Queer College Research Articles

Queerating (Creating) Harmony: Intentional and Inclusive Campus Queer Academic and Social Spaces

The creation of affirming spaces is imperative because queer students must find affinity to unpack and deconstruct the various intersections of sexuality, gender, race, and other intersectional identities that are a part of their transformational lives. This article discusses the use of the word queerating, which is an action that focuses on agency (self-identity), advocacy (self-empowerment), action (self-engagement), and actualization (self-efficacy). As ethno-autobiographers, the authors share their administrative and teaching journeys through personal vignettes, research on the history of queer spaces, and the psycho-social development of queer college students. The articles also discuss the practices, procedures, protocols, and policies necessary to queerate college spaces.

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli

Reviewed by: Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli Adam McConville Albertalli, Becky Imogen, Obviously. Balzer + Bray, 2023 [432p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780063045873 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780063045897 $12.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 9-12 Senior Imogen Scott believes everything about her is obvious: she's the straight, ever-supportive ally in her small but loving group of queer friends that includes a recently out pansexual bestie, a lesbian younger sister, and boldly confident lesbian new girl Gretchen. Terrified of overstepping into a space where others seem so confidently queer, Imogen has always quashed her own possible attraction to girls, until her best friend Lili's lie about their shared past leads to Imogen pretending to identify as bisexual during a weekend college visit. Initially uncomfortable playing along, Imogen quickly finds herself at home with Lili's new queer college friends, though. Soon, playful, potentially flirtatious banter with cute dormmate Tessa has Imogen wondering if her sexuality isn't as clear to her as she thought. Drawn from Albertalli's experience with coming out, this novel offers an endearing story of one teen's struggle for self-acceptance. Imogen admits to being stuck in her head, and the narrative thus spends a lot of time stuck in her cycle of self-doubt, but interspersed text messages, including adorably fun conversations between Imogen and Tessa, break up the endless ruminating. As Imogen frees herself to act on her feelings, she frees up the plot too, giving readers an up-paced, romantic, self-affirming conclusion complete with grand gestures. Friends both at home and on campus, meanwhile, provide a diverse mix of races, genders, and sexualities, making for a rainbow of personalities that avoid the sense of checkbox-motivated intentionality. A sure hit with Albertalli's existing fans, this is likely to win her more in those who want a thought-provoking take on how sometimes what you want is more obvious to your heart than to your head. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Positive Identity and Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy: Implications for Pansexual, Asexual, Demisexual, and Queer College Students

Authors examined how social support and self-compassion influenced the relationship between positive sexual identity and career decision-making self-efficacy among college students in the emerging ...

A Qualitative Study on Queer College Student Desire

While much work in the realm of higher education research has concerned LGB(T)/queer identity development, little work has sought to explore the experiences of queer students with particular attention to their sexual and romantic habits and desires. Moreover, little to no attention has been paid to how the sexual and romantic desires of queer college students are shaped by normative discourses of race, sexuality, and gender. In this qualitative study, I have sought to elucidate the experiences of queer masculine college students to better understand how their sexual desires and performances intersect with systems of domination. The findings of this work suggest that oppressive systems—such as racism, patriarchy, and trans/queerphobia—are pervasive discourses in the sexual and romantic desires of queer, masculine college students. Such findings indicate that higher education practitioners should center discussions of racism and internalized queerphobia within educational interventions meant to address topics such as healthy relationships, “hook up culture,” and safer sexual practices.

Queer-free majors?: LGBTQ + college students’ accounts of chilly and warm academic disciplines

Once enrolled in college, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) students may have to navigate heterosexism within higher education. In doing so, they might deem some fields of study as more accepting of queer discussions and queer people than others. This article uses in-depth interview data from 20 queer college students to describe the process by which respondents constructed some majors or disciplines, especially STEM fields, as queer-free and others, especially the social sciences, as queer-friendly. The discussion highlights how the academic tracking of queer students into queer-friendly fields reproduces inequalities both on campus and beyond, such as in later careers. Several policy suggestions for educators and administrators geared at reducing the “chilly” environment for queer students are noted in the conclusion.

Queer in Residence: Exploring the On-Campus Housing Experiences of Queer College Students

Queer college students experience microaggressions and macro-aggressive behaviors that may diminish positive effects of on-campus housing. This longitudinal, qualitative study examined the narratives of 12 queer college students and their experiences living on campus toward understanding the ways queer college students navigate their required on-campus housing experiences. Findings delineate the ways participants’ on-campus housing experiences are influenced by situation, self, supports, and strategies with implications for student affairs practice and research.

