The Book of Hats" is a novel of adult literary fiction that comes in six hat-inspired sections. The novel opens late on a Saturday night when the phone rings and Ida Velikowsky, seventy-year-old wannabe tough guy who, in actuality, is a bit of a marshmallow, is woken out of a dream of hats. She runs into the living room and picks up the phone and hears on the other end of it the unwelcome voice of her no-goodnik brother Benny. She hasn't talked to him in forty years. Ida is someone who likes to keep her world small. She plays her cards close to her chest and faces each day as if it were an obstacle course in which memory and intimacy are the things that must be avoided at all costs. She is most comfortable when reading the “National Geographic” and avoiding friends. For nearly six years, since the death of her lover Gertie, she’s managed to stay in a fairly comfortable state of emotional shut-down. Then Benny calls and she finds herself vulnerable to memory, hope and rage, and even more painful, regret. She doesn't want to see Benny. She knows it's not a good idea to see him. But she finds herself wondering if, by seeing him, something in her life could be restored. The novel opens with Benny's call and moves, comic and menacing, toward a possible reunion.

The work aims to explore the identity of transgender on the basis of gender and trans studies. The problem is formulated here as an identity crisis, which is currently gaining more and more response. The focus of the crisis is the very situation in trans-politics, stimulated by conflicting feelings stemming from the consequences of Judith Butler's performative theory of gender, whose work has become the founding text of queer theory. Opposition is forming in this crisis, with the transgender identity facing one another as one that supports Butler's conclusions, and the transgender (subordinated to the transgender identity) side, whose subjective experience of body forces to criticize performativity and opens up thus the question of the redefinition of essentialism. The aim of this work is to examine the current crisis of identity from the perspective of trans studies with emphasis on the issue of the body, as a determining aspect of the identification of oneself and others as male or female identity. The starting point will be Judith Butler's grasp of the subject of corporeality and analysis of the critique of her approach from from the perspectives of gender and trans studies. The conclusions of this critique should outline new ways of capturing and preserving gender identity. KEYWRODS Gender,...

Background: Much of the literature on transgender and nonbinary (TGNB) experiences in counseling focuses on White experiences with few recommendations for trans people of Color (TPOC). Research suggests mental health care providers lack intersectional sensitivity with TPOC, lack knowledge of TGNB issues and engage in microaggressive behaviors, notably with Queer-identified clinicians. Aim: To explore issues of power and privilege in the counseling relationship with Queer-identified clinicians and apply the multidimensional model of broaching behavior with TGNB clients of Color. Method: A critical review of conceptual and empirical literature focusing on the interaction and impact of client and clinician race, gender, and sexual/affectional identities in the counseling relationship is presented. Informed by the authors’ counseling experiences and respective positionalities as a Black Queer ciswoman and a White Queer transman, the multidimensional model of broaching behavior is applied to a composite case vignette. Results: The model provides a practical tool to facilitate critical conversations of power, privilege and identity in the counseling relationship. Conclusion: With a dearth of scholarship addressing the role of cisgender or White privilege in the counseling relationship, this article outlines strategies to broach issues partially-shared identities with TGNB clients of Color. Recommendations for culturally informed counseling practice, supervision and research are also provided.

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This thesis analyzes Transgender experience and dynamics in the Pagan community of Central Florida. Religion plays an important role as part of social structure for many people in the United States. It can also be a source of strife and conflict between culture groups and within cultures. In the US, predominant religious traditions stem from monotheistic Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam); however, Wicca, a Neo-Pagan polytheistic religion, is practiced by a small but growing number of people. Based on nearly one year of ethnographic engagement with the Central Florida Wiccan community, this study presents an analysis of participants experiences in Wicca, especially as it refers to the experiences of Trans Wiccan practitioners and their religious communities. I argue that the theology underlying Pagan religious beliefs and practices, alongside shared experiences of othering and liminality, encourages the maintenance of an open, accepting and encouraging atmosphere towards LGBTQ+, and particularly Trans, Wicca practitioners.

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.

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.

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Researchers have commonly clustered together both binary transgender and non-binary individuals in their research studies. When assessing attitudes, it is likely that attitudes toward these two groups have been combined leading to valuable reports of attitudes missing from the literature. While measurements within the field of psychology have been created to assess attitudes toward binary transgender individuals, there currently is no measurement to assess attitudes toward non-binary individuals. As such, three studies were conducted to create a reliable and valid measurement of attitudes toward non-binary individuals. In Study 1 Part 1, 33 items were reworded and utilized from previously created measurements assessing attitudes toward LGBTQ individuals and 7 items were created to provide a basis for this measurement. In Study 1 Part 2, responses from six non-binary expert judges were collected that included feedback and thoughts pertaining to the 40 measurement items created in Study 1 Part 1 and thematic analysis was conducted. In Study 1 Part 3, the 40 measurement items were either omitted, kept as is, or revised. Furthermore, additional measurement items were created based on the feedback from the non-binary expert judges. In Study 2, 400 cisgender, heterosexual women and men responded to 50 items from the revised measurement, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted, and reliability was assessed. An independent samples t-test was conducted to examine gender differences between women and men regarding their attitudes toward non-binary individuals, and no gender differences were observed. In Study 3, 400 participants responded to 47 items, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, and both reliability and validity were assessed. Additionally, an independent samples t-test was conducted to examine gender differences between women and men regarding their attitudes toward non-binary individuals, and these results were identical to the results in Study 2. Implications of the Attitudes Toward Non-Binary Individuals Measurement, strength of the studies, limitations, and future directions were discussed. Ultimately, this measurement is the first within the field of psychology to assess attitudes toward non-binary individuals.