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AbstractI examine gubernatorial use of executive orders, and assess how executive action influences statute adoption. I argue that strong governors use executive orders to pursue policy objectives when they perceive legislation as unlikely to pass. Multilevel Event History Analysis of executive orders and the adoption of statutes that protect the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community from 1975 to 2013 reveals that partisan control of government and intrastate factors influence both forms of policy adoption. My findings support the strategic model that argues that executives turn to executive orders when confronting unfavourable legislative conditions, and that governors issue protections more when entering office. Legislatures respond to partisan control of the legislature and social characteristics. Further, states that have pro-LGBT executive orders in place are more likely to adopt similar statutes. My results suggest that stronger governors are more likely to issue executive orders, but it is states with weaker governors that are more likely to adopt legislation.

BackgroundThis research is about people who have intellectual disabilities and live in a secure hospital. It is about a group of people who meet at a support group. The support group is for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.MethodsThese people with intellectual disabilities helped with planning, doing, and telling other people about the research. They told their stories about going to the support group.ResultsTheir stories were joined together into a group story. The story said that the group helped people in lots of different ways. For some people going to the group was difficult at first because it was ?coming out'. This means telling other people you are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Then it got easier and people started to feel better about themselves. Then they wanted to help others and this was important in their lives.ConclusionsThis group seemed to help people get better. We have given some ideas for setting up other groups and doing more research.

This article examines processes wherein Gay Christian men transition from closeted religious people to openly Gay Christians. Based on 36 months of fieldwork in a southeastern lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Christian church and a synthesis of research into LGBT Christian experience over the past 25 years, we conceptualize these transformations as a moral career consisting of (1) essentializing religious belief and practice (2) emotionalizing early religious experience, (3) spiritualizing coming out of the closet and religion, and (4) sexualizing coming back to religious participation. In so doing, Gay Christian men interpreted the stages of their lives as an ongoing sexual–religious process wherein they became the spiritual and sexual beings they believed God always wanted them to be. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding (1) the moral career of a Gay Christian, (2) the usefulness of conceptualizing religious and sexual transitions as elements of a moral career, and (3) the reproduction of religious privilege.

Many universities in the United States have responded to calls for incorporating the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) population into diversity management. universities, however. Universities that have lagged behind may face challenges recruiting LGBT employees. In contrast, There is notable variation in response across major public research Attraction-Selection-Attrition and Spiral of Silence theories suggest that organizations actively welcoming LGBT employees may improve employee recruitment and retention. Organizations may address LGBT employee needs through domestic partner benefits. Using semi-structured questionnaires with human resources personnel at several universities, this study examines how and why domestic partner benefits and alternatives affect recruitment and retention of LGBT employees in public organizations. Findings reveal that domestic partner benefits are important for successful LGBT recruitment and retention and may provide opportunities for improved voice. Soft benefit alternatives were found mainly at universities without domestic partner benefits and offered primarily as good will gestures. Theoretical and practical implications, including contemporary diversity management discussions and organizational performance, are discussed.

We advance the literature on the demographic factors that shape organizational outcomes by analyzing the impact of the gender composition of firm leadership on the likelihood that a firm will adopt lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)-friendly policies. Drawing on social role and token theory, we test the relative impact of CEO gender and the gender composition of the board of directors separately and together in order to identify the effects of gender diversity at the top of the organization. We rely on a unique data set that includes corporate policies (gender identity and sexual orientation non-discrimination policies, domestic-partner benefits, and overall corporate equality index scores) as well as the gender of the CEO and board of directors among Fortune 500 firms over a 10-year period. Our findings suggest that firms with gender-diverse boards are more likely than other firms to offer LGBT-friendly policies, whereas findings for firms with women CEOs offer mixed results.

