This thesis intends to demonstrate that, because of the unusual circumstances of its writing - a semi-journalistic piece produced during a period of crisis in the real-life community fictionally depicted - Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series stands as an unusually accurate and reliable ethnographic source for information concerning the gay male subculture of San Francisco in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, not only the practice and behavior themselves, but also reflecting their personal and communal function. The methodology employed in demonstrating this thesis is necessarily subjective. Like gay folklore scholar Joseph P. Goodwin in More Man Than You'll Ever Be, the seminal study of the folklore of gay men in the United States, I am a gay man, who, to some degree, draws on personal knowledge and observation to recognize and identify elements of gay folklore depicted in the fictional milieu I have chosen to study. This is unavoidable to an extent: ethnographic work within the gay communities has been limited by a number of factors, including the covert nature of the group, the biases of exoteric analysts, and the lack of observations informed by insiders' perspectives. Nonetheless, the groundwork that has been accomplished by Goodwin and a handful of other scholars provides an adequate basis for comparison between the "real" world, professional folk study, and the fictive domain of Armistead Maupin. In addition to an examination of gay oral folklore in the novels - including how gay oral tradition informs both the content of the novels and Maupin's authorial voice - this thesis also considers aspects of gay customary folklore and gay material culture, including how the content of the novels chronicles some of those folkloric forms and how the novels themselves have become a significant part of gay customary and material tradition. To a large degree, folklore functions in gay folk culture to encourage communication and cohesion and to divulge important psychological insights into the minds of many group members.

The research on sex-role development, psychological androgyny, and personality variables in lesbian women was reviewed. Since previous research suggested that lesbian women tend to have characteristics which might be labelled androgynous, a study was undertaken to assess the presence of androgyny among lesbian and heterosexual women and to cross-validate the findings on the relationship between androgyny and self-esteem. In order to assess sex-role classification, the PRF-Andro Scale was administered to 30 lesbian and 30 heterosexual women. The Texas Social Behavior Inventory was used to measure self-esteem. Results showed that a significantly greater proportion of the lesbians were androgynous, and a significantly smaller proportion were feminine as compared to heterosexual women. No differences were found in the proportion of either group classified as masculine and indeterminate. A complex relationship was found between samples, sex -role classification, and self-esteem. An attempt was made to integrate and interpret the results of this study. Suggestions were made for future research in this area.

Sex and morals have often been factors in custody disputes. Courts have felt that giving custody of children to homosexual parents would create an environment not in the best interest of the child. Many mental health professionals argue that these decisions have been based on prejudice and homophobia. The purpose of this study was to evaluate research on the sexual orientation of children raised by homosexual parents and review data on the mental/psychosexual health of these children. These studies revealed no difference between children raised by gay/lesbian parents versus those raised by heterosexual parents on IQ scores, gender identity, or peer group relations. Daughters raised by lesbian mothers tended to choose more masculine toys and engage in more masculine activities than daughters raised by single heterosexual mothers. Nearly all of the adolescent children of homosexual parents experienced periods of questioning their sexual orientation. They also expressed the possibility of changing their sexual orientation later in life. Problems in research methodology (i.e., pre-experimental designs and lack of external validity) however, severely limit the validity and generalizability of these conclusions. Given the absence of externally valid, rigorous research on the relationship between homosexual parents and the sexual orientation of their children, these authors conclude that this question remains unanswered. These authors argue that custodial decisions regarding children of homosexual parents be based on sound information in the best interest of both children and parents and not rooted in homophobia.

In my investigation of Li-Young Lee's poetry, my concerns were two-fold: first, to find evidence of an androgynous quality or ideal; secondly, to demonstrate that ideal as authentically feminist. In the introduction, I investigate the feminist debate about the traditional definition and concept of androgyny, demonstrating the difference between the patriarchal traditional androgyny and the androgynous elements in Lee's poetry. In Chapter Two, the rose as image and as symbol in Lee's poetry is examined and found to be strikingly androgynous as a symbol. As an image, however, it is more often than not used as a vehicle to describe the destructive nature of social tyrannies such as the patriarchal symbolic order. In Chapter Three, Lee's heavy implications of an existing "other" is examined. This examination is particularly pertinent when considering the feminist debate, since one of the major problems with the idea of androgyny is that it often necessitates a binary thought system in which the male is usually the "one" and the female is usually the "other." In Lea's poetry, I found no significant evidence of that kind of phallocentricism; rather, I found substantial evidence that Lee's poetry demonstrates the destructiveness of insisting on any being's otherness. Lee's search for identity, and for the meaning of personal identity, involves the acceptance of the mutability of identity. In conclusion, although I don't find androgyny to be authentically feminist, I find Lee's poetry--and its particular use of an androgynous ideal--to be authentically feminist.

The intention of this thesis is to provide an alternative counter-narrative to the mainstream histories of punk that center white men. By focusing on the contributions of fem queer and POC punks, I aim to legitimize punk music as a form of resistance against systems of oppression that are oppositional to the commodified forms of mainstream punk. Using Alice Bag, as my central case study as a fem queer punk that is often left out of punk historical narratives, I contextualize her work through feminist, queer, and media studies lenses to bridge the gap between academia and forgotten personal experience.

