Hazards of stigma: the sexual and physical abuse of gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents in the United States and Canada

Some studies suggest lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) teens are at higher risk than peers for violence at home, in school, and in the community. That can bring them into the child welfare system or services for runaway and homeless teens. This study compared self-reported experiences of sexual and physical abuse based on sexual orientation and gender in seven population-based surveys of youth. The authors used c2 and age-adjusted odds of abuse to compare bisexual to heterosexual, mostly heterosexual, and gay and lesbian students. They also provide case studies to illustrate the experiences of such youth.     

Relation of urbanization to stream fish assemblages and species traits in nine metropolitan areas of the United States

We examined associations of fish assemblages and fish traits with urbanization and selected environmental variables in nine major United States metropolitan areas. The strongest relations between fishes and urbanization occurred in the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; Boston, Massachusetts; and Portland, Oregon. In these areas, environmental variables with strong associations (r_s ≥ 0.70) with fish assemblages and fish traits tended to have strong associations with urbanization. Relations of urbanization with fish assemblages and fish traits were weaker in Denver, Colorado; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Milwaukee-Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Raleigh, North Carolina. Environmental variables associated with fishes varied among the metropolitan areas. The metropolitan areas with poor relations may have had a limited range of possible response because of previous landscape disturbances. Given the complexities of urban landscapes in different metropolitan areas, our results indicate that caution is warranted when generalizing about biological responses to urbanization.     

The economics of gay and lesbian couples: Introduction to a special issue on gay and lesbian households

This article presents a simple conceptual framework integrating three couple-related outcomes analyzed in this volume: wage differentials in earnings related to couple formation, household formation (including cohabitation and registration as Registered Domestic Partnership), and intra-household allocation of income. It also discusses some of the articles’ main findings.

Adolescent sexuality: gay and lesbian issues

Dynamics and interventions with adolescents who express concern regarding gay/lesbian issues are described, with a focus both intrapsychic and social. Both psychological and emotional aspects of sexual preference, and cultural and social expectations for those who identify themselves as gay or lesbian are considered.     

Identity work among lesbian and gay elderly

Both traditional and interactionist sociologies ignore the intersection of history, generations and life-course on the one hand and the local production of identity on the other. To document the local enactment and contestation of historically specific discourses that implicate and shape identity, I analyze the identity work of thirty-seven gay men and lesbians over the age of 65. I focus on the invocation and elaboration of competing discourses of homosexuality by subjects who identified as homosexual during different stages of life and different historical eras, and suggest that these “identity cohorts” are unique, unconsidered groups whose experience can shed light on the interplay between identity, generations, and social change.     

Queer country: Rural lesbian and gay lives

Studies of rural life and lifestyles have yet to seriously address issues of sexuality. This paper outlines some of the experiences of lesbians and gay men who live in the countryside. It begins by tracing the history of the relationship between homosexuality and rurality in fiction and film, paying particular attention to the role of rural utopias in the lesbian and gay imagination. The paper then goes on to consider the structural difficulties experienced by those gay men and women who are born and raised in rural areas, and the lifestyles of those who choose to move to country locations in an attempt to create alternative communes. The paper ends with discussion of the ethics researching ‘rural others’.     

Pride and prejudice: employment discrimination against openly gay men in the United States

This article presents the first large-scale audit study of discrimination against openly gay men in the United States. Pairs of fictitious résumés were sent in response to 1,769 job postings in seven states. One résumé in each pair was randomly assigned experience in a gay campus organization, and the other résumé was assigned a control organization. Two main findings have emerged. First, in some but not all states, there was significant discrimination against the fictitious applicants who appeared to be gay. This geographic variation in the level of discrimination appears to reflect regional differences in attitudes and antidiscrimination laws. Second, employers who emphasized the importance of stereotypically male heterosexual traits were particularly likely to discriminate against openly gay men. Beyond these particular findings, this study advances the audit literature more generally by covering multiple regions and by highlighting how audit techniques may be used to identify stereotypes that affect employment decisions in real labor markets.     

