This thesis is a hermeneutic phenomenological study of the concept of disclosure in maternity care contexts using the example of sexual orientation. There is a significant body of literature within psychology and sociology relating to the health and social purposes and consequences of disclosure. There is a further body of outcomes-focused evidence relating to disclosure of sexual orientation in health care. There is, however, little research undertaken into the disclosure of sexual orientation in pregnancy as an action with motive and purpose. This study aimed to address this issue. The study employed unstructured interviews with eight lesbian mothers, seven of whom were birth mothers and one was a social mother. The hermeneutic method used an iterative process of analysis integrating researcher pre-understandings, thematic analysis of individual interview transcripts and broader analysis of the individual interview data within the total interview data, exploring the parts within the whole. The aim was to identify the shared meaning of disclosure for the participants Data analysis resulted in five main themes: being invisible/visible; being upfront; being me; being entitled; being safe. An additional finding was the process of managing negativity through strategies such as rationalisation. Three encompassing concepts were identified: protection; power; and identity. Two motivations for disclosure were also identified: pro-action and altruism The thesis concludes that disclosure is a motivated and purposeful act which has real meaning and consequences. It makes extensive recommendations for midwifery practice including acknowledging the disclosure, understanding the legal complexity, and recognising the lesbian family. Recommendations for policy suggest having explicit and detailed policies that include information about how to be inclusive rather than only abstract concepts of inclusion. Recommendations for research include qualitative and quantitative research with midwives about attitudes and knowledge as well as research exploring the role of the social mother in promoting family health outcomes.

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Deviants of Great Potential analyzes the 1924 Leopold-Loeb case as a cultural narrative with important effects on the marginalization of same-sex sexuality in men throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. After Chicago teenagers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were arrested for the United States' first nationally recognized "thrill killing," the apparently motiveless murder of fourteen-year-old Robert Franks, the Leopold-Loeb case became an instant cause celebre. The popular fixation on the case continued in the decades after 1924, as journalists and behavioral scientists treated it as a precedent for understanding a certain type of crime and criminal. Meanwhile---especially after World War II---a slew of novelists, playwrights, and filmmakers offered their own interpretations.;Through the intertwining representations of the case in fiction and nonfiction, the Leopold-Loeb case became a cautionary tale about the dangers of "abnormal" sexuality in men. Narratives of the case portrayed Leopold and Loeb's sexual relationship as the sine qua non of Robert Franks's murder, and the case thereby came to represent same-sex sexuality as a threat to moral order and public safety, and to serve as a counterexample of the traits "normal" men should or should not exhibit.

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This thesis examines the hermeneutical strategies that Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) has employed in interpreting the Bible. As a new religious movement (NRM) with an outreach to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals MCC interprets the text in light of its membership. The interpretive strategies and methodologies employed are in keeping with other denominations in the Christian tradition. This provides a possible avenue by which MCC can be classified within the Christian tradition. The interpretation of the biblical text is given in light of the gay people who compose MCC's membership. Gays and lesbians have experienced social and religious stress. Their history, identity, and questions are brought with them as they approach the biblical text. MCC interprets the text to meet the pastoral needs of gay people. The paper examines how MCC has interpreted specific passages and texts of the Bible. It focuses on the "texts of terror," those texts which have been used to marginalize gays and lesbians. Additionally, it examines texts which highlight meaningful themes for gays and lesbians. In the end, it is perfectly queer that MCC has emerged as an interpretive community, with a specific hermeneutic. MCC has engaged in a similar process of biblical interpretation as other Christian denominations, making the Bible relevant and meaningful for its membership. The claim that MCC is a Christian denomination can be made by appealing to its interpretation of the biblical canon of Christianity.

I feel like I can get home from here is an archive of the resilience, multiplicity, and survival of butch lesbians who continue to straddle the margins of a larger LGBTQ community and heterosexual world, and the lines of hypervisibility and erasure. As both a print book and digital archive, this project aims to compile meaningful textual and visual content about butch lesbians into one space and explore themes of identity, childhood, community, memory, history, and trajectories. Combining digital photography, questionnaire answers, interview transcripts, photo manipulation, and personal writings, the project aims to encapsulate a snapshot of contemporary understandings of butch embodiment in a manner that is documentary and figurative. 60 participants shared their stories and experiences in the form of in-person interviews and an online questionnaire. I feel like I can get home from here highlights the ideas that butch is a multiplicitous and nebulous identity that is vital to understandings of gender and sexuality and that a butch-designed archive can combat systematic erasure and stereotyping. Within its scope, the project serves as its own standalone emotive archive and gives greater depth and voice behind a butch image superficially propagated by media and commonplace stereotyping. The project derives influence from and negotiates theories that deal with symbolic annihilation and the conceptual archive, lesbian semiotics and identification, and (lesbian) photography. At its core, this project is a celebration, a living history, and a deep embodiment of community and love that speaks to a butch past, present, and future and the possibilities of masculinity.

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into foster parents’ perceptions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) foster youth through a self-administered survey in an attempt to provide better care for these children. The pool of participants were varied in most areas including age, gender, ethnicity, education levels, and religiosity. However, the majority was heterosexual and had less than 2 years of experience fostering. The results showed no particular demographics, trainings, or level of experience that contribute to more or less acceptance or preparedness. This may be due to response bias, however, it is more likely due to a flawed instrument. The results show that overall attitudes followed a normal bell curve, slightly skewed in favor of more positive attitudes. This is the most important finding of the study, which shows an improvement in foster parents’ overall attitudes compared to prior research. It also showed that more parents feel comfortable fostering LGBT youth, than do not.

This exploratory research utilized a qualitative focus group of seven participants to see what insights older lesbian women provide toward impacting understanding of their perceived isolation, perceived invisibility, health needs and access to social services that are congruent with LGBTQ+ culture. The participants were recruited through snowball sampling. After the completion of the data collection, data were thematically analyzed and color coded. The significance of this study was to gain greater insight into the specific needs and areas of concerns of a vulnerable population. This greater insight may lead to social workers’ being able to provide better services for lesbian women. The major themes derived from the data were separated by access, homophobia, invisibility, social support, and health. Sub-themes included: quality of healthcare, support system, community involvement, political climate, coming out, need for LGBTQ+ specific services, discrimination (sexism/homophobia), finances, relationship status, health issues and social limitations, quality of life, planning, invisibility.