure. The clinical implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are also discussed. / Master of Science

This study was an attempt to begin to understand the phenomenon of coming out from the parental perspective. Specifically, it focused on the factors contained within a child’s disclosure of his or her sexual orientation and their impact on a parent’s satisfaction with the disclosure. Participants were eleven parents of gay and lesbian children. Participants were interviewed individually regarding their memories of the moment that their children revealed their sexual orientations to them. Participants were asked questions about the parent/child relationship prior to the disclosure, questions about the disclosure as it actually occurred, and were also asked to describe the most ideal coming out scenario that they could imagine. Interview data were analyzed according to the naturalistic inquiry process as outlined by Lincoln and Guba (1985). The results indicate that there are two types of components that influence parental satisfaction with the disclosure of a child’s sexual orientation: relational components and process components. Relational components are those aspects of the parent/child dynamic that influence a parent’s feelings of satisfaction regarding the disclosure experience. Process components are the specific elements of the disclosure moment that influence a parent’s ability to assimilate the information shared by the child and subsequently allow for the integration of that information into their schema of the child and the parent/child relationship. These two categories are discussed along with a proposed framework for understanding them as well as methods of integrating them into an individual’s coming out script. The findings of the current study may be useful in helping gay and lesbian children develop more successful and accessible coming out disclosures which are targeted towards their parents. In addition, these results may guide the interventions of mental health professionals as they work with individuals who are preparing to come out to their parents. Future studies that address the specific components mentioned within this study would be useful, as would studies which address the coming out phenomenon from the perspective of other family members.

Theoretical You is a collection of autobiographical queer love poems told from the perspective of a single speaker. These love poems speak not only to lovers and exes, but also to lust and sex and desire, to the speaker's father (they do not reciprocate the cruelty he has shown her--they are neither malicious nor vindictive), and perhaps most importantly, to the speaker herself--she recognizes herself as a lesbian, as a human, who deserves to love and be loved. While love is the crux of these poems, the collection is just as much about heartbreak (which is, of course, inevitably tied to love, is the consequence of love), heartbreak others have inflicted on the speaker and heartbreak she has inflicted on herself, having walked out on many of the women she addresses in the collection. The poems work to navigate the challenges of heartbreak by confronting homophobia, familial rejection, gender binaries and the appearance norms tied to them, as well as the grief that comes with simply being unable to stop missing someone. Here is a young woman who still loves every woman she has ever been with, who has so much love to give, who has a father who refuses to accept her, in a world that is often cruel. All of this together creates the complicated situation of being perpetually heartbroken, even when the speaker is happily in a relationship, even though she has learned to love herself. / Master of Fine Arts

The contemporary field �lesbian health� was shaped by a range of social and political changes in the last third of the twentieth century, as well as by discourses originating in the historical regulation of lesbianism. In discourse, lesbians have been produced as invisible, passive victims of heterosexist and potentially homophobic health-care providers. This project sought to understand how lesbians produce and manage their own health, and their interactions with doctors and other health-care providers. The research questions asked how discourses about lesbianism and the construction of the lesbian health field influence the ways in which lesbians construct and manage their own health, and how lesbians position themselves as they negotiate clinical spaces. Using semi-structured interviews, 19 women, aged between 22 and 64 years, who identified as lesbian, gay, same-sex-attracted and queer were interviewed. Interview data were analysed using discourse and content analysis. When they engaged with the health-care system, some participants produced their lesbianism as a social matter of no relevance to health; while for others their lesbianism was central to their health. An analysis of power relations revealed the complexity of ways the participants used agency to speak or remain silent about their sexual orientation. This was motivated by complex embodied understandings about the potential for emotional, physical or ontological harm involved in coming out in clinical spaces. Some chose to remain silent all, or some of the time, others to assertively identify themselves as lesbian. This depended on a range of contemporaneous factors including safety concerns, past experience and personal judgement. Whether to come out or not in the medical encounter was not necessarily a conscious decision, but was shaped by the individual�s embodied �sense for the game�. While the health-care system had frequently provided less than optimum care, these women were not passive, but used agency to decide whether or not their sexual orientation was relevant to the medical encounter.

This study examines the coming out process for transgendered individuals using the framework of Austin's speech act: the locutionary force, the illocutionary force, and the perlocutionary force. A grounded theory analysis of 43 letters in two different Internet databases revealed similarities and differences in the coming out process for transgendered individuals, compared to what we know about the process for gay and lesbian people. Similarities were found in all three acts: labels and scripts are used in the locutionary act; confession, education, affirmation and remorse are used as framing strategies in the illocutionary act; and rejection and acknowledgement are addressed in the perlocutionary act. Unique aspects of the coming out process for transgendered individuals include the importance of and reliance on labels in the locutionary act, education in the illocutionary act, and the visualization and cooperation of others in the perlocutionary act. These findings have a number of important practical and theoretical implications for interpersonal relationships and scholarship. / Department of Communication Studies

No description available.

The contemporary field �lesbian health� was shaped by a range of social and political changes in the last third of the twentieth century, as well as by discourses originating in the historical regulation of lesbianism. In discourse, lesbians have been produced as invisible, passive victims of heterosexist and potentially homophobic health-care providers. This project sought to understand how lesbians produce and manage their own health, and their interactions with doctors and other health-care providers. The research questions asked how discourses about lesbianism and the construction of the lesbian health field influence the ways in which lesbians construct and manage their own health, and how lesbians position themselves as they negotiate clinical spaces. Using semi-structured interviews, 19 women, aged between 22 and 64 years, who identified as lesbian, gay, same-sex-attracted and queer were interviewed. Interview data were analysed using discourse and content analysis. When they engaged with the health-care system, some participants produced their lesbianism as a social matter of no relevance to health; while for others their lesbianism was central to their health. An analysis of power relations revealed the complexity of ways the participants used agency to speak or remain silent about their sexual orientation. This was motivated by complex embodied understandings about the potential for emotional, physical or ontological harm involved in coming out in clinical spaces. Some chose to remain silent all, or some of the time, others to assertively identify themselves as lesbian. This depended on a range of contemporaneous factors including safety concerns, past experience and personal judgement. Whether to come out or not in the medical encounter was not necessarily a conscious decision, but was shaped by the individual�s embodied �sense for the game�. While the health-care system had frequently provided less than optimum care, these women were not passive, but used agency to decide whether or not their sexual orientation was relevant to the medical encounter.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2003. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Mar. 27, 2005). Includes bibliographical reference (p. 92-96).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toledo, 2004. / Typescript. "A dissertation [submitted] as partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Higher Education." Bibliography: leaves 188-197.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2009. / Directed by Deborah Taub; submitted to the Dept. of Teacher Education and Higher Education. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jun. 7, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-109).