Therapy with lesbian and gay parents and their children

This article explores some of the social and clinical issues facing the many different kinds of gay and lesbian families that are becoming increasingly visible in the United States. Research findings are discussed that dispel popularly held myths and stereotypes concerning these families, gays and lesbians as parents, and their children. Clinical vignettes are presented to illustrate issues often encountered in the consulting room, some unique to gay and lesbian families and some common to all families.     

The Socioeconomic Attainment Patterns of Africans in the United States1

Using data from the public use micro data sample of the 1990 U.S. census, we examine the socioeconomic attainment patterns of Africans in the United States, within the context of the assimilation and selectivity perspectives. Three primary findings emerge from this study. First, we find that white African men and men from English‐speaking Africa have higher net hourly earnings than their nonwhite and non‐English‐speaking counterparts. Second, we find that while South African men have higher net hourly earnings than men from a number of selected African countries, there is no statistically significant difference between the net hourly earnings of South African women and women from these selected African countries. Third, we find no statistically significant difference between the net hourly earnings of black African and black American men and women.     

Czech lesbian activism: gay and lesbian parental rights as a challenge to patriarchal marriage

In their advocacy for the legal recognition of same-sex relationships during the 1990s, prominent Czech gay rights activists focused only on issues of sexuality and did not question the essentialist understanding of gender, especially in parenting. Consequently, even though the Czech Republic legalized registered partnerships for gays and lesbians in 2006, legal barriers now exist regarding parental rights for same-sex couples, who are prohibited from adopting children and accessing reproductive technology once they register with the state. This article examines a rising, new wave of Czech lesbian activism that has focused on gaining legal parental rights for registered same-sex couples. While lesbian activists were disempowered in terms of their public visibility as well as political involvement during the 1990s, the recent growing prominence of lesbian groups has been enabled by their stronger political focus and organizational coherence. Analyzing the lesbian activists' strategies, I show not only how lesbian activism can advance the public debate about traditional gender roles, but also how lesbian activism can strengthen the critique of the ideology of marriage.     

Patterns of economic attainment of foreign-born male workers in the United States

In 1980, only 3% of the US population was at least partly indigenous. Most of the present population of the US, except for the American Indians, Eskimos, Aleutian Islanders, and Hawaiians, has its ancestral roots outside of the US. The US is therefore a nation of immigrants. Although a nation of immigrants, the ancestral origins of most Americans are in the countries of Europe. In recent decades, however, the composition of the immigration stream to the US has changed dramatically with respect to origin. Most immigrants now hail from Asia and Latin America; Europe is no longer the main embarkation point. Given these recent changes in the points of origin of immigrants, the author investigated the economic attainment patterns and their determinants of the foreign-born male immigrant population in the US. The economic attainment patterns of males born in 92 countries are examined and compared among themselves, as well as among the principal US-born groups of Anglos, Afro-American, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, Asian Americans, and American Indians. For all foreign-born groups, the article examines the degree to which such individual-level factors as educational attainment, labor market experience, and other factors account for their variation in economic attainment. It is concluded that although microlevel characteristics are not the complete answer, they help explain the variations in earnings among most foreign-born populations.     

Racial/Ethnic Patterns of Kindergarten School Enrollment in the United States

Enrollment into unequal schools at the start of formal education is an important mechanism for the reproduction of racial/ethnic educational inequalities. We examine whether there are racial/ethnic differences in school enrollment options at kindergarten, the start of schooling. We use nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Birth Cohort (ECLS‐B) to model whether parents seek information about their child's school before enrolling, whether parents move to a location so that a child can attend a certain school, or whether parents enroll their child in a school other than the assigned public school. Results indicate that enrollment patterns differ greatly across race/ethnicity. Whereas Black families are the most likely to seek information on a school's performance, White families are the most likely to use the elite option of choosing their residential location to access a particular school. These differences persist when controlling for socioeconomic status and sociogeographic location. Kindergarten enrollment patterns preserve the advantages of White families, perpetuating racial/ethnic disparities through multiple institutions and contributing to intergenerational processes of social stratification. Research should continue to examine specific educational consequences of housing inequities and residential segregation.     