Risk Factors for Sexual Violence Among College Students in Dating Relationships: An Ecological Approach.

College students in dating relationships are vulnerable to sexual violence given that nine out of 10 acts of sexual violence are perpetrated by acquaintances, friends, or dating partners. Although past research has explored the risk factors for sexual violence, few studies have considered multileveled factors associated with sexual violence. This study uses the ecological model to investigate the risk factors for sexual violence among college students in dating relationships. Domains of individual, interpersonal, community, and societal levels were examined for their associations with sexual victimization. A prevalidated survey was conducted among 361 undergraduates in dating relationships from a public university in the south central United States. Chi-square tests and negative binomial regression analysis were conducted. Approximately 35% of the college students reported experiencing some form of sexual violence perpetrated by their dating partner including attempted and completed rapes. College women reported having experienced significantly higher rates of sexual violence in comparison with college men. On the contrary, this study documents the significant higher prevalence of sexual violence among heterosexual students than among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer college students for experiencing at least one type of sexual violence or unwanted sexual contacts in a dating relationship. Sexual victimization is associated with gender, sexual assertiveness, the frequency of hookups, peer deviance, parental involvement, and perceived discrimination. Participants' gender, frequent hookups, and lower sexual assertiveness are positively associated with risk of sexual victimization across all types of sexual violence. Multilevel prevention programs and strategies are needed on campuses to reduce sexual victimization among college students in dating relationships.

The Experiences Queer College Women of Color Have of Friendship

Research has shown that friendship between queer college women of color was beneficial to racial and sexual identity development. To date, no study has sought to discover the ways in which queer college women of color develop and navigate friendship connections in the context of a women’s college environment. Using relational-cultural theory and narrative inquiry, the researcher collected stories from participants in friendship pairs. Further, the researcher narrowed the collection of stories and selected representative narratives from two college contextual environments.

High-Impact for Whom? The Influence of Environment and Identity on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Queer College Students' Participation in High-Impact Practices

We used quantitative data from the National Study of LGBTQ Student Success to investigate if participation in high-impact educational practices influenced lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ+) students' academic development. We also examined if these effects are mediated by perceptions of the campus environment. Our findings suggested that undergraduate research plays a role in LGBQ+ students' academic development, with instructor relations mediating the effect.

‘I think it’s very much placed on us’: Black queer men laboring to forge community at a predominantly White and (hetero)cisnormative research institution

The sociopolitical conditions in which Black queer college men exist in often marginalize them from fully participating in and engaging with the entire campus community. Some researchers suggest that Black queer men (BQM) create counterspaces on-campus to contend with their marginalization as racial, gender, and sexual minorities. This study explores the collegiate experiences of BQM who forged community and strong interpersonal relationships through a peer-support group. Using intersectionality and queer theoretical frameworks, this study interrogates heteronormativity, cisnormativity, and racism that BQM experiences within postsecondary settings.

The Deceptive Fermata of HIV-Criminalization Law: Rereading the Case of “Tiger Mandingo” Through the Juridico-Affective

