25 Years On: The State and Continuing Development of LGBTQ Studies Programs

ABSTRACT

This article serves as the introduction to “25 Years On: The State and Continuing Development of LGBTQ Studies Programs.” It begins by placing the current issue in a commemorative context: marking the anniversary of a 1993 special issue of the Journal of Homosexuality dedicated to the emergence of “Gay and Lesbian Studies” and edited by Howard L. Minton. The introduction continues by providing an overview of early phases of academic transformations, primarily in the United States, with notes on particular legacies. This is followed by a brief survey of scholarship published since 1993 that pays particular attention to curricular and pedagogical concerns. It concludes by identifying themes articulated by the essays selected for this issue as well as commentary on their individual, yet richly interrelated, contributions.     

Passing the Trash: Absence of State Laws Allows for Continued Sexual Abuse of K–12 Students by School Employees

ABSTRACT

“Passing the trash,” enabling teachers who sexually abuse students to pursue another job with no record of their sexual misconduct, is common practice for K–12 school district administrators who fear legal liability and tarnished reputations. The “Prohibition on Aiding and Abetting Sexual Abuse” provision in the United States Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015 aims to eliminate passing the trash. This study explores states’ progress toward developing and implementing relevant law and policy to comply with the provision. Researchers collected data from representatives of state departments of education, asking whether representatives were aware of the provision and what progress their state had made toward complying with it. Overall, researchers found that just four states had fully complied; several others were in the process of creating relevant policy and legislation and a few began the process in response to researchers’ queries. However, the overwhelming majority of states—39—had no plans to create relevant legislation or policy, either because they were unaware of the provision or because they believed, erroneously, that existing laws fulfilled the ESSA mandate. Passing the trash is clearly an unacceptable practice, yet research suggests it still occurs, and state-level laws and policies to prevent it are slow to emerge. The lack of knowledge or awareness exhibited by many state representatives suggests a need to educate policymakers and education leaders about what aiding and abetting sexual offenders consists of, what consequences it can have for vulnerable students, and what provisions states can enact to prohibit it.     

Understanding the Psychodynamics of Chronic Homelessness from a Self Psychological Perspective

Self psychology can help explain multiple meanings and experiences of being chronically homeless. While it is clear that homelessness is primarily caused by structural deficits and not individual characteristics, for people who are chronically homeless, this way of existence may have developed to serve a variety of coping, cohesive, and self-preserving functions as they have learned to survive and adapt to hostile environments. Through the use of self psychologically informed clinical practice, this paper explores the subject’s multiple meanings and experiences as well as the nuanced processes that led her to successfully attain permanent housing. The paper begins by discussing macro etiologies of homelessness, constructs in self psychology and strives to link the two in theory and practice by exploring one person’s life of chronic homelessness. The paper also explores ethical challenges as coercive elements factor into the case.     

Perceptual identification of talker ethnicity in Vancouver English

Studies of ethnolinguistic variation typically begin by describing the speech production variables used to index social groups. In this study, we begin with indexical recognition – the perceptual identification of speakers’ self‐identified ethnic groups – to determine whether speakers produce ethnolinguistic variation and whether listeners are sensitive to it. Speech samples were recorded from thirty individuals from Metro Vancouver who self‐identified as Chinese, East Indian, or White Canadian. These utterances were used in a perception task where listeners categorized speakers’ ethnicities. Listeners’ social networks were labeled according to the ethnic group with which they reported spending the most time. Analyses indicate that while speakers vary in their productive expression of ethnolinguistic variation, listeners are consistent in their labeling choices. Listener accuracy was higher for voices from the listeners’ reported social group and White voices. These results suggest that familiarity with ethnic groups through social networks and mainstream culture influences indexical recognition.     

Investigating important interactions between water and food security for child health in Burkina Faso

Failures in either water systems or food systems, or a combination of system failures, could provide the underlying explanation for continued high levels of malnutrition in many regions. We focus on child health and offer the first spatially explicit analysis of the interaction between water source and food insecurity on children’s health in Burkina Faso, an African nation that continues to struggle with poor children’s health. We combine data from the 2010 Demographic and Health Survey, a small USAID water quality survey collected from community wells, and remotely sensed imagery. Results suggest that, in a few cases, reliable and clean water sources are positively correlated to children’s linear growth and weight gain, although in many regions, the interaction with community-level food production is critical to understanding health outcomes. The results also suggest that maternal health and nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding are foundational to the healthy development of young children. In all, the findings provide evidence of the importance of multi-sectoral interventions targeted at improving children’s health.     

Picking up the challenge: developing a methodology to enumerate and assess the needs of the street homeless population

This study represents the first enumeration of the street homeless population in Canada. Past enumeration attempts have been challenged on their significant methodological shortcomings. This enumeration directly addressed the lessons learned from previous attempts, and improvements to the methodology are presented and discussed. In addition, lessons learned and recommendations are discussed for application to future enumerations.     

Testing the efficacy of the theory of planned behavior to explain strength training in older adults

The purpose of this study was to use the constructs of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to gain a better understanding of the factors influencing older adults' participation in strength training. Two hundred men and women age 55 years and older were purposely sampled from seniors' centers in Ontario Canada. Participants completed a TPB questionnaire and reported their current physical activity participation. It was hypothesized that perceived behavioral control followed by attitude would be the strongest determinants of strength-training intentions and that intention would be the strongest determinant of strength-training behavior. Regression analyses revealed that subjective norm and perceived behavioral control explained 42% of the variance in intention and intention explained 40% of the variance in behavior. Gender and current strength-training participation did not significantly moderate the relationship between the TPB variables. The results suggest that interventions targeting subjective norm and perceived control might be helpful in promoting strength-training behavior among older adults.     

Racial Diversity and Change in Metropolitan Neighborhoods

This study investigates the changing racial diversity and structure of metropolitan neighborhoods. We consider three alternative perspectives about localized racial change: that neighborhoods are bifurcating along a white/nonwhite color line, fragmenting into homogeneous enclaves, or integrating white, black, Latino, and Asian residents into diverse residential environments. To assess hypotheses drawn from these perspectives, we develop a hybrid methodology (incorporating the entropy index and majority-rule criteria) that offers advantages over previous typological efforts. Our analysis of 1990-2000 census tract data for the 100 largest US metropolitan areas finds that most neighborhoods are becoming more diverse and that members of all groups have experienced increasing exposure to neighborhood diversity. However, white populations tend to diminish rapidly in the presence of multiple minority groups and there has been concomitant white growth in low-diversity neighborhoods. Latino population dynamics have emerged as a primary force driving neighborhood change in a multi-group context.