Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) employees create formal and informal groups within workplaces to provide social support and to seek organizational change at their places of employment. I present a case study of a coalition of these groups working together to attain domestic partner benefits within a large three-campus…

This article explores gay and bisexual male adolescents' positive perceptions of their sexual orientation identity. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with an ethnically diverse sample of 63 gay/bisexual male adolescents in Chicago (N = 42) and Miami (N = 21). Data revealed two major conceptual categories: (1) positive personal…

Do "out" lesbian and gay faculty influence the inclusion of sexual orientation as a form of diversity in their teacher preparation programmes? Data gathered from 142 teacher preparation programmes across the USA (representing the preparation of 23,000-30,000 new teachers annually) suggest they do not. Likewise, the priority placed upon…

In Chicago's public school system, LGBT students were three times more likely than straight peers to miss school because of threats to their safety, according to 2003 districtwide survey; and students who face regular harassment were more like to drop out. In this article, the author shares her thoughts on the move of Chicago school officials to…

The high school art unit "Embracing Diversity" was the author's principal work towards the completion of a Masters thesis. The objective was to learn whether or not teaching an art unit that focused on sexual diversity could have a positive impact on the current culture one finds in high schools. The unit was found to have a positive…

Generativity is typically studied as a normative adult inclination expressed through social roles (D.P. McAdams & E. de St. Aubin, 1992). We extend this research by examining generativity through the lenses of social marginality and ritual. Toward this end, we utilize in-depth interview and observational data about family rituals from 49…

Previous research indicated that Catholic high schools in the United States were not addressing the topic of homosexuality in any significant and systematic way prior to the mid-1990s, though practitioners in Catholic high schools have begun to address the topic in recent years. This study, in sampling seven Catholic schools in the greater Chicago…