The purpose of this thesis is to recall a period of history when women were expected to adhere to a rigid societal structure. It captures a glimpse of a few women's lives in California who courageously came forth to promote a positive identity for lesbians in the hearts of their budding community. Although lesbians of California will be the only women addressed in this study, lesbians and gay men in several states were active in setting the stage for the eruption of Stonewall, which marked the beginning of the Gay Liberation Movement. The women participating in this study have provided an illuminating personalized view of lesbian life within the context of the butch-fern phenomenon and their subculture's collision with mainstream society. Marge Frantz is included even though she could not reveal the fact that she was a lesbian, but she is an example of a lesbian who took great risks and suffered many hardships in her political endeavors. Conclusions drawn illustrate comparisons between the 1940s and 1950s lesbian subculture and that of today's lesbian community. This includes how expectations of lesbians have changed from one generation to the next, and what sparked the shift in those expectations. Research methods include conducting a series of personal interviews, investigating archival material, and supplementing the data with secondary sources.

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No / The purpose of this paper is to interrogate ways in which sex and sexual orientation are excluded from the agenda of work relationships in one probation service. The research was conducted through conversational interviews with members of a team responsible both for supervision of colleagues and for development of supervisory practice. Straight and lesbian officers responded to a perceived lack of skills to effectively “work with” sexuality issues. Responses lead to discussion of the discursive “silence” of sex, and to the specific positioning of lesbian identity. Specifically, it critiques approaches to supervision that do not explicitly value lesbian experience. This small study does not include the voices of black or gay male officers. It also does not explore the experience of bisexuality. The finding of this research can be used to support development of good supervisory practice. The paper sheds light on day to day interactions that “silence” experience of sexual orientation. The paper draws on original research interrogating both lesbian and straight experience. In so doing it sheds light on both discursive practices of a sexual agenda and practice issues in supervision.

Although advertising featuring gay male and lesbian models can be an effective means of targeting the significant gay and lesbian market, few empirical studies examine how consumers respond to gay-themed advertisements. To address the absence of message-processing research dealing with heterosexual responses to gay-themed advertising, this thesis examines how sexual orientation of model couples featured in magazine advertisements affects heterosexual viewers' responses using the elaboration-likelihood model as a guiding framework. A 3x2x2x3 experiment tested the effects of model couples' sexual orientation (heterosexual, gay male, or lesbian), argument strength (strong or weak), involvement (high or low), and participants' attitudes towards homosexuality (high, medium, or low) on White heterosexual participants' attitudes toward the couple, attitudes toward the advertisement, attitudes toward the brand, attitudes toward the product, purchase intentions, and recall. Results indicate that heterosexual consumers were accepting of ads with lesbian portrayals.  Participants showed more negative attitudes toward gay male portrayals, but attitudes towards heterosexual and lesbian ads were similar. This effect was moderated by participants attitudes toward homosexuals. Regarding message processing, low involvement consumers showed more negative attitudes toward homosexual portrayals than toward heterosexual portrayals, providing some indication that models' sexual orientation in ads may have served as a peripheral cue negatively impacting attitudes toward the couple and ad in situations where elaboration is low. However, such effects on attitudes toward couples and ads did not appear to carry over to attitudes toward the brand and product, purchase intentions, or recall. Implications, limitations, and areas for future research are also discussed. / Master of Arts