Michele J Eliason
Biographic Data
| ID | 1245937 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michele J Eliason |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michele J |
| FAMILY NAME | Eliason |
| SIGNATURE | ELIASON M J |
| AFFILIATIONS | San Francisco State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0666-5612 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 402 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 45 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
‘I can’t unsee what I’ve seen
Discourse surrounding social justice pedagogy (SJP) as a means of addressing the historic inequities in education is increasing in education research. Qualitative research, however, examining experiences of educators doing SJP is still lacking, particularly in higher education. We trained three faculty instructors of undergraduate research courses in principles of SJP and several classroom activities grounded in these principles. Analysis of crit…
Queer Faculty in the Academy
This paper weaves the author's personal experience as an out lesbian researcher of LGBTQ health with contemporary research on LGBTQ faculty members' experiences. It also draws from the literature on other marginalized faculty members' experiences (women, faculty of color) to identify common themes that prevent the full inclusion of diverse faculty in higher education. Structural oppression is often invisible and university's focus on values of me…
Healthcare Providers' Pregnancy Prevention Counseling of Trans and Non-Binary Assigned Female at Birth (TNB/Afab) Patients
Transgender and non-binary people assigned female at birth (TNB/AFAB) have unintended pregnancies, but there is a dearth of information about effective pregnancy prevention care for this population. This needs assessment study aimed at discerning pregnancy prevention care best practices involved interviews of 20 healthcare providers solicited for experience providing pregnancy counseling with this group. Findings were organized via the ecological…
Introduction to Special Issue
This special issue on the impacts of COVID-19 on LGBTQ+ health and well-being reports findings from nine articles with varied study designs, including data from multiple countries and all segments of LGBTQ+ communities. Key findings included the observation that pre-COVID mental health disparities predispose LGBTQ+ people to poorer outcomes; that technological communication aids are essential in maintaining some sense of community; and that subst…
Coping With Stress as an LGBTQ+ Health Care Professional
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual/gender minority (LGBTQ+) health care providers face both general work-related stresses and working in heteronormative settings with ill-informed or hostile coworkers and patients, yet there has been little study of whether the coping strategies are specific to LGBTQ+ stress. We analyzed qualitative data from 277 health care professionals. Sources of stress included religiously and polit…
Relationships between Sexual Orientation, Weight, and Health in a Population-Based Sample of California Women
Program Design for Healthy Weight in Lesbian and Bisexual Women
The “Something Else” of Sexual Orientation
Healthy Weight in Lesbian and Bisexual Women Aged 40 and Older
Recruitment and Participation of Older Lesbian and Bisexual Women in Intervention Research
Effects of Mindfulness Interventions on Health Outcomes in Older Lesbian/Bisexual Women
Inside/out
Conducting research within one's own community can present challenges that are rarely addressed by graduate education, articles, or books on research design. Binary notions of insider and outsider are too simplistic; rather insider/outsider positions exist on a continuum. This article explores how the researcher's shifting position affects every aspect of a study of lesbian, bisexual, and/or queer women. Helpful theoretical frameworks include fem…
The intersections of trans women and lesbian identities, communities, and movements”
This introduction to the special issue on "The Intersections of Trans Women and Lesbian Identities, Communities, and Movements" considers the interconnectedness of "trans" and "lesbian" as identities and as concepts. Our approach challenges a reading of the two communities as largely separate and adversarial. In reviewing the articles included in this issue, we highlight places of intersection between the two identities, including the experiences…
Doing It For Ourselves
Few studies have examined ways to improve health of older lesbian and bisexual women at risk for physical and mental health problems, disability, and isolation. Doing It For Ourselves (DIFO) is a 12-week health education group designed to empower women through a structured curriculum with peer facilitators. This study examines qualitative data addressing the usefulness of program components. Two themes were related to (a) development of community…
An Ecological Framework for Sexual Minority Women's Health
In recent years, many studies have focused on the body of sexual minority women, particularly emphasizing their larger size. These studies rarely offer theoretically based explanations for the increased weight, nor study the potential consequences (or lack thereof) of being heavier. This article provides a brief overview of the multitude of factors that might cause or contribute to larger size of sexual minority women, using an ecological framewo…
Challenging the Assumption of Fusion in Female Same-Sex Relationships
In psychotherapeutic and lesbian popular culture literatures, there is an assumption that female same-sex couples are overly close and lack boundaries, a concept called “fusion.” Empirical efforts have yet to demonstrate whether fusion is experienced more often among women in same-sex relationships than among men in same-sex relationships or among men and women in heterosexual relationships. Furthermore, research on the topic has yet to fully inc…
A Decade of the Journal of Bisexuality
