Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In-depth conversations with 48 self-identified bisexual women and men attempt to re-evaluate West and Zimmerman’s (1987) concept of “doing gender,” and West and Fenstermaker’s (1995) “doing difference.” In this paper I apply these previous conceptualizations to what I have conceptualized as “doing bisexuality.” The “hidden” status of bisexual identities reveals how sex, gender and sexuality are accomplished simultaneously (although to varying degrees), and that “doing bisexuality” is eclipsed by the heterosexual matrix. The conflict between “social bisexual identity” and “individual bisexuality identity” creates a sexual “identity crisis” as respondents are more often than not expected to pledge allegiance to the hetoro-homo dichotomy, thus leaving little room for a distinct bisexual identity to exist. This eclipse of bi identities happens when one must rely on the interaction and interpretation of others with regard to forming a social identity, and when outside actors misconstrue one’s intentions one is left with little choice but to be socially identified within the hetero/homo, either/or dichotomy.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper attempts to address the concept of state-oriented policy outcomes of social movements as collective benefits. By examining state policy regimes it may be possible to take the full range of state-oriented collective benefits that social movements can attain for their potential constituency. To examine policy regimes as outcomes of social movement, this paper uses fuzzy-set analysis to analyze the multiple and conjunctural causal combinations that led to advantageous state-level policy regimes for the organizations and the constituents of GLBT social movements and their respective countermovement. The roles of political opportunity structure, public opinion, and social movement activity are taken into account. Results indicate the importance of public opinion, SMOs that use institutionalized tactics, and the size of a movement’s potential constituency in shaping state level policy regimes.

Publication Type: Work in Progress
Abstract: American Indian gay and bisexual men, specifically those living in North Dakota are a misunderstood and misrepresented group. There are virtually no statistics or subsequent research that have been devoted to this population. By completing this study, we may begin to understand the plight of this stigmatized group. Homosexuality has been a part of traditional American Indian cultures in the past. The researchers will attempt to explore if this has changed in recent times. This will be achieved by interviewing gay and bisexual American Indian males in North Dakota, since so little is known about them.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This presentation will discuss (internalized) bi-negativity in young women’s sexual identity narratives, and will focus on the uniquely “trendy” context of young women’s same-sex experimentation for the “male gaze.” Particularly relevant to this context, bi-negativity surfaced through the labeling or understanding of bisexual women as “insecure” and “attention whores.”