Activating adult allies from a rural community on lesbian,gay, bisexual,transgender, and queer student issues in school using photovoice

Purpose: Many students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) face hostile school environments that can negatively impact their mental health and education. This study involved a photovoice project where high school students from a gay-straight alliance in the rural southeastern United States took photographs that depicted the issues LGBTQ students were facing and then exhibited their photographs and stories to individuals from the school system and local community to promote awareness, dialogue, and action. Methods: Twenty adults who attended the photovoice exhibit responded to an online survey about their experiences with the intervention. Results: Eighty-five percent of adults reported that the intervention made them think about issues they had not previously considered, including the struggles LGBTQ youths face, gender issues, and living in a rural community. Common emotions experienced at the intervention included feeling excited, concern for the youths, and proud of the youths. Furthermore, 81% of the adults indicated that they would take action or behave differently as a result of the intervention, including supporting and affirming LGBTQ students, using gender-neutral and -inclusive language, and confronting bias in themselves and others. Conclusions: Photovoice is a promising strategy for LGBTQ students to activate adult allies in their community.     

Queering Counselor Education: Situational Analysis of LGBTQ+ Competent Faculty

Research demonstrates counselor educators often lack skills and knowledge to train counselors to become lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other sexualities and gender identities (LGBTQ+) competent. This study explores the process of educators integrating LGBTQ+ competencies into their professional work. Using grounded theory and situational analysis methodologies, in-depth interviews with seven LGBTQ+ competent counselor educators were conducted and analyzed. Findings suggest educators infuse personal passion for LGBTQ+ topics into their professional work, experienced discrimination and resistance across multiple domains, infuse advocacy into their work, and have a similar definition of LGBTQ+ competent counseling. Various techniques are presented to help educators infuse LGBTQ+ competency in the classroom.     

Mental Health and Clinical Correlates in Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Queer Young Adults

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the prevalence of mental health disorders and their clinical correlates in a university sample of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) students. Participants: College students at a large public university. Methods: An anonymous, voluntary survey was distributed via random e-mail generation to university students during April and May of 2011. LGBQ students were compared with their heterosexual counterparts on psychological and physical status as well as academic performance. Results: LGBQ students reported worse depressive symptoms, higher levels of perceived stress, considered themselves less attractive, and were more likely to be overweight. LGBQ students were significantly more likely to report histories of affective, substance use, and certain anxiety disorders as well as compulsive sexual behavior and compulsive buying. Conclusions: The higher rates of many psychiatric conditions among LGBQ students underscore the need for universities to provide LGBQ students a nonjudgmental environment to discuss sexual orientation and health issues.     

Fetishizing the health sciences: Queer theory as an intervention

Queer theory often falls impotent in its palatability across disciplinary lines. I offer a conceptual article that interrogates the dis-ease and divide when considering queer theory in and for the health sciences. In so doing, I look to foster a process of making queer theory more tenable to applied practice—and to make practice in social work, at least, more queer. The exemplar of HIV is deconstructed as a preeminent discourse and health disparity. In the end, it is argued that queer theory may be an essential intervention in the arsenal of the helping professions.     

Homonationalism

This article tracks Jasbir Puar's term “homonationalism” as its meaning has transformed in her scholarly work as well that of Maya Mikdashi. I argue that homonationalism has evolved from its original formulation as, in part, a critique of politics, into, in its current guise, a diagnostic of international political relations. Although this transition offers insight into the international scene, I argue that homonationalism also loses its distinctiveness as a political formation in its own right as well as its critical capacity in the process. In particular, I argue that homonationalism becomes incapable of critically evaluating activist strategies, practices and discourses of political resistance.     

Introduction: “There Is a Person Here”: An Interview with Judith Butler

In this interview, the coeditors, along with other contributors, ask Judith Butler a variety of questions regarding queer theory, gender identities, scientific and legal discourse, bodily abjection, race and class positioning, and political organizing. This range of subject matter suggests not only the breadth of Butler's work, but also its applicability to any number of people, whose relation to theory ranges from highly politicized to politically indifferent. The interview demonstrates the responsiveness of Butler's work to cultural translation and political action.     

Media and Popular Culture Representations of LGBT Bullying

SUMMARY

This article critically reviews diverse representations of bullying of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in contemporary media: cinema, television, journals, Web sites, fiction, children's books, comics, music, advertising, and pornography.     

From Otherness to Alliance

Abstract

The first part of this article presents the epistemological evolution of the therapeutic frameworks regarding the treatment of transgender individuals and their partners. It outlines a medical approach and two others-the developmental approach and the deconstructive approach, ones not based on the conception of transgender identity as pathological. Two case studies of couples presenting with gender identity-related issues illustrate their application with particular emphasis on the relational process of gender identity formation and on partners of transgender-identified persons.     

When images matter: Internet child pornography, forms of observation and an ethics of the virtual

The arrest of Pete Townshend, lead guitarist for The Who, for downloading and possessing Internet child pornography and the publicity surrounding the case provides an initial point of discussion concerning the emergence of an ethics of the image that is not predicated on the actual evidential status of that image but on more virtual forms of observation. The discussion in this article focuses on three substantive aspects of this event - legislation in the UK and the US, expert psychological discourse, and public discussion in the UK press - in order to present a particular and situated rendering of forms of virtual observation. The context to this discussion concerns the notion that digital imaging technology presages a need for new legislation, law enforcement and social analytical frameworks for understanding and tackling the production, distribution and consumption of images of child sexual abuse.     

Queers,Bodies and Postmodern Sexualities: A Note on Revisiting the “Sexual” in Symbolic Interactionism

This article reflects on the linkage between developments in symbolic interactionist theory over the past thirty years and the sociological study of the social construction of sexualities. After some personal reflections on the development of the theory, four main themes are highlighted: the links to postmodernism and queer theory; the paths to new research styles; some internal problems with the theory; and the need to reinstall the importance of the body. The article concludes that symbolic interactionism remains a major approach to the study of sexuality.