Sexual minority young people (SMYP) show higher levels of substance use than their heterosexual counterparts. This study aims to test potential LGBT community‐specific reasons assumed to affect ...substance use and their relationships to LGBT community participation/connectedness and substance use behaviour.
Eight LGBT community‐specific reasons for substance use were tested in an online survey with 1,556 SMYP.
Respondents agreed that the LGBT community had liberal attitudes towards substance use (80.5%, n=1,079) and that the media portrayed substance use as a part of the community culture (66.5%, n=904). Participants disagreed that excessive partying is a part of the community (34.7%, n=470). Significant but weak correlations between reasons and community participation/connectedness or personal substance use behaviour were found. Subgroup analyses indicated male and gay/lesbian participants showed differential agreement levels to some of the reasons.
Young people’s perceptions of substance use within the LGBT community are not associated with community participation/connectedness or personal substance use.
Further research is needed to better understand what factors lead to elevated levels of substance use in SMYP. This may assist in the development of adequate public health responses. Targeting problematic beliefs may have little impact on substance use in SMYP.
The Loud Minority Gillion, Daniel Q
2020, 2020-03-10, Letnik:
9
eBook
How political protests and activism influence voters and candidates The "silent majority"—a phrase coined by Richard Nixon in 1969 in response to Vietnam War protests and later used by Donald Trump ...as a campaign slogan—refers to the supposed wedge that exists between protestors in the street and the voters at home. The Loud Minority upends this view by demonstrating that voters are in fact directly informed and influenced by protest activism. Consequently, as protests grow in America, every facet of the electoral process is touched by this loud minority, benefiting the political party perceived to be the most supportive of the protestors' messaging.Drawing on historical evidence, statistical data, and detailed interviews about protest activity since the 1960s, Daniel Gillion shows that electoral districts with protest activity are more likely to see increased voter turnout at the polls. Surprisingly, protest activities are also moneymaking endeavors for electoral politics, as voters donate more to political candidates who share the ideological leanings of activists. Finally, protests are a signal of political problems, encouraging experienced political challengers to run for office and hurting incumbents' chances of winning reelection. The silent majority may not speak by protesting themselves, but they clearly gesture for social change with their votes.An exploration of how protests affect voter behavior and warn of future electoral changes, The Loud Minority looks at the many ways that activism can shape democracy.
The present study explores the close friendship patterns of transgender individuals by considering the role of gender identity (trans men, trans women, non-binary) and LGBT affiliation (affiliated, ...non-affiliated) on friends’ identities. Participants were 495 transgender individuals who completed a questionnaire reporting their identities as well as the identities of their close friends. Friendship patterns were explored based on the number of friends who identified as transgender/cisgender, sexual minority/heterosexual, and LGBT affiliated/non-affiliated. Overall, participants reported more cisgender (vs. transgender) friends and more sexual minority (vs. heterosexual friends), suggesting that the majority of their friendships are experienced in a cross-gender identity context. However, important friendship patterns were distinguished across LGBT affiliation and gender identity of the participant. Trans participants who were LGBT affiliated (vs. non-affiliated) reported more transgender friends, more sexual minority friends, and more LGBT affiliated friends. With regard to gender identity, trans men reported more sexual minority and more LGBT affiliated friends when compared to trans women. In addition, trans women reported more non-affiliated friends than both trans men and non-binary individuals. Discussion focuses on the implications of the findings regarding the distinct experiences of trans individuals across gender identity and the common assumptions behind research that frames transgender experience within the larger LGBT community.
Little research has examined the experiences of plurisexual women (i.e., those with attractions to more than one gender) during the transition to parenthood, despite the fact that many plurisexual ...women intend to become parents. Further, no research has specifically explored plurisexual mothers' lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community connections, although many studies highlight the importance of social support for (a) sexual minority individuals and (b) mothers. The current study investigated LGBTQ community connections among 29 plurisexual women with different-gender partners during the perinatal period. Participants completed interviews once during late pregnancy, and three times in the year after giving birth. Thematic analysis of the interview data explored how participants conceptualized community, finding that women varied in their level of and desire for engagement in both LGBTQ and parenting communities. Participants' accounts suggested that various barriers restricted their involvement (e.g., practical barriers such as time constraints, community-level barriers such as perceived rejection from LGBTQ communities, and psychological factors such as internalized stigma). At the same time, several women identified LGBTQ others as sources of support during the transition to parenthood, and many expressed a desire for their children to be connected to LGBTQ communities. Findings have implications for how researchers conceptualize community, provide insight into the disconnection between plurisexual women and LGBTQ communities, and suggest possibilities to increase LGBTQ community accessibility during this period.