This article describes the contents of the Journal of Bisexuality since its inception a decade ago. In addition to reporting on the gender focus of the scholarly articles published on bisexuality, the research methodologies employed by authors and the extent to which the articles had an international focus, the authors identify the overall trends of the scholarship published in the Journal of Bisexuality. The authors conclude by offering suggesti…
Out Lesbians in Nursing
Research and education on lesbian health has increased substantially in quantity and quality in the past 40 years, but little of this work has been produced by nursing scholars. We began our academic nursing careers as out lesbian faculty at the same college of nursing in the late 1980s, where we collaborated on the earliest studies of attitudes about lesbians in the nursing profession. Our paths diverged in the early 1990s, but we shared similar…
The Last Drag
Many studies in the past 20 years have documented that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals smoke at rates that exceed the general population, yet, there have been few reports of smoking cessation interventions targeting this population. This study reports on data from 233 participants in The Last Drag, a seven-session, six-week group education and support intervention tailored for LGBT smokers. Data on smoking rates were co…
LGBT Health Research
Correlates of Wellbeing Among African American Lesbians
Although there is a growing body of knowledge about health among African American women in general, there is a dearth of information on African American lesbians. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the correlates of health-related quality of life among African American lesbians using a cross-sectional anonymous survey with topics and measures developed by members of the African American lesbian community. Surveys were completed …
Complex Interactions of Sexual Identity, Sex/Gender, and Religious/Spiritual Identity on Substance Use Among College Students
Reflections About Bisexuality and the Journal of Bisexuality
In this reflection, the authors consider their previous work related to bisexuality in their scholarship and teaching and within a historical context. Although they have had some very different life circumstances and taught in very different institutions, the experiences they had with biphobia and stereotypes about bisexuality have been remarkably similar. They end with some thoughts on the future of the field, urging that a more serious consider…
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Physicians' Experiences in the Workplace
Little is known about the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) physicians in the workplace. There is little formal education in medical school about LGBT issues, and some heterosexual physicians have negative attitudes about caring for LGBT patients or working with LGBT coworkers, setting the stage for an exclusive and unwelcoming workplace. The current study used an online survey to assess a convenience sample of 427 LGB…
Discourses of Exclusion
This article begins with a broad historical overview detailing how school-based sexuality education has been taught from a specific kind of heterosexual perspective that has excluded lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identified (LGBTQ) students as well as heterosexual students who do not fall along culturally dominant heterosexual lines. To illustrate such exclusionary sexuality education, we examine the discourses of exclusion in U.…
Bi-Negativity
The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of heterosexual college students about bisexuality. Although there is considerable information about attitudes toward lesbians and gay men, much less is known about the structure and degree of attitudes about bisexual men and women. This article focuses on the results regarding bisexual men, who were rated more negatively than bisexual women, gay men, or lesbians. Some of the potential reason…
The Prevalence and Nature of Biphobia in Heterosexual Undergraduate Students
Identity Formation for Lesbian, Bisexual, and Gay Persons
There is considerable controversy regarding the means by which lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons achieve a sense of sexual identity. In this paper, the concepts of identity and sexual identity are reviewed, and the literature on lesbian and gay "coming out" processes are critiqued. Major limitations of these studies include their narrow samples, their narrow focus on sexuality, their linear nature, and their lack of attention to the larger socio…
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Physicians' Experiences in the Workplace
Little is known about the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) physicians in the workplace. There is little formal education in medical school about LGBT issues, and some heterosexual physicians have negative attitudes about caring for LGBT patients or working with LGBT coworkers, setting the stage for an exclusive and unwelcoming workplace. The current study used an online survey to assess a convenience sample of 427 LGB…
From invisible to incorrigible
Two disturbing recent trends in the media and popular constructions of girls, women, and aggression are analyzed in this article: the media attention to ‘aggression’ and ‘violence’ of girls with the subsequent tendency to arrest and incarcerate girls, particularly those of color, and the depiction of lesbians as criminals, particularly as violent predators. Both of these trends are related to gender stereotypes about femininity and masculinity, a…
Accounts of sexual identity formation in heterosexual students
Introduction to Special Issue
This special issue on the impacts of COVID-19 on LGBTQ+ health and well-being reports findings from nine articles with varied study designs, including data from multiple countries and all segments of LGBTQ+ communities. Key findings included the observation that pre-COVID mental health disparities predispose LGBTQ+ people to poorer outcomes; that technological communication aids are essential in maintaining some sense of community; and that subst…
Sissies and Tomboys
