The textual version of a Pop Con 2018 panel on the "butch throat," feat. El Glasberg on Amy Ray, ... more The textual version of a Pop Con 2018 panel on the "butch throat," feat. El Glasberg on Amy Ray, Taylor Black on Joan Armatrading, Mairead Sullivan on k.d. lang, and Sarah Kessler on Tracy Chapman, with many thoughts inspired by Wayne Koestenbaum's Queen's Throat.
In this essay, I argue that lesbians have come to be a population of concern for state-based heal... more In this essay, I argue that lesbians have come to be a population of concern for state-based health organizations as a result of lesbian health activism that drew connections between breast cancer and HIV/AIDS. In order to develop this analysis, I tell the story of the rise of lesbian breast cancer activism in concert with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco in the early 1990s. The state recognition of lesbian health needs, and with it the solidification of lesbian as a biopolitical category, was catalyzed by associations with the AIDS crisis and HIV activism, but also required an articulated difference, or lesbian specificity, which breast cancer provided. And yet, documenting the multiple, and potentially contradictory, ways that these associations were made resists understanding “lesbian” as a static category.
This review synthesizes S. Lochlann Jain's monograph Malignant (2013) and Jackie Stacey's monogra... more This review synthesizes S. Lochlann Jain's monograph Malignant (2013) and Jackie Stacey's monograph Teratologies (1997).
To identify and recruit an unknown and presumably small subgroup of survivors, that is, lesbian o... more To identify and recruit an unknown and presumably small subgroup of survivors, that is, lesbian or bisexual women with breast cancer. This report describes our multistep approach to recruit a representative sample of heterosexual and sexual minority breast cancer survivors. We used census data to identify geographic areas with a greater prevalence of sexual minority women (SMW), that is, lesbian and bisexual women. We then obtained the breast cancer cases from a cancer registry for these geographic areas. In the absence of sexual orientation data in cancer registries, all potentially eligible women with breast cancer needed to be contacted by telephone to determine their sexual orientation. Among the 1341 women screened who answered the question about sexual orientation, 6.3% were SMW. Overall, we processed 4143 cases to obtain completed data on 69 SMW and 257 heterosexual women with breast cancer. Our findings suggest that it is resource intensive but feasible to recruit a representative sample of breast cancer survivors of different sexual orientations. Our findings can inform future studies that seek to recruit sexual minority populations from cancer registries about some of the limitations to this approach.
We examined social support as a facilitator of advance care planning in unmarried women of differ... more We examined social support as a facilitator of advance care planning in unmarried women of different sexual orientations. Survey participants consisted of 215 women, 90 who reported a preference for partnering with women (WPW) and 125 for partnering with men (WPM). Our findings indicate that the association between social support and advance care planning was mixed. Specifically, social support had no significant impact on executing a will for either WPW or WPM. Among WPW, naming a health-care proxy was associated with reporting a partner who provided social support. For WPM, having a partner for social support was not associated with naming a health-care proxy. These insights help in the understanding of women's advance care planning.
Sexual minority women, defined as having a lesbian or bisexual identity or reporting a preference... more Sexual minority women, defined as having a lesbian or bisexual identity or reporting a preference for a female partner, are not considered by cancer surveillance. This study assesses the representativeness of sexual minority breast cancer survivors, defined as having a lesbian or bisexual identity or reporting a preference for a female partner, who were recruited into a convenience sample compared with a population-based registry sample of sexual minority breast cancer survivors.Long-term survivors of non-metastatic breast cancer who self-reported as sexual minority were recruited from a cancer registry and subsequently from the community using convenience recruitment methods. Sexual minority breast cancer survivors who screened eligible participated in a telephone survey about their quality of life and factors associated therewith.Participants in the convenience sample were similar to the registry-based sample with respect to adjustment to cancer, physical health, trust in physician, coping, social support, and sexual minority experiences. Compared with the convenience sample, breast cancer survivors in the registry sample were more likely married, more educated, diagnosed more recently, at an earlier stage of cancer, and more likely treated with breast-conserving surgery; they differed on adjuvant therapies.Because sexual minority breast cancer survivors who volunteered for the community-based sample shared most characteristics of the sample recruited from the cancer registry, we concluded that the community sample had comparable representational quality. In the absence of cancer surveillance of sexual minorities, thoughtful convenience recruitment methods provide good representational quality convenience samples.
