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Amid widespread social and cultural shifts and advocacy toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights remain a hidden population of homeless adolescents who are cast out from families and communities because of their sexual and gender orientation. The result is an over-representation of LGBT adolescents among the homeless in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of literature and research which explores the status and needs of LGBT homeless adolescents in the United States.

To understand the experiences of LGBT adolescents leading up to and during homelessness, I provide a thematic and critical review of four decades of research to connect our understanding of the LGBT homeless experience with institutional and collective efforts that work to promote their well-being.

Bringing together this body of literature, I explore four interrelated questions. First, has the rate of homelessness increased for LGBT adolescents in recent decades? Second, what is the experience of LGBT adolescents who become homeless? Third, what role does advocacy and support play in ameliorating the difficulties these young people face? Finally, what role can future research and policy play in shaping the well-being of LGBT adolescents who become homeless?

Understanding the experience of homeless LGBT adolescents and the collective advocacy efforts designed to promote their well-being offers insight into the intersection of symbolic, inter-personal, and institutional forces which shape their trajectories.

This study aimed to experimentally investigate whether disclosing one's sexual orientation while applying for a job would impact hiring decisions.

The experiment employed a 2 (Applicant Gender: Male/Female) × 2 (Applicant Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual or Gay/Lesbian) × 2 (Job Type: Masculine/Feminine) between-subjects design. Participants (N = 349) were randomly assigned to one of eight applicant conditions. They were first presented with a job description, followed by a cover letter displaying the applicants' qualifications, gender and sexual orientation. Participants evaluated the applicant's competence, social skills and hireability, and provided self-reports of their attitudes toward gays/lesbians and traditional gender roles.

The results demonstrated a distinct pattern of discrimination toward gay/lesbian applicants who were rated significantly lower in competence, social skills and hireability than were heterosexual applicants. Additionally, using multigroup structural equation modeling, we found that sexual orientation differentially impacted the relationship between attitudes and hireability ratings; negative attitudes toward homosexuality, beliefs about sexual orientation as a choice and belief in traditional gender roles were significant predictors of hireability ratings for gay/lesbian applicants, but were unrelated to evaluations of heterosexual applicants.

The current study highlights the underlying mechanisms involved in hiring discrimination against Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans (LGBT) workers including lower evaluations of competence, social skills and structural differences in the impact of attitudes. These direct links must be explicitly addressed for continued progress related to equality, diversity and inclusion in Human Resource Management (HRM). Continued multidisciplinary research that considers gender identity and sexual orientation signal salience, consequences of specific career stereotypes, regional differences and the effects of societal shifts in attitudes overtime will continue to improve our understanding and drive us toward a more equitable future.

By identifying the underlying mechanisms involved in hiring discrimination, this study highlights the need for diversity trainings that go beyond the blanket approaches to diversity management and explicitly address conscious and unconscious biases that may influence the hiring process. Additionally, it is critical for organizations to provide top-down support from leadership, and implement mechanisms that allow LGBT voices to be heard and feel comfortable in their work environment to reduce the psychological strain.

Prior to the recent landmark ruling by the Supreme Court on June 15, 2020, which extended the 1964 Civil Rights Act workplace protections to gay, lesbianand transgender employees, in many places across the United States Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) identifying workers could still be legally discriminated against. The pattern of discrimination identified in the current study provides clear evidence that these protections are necessary, and long overdue.

This study identifies two clear patterns of hiring discrimination: (1) lower hireability ratings and (2) structural differences in the evaluative process for gay/lesbian applicants. These findings provide experimental evidence, currently lacking in the literature, that support survey-based and qualitative findings of LGBT's experiences, and demonstrate how negative attitudes, irrelevant to the qualifications of an applicant, seep into hiring decisions.

Purpose: This chapter explores the role of life course transitions, personal networks, community, and social support in the physical and mental health of LGBTQ+ elders. Specifically, we review the literature on formal and informal supports and resources available to LGBTQ+ elders as they age.

Methodology: We use an intersectional lens that explores dimensions of social identity and social location among diverse subpopulations within sexual and gender minority (SGM) elders. We outline the implications of access (or lack of access) to formal and informal care for SGM elders' physical and mental health and well-being in late life. We examine the availability of these supports in the context of broad inequalities and life events that structure the life course for LGBTQ+ elders and have long-term health implications.