Abstract In July 2015, Michael Johnson, a twenty-three-year-old Black queer college student in Missouri, was sentenced to slightly over thirty years in prison on one count of reckless transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) to another person and on four counts of reckless attempted transmission of HIV. Johnson's conviction and exorbitant carceral sentence are not unique, however. State penal laws criminalizing the transmission of HIV have existed for well over twenty-five years and have remained nearly impervious to legal challenge throughout that time. This Article queries the continued vitality of HIV-criminalization laws and argues that their survival reflects their investment in appeals to the affective--the sensations of bodily impingement and intrusion that the terrifying spectacle of HIV is meant to conjure. The injection of the affective into the jurisprudential regime of HIV criminalization is shown to be at the core of Michael Johnson's prosecution and conviction, animating Johnson's unwitting transformation into HIV itself Reflecting on this disturbing genealogy, the discussion concludes with both legal and critical prescriptions to combat the persistence of HIV stigma. PRELUDE: THE CRIMINAL THEATER OF TIGER MANDINGO In early October 2013, a queer white male student of Lindenwood University, located in St. Charles, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, had his second sexual experience with fellow Lindenwood student Michael Johnson. (1) The two had first met through a cellphone application often used by queer men to facilitate sexual encounters; Johnson, a twenty-three-year-old Black transfer student and member of the university's wrestling team, employed the username Tiger Mandingo. (2) That evening, and his partner had condomless anal for the first time. (3) The choice to forego condom use during anal intercourse--a practice sometimes referred to as bareback sex among queer men--was allegedly made by Johnson's partner. (4) The student's interest in had been piqued because, in his words, was only [his] third [B]lack [sexual partner]. had a huge penis, and had described himself as clean, an unfortunately common euphemism for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) seronegativity. (5) On October 10, 2013, several days after their encounter, informed his partner that he had tested positive for 'a disease' and that he did not know whether a cure for it existed. (6) As he would come to understand, had tested positive for HIV. Later that same day, Johnson was pulled out of class and led away in handcuffs by [police] ... [and was] charged with [two counts] of infecting another with HIV' and four counts of 'attempting to recklessly infect another with HIV,' all felonies in the state of Missouri. (7) was immediately detained in a county jail, where he would spend the next eighteen months, primarily in solitary confinement, until his trial began on May 11, 2015. (8) The trial lasted for several days, and, after having left for some two hours to deliberate, the jury reached its verdict: was found guilty on one count of reckless transmission of HIV and on all four counts of reckless exposure of HIV. (9) The following morning, the jury convened to hear arguments about sentencing from both the prosecution and Johnson's counsel; it took them an hour to sentence to a total of slightly more than sixty years in (10) The trial judge scheduled a final sentencing hearing for July 13, 2015, during which he ruled that could serve his sentences concurrently and sentenced him to [thirty] years in prison. (11) The conviction of Michael emblematizes the egregious jurisprudential system responsible for the ongoing criminalization of the HIV-positive sexual subject. (12) The legal history of HIV criminalization, now approaching three decades in age, has been thoroughly documented by scholars whose work spans multiple disciplines; accordingly, my purpose here will not be to supplement the incisive work detailing the HIV-criminalization regime. …

Mental Health Service Utilization Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Questioning or Queer College Students

PurposeCollege students are at high risk for mental health problems, yet many do not receive treatment even when services are available. Treatment needs may be even higher among sexual minority students, but little is known about how these students differ from heterosexual peers in terms of mental health needs and service utilization. MethodsA total of 33,220 California college students completed an online survey on mental health needs (e.g., current serious psychological distress and mental health–related academic impairment) and service utilization. Using logistic regressions, we examined differences in student characteristics, mental health service use, and perceived barriers to using on-campus services by sexual minority status. ResultsApproximately 7% of students self-identified as sexual minorities. Compared with heterosexual students, sexual minority students endorsed higher rates of psychological distress (18% vs. 26%, p < .001) and mental health–related academic impairment (11% vs. 17%, p < .001) but were 1.87 (95% confidence interval: 1.50–2.34) times more likely to use any mental health services. Sexual minority students were also more likely to report using off-campus services and to endorse barriers to on-campus service use (e.g., embarrassed to use services and uncertainty over eligibility for services). ConclusionsSexual minority individuals represent a sizeable minority of college students; these students use mental health services at higher rates than heterosexual peers but have high rates of unmet treatment need. Efforts to address commonly reported barriers to on-campus service use, foster sexual minority-affirmative campus environments, and promote awareness of campus services may help reduce unmet treatment need in this population.

To Be or Not To Be Out in the Classroom: Exploring Communication Privacy Management Strategies of Lesbian, Gay, and Queer College Teachers

Lesbian, gay, and queer (LGQ) teachers often deal with the tension between disclosing and concealing their sexual orientations in the college classroom. This article presents the results of a qualitative interview study with 29 self-identified LGQ college teachers about their choices to disclose or conceal their sexual identities. Using Communication Privacy Management (CPM) as a theoretical framework, interview transcripts were thematically analyzed for privacy rule criteria and disclosure/concealment strategies. This study contributes to previous understanding of CPM by magnifying five strategies for disclosing or concealing sexual identity: selection, reciprocity, ambiguity, deflection, and avoidance. These findings are discussed in greater detail, and implications for CPM theory and teacher sexual identity disclosure in the classroom are further explored.

It's Not Burnout, It's More: Queer College Activists of Color and Mental Health

A phenomenological study of the experiences of self-identified queer activists of color revealed how they coped with the competing demands of academics, family, and activism. While participants exhibited innumerable strengths, they often contended with external and internal pressures, limited social support, poor boundaries, and lack of self-care. The absence of social support, in conjunction with poor self-care, a heightened sense of responsibility for others, and multiple minority identity explorations, left college student activists experiencing burnout, compassion fatigue, and in some cases suicidal ideation.