This study investigated associations between coming out to parents, experiences of parental suppo... more This study investigated associations between coming out to parents, experiences of parental support, and self-reported health behaviors and conditions among a population-based sample of LGB individuals using data collected via the 2002 Massachusetts Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS; N = 177). We explored the following two hypotheses: 1) Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals who had never disclosed their sexual orientation to a parent would report higher levels of risk behaviors and poorer health conditions than those who had come out; and 2) among LGB respondents who had come out to their parents, the individuals whose parents had reacted unsupportively would report higher levels of risk behaviors and poorer health conditions than those who had come out to parents who were supportive. Approximately two thirds of gay and bisexual (GB) males and lesbian and bisexual (LB) females reported receiving adequate social and emotional support from the parent to whom they first disclosed their sexual orientation. Among LB females, no disclosure of sexual orientation to a parent was associated with significantly elevated levels of past-month illicit drug use (AOR 12.16, 95% CI 2.87-51.54), fair or poor self-reported health status (AOR 5.71, 95% CI 1.45-22.51), and >15 days of depression in the past month (AOR 5.95, 95% CI 1.78-19.90), controlling for potential confounders. However, nondisclosure to a parent by GB males was not associated with greater odds of any of the health indicators assessed. Among GB males, those with unsupportive parents were significantly more likely to report current binge drinking (AOR 6.94, 95% CI 1.70-28.35) and >15 days depression in the past month (AOR 6.08, 95% CI 1.15-32.15), and among LB females, those with unsupportive parents were significantly more likely to report lifetime illicit drug use (AOR 11.43, 95% CI 2.50-52.30), and >15 days depression in the past month (AOR 5.51, 95% CI 1.36-22.36). We conclude that coming out may be associated with better health for LB women, and that parents who react nonsupportively when their children disclose LGB sexual orientation may contribute to children's increased odds of depression and hazardous substance use.
This study examined the experiences of legally unmarried, middle-aged and older sexual minority (... more This study examined the experiences of legally unmarried, middle-aged and older sexual minority (e.g., lesbian, bisexual) and heterosexual women in planning for future care needs and long-term assistance. A total of 215 women (90 sexual minority women and 125 heterosexual women) 41–78 years of age completed a survey about long-term care planning strategies, including: (1) executing a will; (2) naming a health care proxy; (3) purchasing long-term care insurance; and (4) discussing potential living arrangements with at least one family member. Overall, 18.5% of women reported completing zero of the strategies, and 3.4% reported completing all four. Over half (59%) had completed at least two strategies. Women were most likely to have executed a will (68%) and named a health care proxy (61%). Both sexual minority women and heterosexual women were most likely to have talked to a family member of choice, rather than a biological family member about living with them if they were unable to care for themselves. Currently, serving as a health care proxy was an important correlate for having made long-term care plans and was particularly important for sexual minority women. Women who are not in traditional marriage relationships tend to adopt long-term care planning strategies that legally clarify and establish the nature of their important relationships.
A special issue of Feminist Formations guest-edited by Jennifer C. Nash and Emily A. Owens (Volum... more A special issue of Feminist Formations guest-edited by Jennifer C. Nash and Emily A. Owens (Volume 27, Number 3, Winter 2015). The theme of the issue was "Institutional Feelings: Practicing Women’s Studies in the Corporate University." I participated in a virtual roundtable which responded to questions about the corporatization of higher education, and radical alternatives to this neoliberal turn. The roundtable also included responses from Katie Bashore, Heather Berg, James Bliss, Kellie Cauley, Emerald Christopher-Byrd, Ayla Engelhart, Adrian Hernandez-Acosta, Lucia Hulsether, Stephen Molldrem, Mairead Sullivan, Christina Siobhan Wells, and Lindsey Whitmore.
The textual version of a Pop Con 2018 panel on the "butch throat," feat. El Gla... more The textual version of a Pop Con 2018 panel on the "butch throat," feat. El Glasberg on Amy Ray, Taylor Black on Joan Armatrading, Mairead Sullivan on k.d. lang, and Sarah Kessler on Tracy Chapman, with many thoughts inspired by Wayne Koestenbaum's Queen's Throat.