Support for gay and lesbian rights among social work students in Greece

This study explores social work students’ level of support for gay and lesbian rights. Respondents were all the students (N?=?460) attending classes in a Social Work Department in Greece. While students were generally supportive of gay and lesbian rights, a significant percentage believed that social workers should support gay and lesbian rights only when lesbians and gay men do not offend or upset others and their rights do not contradict the prevalent religion and societal values. Religiosity was an important correlate of students’ level of support for gay and lesbian rights. Findings are discussed in relation with social work education.     

Intimate partner homicide methods in heterosexual, gay, and lesbian relationships

Previous research indicates that the killing method used in homicides may reflect the motivation of the offender and qualities of the victim-offender relationship. The effect of gender and sexual orientation of intimate partner homicide offenders (N = 51,007) was examined with respect to the brutality of killing methods. Guided by previous research and theory, it was hypothesized that homicide brutality will vary with the offender's sexual orientation and gender, such that the percentage of killings coded as brutal will be higher for (a) gay and lesbian relative to heterosexual relations, (b) men relative to women, (c) gay relative to heterosexual men, and (d) lesbian relative to heterosexual women. The rates of intimate partner homicide were also hypothesized to vary with the gender of the partners, such that (a) homicide rates will be higher in gay relative to heterosexual and lesbian couples and (b) homicide rates will be lowest in lesbian couples. The results support all but one prediction derived from the two hypotheses. We predicted that men would kill their partners more brutally than would women, but the results indicate that the opposite is true.     

After coming out: Parental acceptance of young lesbian and gay people

This study examines extant scholarly knowledge on parental acceptance of young lesbian and gay people in traditional heteronormative families. Recent literature shows that parents generally accept their lesbian and gay children. However, parents do not always accept them immediately after they come out. Acceptance takes time, and transitioning to acceptance is often a complex process that depends on parents' access to the necessary resources for coping with the stresses of knowing that their child identifies as lesbian or gay. These resources include counseling or therapy, supportive friends and extended family, and a network of other parents with lesbian and gay children. This study also highlights the need for further research on parental acceptance in nontraditional families and of children with other nonheterosexual identities, such as asexuality, gray ace, bisexuality, or pansexuality. It also calls for an exploration of the complexities of parental acceptance as an ongoing process rather than as a singular event.     

Fitting In: Socio-Economic Attainment Patterns of Foreign-Born Egyptians in the United States

This paper analyzes socio-economic attainment patterns of foreign-born Egyptians in the United States, as tabulated in the 1980 U. S. Census. This is achieved first through an examination of their earnings, followed by an analysis of the rate at which their human capital characteristics are converted into wages.
The findings suggest that this more recent immigrant group has likely attained higher earnings largely because of their skills and educational levels. Thus, while assimilation theory posits the crucial importance of time as a linkage to higher socio-economic attainment, this may not necessarily be the case for these immigrant men and women.     

Reclaiming the spirit: The journeys of gay men and lesbian women toward integration

The goal of this study is to understand and describe the way gay men and lesbian women see and interpret their spiritual journeys. Its intent is to open up the variety of experiences that gay men and lesbians encounter and is, therefore, not based on a single religious tradition or path, such as through crisis or AIDS. The findings included a model which interweaves the coming out process and the spiritual journey for this group of gay men and lesbian women, highlighting the period of questioning, reclaiming, and reintegration that happens for many as they resolve their sense of themselves as sexual and spiritual. Also addressed is the choice of mainstream and non-mainstream spiritual identification. The research discussed in this report was supported in part by the University Research Council, DePaul University.