This paper examines whether prejudice by heterosexuals against homosexuals is associated with violations of socially determined gender role behaviors. Respondents were given questionnaires which included either gay-acting or straight-acting vignettes and asked to indicate their attitudes and behaviors in specific situations. While gender role characteristics were found to be an important aspect of negative attitudes and behaviors toward gay men a…
Thinking versus Acting
This article investigates the relationship between heterosexual attitudes toward homosexuals and homophobic and pro-gay helping behaviors participated in over the previous year. Variables previously identified as associated with attitudes toward homosexuals are also examined. The findings demonstrate that attitude, gender, previous contact, and religiosity are associated with heterosexual behavior toward homosexuals
Categorical Measurement of Attitudes About Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People
Measuring attitudes about lesbian, gay, and bisexual people has proven to be a difficult endeavor. This paper describes a simple and time-effective measurement tool, the Beliefs About Sexual Minorities (BSM) scale, and describes some correlates of negative attitudes in a sample of 415 students and staff members of a large midwestern university. The BSM was highly correlated with an established scale, the Index of Homophobia, and demonstrated good…
The Role of Psychotherapy in Caucasian Lesbians' Lives
Explores the disproportionately high usage of psychotherapy services among lesbians, using a qualitative interview methodology. Forty midwestern middle-class Caucasian lesbians, 23 with therapy experience and 17 with no therapy experience, were interviewed about the role of therapy within lesbian lives and communities. Themes generated by the participants supported previous theoretical explanations of the high usage of therapy among lesbians. The…
Coping With Stress as an LGBTQ+ Health Care Professional
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual/gender minority (LGBTQ+) health care providers face both general work-related stresses and working in heteronormative settings with ill-informed or hostile coworkers and patients, yet there has been little study of whether the coping strategies are specific to LGBTQ+ stress. We analyzed qualitative data from 277 health care professionals. Sources of stress included religiously and polit…
Correlates of Wellbeing Among African American Lesbians
Although there is a growing body of knowledge about health among African American women in general, there is a dearth of information on African American lesbians. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the correlates of health-related quality of life among African American lesbians using a cross-sectional anonymous survey with topics and measures developed by members of the African American lesbian community. Surveys were completed …
The intersections of trans women and lesbian identities, communities, and movements”
This introduction to the special issue on "The Intersections of Trans Women and Lesbian Identities, Communities, and Movements" considers the interconnectedness of "trans" and "lesbian" as identities and as concepts. Our approach challenges a reading of the two communities as largely separate and adversarial. In reviewing the articles included in this issue, we highlight places of intersection between the two identities, including the experiences…
Discourses of Exclusion
This article begins with a broad historical overview detailing how school-based sexuality education has been taught from a specific kind of heterosexual perspective that has excluded lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identified (LGBTQ) students as well as heterosexual students who do not fall along culturally dominant heterosexual lines. To illustrate such exclusionary sexuality education, we examine the discourses of exclusion in U.…
Introduction to Special Issue on Suicide, Mental Health, and Youth Development
In early September 2010, when the Journal of Homosexuality’s editorial staff received a submission of a comprehensive review of research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) suicide ri
Challenging the Assumption of Fusion in Female Same-Sex Relationships
In psychotherapeutic and lesbian popular culture literatures, there is an assumption that female same-sex couples are overly close and lack boundaries, a concept called “fusion.” Empirical efforts have yet to demonstrate whether fusion is experienced more often among women in same-sex relationships than among men in same-sex relationships or among men and women in heterosexual relationships. Furthermore, research on the topic has yet to fully inc…
The Last Drag
Many studies in the past 20 years have documented that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals smoke at rates that exceed the general population, yet, there have been few reports of smoking cessation interventions targeting this population. This study reports on data from 233 participants in The Last Drag, a seven-session, six-week group education and support intervention tailored for LGBT smokers. Data on smoking rates were co…
Healthcare Providers' Pregnancy Prevention Counseling of Trans and Non-Binary Assigned Female at Birth (TNB/Afab) Patients
Transgender and non-binary people assigned female at birth (TNB/AFAB) have unintended pregnancies, but there is a dearth of information about effective pregnancy prevention care for this population. This needs assessment study aimed at discerning pregnancy prevention care best practices involved interviews of 20 healthcare providers solicited for experience providing pregnancy counseling with this group. Findings were organized via the ecological…
Complex Interactions of Sexual Identity, Sex/Gender, and Religious/Spiritual Identity on Substance Use Among College Students
Reflections About Bisexuality and the Journal of Bisexuality
In this reflection, the authors consider their previous work related to bisexuality in their scholarship and teaching and within a historical context. Although they have had some very different life circumstances and taught in very different institutions, the experiences they had with biphobia and stereotypes about bisexuality have been remarkably similar. They end with some thoughts on the future of the field, urging that a more serious consider…
