The GSA difference: LGBTQ and ally experiences in high schools with and without gay-straight alliances

Sherpa Romeo green journal: open accessWe examine the lived experiences of high-school students who participated in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)-centered activism of some kind, highlighting the promise of gay-straight alliance groups by comparing the experiences of students at schools with gay-straight alliances (GSA schools) with the experiences of students at schools that did not have an LGBTQ-specific group (no-GSA schools). We compare students at GSA and no-GSA schools based on their experiences of harassment, experiences of support from authority figures, and patterns of friendships. We find that students at both types of schools experienced harassment and heard negative comments about lesbian and gay people. However, students at GSA schools reported more support from teachers and administrators than students at no-GSA schools, who have stories of teachers and administrators actively opposing equality for LGBTQ people. Students at GSA schools reported a wide variety of friendships across sexual identities, while students at no-GSA schools felt more isolated and withdrawn. This much-needed qualitative comparative analysis of students’ experiences brings a human face to the improved quality of life that schools with gay-straight alliances can bring to young people.Ye

The GSA Difference: LGBTQ and Ally Experiences in High Schools with and without Gay-Straight Alliances

Abstract: We examine the lived experiences of high-school students who participated in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)-centered activism of some kind, highlighting the promise of gay-straight alliance groups by comparing the experiences of students at schools with gay-straight alliances (GSA schools) with the experiences of students at schools that did not have an LGBTQ-specific group (no-GSA schools). We compare students at GSA and no-GSA schools based on their experiences of harassment, experiences of support from authority figures, and patterns of friendships. We find that students at both types of schools experienced harassment and heard negative comments about lesbian and gay people. However, students at GSA schools reported more support from teachers and administrators than students at no-GSA schools, who have stories of teachers and administrators actively opposing equality for LGBTQ people. Students at GSA schools reported a wide variety of friendships across sexual identities, while students at no-GSA schools felt more isolated and withdrawn. This much-needed qualitative comparative analysis of students' experiences brings a human face to the improved quality of life that schools with gay-straight alliances can bring to young people

Rethinking Institutional Infrastructures: Institution Building as Social Movement Activity

*Social movements rely on institutional infrastructures—organizations and networks external to movements that provide supports to social movements—but comparative work is required to understand divergences in the strength of institutional infrastructures in similar movements across national borders. I conduct a historical, comparative analysis of the religious right in Canada and the United States using secondary sources. I examine the historical process of institution building in conservative, evangelical Christian communities from 1920-1950. I show that the large, dense network of para-church organizations established by conservative, evangelical Christians in the United States was not similarly established in Canada. I identify two historical factors in this critical juncture: the role of denominations and bureaucratic regulation of broadcast radio. I argue that this critical juncture produced divergences in institution building that, decades later, affected the supports available to the religious right movements in these countries.

Ex-gay Rhetoric and the Politics of Sexuality: The Christian Antigay/Pro-family Movement's 'Truth in Love' Ad Campaign

In 1998, a coalition of antigay, pro-family activist organizations published a set of full-page print advertisements in several nationally-recognized newspapers. These ads promoted sexual ("ex-gay") conversion therapy for homosexuals. I examine these advertisements as a contest over cultural symbols and values, and over the very definition of lesbian and gay identity. This discursive contest had the potential to impact activist politics greatly, but this impact was mitigated significantly by a similar set of ads produced in response by an opposing movement: the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement. The interactive dynamics between opposing movement impact the political field in which activists on each side pursue their goals

The Religious Right in the United States and Canada: Evangelical Communities, Critical Junctures, and Institutional Infrastructures

Why has the religious right been more influential in the United States than in Canada? Traditional approaches to the study of social movements focus only on the life of the movement, from emergence to decline. Instead, I conduct a historical, comparative analysis on the pre-movement activities of evangelical Christian communities in these two countries from 1925-1975. Employing insights from historical institutionalism, I identify two critical junctures in the historical development of evangelical communities that suppressed the entrepreneurship and institution-building activities of Canadian evangelicals relative to those in the United States. I find that these divergences in institution building affected the size and strength of the institutional infrastructures—supportive organizations, networks, and resources—of the religious right movements in these countries. I argue that historical, comparative analysis in general, and historical institutionalism in particular, is useful to social movement scholarship's understanding of cross-national movement comparisons

u.s. attitudes toward lesbian and gay people

In this article, I examine trends in attitudes toward lesbian and gay people over time in the United States, showing that they are changing rapidly in a positive direction. I consider the role of the LGBT movement, cultural shifts, and LGBT rights policy. This article was published in the Spring 2016 issue of *Contexts *(15: 20-27)

Gay-Straight Alliances in High Schools: Social Predictors of Early Adoption

In this paper, we examine the patterns of emergence of Gay-Straight Alliances in public high schools in the United States. These extracurricular student groups offer safe spaces, social support, and opportunities for activism to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and straight students. Combining data on various characteristics of public schools and state anti-discrimination laws with organizational records on the formation of Gay-Straight Alliance groups, we consider the conditions under which these groups are likely to form, as well as the social barriers to their formation. Using logistic regression and linear regression analysis, we isolate a number of characteristics common among those schools that founded the first wave of Gay-Straight Alliances. We find that the location of schools, the number of students, region of the country, and support groups outside high schools are among those social forces that promoted the early adoption of Gay-Straight Alliances in public schools

Do Same-Sex and Straight Weddings Aspire To the Fairytale? Women’s Conformity and Resistance to Traditional Weddings

Abstract Critical heterosexuality studies demonstrates the role of the traditional, white wedding in the reproduction of heteronormativity and gender and contribute to a social order that privileges white, middle-class, heterosexual married couples over other relationships. On the other hand, social science research points to the ways that same-sex weddings offer a site of resistance to heteronormativity and traditional gender roles. We analyze in-depth interviews with women in straight and same-sex marriages. We find that women in straight marriages are more likely to embrace the traditional, white wedding than those in same-sex marriages. Women planning same-sex weddings think deeply about their wedding ceremonies as they relate to heteronormativity. Some participants reject traditional weddings as excessively costly and wasteful. We argue that, while weddings are often sites for the celebration of consumerism, traditional gender and heterosexuality, they can also be sites of resistance that challenge these same social norms

Solidarity or Schism: Ideological Congruence and the Twitter Networks of Egyptian Activists

Social movements scholarship on the role of coalitions in advancing social change claims that communication across ideological boundaries can foster a collective identity among diverse groups of activists. New communications technology, especially activists' widespread adoption of social media, calls into question whether these claims apply equally to online social media-based coalitions. Using the case of the Egyptian revolution in the Arab Spring, we conduct a series of social network analyses of the Twitter networks of activists. We find that social movements coalitions theory accurately predicts the conditions under which coalitions form and dissolve for online activists, as it does for on-the-ground activists. Among activists of diverse ideologies, we identify a pattern of solidarity in the early days of the revolutionary period, followed by a period of schism after a military crackdown on protestors. This research extends social movements theory to the sphere of digital activism