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Queer Science: History & Research Implications on Families Sheila M. Addison, Ph.D., LMFT Capella University Kristen E. Benson, Ph.D., LMFT, CFLE North Dakota State University. Annual Meeting of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, September 22-25, 2011, Fort Worth TX.
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Queer Science: History & Research Implications on FamiliesSheila M. Addison, Ph.D., LMFTCapella University Kristen E. Benson, Ph.D., LMFT, CFLENorth Dakota State University Annual Meeting of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, September 22-25, 2011, Fort Worth TX
Introductions • What are we doing here? • What are you hoping to get out of today? • Information from today’s presentation will be posted at http://www.drsheilaaddison.com by the end of the conference
Objectives 1. gain a historical perspective on clinical research about homosexuality, gender variance and families. 2. increase critical thinking skills about the design and application of research to the study of sexuality and gender. 3. explore the implications of LGBT research on clients and families. 4. generate ideas for how to develop research on LGBT individuals and families.
“The Many Faces of Human Sexuality” Source: World Science Festival
Baby, were you born that way? What have you heard causes a gay, lesbian, or bisexual orientation? What have you heard causes transgender gender identity?
History of Queer Science Source: SmallPeculiar.com
History of Queer Science Heath (1972) “Pleasure and brain activity in man: Deep and surface electroencephelographs during orgasm.”
From New York Magazine:“The Science of Gaydar” • http://nymag.com/news/features/33520/index2.html
History of Queer Science Source: World Science Festival
History of Queer Science “This is why it has always been dangerous to rest the claim for LGBT equality on the argument that homosexuality is genetic or biological. It may well be, but what if it were proven not to be so? Would that now mean that it would be ethical to discriminate against LGBT folks, simply because it wasn’t something encoded in their biology, and perhaps was something over which they had more “control?” Tim Wise
History of Queer Science Source: “Diagnosing Difference”
Gender Identity & DSM-V Source: “Diagnosing Difference”
Distorting Research Htttp://www.RespectMyResearch.org
AAMFT speaks From time to time AAMFT receives questions about a practice known as reparative or conversion therapy, which is aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation. As stated in previous AAMFT policy, the association does not consider homosexuality a disorder that requires treatment, and as such, we see no basis for such therapy. AAMFT expects its members to practice based on the best research and clinical evidence available. - Board of Directors, March 2009
Queering the field • Addison - unpublished dissertation (2007) - Delphi study of LGBT and QT informed practitioners • “How have these knowledges informed your teaching, research, and practice?” • “What would the field be like if it were similarly informed?” • “What would the field gain or lose?” • “What stands in the way of or facilitates such change?”
Queering the field Trans people and their partners’ perceptions of CFTS: They think they could be helpful, but they just don’t “get it.”
Where could we go from here? “What is the problem, and for whom? - Butler & Byrne, 2008
Where could we go from here? Q: 1) Do you personally know someone gay? 2) Do you support gay marriage?
Reading research queerly • Queer theory: Foucault, Butler, Halberstam, etc. • Recommended: “Queer Theory, Gender Theory” - Riki Wilchins • “Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant. There is nothing in particular to which it necessarily refers. It is an identity without an essence” - David Halperin • • Questioning binararies • • Interrogating assumptions (“truth statements”) • • Exploding categories (making them “slippery”) • • Identify, confront, and embrace the anxiety this creates • “At the margins, science no longer asks, but tells.” - Wilchins
Reading research queerly What questions can we ask in order to “queer” research that we encounter? How will a “queered” perspective inform our research? How will this perspective inform our clinical work with couples and families?