In this essay I argue that Luce Irigaray's description of sexual difference as "difference itself" is based on a pervasive cissexism that necessitates critical attention. I begin by outlining how placing sexual difference in the temporality of the future anterior saves Irigaray from the charges of essentialism and heterosexism. Next, I examine the moments in her texts that scholars claim provide resources for an Irigarayan discussion of the experiences of transgender, intersex, and gender-nonconforming people. I integrate these moments with the temporality of the future anterior to outline a plausible Irigarayan defense against the charge of cissexism. Finally, I argue that this defense cannot be reconciled with her claim that ontology is sexed. The only thing making Irigaray's notion of sexual difference coherent or giving it substance is the impassable limit she places between the sexes. I argue that this is a form of violence akin to the disavowal of the maternal feminine that inaugurates phallocentrism.

This article examines the meaning and potential associated with capturing reality through an analysis of the case and experience of the Karahaber (Black News) collective, a video activist group in Turkey that was particularly active in the 2005–2007 period. Operating under the slogan 'From the image of the action to the action of the image', video activists participated in and documented many street demonstrations with non-professional video cameras, producing more than 175 videos that were shared on their website. The article focuses on three specific video films produced by Karahaber that compelled its members to make a specific appraisal of their own participation and political engagement in the demonstrations: two of them documenting the hunger strike, referred to locally rather as a death fast, in protest against the F-type (cell-type) prisons, and one focusing on the attacks against transgender people by nationalist groups in Ankara. Finally, the article reflects on the relationship between reality and representation, and its role in 'being an activist camera'.

The purpose of this article is to describe how heterosexism impedes the provision of culturally competent care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) residents in long-term care (LTC) facilities. LTC facilities continue to employ staff members who lack an understanding of sexuality and sexual diversity in the elderly. In this article, we identify the heterosexual assumption, namely heterosexism, as the primary issue surrounding the holistic care of the LGBTQ elder in LTC. We first review the literature related to LGBTQ elders in LTC facilities, identifying the themes that emerged from the review, specifically the definitions of homophobia and heterosexism; perceptions of LGBTQ elders as they consider placement in LTC facilities; and staff knowledge of and biases toward sexuality and sexual diversity in LTC settings. Then, we suggest approaches for changing the culture of LTC to one in which LGBTQ elders feel safe and valued, and conclude by considering how facility leaders are in a unique position to enable LGBTQ elders to flourish in what may be their last home.

This article introduces the 'Pink Agenda' as a set of judicial, social and political instruments employed by both nation-states and international human rights institutions, such as the Council of Europe, to achieve some socio-political goals: on the one hand, the proactive promotion of specific lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identities beyond Europe; on the other, the creation of a dichotomy between tolerant and intolerant countries within the borders of Europe. The successful enactment of the 'Pink Agenda' is achieved by building and reinforcing a concept of European Sexual Citizenship that is strongly homonationalist in nature. Through an analysis of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, the article emphasises the way in which the homonationalist paradigm of sexual citizenship is applied to strengthen the divide between tolerant and intolerant member states and to suggest the existence of a difference between a queer-friendly 'West' and homophobic and transphobic non-western countries.

House Bills 4188, 4189, and 4190 are proposed by members of the Michigan Legislature and would allow agencies licensed to make foster care or adoption placement decisions in the state of Michigan to do so in accordance with their own sincerely-held religious beliefs. If enacted, the state would be prohibited from denying or revoking a license based on the failure to comply with rules if the agency cites a religious or moral objection to the rules in a written policy or statement of faith. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals and same-sex couples could be among the potential foster or adoptive parents for whom placements could be refused under this proposed legislation. This memo provides estimates for the number of children being raised by LGB individuals and same-sex couples in Michigan, along with estimates of the potential fiscal implications if these bills cause children to stay longer in the foster care system rather than being placed for adoption.