Chrisler’s (2017) Theoretical Framework of Parental Reactions When a Child Comes Out as Lesbian, Gay, or Bisexual suggests that parental reactions to having a non-heteronormative child are impacted by a process of cognitively appraising information about their child’s identity and experiencing and coping with emotional responses, both of which are influenced by contextual factors such as a parent’s value system. However, some religious values can challenge parents in the process of accepting a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) child. The purpose of this study was to test a model that examines the influence of cognitive-affective factors (cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation), religious-value based factors (religious fundamentalism, parental sanctification), and gender and sexual identity on self-reported parental acceptance. Participants were 663 parents of LGBT children who submitted responses to an online survey. A Tobit regression with a single-indicator latent variable approach revealed that religious fundamentalism, parental sanctification, the control component of cognitive flexibility, parent gender, and parent sexual identity significantly predicted parental acceptance. Lower religious fundamentalism, higher parental sanctification, and higher cognitive flexibility scores were associated with parental acceptance of an LGBT child. Participants identifying as a woman or LGB parent also significantly predicted acceptance. Implications of findings are discussed.

The traditional notion of the Male Gaze, first conceptualized by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975, focused on the objectification of women through depictions structured to gratify a male heterosexual perspective. In this chapter we will revisit this concept and investigate how that gaze may have shifted away from a primarily heterosexual perspective to a socially dominant male perspective (maleness here referring to dominance rather than specific gender, just as “whiteness” might refer to privilege rather than race). With gender roles in an increasingly global and mobile society becoming more fluid and complex, opening up visibility to LGBTQ communities, along with a substantial post-feminist backlash, we will consider how the male gaze is shifting and how subsets of objectifying “gazes” might overlap. I will explore whether the traditional heterosexual male gaze has shifted due to power backlashes and other developments. New gaze developments may take the form of the “bromance” as well as athletics and advertising. Included in an investigation of this “dominant gaze” will be an exploration into the possibility of a lesbian and transgender gaze – does each subculture have the propensity to fall into this pattern of objectified looking and if so, where is the evidence and what are the implications? That evidence will be explored through photography, film, dance, and other visual media as this subject is expanded through the emergence of variant sexualities and gender identities.

This research project was a mixed method of both a quantitative and qualitative design to examine the perception of 38 gay male’s life satisfaction post coming out. In the past few years, laws affecting the gay community have been at the forefront of policies and debates, given all communities an insight into the specific challenges that are endured. As the gay community starts to openly live their lives as a gay man, there has been a need to accept and understand not only the challenges, but to give acceptance. Additionally, this project sought out to determine if the gay community feels that their life satisfaction has increased post coming out to their family, friends, and coworkers, furthermore to be able to live a life not of shame, but of pride and acceptance of themselves.

The relationship between foreign language anxiety and gender identity has been largely a quantitative endeavor that has shown contradictory results. Furthermore, sexual identity has not been researched in foreign language anxiety literature. A qualitative account of LGBTQ+ language learners with different gender identities has been absent from the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between foreign language anxiety and sexual and gender identity. To gain insight into this relationship, this qualitative study investigated the lived experiences of four LGBTQ+ foreign language university students who represented three gender identities. Data were collected through multiple, in-depth interviews, observations, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS, Horwitz et al., 1986), and a questionnaire. The four participants were further situated through the results of the FLCAS, which was distributed to the research site and garnered 141 responses. Presentation of the data includes portraits of two of the participants and a cross-case analysis of the four participants. The portraits provided rich, thick descriptions of the educational and historical backgrounds of the two learners as well as themes related to their individual anxiety levels. The cross-case analysis found that foreign language anxiety across participants related to invalidated identity, privileged identities, context, and trait anxiety. These themes largely caused participants to experience communication apprehension, possible cognitive interference, avoidance behavior, and a lack of willingness to communicate. This study offers pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research. The data show that language teachers need to be aware of the pervasive nature of foreign language anxiety and how the identities of LGBTQ+ students can play into foreign language anxiety. Furthermore, teachers need to affirm the identities of their students.

During adolescence, self-identified gay black males may develop their identities differently than their gay white male counterparts. This may be attributed to the reconciliation of stressors when developing gay, black, and male identities within certain environmental contexts. To investigate this, twelve qualitative interviews were conducted of gay black males from which developmental themes were extracted. While many of the developmental processes are similar to their white homosexual counterparts, some differences were noted regarding racism, objectification by the white gay community, and use of the internet to develop particular identities. A new theory using dynamic systems theory that includes many complexities of identity development is proposed. A hybrid story-like model was developed to illustrate the roles of lenses and buffers as they pertain to how an identity functions. Lenses allow a person to see their way through a variety of experiences; buffers contain coping mechanisms and skills to alleviate tension from negative experiences. Future research should include other minority groups and women for a more complete picture of identity development processes. This would allow better tools to be built that can be utilized by intervention designers.