Public Significance Statement
This qualitative, longitudinal study expands our understanding of an at-risk yet understudied group: sexual minority mothers with different-gender partners. This analysis of 29 participants' LGBTQ community involvement advances our conceptualization of community and sheds light on the barriers preventing women from accessing community support.
This article explores the strategies of queer playing of video games and their relationship to the heteronormative game culture. Its premise is that most video games are, either implicitly or ...explicitly, heteronormative and the inscribed player of such games is in the majority of cases a heterosexual male. In order to achieve the same level of identification with an avatar and to enjoy a similar gameplay experience as the heterosexual player, the LGBT player may have to deploy various strategies to challenge the game and work around it, or to find the LGBT content which some more progressive games offer. The study is based on in-depth qualitative interviews with six players (5 males and 1 female) who identified themselves both as homosexual and as players of the Mass Effect or Dragon Age series, games that include several opportunities to initiate same-sex romance. We have identified three different queer playing strategies: imaginative play (queer reading of unspecified or heterosexual characters), stylized performance (the use of gay stereotypes to mark one as queer) and role-playing of a LGBT character. However, players do not seek sexuality in games to the same extent as they do in film or TV, and they tend to use these strategies, and especially the latter two, reluctantly or with reservations. These reservations may be linked to our finding that LGBT players consider their gay (or lesbian) identities disconnected from their identities as players or gamers. This can be explained by the mutual exclusivity of gay communities and the heteronormative game culture.
Los mercados de trabajo han estado acompañados de mecanismos que discriminan y segregan a ciertos grupos de la sociedad por su orientación sexual, sin importar las capacidades y potencialidades de ...los individuos. Este artículo presenta la caracterización de los perfiles empresariales y ocupacionales de un grupo de la comunidad LGBT en la localidad de Chapinero en BogotáColombia. La metodología empleada se basó en la implementación de entrevistas semiestructuradas, partiendo de un análisis descriptivo. Se encontró, en primer lugar, que la discriminación y segregación ocupacional varía para hombres homosexuales, mujeres lesbianas, personas bisexuales y transgeneristas, es decir, está en función de la identidad, construcción y manifestación corporal de la sexualidad; y en segundo lugar, las condiciones laborales de las personas entrevistadas afectan negativamente su calidad de vida.
This paper explores the history and modern-day social relevance of state-sanctioned acceptance and support of trans-identified individuals in Iran. As a result of a declaration made by Supreme Leader ...Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1987, Gender Confirmation Surgery (GCS) has become a state-subsidized option for trans-identified persons looking to transition. Iran now completes more GCS annually than almost any other nation. Additionally, Iran furnishes its newly transitioned citizens with new identification, corresponding rights, and other tools to proceed in a gender-segregated society. Although these statistics may seem progressive, other alternative expressions of sexual identity are illegal and even punishable by death. Research indicates that trans-exceptionalism in Iran creates pressure for non-trans-identified men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with women (WSW) to undergo GCS in order to gain legality, safety, and acceptance in Iran. Furthermore, the social experience of the LGBT community as a whole has not caught up to the progressive policies that some in this community enjoy.
The authors set out to study institutional work under complexity building on the struggle for legitimacy of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community in Israel as their case study. ...The authors took a discursive approach and were interested in what actors claim they do. The findings suggest that actors manipulate the intentions and outcomes of their acts, thereby claiming for actorhood or negating it. These differential constructions are not random but echo the norms of the discursive spaces within which they are presented and interact with other actors’ work. Overall, the authors argue that actorhood is not a pre-condition for institutional work, nor is it its outcome, but rather an integral part thereof.
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