The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGB)(T) secondary school students are often problematic. The literature documents that LGB(T) students often experience harassment in secondary school settings. The participants in this study identify that issues around subject content, the need to address bullying and strategies around support are three key issues that might be targeted if LGB(T) school experiences are to improve. This thesis responds to participant perspectives by outlining a broad approach that is anchored by their concerns.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-41).

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-60). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2009. / Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 72 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trent University, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-172).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Melbourne, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 211-225).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2005. / Thesis directed by Daniel J. Myers for the Department of Sociology. "July 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-274).

This study attempted to understand how personal and sociocultural factors related to heterosexual women's number of lesbian friends. The relationships between levels of Extraversion, homophobia, heterosexism, and opportunity for friendships, and the number of lesbian women identified as acquaintances were assessed to examine how these variables related to participants' reported number of lesbian friends. It was expected that Extraversion would positively correlate with number of lesbian friends while heterosexism and homophobia would negatively correlate with number of lesbian friends. The number of lesbian acquaintances one had was expected to moderate these relationships. Female Women's Studies students who identified as heterosexual completed items from the International Personality Item Pool, the Attitudes Toward Lesbians Scale, the Modern Homonegativity Scale, the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding Impression Management scale, a Number of Friends and Acquaintances form, and a demographics questionnaire using an internet-based survey host. To test the hypotheses, partial correlations and multiple regression analyses were conducted. It was found that heterosexism and homophobia but not extraversion were significantly related to the number of lesbian friends participants reported. The expected moderation by the reported number of lesbian acquaintances was not significant for any of these relationships. A number of exploratory analyses were conducted, which revealed a variety of interesting findings. The personality domain Openness was related to the reported number of lesbian friends, as were previous, positive experiences with lesbian women, and one's religious subscription. Conclusions can help future research improve social support for lesbian girls and women. Research should be extended to examine cross-orientation relationships among those of different social identities.

abstract: Traditional perspectives on sexual prejudice typically focus on the distinction between heterosexual ingroup and homosexual outgroup. In contrast, I focus on an affordance-management paradigm which views prejudices as resulting not from ingroup/outgroup relations, but instead from perceptions of the threats and opportunities posed by members of different groups. Past research has demonstrated that non-heterosexual target groups are perceived to pose a variety of threats, including threats to the socialization of young children, of child molestation, of disease, and to values. My research, however, suggests sexual prejudices arise for college students from beliefs that certain sexual orientation groups pose threats of unwanted sexual interest. For young adults, mating concerns are salient and should define relevant threats and opportunities--including those that might drive prejudices. For individuals with different active motivations, however, different threats and opportunities and threats are salient, and so the threats driving sexual prejudices may also differ. I extend my past research to consider how activating different fundamental goals (e.g., disease avoidance, parenting) alters patterns of sexual prejudice. I posit that activating disease concerns will increase prejudice specifically toward non-heterosexuals associated with disease (gay and bisexual me)--but not other non-heterosexuals (lesbians and bisexual women)--whereas activating offspring care will increase prejudice toward all non-heterosexual target groups, as all are perceived to pose socialization threats. To test this, heterosexual participants were randomly assigned to a parenting or disease-avoidance goal activation, or control condition, and then rated their general negativity towards heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual male and female targets. They also rated their perceptions of the extent to which each target posed unwanted sexual interest, socialization, and disease threats. Contrary to predictions, activating parenting and disease avoidance systems failed to affect sexual prejudices. Furthermore, although the pattern of observed data was largely consistent with previously observed patterns, women's attitudes towards gay men in the control condition were more negative than that found in previous studies, as were men's attitudes towards bisexual and lesbian women. Multiple mechanisms underlie sexual prejudices, and research is needed to better understand the circumstances under which alternative mechanisms are engaged and have their effects. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2012

In a moment when visibility and representations of LGBTTQAI+ people are proliferating in North American society, it is important to think critically about how visibility and representations function and to interrogate their meanings and a/effects. This thesis uses data produced from five semi-structured interviews conducted with lesbian identified participants living in non-urban spaces in Ontario to demonstrate the importance of a continued lesbian specificity, to draw attention to heteronormativity and heterosexism in Ontarian society, to challenge femme invisibility and complicate the notion of femme privilege, and to move beyond the urban/rural binary as a way of making sense of sexuality. The methodological framework guiding this thesis draws on interpretive phenomenological analysis as well as feminist and queer methodologies, which facilitated a responsive and reflexive research process. This thesis is grounded in ongoing debates around identity politics and representation, drawing on literature from lesbian theories, lesbian-feminist histories, queer theories, heterosexism, heteronormativity and homonormativity, lesbian-feminist histories, white privilege studies, queer and feminist geography, and LGBTTQAI+ rural studies.