Objective: This study evaluates the effectiveness of an intervention using theater and dialogue to raise awareness about homophobia and transphobia and increase intentions to participate in macro-level change efforts around lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQQ) issues. Methods: Using a pretest–posttest design, this study examines changes in advocacy intentions around LGBTQQ issues among middle school and high school students who participated in the intervention ( n = 515). Results: Students reported a significant increase in intentions to advocate. Existing intervention behaviors and increased recognition of homophobia/transphobia as problems were associated with greater increases in intention to advocate. Respondents with higher existing intervention behaviors, as well as White students and cisgender women, reported higher advocacy intentions compared to students of color and cisgender men. Further, we found indication of greater awareness of homophobia/transphobia as a problem in school. Conclusions: Youth-led theater and dialogue-based interventions may be a promising strategy for addressing heterosexism and genderism in schools.

AbstractDuring the negotiations around the International Criminal Court's (ICC) Statute (ICCS) there was a fierce debate about the use and definition of the term 'gender' in its Article 7(3), with a sizeable number of states opposing the use of the term as a synonym for sexual orientation, which could have included lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons (LGBT). This paper is going to argue that the drafting compromise was ultimately an exercise in moral failure for the sake of the political feasibility, cementing one of the most glaring instances of discrimination, and that it is high time to correct that error, especially in the context of the rising tide of state‐sponsored homophobia that can be noticed in certain countries whose politics have drifted to the (far) right. It will examine whether the existing international criminal law does allow for the characterisation of domestic criminalisation as a crime against humanity, with or without the invocation of the term gender, and how to take the debate forward.

Abstract
The health and health-care research community is slowly turning its attention to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people of color. This study advances such efforts by exploring the relative impact of engagement in the LGBT community, religiosity, and spirituality on self-reported happiness and overall health among a national sample of black lesbians. Employing OLS (ordinary least squares) regression analysis, we find that having a higher household income, being in a romantic relationship, and having higher levels of spirituality are robust predictors of happiness, while being younger, having a higher household income, a regular health-care provider, no religious affiliation, and higher levels of spirituality all predict increased levels of self-reported overall health. We conclude that access and spirituality are key factors shaping happiness and health among black lesbian women. Future research should build upon this finding and the limited number of works exploring the unique capacities of spirituality as practiced among this population to promote positive health behaviors and shape health-related policy.

Legal enactments are de facto definitions of gender/sex and affect the day-to-day lives of trans-identified individuals. We assessed requirements for changing gender/sex designations on US driver's licenses and birth certificates alongside their potential foundations to explore these legal definitions. Analyses showed that surgico-medical authority and sex reassignment surgery were privileged over lived experiences, psychology, and physiology (e.g. genetics; hormones). Though 'biologism' is typically theorized to explain legal conceptualizations and treatments of gender/sex and transgender, we argue for a diverse set of 'bio/logics' (implicit biological decision rules) that have profoundly different implications for trans lives. Over two other possibilities (trace bio/logics: a conceptual or physiological persistence of sexed origins; and interior bio/logics: a privileging of more embedded and immutable sex features), we conclude that US state enactments of gender/sex rely on 'newborn bio/logics': those binaristic features of genital sex immediately observable in newborns and naturalized via surgico-medical authority.

This Article considers what can be learned about humanizing the modern American prison from studying a small and unorthodox unit inside L.A. County's Men's Central Jail. As a formal matter, this unit—known as K6G—is the same as every other in Men's Central, but for one key difference: its residents are exclusively gay men and transgender women. In reality, however, life in the unit contrasts dramatically with life in the rest of the Jail. Most notably, whereas the Jail's general population (GP) is almost entirely governed by rules created and violently enforced by racially stratified gangs, K6G is wholly free of so-called "gang politics" and the threat of collective violence (a.k.a. riots) that gang rule creates. K6G is also relatively free of sexual assault—no small feat given that the people housed in this unit would otherwise be among the Jail's most vulnerable residents. Although very far from ideal, in these and other ways, life in K6Gis markedly safer and more humane than elsewhere in the Jail.