Attitudes About Lesbians and Gay Men
In the past 25 years, numerous studies have reported widely held negative attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. Many social service providers hold such negative attitudes. A review of the existing research reveals that the correlates of negative attitudes have remained fairly consistent over time. Knowledge of these correlates can be useful in the design of programs to reduce negative attitudes among students and social service providers
Queer Faculty in the Academy
This paper weaves the author's personal experience as an out lesbian researcher of LGBTQ health with contemporary research on LGBTQ faculty members' experiences. It also draws from the literature on other marginalized faculty members' experiences (women, faculty of color) to identify common themes that prevent the full inclusion of diverse faculty in higher education. Structural oppression is often invisible and university's focus on values of me…
Inside/out
Conducting research within one's own community can present challenges that are rarely addressed by graduate education, articles, or books on research design. Binary notions of insider and outsider are too simplistic; rather insider/outsider positions exist on a continuum. This article explores how the researcher's shifting position affects every aspect of a study of lesbian, bisexual, and/or queer women. Helpful theoretical frameworks include fem…
Doing It For Ourselves
Few studies have examined ways to improve health of older lesbian and bisexual women at risk for physical and mental health problems, disability, and isolation. Doing It For Ourselves (DIFO) is a 12-week health education group designed to empower women through a structured curriculum with peer facilitators. This study examines qualitative data addressing the usefulness of program components. Two themes were related to (a) development of community…
Lesbian stereotypes
The American Psychological Association's Committee on Gay and Lesbian Concerns (Herek, 1987) expressed a need for research that focuses specifically on the concerns of lesbians. To this end, we attempted to identify stereotypes about lesbians, as noted in 278 female nursing students' responses to open-ended questions. Content analysis of the responses revealed a number of consistent themes or stereotypes. The most prevalent stereotypes included l…
Cultural Diversity in Nursing Care
This paper examines the gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons as subcultures of the dominant Anglo-American culture in the United States of America in relation to influences on their access to and use of health care systems and resources. Nurses need to be aware of the unique health needs of such clients, and examine their own cultural belief systems about same-sex relationships. Negative attitudes or misinformation can lead to poor quality of care …
The Role of Psychotherapy in Caucasian Lesbians' Lives
Explores the disproportionately high usage of psychotherapy services among lesbians, using a qualitative interview methodology. Forty midwestern middle-class Caucasian lesbians, 23 with therapy experience and 17 with no therapy experience, were interviewed about the role of therapy within lesbian lives and communities. Themes generated by the participants supported previous theoretical explanations of the high usage of therapy among lesbians. The…
Attitudes About Lesbians and Gay Men
In the past 25 years, numerous studies have reported widely held negative attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. Many social service providers hold such negative attitudes. A review of the existing research reveals that the correlates of negative attitudes have remained fairly consistent over time. Knowledge of these correlates can be useful in the design of programs to reduce negative attitudes among students and social service providers
Accounts of sexual identity formation in heterosexual students
Categorical Measurement of Attitudes About Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People
Measuring attitudes about lesbian, gay, and bisexual people has proven to be a difficult endeavor. This paper describes a simple and time-effective measurement tool, the Beliefs About Sexual Minorities (BSM) scale, and describes some correlates of negative attitudes in a sample of 415 students and staff members of a large midwestern university. The BSM was highly correlated with an established scale, the Index of Homophobia, and demonstrated good…
The Relationship Between Therapy Usage and Political Activity in Lesbians
A survey of over 100 self-identified lesbians revealed no relationship between number of times in therapy or duration of therapy and amount of organized political activity. Contrary to theorizing by Kitzinger and Perkins (1993), lesbians who had been in therapy appeared to be somewhat more politically oriented than lesbians who had not been in therapy. Many lesbians who had been in therapy reported significant childhood and adolescent problems th…
Identity Formation for Lesbian, Bisexual, and Gay Persons
There is considerable controversy regarding the means by which lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons achieve a sense of sexual identity. In this paper, the concepts of identity and sexual identity are reviewed, and the literature on lesbian and gay "coming out" processes are critiqued. Major limitations of these studies include their narrow samples, their narrow focus on sexuality, their linear nature, and their lack of attention to the larger socio…
The Prevalence and Nature of Biphobia in Heterosexual Undergraduate Students
Bi-Negativity
The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of heterosexual college students about bisexuality. Although there is considerable information about attitudes toward lesbians and gay men, much less is known about the structure and degree of attitudes about bisexual men and women. This article focuses on the results regarding bisexual men, who were rated more negatively than bisexual women, gay men, or lesbians. Some of the potential reason…
