Michele J Eliason

San Francisco State University | SFSU · Department of Health Education

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...

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...

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 t...

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 e...

Health care teams now encompass a range of health professions, including physicians, nurse practitioners (NPs), physician assistants (PAs), nurses, health care students, social workers, representatives of community programs, and more. This chapter discusses how an LGBTQ-friendly interdisciplinary approach enhances patient care; identifies the role...

There is considerable evidence of health disparities among sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations in the areas of physical health and disability, mental health and suicidality, substance use and abuse, and access to care. However, little research has considered the possibility that disorders might concentrate in subgroups of SGMs with the gre...

Despite increased attention on social justice in higher education, underrepresented students often experience the classroom as unwelcoming and even hostile. Although theoretical and pedagogical research exists, what appears to be lacking are examples of concrete social justice pedagogy strategies that can be implemented in the classroom setting. Th...

Class participation benefits students by enhancing engagement, critical thinking, interpersonal communication, and motivation, but the role of underrepresented minority identities on class participation has not been well-studied. We surveyed 94 undergraduate health education students about experiences/attitudes about class participation, finding th...

Purpose: This study examined whether the association between weight status and four chronic diseases (heart disease, hypertension, lifetime asthma, and type 2 diabetes) varied according to sexual orientation identity among adult men, controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, and other factors. Methods: Pooled data from male adult participants...

Background Sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) experience substantial health disparities. Evidence suggests nurses may be unprepared to work with these populations. A previous literature review of top-ranked nursing journals found that 0.16% of published articles addressed SGM health. Purpose To evaluate changes in coverage of SGM health in the to...

This chapter begins with an examination of bisexuality studies from the perspective of some prominent sex researchers from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century with a focus on how bisexuality was conceptualized by Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Havelock Ellis, Sigmund Freud, and Alfred Kinsey. Next, the chapter turns to a discus...

No studies to date have examined health literacy among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals, nor considered whether LGB-specific health literacy might be a contributing factor to well-documented health disparities in LGB populations. This pilot study gathered online survey data from a national convenience sample of 232 LGB adults age 40 and...

Healthcare practitioners (e.g., nurses, physicians, physician associates/assistants) face a variety of rewards and challenges both during training and later in clinical practice and other professional workplace settings. A growing body of research on the challenges faced by healthcare practitioners identifies key factors associated with “burn-out,”...

Purpose: Researchers struggle to find effective ways to measure sexual and gender identities to determine whether there are health differences among subsets of the LGBTQ+ population. Method: This study examines responses on the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) sexual identity questions among 277 LGBTQ+ healthcare providers. Results: Eig...

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual/gender minority (LGBTQ+) healthcare 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 qu...

Background Most biomedical research has reported associations between weight and physical health problems; little is known about whether those associations vary by sexual identity. Methods Pooled data from the 2003 through 2013 waves of the California Health Interview Survey was used to construct logistic regression models to examine whether the a...

This study explored practicing nurses' knowledge of the needs of transgender patients. Structured interviews were conducted with 268 nurses in the San Francisco Bay Area. This study focused on the responses to 1 item in the 16-item interview, " Describe health care issues that are particular to transgender patients. " Three themes emerged from the...

Background: Terminology related to sexuality and gender is constantly evolving, and multiple factors are at play when individuals answer questions on surveys. Methods: We examined patterns of responding to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) sexual identity questions in a multisite health intervention study for lesbian and bisexual women...

Background: Lesbian and bisexual women are more likely to be overweight or obese than heterosexual women, leading to increased weight-related health risks. Methods: Overweight women aged 40 or older who self-identified as lesbian, bisexual, or "something else" participated in five pilot interventions of 12 or 16 weeks' duration. These tailored i...

Purpose: Lesbian and bisexual (LB) women are at higher risk for obesity, but no reported interventions focus on older LB women who are overweight or obese. The Healthy Weight in Lesbian and Bisexual Women study funded five programs (n = 266 LB women age ≥40); two examined effects of mindfulness interventions on health outcomes. Methods: Analysis...

Purpose: Adult lesbian and bisexual (LB) women are more likely to be obese than adult heterosexual women. To address weight- and fitness-related health disparities among older LB women using culturally appropriate interventions, the Office on Women's Health (OWH) provided funding for the program, Healthy Weight in Lesbian and Bisexual Women (HWLB)...