The textual version of a Pop Con 2018 panel on the "butch throat," feat. El Glasberg on Amy Ray, ... more The textual version of a Pop Con 2018 panel on the "butch throat," feat. El Glasberg on Amy Ray, Taylor Black on Joan Armatrading, Mairead Sullivan on k.d. lang, and Sarah Kessler on Tracy Chapman, with many thoughts inspired by Wayne Koestenbaum's Queen's Throat.
In this essay, I argue that lesbians have come to be a population of concern for state-based heal... more In this essay, I argue that lesbians have come to be a population of concern for state-based health organizations as a result of lesbian health activism that drew connections between breast cancer and HIV/AIDS. In order to develop this analysis, I tell the story of the rise of lesbian breast cancer activism in concert with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco in the early 1990s. The state recognition of lesbian health needs, and with it the solidification of lesbian as a biopolitical category, was catalyzed by associations with the AIDS crisis and HIV activism, but also required an articulated difference, or lesbian specificity, which breast cancer provided. And yet, documenting the multiple, and potentially contradictory, ways that these associations were made resists understanding “lesbian” as a static category.
This review synthesizes S. Lochlann Jain's monograph Malignant (2013) and Jackie Stacey's monogra... more This review synthesizes S. Lochlann Jain's monograph Malignant (2013) and Jackie Stacey's monograph Teratologies (1997).
To identify and recruit an unknown and presumably small subgroup of survivors, that is, lesbian o... more To identify and recruit an unknown and presumably small subgroup of survivors, that is, lesbian or bisexual women with breast cancer. This report describes our multistep approach to recruit a representative sample of heterosexual and sexual minority breast cancer survivors. We used census data to identify geographic areas with a greater prevalence of sexual minority women (SMW), that is, lesbian and bisexual women. We then obtained the breast cancer cases from a cancer registry for these geographic areas. In the absence of sexual orientation data in cancer registries, all potentially eligible women with breast cancer needed to be contacted by telephone to determine their sexual orientation. Among the 1341 women screened who answered the question about sexual orientation, 6.3% were SMW. Overall, we processed 4143 cases to obtain completed data on 69 SMW and 257 heterosexual women with breast cancer. Our findings suggest that it is resource intensive but feasible to recruit a representative sample of breast cancer survivors of different sexual orientations. Our findings can inform future studies that seek to recruit sexual minority populations from cancer registries about some of the limitations to this approach.
We examined social support as a facilitator of advance care planning in unmarried women of differ... more We examined social support as a facilitator of advance care planning in unmarried women of different sexual orientations. Survey participants consisted of 215 women, 90 who reported a preference for partnering with women (WPW) and 125 for partnering with men (WPM). Our findings indicate that the association between social support and advance care planning was mixed. Specifically, social support had no significant impact on executing a will for either WPW or WPM. Among WPW, naming a health-care proxy was associated with reporting a partner who provided social support. For WPM, having a partner for social support was not associated with naming a health-care proxy. These insights help in the understanding of women's advance care planning.
Sexual minority women, defined as having a lesbian or bisexual identity or reporting a preference... more Sexual minority women, defined as having a lesbian or bisexual identity or reporting a preference for a female partner, are not considered by cancer surveillance. This study assesses the representativeness of sexual minority breast cancer survivors, defined as having a lesbian or bisexual identity or reporting a preference for a female partner, who were recruited into a convenience sample compared with a population-based registry sample of sexual minority breast cancer survivors.Long-term survivors of non-metastatic breast cancer who self-reported as sexual minority were recruited from a cancer registry and subsequently from the community using convenience recruitment methods. Sexual minority breast cancer survivors who screened eligible participated in a telephone survey about their quality of life and factors associated therewith.Participants in the convenience sample were similar to the registry-based sample with respect to adjustment to cancer, physical health, trust in physician, coping, social support, and sexual minority experiences. Compared with the convenience sample, breast cancer survivors in the registry sample were more likely married, more educated, diagnosed more recently, at an earlier stage of cancer, and more likely treated with breast-conserving surgery; they differed on adjuvant therapies.Because sexual minority breast cancer survivors who volunteered for the community-based sample shared most characteristics of the sample recruited from the cancer registry, we concluded that the community sample had comparable representational quality. In the absence of cancer surveillance of sexual minorities, thoughtful convenience recruitment methods provide good representational quality convenience samples.