Findings: Our findings from this review demonstrate how social factors over the life course shape SGM mental and physical health later in life for aging LGBTQ+ populations. We reflect on how strained relationships and lack of acceptance compel some to seek alternative sources of support and relationships. Our analysis uncovers individual and institutional sources of support: personal social networks and formal spaces, such as healthcare settings, that connect elders with resources to develop social support and avoid social isolation.

Implications: The implications of our review reveal the unique needs and barriers to practical and social support that SGM older adults face. We explore alternative supports that LGBTQ+ elders need compared with their heterosexual cisgender peers, given the disproportionate rejection they face in a range of public and intimate spaces. We conclude by identifying and celebrating sources of support and resilience as LGBTQ+ elders have crafted alternate support networks and advocated for increased recognition, rights, and care.

Originality and Value: Despite some recent flourishing of research in SGM health, a road map for scholars, practitioners, and community members outlining future research in understudied areas such as LGBTQ+ aging and transgender health would help advance scholarship and policy. Our commentary highlights quantitative and qualitative studies and suggests avenues for research that put in conversation literatures on rural studies, urban sociology, and social networks; gerontology; health; and gender/sexuality studies.

This chapter provides evidence that the Stonewall Inn riots were the foundation for a legacy of empowerment and improvements in the civil and political rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community in the United States. Increased protections in the United States and globally are needed to fully integrate LGBT individuals into society. The next phase of this work will examine how the failure to extend equitable civil and political rights to LGBT individuals has led to continued stigma and discrimination which, in turn, is associated with a host of LGBT health disparities ranging from HIV to suicide to substance use. Future research will also identify ways to reduce these inequities.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate characters and scenarios reflecting varied lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) identities in fiction in two library acquisitions platforms: a traditional library vendor (Coutts’ OASIS) and a freely available platform for self-published eBooks (Smashwords).

Using intersectionality as an approach, 200 LGBT fiction titles were examined in OASIS and in Smashwords with the goal of assessing the characters and scenarios represented. The hypothesis was that Smashwords’s titles, because they were self-published, would include more variety.

The titles in both platforms were roughly similar, with a pronounced focus on white gay males.

This research relied on limited metadata provided in each system. Additional research should evaluate the quality of the titles and the nature of the publishers.

Although the Smashwords eBook platform provides access to eBooks, a convenient way to consume genre fiction, the titles available do not represent more diverse LGBT identities than the titles available through a traditional library vendor platform, OASIS.

As libraries struggle with practical implications for selecting materials representing varied viewpoints, the question of self-published or indie eBooks has emerged as a potential option for providing these perspectives. The findings of this study indicate, however, that instead of reflecting a more diverse readership, the sample of Smashwords LGBT fiction eBooks examined largely resembles the materials that a library vendor provides.

Analyzes selected Canadian public libraries' holdings of young adult fiction with gay, lesbian, bisexual and/or transgender content published between 1998 and 2002 in order to measure access to such fiction and to determine whether any evidence of bias on the part of selectors exists. Identifies 35 titles published between 1998 and 2002, a slight decrease from the previous five‐year period. These titles attracted 34 percent fewer reviews per title as compared to a randomly selected control group of non‐lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender fiction for teens (LGBT) titles. On average, in the nine Canadian public libraries studied, significantly fewer copies of each LGBT title were held, as compared to the list of control titles. Without further investigation, the paper could not conclude whether this difference constitutes evidence of significant bias on the part of selectors. However, the data do show that certain libraries are significantly more likely to purchase the control titles that the LGBT titles, and that access to these titles varies according to one's location in Canada.

This paper is a conceptual discussion of the marginalisation of the voices of older lesbians, gay and bisexual (LGB) women, within the collective discourse of “older LGBT* housing”. The purpose of this paper is to critically interrogate its (in)equality implications and to consider ways in which they might be overcome.

This is a conceptual discussion that draws on the social justice model of equality developed by Nancy Fraser, specifically the domains of resources, recognition and representation.

