Kathleen A. Tiemann

Rural lesbians' strategies for coming out to health care professionals.

Abstract The authors conducted in-depth interviews with lesbians from rural communities in the midwest about their interactions with health care professionals and how they decided whether to disclose their sexual orientation to them. They described the protective strategies they used when seeking health care and the responses they received to the disclosure of their sexual orientation. The four primary protective strategies included screening, planned disclosure, unplanned disclosure and non-disclosure. Participants voiced concerns over rejection or retaliation by health care professionals and by other community residents if their sexual orientation became known, and that they would be unable to obtain safe, appropriate care given the limited availability of health care service providers in their region.

Why is their picture on the wedding page?: A rural community responds to a union announcement.

Abstract On August 17, 2003, two women placed a union announcement in the Grand Forks Herald and became the first same-sex couple in North Dakota to do so (Lee, 2003). This announcement generated a flood of letters, both pro and con, that appeared in on the editorial page in the Herald over the next several weeks. In this exploratory study, I conduct a content analysis of those letters. Through this analysis, the three primary thematic categories emerged upon which writers based their arguments. They include those grounded in issues of tolerance, arguments based on Christian values and Scripture and those that focused on normalization. Additionally, the letters reveal something about rural versus urban sensibilities in that relatively more urban Grand Forks residents were less likely to write negative letters than their counterparts from neighboring small towns. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings and suggestions for future research.

Projective aging: an engaging technique for teaching issues in growing older

This article presents a teaching technique to help students think about what it means to grow old. In this directed experiential learning situation, students evaluate issues and myths associated with the aging process by imagining their own aging, describing themselves as “old” people, sharing these images, and discussing the realities of aging. Through this process, students are actively involved in their own learning. Reactions to this classroom experience are also presented.

Social Network Analysis for Analyzing Groups as Complex Systems

ABSTRACT The introduction and application of social network analysis, a method seen as superior to experimental or single-system research design for showing group change, examined group dynamics and change over time using a hypothetical example of an Internet group for gays and lesbians. Rather than utilizing traditional definitions of independent and dependent variables, the analysis utilized hypothetical data with nodes or individuals, ties, and the relationships they formed. The recently developed computer program NodeXL provided diagrams and statistics that demonstrated node and tie variation and individual and group development over time. Discussion demonstrated the utility of such diagrams for research and practice.

Religion and Mate Selection through Cyberspace: A Case Study of Preferences among Muslims

Researchers who study mate selection have become increasingly interested in whether human mate selection criteria are universal. However, the majority of the published work focuses on Western cultures. In this article, we address this shortcoming by testing some of the hypotheses advanced by evolutionary psychologists on mate preferences among Muslims. Respondents were asked to rate the desirability of 18 characteristics in a potential mate and to rank 13 characteristics of potential mates from most to least important. Overall, the findings reported here are consistent with evolutionary psychologists approach to mate selection. However, a significant finding of this study is that the preference for a religious mate and a mate with similar religious background emerged as the most desirable attributes in a potential mate by both sexes.

On Making the Center Hold

The new emphasis on the capstone course is to a great degree driven by recent trends in educational assessment mandated by state government. When the authorities of patriarchal capitalism decide to monitor the activities of educators, primarily because of declines in economic productivity and the new technologies that make assessment efficient, the response is to generate rational evidence of credibility. While most of sociology searches for legitimacy with the support of empirical evidence, the limitations of that mind-set for a political agenda of freedom and equity are well understood. Capstone courses must be about the cultural content and contradictions of American society. The contradictory character of sociology not only represents two academic cultures, but the larger character of the American culture. The discipline is fragmented because American society and social thought are fragmented. Increasingly the natural sciences find little value in literature, feminist studies, political economy, anthropology, or critical history. Unfortunately, the humanities are finding decreasing value in the empirical wizardry practiced by influential sociologists. Sociology among all disciplines must combine science and the humanities, and teaching sociology demands the task of mixing technique with art. This is not a rational skill, acquired by practice, but rather an intuitive mixture of procedures and politics. The discipline in general, and the capstone course in particular, must create an ethical, rational, artistic life world of social thought. Sociology has to liberate with political reason for our technical procedures to have any purpose.

