The invisibility of lesbian, plurisexual, and gay (LGB+) women in sexual health research is of particular concern when it comes to understanding and supporting their safer sex practices. Results of a qualitative secondary analysis of sexual decision-making interviews among 22 LGB+ cisgender women showed that LGB+ women both reify and push against heteronormativity in their sexual partnerships. By queering definitions of “sex” beyond heterosexual intercourse, leaning into trust as a foundation of new sexual partnerships, and promoting accessible and realistic hygienic strategies for STI prevention, LGB+ women queer, or reimagine, new sexual scripts. These results highlight the need for relationship and sexual health scholars to direct focus towards the promotion of holistic sexual and relationship education and research which reflects LGB+ women’s various sexual desires, goals and needs. / M.S. / The way we act in our romantic and sexual relationships is shaped by influences we receive from everything around us, including our families, the government, the media, and how we are educated. These influences also default to “heteronormative” partnerships, or those that are between two straight, monogamous, married individuals. In turn, researchers don’t often include lesbian, gay, and bisexual women in their research on sexual risk prevention, even though this group is at certain risk for unintended pregnancy and transmitting sexually transmitted infections. For my thesis, I looked at how the heteronormativity influenced LGB+ women as they discussed preventing pregnancy and STI’s. I found that this population is influenced by heteronormativity in that they prioritize pregnancy over STI prevention, and disregard dental dam (used as a barrier like a condom, but for oral sex) use with partners. However, LGB+ women also push against heteronormativity by holding wider definitions of sex with partners, promoting trust, and promoting hygiene during and after sex.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115068 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Tarantino, Mari R. |
| Contributors | Human Development and Family Science, Wesche, Rose, Rice, TeKisha M., Grafsky, Erika L. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
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