Teachers' Experiences With LGBTQ+ Issues in Secondary Schools: A Mixed Methods Study.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated teachers' experiences with LGBTQ+ instruction as well as other school environment changes related to LGBTQ+ issues. It looked at teachers' attitudes towards LGBTQ+ individuals, comfort levels with the topics and administrative support, self-perceived knowledge and teacher preparation, and supports and barriers to instruction. Lastly, the study investigated teachers' in-service and pre-service training experiences. DESIGN: Using a sequential mixed methods approach, research began with qualitative inquiry, followed by quantitative assessment via self-administered paper surveys. METHODS: There were 11 in-depth participant interviews, and 94 surveys assessing teachers' attitudes, comfort levels, self-perceived knowledge and preparation, and supports and barriers to LGBTQ+ topics. RESULTS: Data analysis revealed teachers' school location and pre-service and in-service training experiences impacted comfort levels and self-perceived knowledge and preparation levels to teach these issues. Data also indicated that new teachers were the least comfortable with LGBTQ+ topics in the classroom and school environment. CONCLUSION: Data demonstrated lack of LGBTQ+ teacher training, indicated need to support new Health Education professionals, and inadequate pre-service teacher training.

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

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.

The Last Closet: LGBTQ+ Studies and Social Class.

This essay examines the intersection of queerness and social class as it impinges on the field of LGBTQ+ studies. Specifically, it considers some of the disciplinary aims of queer critique in relation to the challenges facing first-generation queer scholars; in so doing, it suggests how forms of difference operate in relation to the personal over time. As a discipline committed to intersectional frameworks, LGBTQ+ studies (and its ongoing evolution) might thus usefully foreground overlapping understandings of outsiderness: namely, how queerness might be experienced as a form of class, and how class might be experienced as a form of queerness.

Sexual and Gender Diversities: Implications for LGBTQ Studies.

This think piece provides a critical analysis of the terms lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) from an international perspective that draws on citizenship studies, providing some indications of the implications for LGBTQ studies. It outlines difficulties with the LGBTQ acronym in the Global North and South. Internationally, scholarship to support the human rights of non-heterosexuals and gender-diverse people is badly needed, but the think piece concludes that it is crucial to consider the social context of different cases, and to address the materialist, cultural, neo-colonial, and other forces that affect the formation of non-heterosexual and gender-diverse identities.

Getting Disciplined: What's Trans* About Queer Studies Now?

This essay maps the epistemological terrain trans* studies may face as it is widely incorporated into queer studies programs, often housed within women's studies departments. Over the past two decades, queer studies and women's studies have rapidly professionalized, producing new modes of disciplinary power that may seek to either include or cite trans* studies, often without fully welcoming its specific material and political investments. Under such conditions, trans* studies may find itself heard largely as a but-an epistemic blockage, a distraction from proper objects, a hindrance to customary methods-that must be disciplined.

Emergence and Development of LGBTQ Studies in Post-Socialist Bulgaria.

This article explores the development of LGBTQ studies and scholarship in Bulgaria. In part, it brings to the forefront the personal experiences of some of the first Bulgarian scholars working on LGBTQ studies. The personal is interpreted in part through explorations of Bourdieu's concept of "symbolic violence." Elaborating on the challenges regarding the emergence and the development of LGBTQ studies on an institutional and personal level, I discuss three main topics: (1) the emergence and the development of LGBTQ scholarship and university courses in Bulgaria; (2) the main institutional obstacles and the "symbolic violence" within the academia against scholars dealing with LGBTQ subjects, including issues of funding, evaluation, and discrimination; and (3) the future development of the subject in Bulgaria, with a particular attention to the need for "LGBTQ studies solidarity" to overcome the disadvantaged position of LGBTQ scholars in post-socialist countries.

When Queerness Meets Intersectional Thinking: Revolutionizing Parallels, Histories, and Contestations.

Intuitively distinguishing the myriad of critically informed paradigms requires an in-depth analysis of genealogies, histories, and philosophical underpinnings grounding each paradigm. Despite significant parallels between queer theory and intersectionality theory, the distinction of these two paradigms acts in both complicated and complementary manners that necessitate a dialogue on the contributions emanating from both paradigms to LGBTQ studies. This article targets the following goals: (1) explicate genealogy, history, and philosophical tenets of intersectionality and queer theory; (2) dialogue about the complementary yet complex relationships between the two paradigms; and (3) illustrate the promise of the complex relationship and distinction for LGBTQ studies.

Educating New Generations: Standpoints in Women's and Gender Studies and Implications for the Inclusion of LGBTQ Studies in Italian University Courses.

It should not be surprising that in Italy, one of the latest European countries to recognize same-sex couples, LGBTIQ+ concerns are not included in students' academic curricula. Therefore, following the historical path of gender studies (GS) and women's studies (WS), this article explores the current feminist and gender discourse in order to catch a glimpse of what will be needed to fill this gap. To clarify which women's and gender studies standpoints are taught to new generations in Italy, lexicometric and correspondence analysis were performed on the descriptions of universities courses teaching WS and GS perspectives. Although the international spread of these two perspectives in academia is still wide, the results indicate a consistent lack of these courses in Italian institutions of higher education and, moreover, separate viewpoints associated with the two perspectives.

Grindr Killed the Gay Bar, and Other Attempts to Blame Social Technologies for Urban Development: A Democratic Approach to Popular Technologies and Queer Sociality.

This article complicates the popular contention that "Grindr is killing the gay bar" by using qualitative interviews with Grindr users and a diverse literature on urban development. To better understand the factors that have gone into the changing face of the gayborhood and the closing of gay bars, this article encourages stakeholders to focus on a democratic approach to these technologies and considers Grindr and similar apps along with many other factors that affect urban development.

Weaving a wide net.

SUMMARY Any single approach tostudents' heterosexism and homophobia, however well conceived and executed, is most successful when supported by an integrated campus approach to the problem. Taking as a model the multifaceted efforts at California State University, Fresno-a large public institution located in what can be considered the state's Bible Belt-this essay discusses the strengths and logistics of a campus-wide program to address homophobia and alleviate LGBTQ students' feelings of alienation from the institution and their oppression in society. The efforts of CSUF take place at a number of different levels-classroom, academic department, student services, faculty networking-and can be considered a successful work in progress.