This study investigated associations between coming out to parents, experiences of parental suppo... more This study investigated associations between coming out to parents, experiences of parental support, and self-reported health behaviors and conditions among a population-based sample of LGB individuals using data collected via the 2002 Massachusetts Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS; N = 177). We explored the following two hypotheses: 1) Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals who had never disclosed their sexual orientation to a parent would report higher levels of risk behaviors and poorer health conditions than those who had come out; and 2) among LGB respondents who had come out to their parents, the individuals whose parents had reacted unsupportively would report higher levels of risk behaviors and poorer health conditions than those who had come out to parents who were supportive. Approximately two thirds of gay and bisexual (GB) males and lesbian and bisexual (LB) females reported receiving adequate social and emotional support from the parent to whom they first disclosed their sexual orientation. Among LB females, no disclosure of sexual orientation to a parent was associated with significantly elevated levels of past-month illicit drug use (AOR 12.16, 95% CI 2.87-51.54), fair or poor self-reported health status (AOR 5.71, 95% CI 1.45-22.51), and >15 days of depression in the past month (AOR 5.95, 95% CI 1.78-19.90), controlling for potential confounders. However, nondisclosure to a parent by GB males was not associated with greater odds of any of the health indicators assessed. Among GB males, those with unsupportive parents were significantly more likely to report current binge drinking (AOR 6.94, 95% CI 1.70-28.35) and >15 days depression in the past month (AOR 6.08, 95% CI 1.15-32.15), and among LB females, those with unsupportive parents were significantly more likely to report lifetime illicit drug use (AOR 11.43, 95% CI 2.50-52.30), and >15 days depression in the past month (AOR 5.51, 95% CI 1.36-22.36). We conclude that coming out may be associated with better health for LB women, and that parents who react nonsupportively when their children disclose LGB sexual orientation may contribute to children's increased odds of depression and hazardous substance use.
This study examined the experiences of legally unmarried, middle-aged and older sexual minority (... more This study examined the experiences of legally unmarried, middle-aged and older sexual minority (e.g., lesbian, bisexual) and heterosexual women in planning for future care needs and long-term assistance. A total of 215 women (90 sexual minority women and 125 heterosexual women) 41–78 years of age completed a survey about long-term care planning strategies, including: (1) executing a will; (2) naming a health care proxy; (3) purchasing long-term care insurance; and (4) discussing potential living arrangements with at least one family member. Overall, 18.5% of women reported completing zero of the strategies, and 3.4% reported completing all four. Over half (59%) had completed at least two strategies. Women were most likely to have executed a will (68%) and named a health care proxy (61%). Both sexual minority women and heterosexual women were most likely to have talked to a family member of choice, rather than a biological family member about living with them if they were unable to care for themselves. Currently, serving as a health care proxy was an important correlate for having made long-term care plans and was particularly important for sexual minority women. Women who are not in traditional marriage relationships tend to adopt long-term care planning strategies that legally clarify and establish the nature of their important relationships.
A special issue of Feminist Formations guest-edited by Jennifer C. Nash and Emily A. Owens (Volum... more A special issue of Feminist Formations guest-edited by Jennifer C. Nash and Emily A. Owens (Volume 27, Number 3, Winter 2015). The theme of the issue was "Institutional Feelings: Practicing Women’s Studies in the Corporate University." I participated in a virtual roundtable which responded to questions about the corporatization of higher education, and radical alternatives to this neoliberal turn. The roundtable also included responses from Katie Bashore, Heather Berg, James Bliss, Kellie Cauley, Emerald Christopher-Byrd, Ayla Engelhart, Adrian Hernandez-Acosta, Lucia Hulsether, Stephen Molldrem, Mairead Sullivan, Christina Siobhan Wells, and Lindsey Whitmore.
The textual version of a Pop Con 2018 panel on the "butch throat," feat. El Gla... more The textual version of a Pop Con 2018 panel on the "butch throat," feat. El Glasberg on Amy Ray, Taylor Black on Joan Armatrading, Mairead Sullivan on k.d. lang, and Sarah Kessler on Tracy Chapman, with many thoughts inspired by Wayne Koestenbaum's Queen's Throat.
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