Background: Very little research has addressed issues of recruitment and participation of lesbian and bisexual (LB) women, aged 40 and older, into research studies. This study is based on a larger cross-site intervention study that recruited women from five geographic regions in the United States for culturally specific LB healthy weight programs,...

Aims and objectives: The purposes of this study were to measure the prevalence of, and identify factors associated with, cervical cancer screening among a sample of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women and transgender men. Background: Past research has found that lesbian, bisexual and queer women underutilize cervical screening service. Because de...

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...

Background: Lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) women, as well as transgender men, are less likely than their heterosexual and female-identifying counterparts to access cervical cancer screening services. Although numerous factors that influence receipt of cervical screening have been identified, several gaps in research and knowledge merit additio...

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 as...

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 t...

In this chapter we describe some of the issues LGBT cancer patients experience when they must engage with healthcare systems including providers who are uninformed about the terminology, partner/family issues, or health care concerns of LGBT individuals. We review the sparse literature about healthcare professionals’ education about LGBT issues and...

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 addr...

To describe nurses confusion around trans* terminology and to provide a lesson in Trans* 101 for readers. Of the estimated 9 million persons in the United States of America who are identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, about 950,000 (0·2-0·5% of adult population) are identified as trans* (a term that encompasses the spectrum, includ...

Purpose: To assess the health and well-being of sexual minority women (SMW) with disabilities. Methods: A survey assessing physical and mental health and quality of life was administered to a convenience sample of 52 women with disabilities and 74 without disabilities. All had been recruited for an SMW's health intervention targeting women over...

Purpose: Adult lesbian and bisexual (LB) women are more likely to be obese than adult heterosexual women. Achieving a healthy weight reduces health risks and improves quality of life, but the evidence based on successful weight interventions is limited. To inform a national initiative, a metasynthesis (a form of qualitative meta-analysis) of focus...

Over the past 20 years, a growing literature has demonstrated that sexual minority women have greater weight than heterosexual women, prompting concern that they may be at high risk for disparities in physical disorders. In 2008, Bowen et al. published a review of the existing research on sexual minority women and obesity, finding no methodological...

AIM This article assesses the knowledge of faculty in baccalaureate nursing programs and their readiness to teach about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health. BACKGROUND Although health disparities affecting the LGBT population are increasingly acknowledged in the literature, a dearth of information exists on how LGBT health is inte...

In spite of recent calls for patient-centered care and greater attention to the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patients, nurses still lack basic education about LGBT patient care and, as a result, may have negative attitudes, endorse stereotypes, and/or feel uncomfortable providing care. This study reports on education/trai...

Abstract 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 paper provides a brief overview of the multitude of...

Nurses work with diverse populations, but the nursing literature lacks research, theoretical frameworks, or practice guidelines regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health. Through diverse teaching strategies, students explored issues related to LGBT patients, families, and nurses using a cultural humility lens. Diverse teaching...

Although there is substantial literature about sexual minority women's mental health and use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATOD), only recently has attention been focused on chronic physical health disorders thought to stem from stress and exposure to ATOD use. The most extensively studied aspect of physical health has been weight, with the...

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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 me...

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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. Data were collected from undergraduate psychology classes at a major Midw...

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...

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-we...

Religiosity has been found to be associated with lower alcohol use by college students. The majority of studies on this topic, however, fail to differentiate religiosity and spirituality. This is potentially problematic due to the changing face of religion in America today. A study was conducted to explore similarities and differences between self-...

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 ab...

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 unwe...

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...

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) nurses constitute one of the largest subgroups within the profession of nursing, yet there is very little empirical research in the nursing literature and virtually no attention to issues of discrimination and exclusion in the workplace by nursing education or professional nursing o...

Alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use pose serious health problems on college campuses. A significant body of research shows student religiosity to be a protective factor, but a very little research has examined influences of sexual identities on alcohol and other drug use among college students, and its associations with religious or spiritual iden...

Despite strong indications of elevated risk of suicidal behavior in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, limited attention has been given to research, interventions or suicide prevention programs targeting these populations. This article is a culmination of a three-year effort by an expert panel to address the need for better understandi...

Alcohol-related sexual assault on college campuses is a significant public health problem. Despite increased prevention efforts over the last two decades, rates of college binge drinking have changed little. The Core survey has been used at over 1000 colleges and universities to monitor the effectiveness of substance use prevention programs on coll...