The housing needs, wishes and concerns of older LGB women are often marginalised while at the same time those of older gay men are privileged. Older LGB women’s preferences for gender- and/or sexuality- specific housing are silenced within collective homogenising discourse – by researchers and activists alike – which mobilises a “mainstream” or “LGBT*-specific” binary about housing options.

Research findings which do not include the voices of older lesbian, gay and bisexual women are inherently flawed. There is a need to ensure their voices – across the older age spectrum – are included.

The voices of older LGB women in relation to older age housing need to be better heard so that they can be better resourced.

The marginalisation of older lesbian, gay and bisexual women’s voices in relation to older age housing has profound equality and human rights implications.

Critical discussions about the gendering of older LGBT* housing discourse are long overdue. This paper seeks to open a dialogue about these important issues.

Purpose: Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) young adults smoke at rates much higher than the general population. Young adults, in general, are less likely to seek medical help for smoking cessation and LGB individuals are less likely to seek health care generally. Alternative methods to encourage smoking cessation are necessary. This research seeks to establish whether LGB young adults in California would be willing to use social media for smoking cessation.

Approach: We conducted 41 qualitative interviews among LGB young adults in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles in Fall 2014.

Findings: The results suggest that our participants were interested in a LGB-focused social media intervention, as long as the intervention was private or anonymous and moderated. Further, across topical areas our participants spoke extensively about the import of social connections. We may be able to leverage these connections to encourage cessation.

Research Limitations: This is a qualitative, non-generalizable dataset from a fairly limited geographic area.

Public Health Implications: Online smoking cessation interventions aimed at young adults would benefit from further testing with LGB young adults to ensure efficacy among this population. In addition, states and localities concerned about young adult LGB smoking might benefit from investing in an online socially mediated cessation forum. Online interventions could be scalable and might be useful for other groups who regularly face discrimination, stigma, or other stressors that make successful smoking cessation difficult.

The purpose of this paper is to add to the understanding of the international work experiences of lesbian and gay self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) with a particular focus on the effects of different contexts on their disclosure decisions. In doing so, this study responds to the call for more empirical and extensive studies of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) expatriates.

This paper is based on in-depth analysis of four interviews of lesbian and gay SIEs.

The findings presented in this paper support three contextual determinants – personal, organizational, and country-level context. These contextual determinants significantly influence lesbian and gay SIEs’ disclosure decisions and their overall international work experience.

Given the rapid globalization and dynamic business environment, workforce diversity has become a business imperative over the past few decades. Diversity in today’s workforce includes not simply gender and racial diversity, but also age, culture, sexual orientation, religion, education, and disabilities as primary categories of diversity. Moreover, new technologies require highly skilled labor the world over, exacerbating existing global talent shortages. These advancements in technology, accompanied by massive shortfalls in skilled labor, have expanded the pool of potential expatriates to include those non-traditional ones who have been excluded from international assignments. Particularly, as LGBT rights to equal employment opportunity and their potential contributions to international assignments have been increasingly recognized worldwide in recent years, attention to LGBT expatriates has grown exponentially. Nevertheless, neither their experiences as lesbian and gay SIEs in international assignments nor the effects of contexts on those experiences, including disclosure decisions, have yet to be fully explored. In this sense, this paper provides a contribution to the deeper understanding of lesbian and gay SIEs in multidimensional contexts of an international assignment. Although the study examined lesbian and gay expatriates, results suggest insights into the entire LGBT expatriate community.

This chapter focuses on ways libraries can ensure the services and collections they provide do not exclude bisexual people and indulge in the “bi erasure” that is otherwise so prevalent in society. The authors share best practices for public, academic, and school libraries to add bisexual/pansexual titles to their collections, as well as provide programmatic tips that include the larger bisexual/pansexual community. Most importantly, the authors highlight community partners, advocacy organizations, or non-profits that can serve as potential collaborators as librarians brainstorm programming for bisexual/pansexual patrons. This chapter also contains staff training guidelines and resources for creating a more welcoming environment for bisexual/pansexual patrons. The chapter concludes with a list of resources that will help librarians make more inclusive collections’ decisions and resource guides. It’s purpose is to help libraries better serve bisexual/pansexual patrons who are undoubtedly already library users.