LGBTQ+ Studies

Queer Methods and Methodologies provides the first systematic consideration of the implications of a queer perspective in the pursuit of social scientific research. This volume grapples with key contemporary questions regarding the methodological implications for social science research undertaken from diverse queer perspectives, and explores the limitations and potentials of queer engagements with social science research techniques and methodologies.

This essential book examines the usefulness of current frameworks for research with GLBT populations and highlights the necessity for greater complexity in the conceptualization and design of research with these populations. Specifically, Research Methods with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations discusses: eight strategies that "outsiders" can use to overcome barriers to doing their work ; the challenges of finding and studying older members of gay and lesbian communities ; the special challenges that studying gay drug users pose to the researcher ; factors affecting research with urban Black and African-American GLBT populations ; sampling issues, including ways to overcome the challenges of conducting research with sexual minority adolescents, issues related to dealing with institutional review boards, and lessons derived from empirical articles in the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services ; unique features of AIDS ; service organizations to consider when developing an evaluation strategy ; ethical standards for research and evaluation with GLBT populations, and a great deal more.

Gay Science is the first comprehensive examination of the ethical questions surrounding sexual orientation research. Bioethicist Timothy Murphy presents the views of many gay men and women who detect ominous motives behind this research. Murphy acknowledges that much of sexual orientation research to date has been bad science, questionable in its motives and methodologically unsound. He examines the social and historical conditions, from the 1880s to the present, that spawned this research and reviews the findings that have often perpetuated confusion about homosexuality. He assesses five major studies on sexual orientation undertaken in the 1990s, from neuroanatomist Simon leVay's study of certain brain structures in gay men to the work of psychologist Joseph Nicolosi. He questions the flawed and simplistic assumptions about sexuality made by much of this research, Murphy argues that a true science of sexual orientation would not be focused exclusively upon homosexuality nor presuppose its pathology.

What makes people gay, lesbian, bisexual, or heterosexual, and do people care? Written by one of the leading scientists in the research of sexual orientation, Queer Science looks at how scientific discoveries about homosexuality influence society's attitude toward gays and lesbians, beginning with the theories of the German sexologist and gay-rights pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld and culminating with the latest discoveries in brain science, genetics, endocrinology, and cognitive psychology.

Out of the Closet, Into the Archives takes readers inside the experience of how it feels to do queer archival research and queer research in the archive. The archive, much like the closet, exposes various levels of public and privateness—recognition, awareness, refusal, impulse, disclosure, framing, silence, cultural intelligibility—each mediated and determined through subjective insider/outsider ways of knowing. The contributors draw on their experiences conducting research in disciplines such as sociology, African American studies, English, communications, performance studies, anthropology, and women's and gender studies. These essays challenge scholars to engage with their affective experience of being in the archive, illuminating how the space of the archive requires a different kind of deeply personal, embodied research.

Bodies of Evidence: The Practice of Queer Oral History is the first book to provide serious scholarly insight into the methodological practices that shape lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer oral histories. Each chapter pairs an oral history excerpt with an essay in which the oralhistorian addresses his or her methods and practices. With an afterword by John D'Emilio, this collection enables readers to examine the role memory, desire, sexuality, and gender play in documenting LGBTQ communities and cultures.