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...

The purpose of this study was to selectively review the nursing literature for publications related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender health, using (1) a key word search of CINAHL, the database of nursing and allied health publications; (2) from the top-10 nursing journals by 5-year impact factor from 2005 to 2009, counting articles about...

To gain an understanding of how abstinence-only-until-marriage school-based sexuality education has been exclusionary, it is important to explore how heteronormativity has been endorsed, played out, and reproduced ever since school-based sexuality education has been offered in the United States. Such an exploration reveals glaring evidence that les...

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 line...

This article examines how we, two scholars with different backgrounds in terms of geography, education, profession, and sexuality, came together to support one another in teaching and writing ‘queerly’. Our professional evolution is explored with a particular focus on collaborating across difference to create a supportive and enriching form of scho...

Very little empirical research has been conducted on pregnant inmates, a rapidly growing population, the majority of which has substance use disorders. It is important to identify the potential needs of these women in order to modify jail and prison conditions to improve birth outcomes. This study compared 53 pregnant inmates to 1160 non-pregnant f...

Very little research has addressed nurses' attitudes towards substance abuse. Nurses are socially acclimatized with the same values, biases, and denial of the impact of substance abuse as is the general population, and nursing education programmes allow very little time to the study of substance abuse. Thus, it is likely that nurses and nursing stu...

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...

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. This qualitative study is based on individual semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 17 women who...

To provide an overview of health care needs and related sexuality issues of lesbian and gay patients. Research articles, books, clinical experience. Attitudes of health professionals as well as patients impact care in relation to sexuality and sexual issues. Oncology nurses using a framework of awareness, sensitivity, and knowledge can obtain and a...

Nurses provide care for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) patients on regular basis, whether they know it or not. Education of health care workers routinely has excluded discussion of patient sexuality, rendering LGB patients invisible or stigmatized, and has offered few tools to nurses to provide quality care for their LGB patients with chronic ill...

How do some individuals come to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender? Is there a static, universal process of identity formation that crosses all lines of individual difference, such as sexual identities, sex/gender, class, race/ethnicity, and age? If so, can we describe that process in a series of linear stages or steps? Is ident...

This book is an attempt to bridge the gap between research on substance abuse treatment programs and what actually goes on in the field of substance abuse treatment. It is aimed at both the academic and practitioner market (as is Perkinson) and it clearly describes how to determine what evidence based practice is and it addresses some of the challe...

Although many authors have called for researchers and providers to take seriously the issue of spirituality, the vast majority of theoretical and empirical work has emerged from a narrow focus on the spirituality of the Twelve-Step approach. Similarly, many authors have called for greater attention to cultural factors related to alcohol and other d...

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 p...

Objectives: Racial/ethnic and gender disparities have been reported for a variety of substance abuse treatment outcomes, such as access to treatment and treatment completion, as well as differential representation in the criminal justice system. However, treatment outcomes have not been thoroughly explored in clients with co-occurring disorders.Met...

This paper addresses the growing phenomena of therapeutic community (TC) treatment approaches for women in correctional settings. Although rapidly increasing in number across the country, there is very little empirical research to support the effectiveness of TC treatment for women. Therefore, the literature on the efficacy and effectiveness of TC...

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...

The purpose of this study to assess the psychometric qualities of a screening instrument for intimate partner violence, the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA), for use with incarcerated women. Principal components factor analysis was conducted on data collected from 149 incarcerated women. The ISA demonstrated excellent internal consistency with this popu...

As the field begins to explore methods of introducing evidence- based practices to substance abuse treatment agencies, there is a need to determine the extent to which evidence based practices are already being used. We developed a self-report instrument to measure treatment philosophies and everyday practices, and surveyed 197 treatment counselors...

Treatment counselors' attitudes about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) clients can have important effects on these client's recovery. There is a common, but unexamined, perception that LGBT people are more accepted in urban areas (and thus urban treatment programs) and that urban counselors have greater knowledge of the needs of the...

This article examines the health of women in prison, taking into account social structures such as racism, classism, sexism, and the stigma of drug addiction in their daily lives. Women are the fastest growing segment of the criminal justice system and are entering the system with far greater health problems than men, but with less access to health...

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 chara...