Thinking versus Acting
This article investigates the relationship between heterosexual attitudes toward homosexuals and homophobic and pro-gay helping behaviors participated in over the previous year. Variables previously identified as associated with attitudes toward homosexuals are also examined. The findings demonstrate that attitude, gender, previous contact, and religiosity are associated with heterosexual behavior toward homosexuals
Original Research
Substance Use and Abuse in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Populations
Sissies and Tomboys
This paper examines whether prejudice by heterosexuals against homosexuals is associated with violations of socially determined gender role behaviors. Respondents were given questionnaires which included either gay-acting or straight-acting vignettes and asked to indicate their attitudes and behaviors in specific situations. While gender role characteristics were found to be an important aspect of negative attitudes and behaviors toward gay men a…
An Integral Approach to Substance Abuse
There is a pressing need in the substance abuse field for more comprehensive models of etiology and treatment that address the complex issues of addiction, including the biological, social, cultural, spiritual and developmental needs of individuals and groups. This article presents a theoretical framework for an integral approach to substance abuse that expands on the existing biopsychosocial model. One contribution of the model is an integrated …
From invisible to incorrigible
Two disturbing recent trends in the media and popular constructions of girls, women, and aggression are analyzed in this article: the media attention to ‘aggression’ and ‘violence’ of girls with the subsequent tendency to arrest and incarcerate girls, particularly those of color, and the depiction of lesbians as criminals, particularly as violent predators. Both of these trends are related to gender stereotypes about femininity and masculinity, a…
An integral approach to drug craving
Drug craving is thought to be a critical factor in compulsive drug use and relapse after treatment; yet there has been little attempt to integrate the disparate research and theoretical writing on the topic from neurobiology, pharmacology, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and religious/spiritual traditions into a cohesive theory of craving. As a result, the field lacks clear definitions from which to develop useful assessment tools and effec…
Nowhere to go
BACKGROUND: Drug and alcohol using women leaving prison or jail face many challenges to successful re-integration in the community and are severely hampered in their efforts by the stigma of drug or alcohol use compounded by the stigma of incarceration. METHODS: This qualitative study is based on individual semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 17 women who had recently left jail about the challenges they faced on reentry. RESULTS: Our…
Discourses of Exclusion
This article begins with a broad historical overview detailing how school-based sexuality education has been taught from a specific kind of heterosexual perspective that has excluded lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identified (LGBTQ) students as well as heterosexual students who do not fall along culturally dominant heterosexual lines. To illustrate such exclusionary sexuality education, we examine the discourses of exclusion in U.…
A New Classification System for Lesbians
There has been a long-standing need for a diagnostic manual that documents the unique pathological behaviors of lesbians. The Dyke Diagnostic Manual (DDM) is meant to supplement mainstream classification systems used to identify problematic behaviors in heterosexuals. This article presents thirteen uniquely lesbian conditions that are nowhere to be found in heterosexist diagnostic systems. The DDM may help to reduce the pain and suffering found i…
Introduction to Special Issue on Suicide, Mental Health, and Youth Development
In early September 2010, when the Journal of Homosexuality’s editorial staff received a submission of a comprehensive review of research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) suicide ri
Complex Interactions of Sexual Identity, Sex/Gender, and Religious/Spiritual Identity on Substance Use Among College Students
Reflections About Bisexuality and the Journal of Bisexuality
In this reflection, the authors consider their previous work related to bisexuality in their scholarship and teaching and within a historical context. Although they have had some very different life circumstances and taught in very different institutions, the experiences they had with biphobia and stereotypes about bisexuality have been remarkably similar. They end with some thoughts on the future of the field, urging that a more serious consider…
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Physicians' Experiences in the Workplace
Little is known about the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) physicians in the workplace. There is little formal education in medical school about LGBT issues, and some heterosexual physicians have negative attitudes about caring for LGBT patients or working with LGBT coworkers, setting the stage for an exclusive and unwelcoming workplace. The current study used an online survey to assess a convenience sample of 427 LGB…
A Decade of the Journal of Bisexuality
This article describes the contents of the Journal of Bisexuality since its inception a decade ago. In addition to reporting on the gender focus of the scholarly articles published on bisexuality, the research methodologies employed by authors and the extent to which the articles had an international focus, the authors identify the overall trends of the scholarship published in the Journal of Bisexuality. The authors conclude by offering suggesti…
Psychology (41 works) · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy (38 works) · Lesbian (31 works) · Sociology (27 works) · Medicine (24 works) · Gender Studies (21 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Social Psychology (18 works) · Gender Studies (16 works) · Political science (16 works)