LGBTQ+ individuals face discrimination and stigma in academic biology. These challenges are likely magnified for graduate students. However, there have been no studies documenting the experiences of LGBTQ+ life sciences graduate students. To address this gap, we conducted an interview study of 22 biology PhD students from 13 universities across…

Transgender college students report higher rates of discrimination in gendered restrooms than do their cisgender peers. It is critical to understand factors that promote greater acceptance of transgender students using restrooms that align with their gender identity. The current experiment examined the impact of perceived social norms on both…

Fraternal organizations have often received criticism from individuals who argue that these groups perpetuate harmful gendered norms and oppress members who identify with queer communities. However, scholars and practitioners alike have paid little attention to members who identify as bisexual/pansexual (bi/pan) within these organizations. This…

Classrooms on college campuses reflect the heteronormative assumptions of society which leaves queer students to navigate learning in a mostly heterosexual and cisgender world. This can influence students' ability to see themselves reflected in course content and it can negatively impact interactions with faculty and peers. Despite research in…

Making sense of normalized feelings in teacher education, scholarship on race and gender has spotlighted the affective and emotional landscapes of teaching and detailed how the profession has been shaped around its primary workers, cisgender straight white women. "Dis"affection, though, or unfeeling in ways that disrupt the sociality of…

Curricular content in undergraduate biology courses has been historically hetero and cisnormative due to various cultural stigmas, biases, and discrimination. Such curricula may be partially responsible for why LGBTQ+ students in STEM are less likely to complete their degrees than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts. We developed Broadening Perspective…

Dominant systems of White masculinity--or attitudes, behaviors, and ideologies rooted in White masculine dominance alongside homophobia, misogyny, and racism--within higher education impact how students frame and understand their identities and experiences during their undergraduate careers. For sexual-minority men and transmasculine individuals,…

LGBTQ+ supportive practices in college and university housing must extend beyond cursory policies and practice. Applying a critical framework, The Traditionally Heterogendered Institution (THI), this study explores the experiences of 16 LGBTQ+ students navigating college and university housing. Findings illustrate how colleges and universities…

Although Black students may share race-related experiences at predominantly White institutions (PWIs), they are a heterogeneous community with diverse identity beliefs, goals, and expectations about college. In the current study, we foreground how Black students at PWIs understand their racialized identities in relation to one another and within…

The Latino male experience in higher education often assumes a heteronormative masculinity framework without critically considering the experiences of gay Latino men as they negotiate heteronormative and heterosexist spaces within the institutional environment. Internalized masculinity constructs that begin within the familial space, and are…