Change Can Happen

t actually happened...Barrack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States and became the first Black man to hold this office. Mr. Obama’s election has already had an influence on how some people think about themselves and the United States. For example, when a friend called to talk about the election outcome, she said, “Now maybe I can just be an American instead of an African-American. I’m not calling myself African-American anymore.” While she was the first, she is not the only person I have heard say this. Some of my Black students, Indian students (no more Native American moniker for them!) and European American students say they are now “just” Americans. What might this change mean for us as a nation? Will Mr. Obama’s election help us to see one another as “just” Americans who share the common goal of working for the social justice and progressive social change that we so desperately need? President-Elect Obama says his administration will embrace change and bipartisanship. Interestingly, his political strategy is based on a sociological perspective and can be traced to his experience as a community organizer. As Andrew Levison argues, Mr. Obama has grasped a “key sociological insight—that political strategy required to enact significant social reforms is substantially more complex and difficult than is the strategy required to simply resist social change” (2009:2). Will a president whose political strategy is sociologically informed be enough to achieve the social change that we so desperately need? Given the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the fiscal mess created by corporate greed and poor management, and the other problems left by the Bush administration, we have a long road to travel for the social justice that we seek. The articles in this issue of Humanity & Society are about promoting social change and challenging conditions that lead to alienation, isolation and dehumanization. In the first, Mohammad H. Tamdgidi reveals lessons that can be drawn from the intellectual work of Gloria Anzaldúa. In Borderlands/La Frontera, Anzaldúa examined the conditions of women in Chicano and Latino culture, Chicanos in white American society, and lesbians in the heterosexual world to reveal the alienation and isolation experienced by those who are caught between cultures. He argues the combination of public and private sociology that influences her sociological imagination is what makes it so effective. The next three articles focus on the spirit of people to survive the dehumanizing forces they encounter. “’They Never Did Me Any Good’: Welfare-to-Work Programs from the Vantage Point of Poor Women” by Rebecca Kissane focuses on the experiences of White and Puerto Rican women who must negotiate welfare-to-work programs. As the women argue, many of these programs added to their stress, were run by staff members who were INTRODUCTION

Is Change in the Air

fter nearly 8 years of the Bush Administration’s failed policies, the country is in a shambles. President Bush has supported government sponsored religious initiatives, unjustly imprisoned people at Gitmo, used a pack of lies to involve us in a war in Iraq, strengthened existing inequalities and devastated our economy. However, change may be in the air. The presidential campaigns are heating up and the two main parties will soon select their candidates. Like you, I hope we elect a president who not only understands the need for social justice and progressive social change, but who fights to implement it. The articles in this issue of Humanity & Society focus on diverse topics. However, each helps us understand more about how to eradicate inequalities through progressive social change. These papers, and Bruce Russell’s review of the 2008 ASA conference, are especially important and timely given the upcoming presidential election and the problems we face as members of a global community. In his article, Peter Kaufman investigates the convergence of intellectual work and activism in sport through an examination of the consequences of being an activist athlete. In particular, he focuses on athletes who protested against war, sweatshop labor and racism. His analysis reveals the personal costs these activist athletes paid for their activism and how they inspired others. Moreover, he reminds us that sport is about more than entertainment; it is an important vehicle for social change. Rochelle Parks-Yancy, Nancy DiTomaso and Corinne Post focus on the reciprocal obligations in social capital resource exchanges. While the social capital literature is extensive, few scholars have given attention to how the expectation for reciprocal obligation differs for groups defined by race, class and gender. The authors fill this void as they develop a model and propositions that address groups’ resource exchanges, reciprocal obligations and the likely effects on their socioeconomic circumstances. Jeff Nall, a self defined atheist, takes on fundamentalist atheism and how it differs from mainstream atheism. He finds fundamentalist atheism troubling for several reasons. For example, he argues fundamentalist atheists view religion as a threat to civilization through their tendency to narrowly define and stereotype religion. Furthermore, it advocates intolerance for religious belief and has INTRODUCTION