Tag Archives: LGBTQ+

LGBTQ+ health disparities and the impact of stress

Correlation does not equal causation. This phrase gets mentioned a lot in science. In part, because many scientists can fall into the trap of assuming that correlation equals causation. Proof that this phrase is true can be found in ice cream and sharks. Monthly ice cream sales and shark attacks are highly correlated in the United States each year. Does that mean eating lots of ice cream causes sharks to attack more people? No. The likely reason for this correlation is that more people eat ice cream and get in the ocean during the summer months when it’s warmer outside, which explain why the two are correlated. But, one does not cause the other. Correlation does not equal causation.

To date, much of the research that has been conducted on LGBTQ+ health has been correlational. Our guest this week, Kalina Fahey, hopes that her dissertation project will play a part in changing this paradigm as she is trying to get more at causation. Kalina is a 5th year PhD candidate in the School of Psychological Science working with her advisors Drs. Anita Cservenka and Sarah Dermody. Her research broadly investigates LGBTQ+ health disparities and how stress impacts health in LGBTQ+ groups. She is also interested in understanding ways in which spiritual and/or religious identities can influence stress, and thereby, health. To do this, Kalina is employing a number of methods, including undertaking a systematic review to synthesize the existing research on substance use in transgender youth, analyzing large-scale publicly available datasets to look at how religious and spiritual identity relates to health outcomes, and finally developing a safe experiment to look at how specific forms of stress impact substance use-related behaviors in real time. 

Most of Kalina’s time at the moment is being spent on the experimental portion of her research as part of her dissertation. For this study, Kalina is adapting the personalized guided induction stress paradigm, with the aim of safely eliciting minor stress responses in a laboratory setting. The experiment involves one virtual study visit and two in-person sessions. During the first visit, participants are asked to describe a minority-induced stressful event that occurred recently, as well as a description of a moment or situation that is soothing or calming. After this session, Kalina and her team develop two meditative scripts – one each to recreate the two events or moments described by the participant. When the participant comes back for their in-person sessions, they listen to one of two different meditative scripts and are asked a series of questions regarding their stress levels. Kalina and her team also are collecting saliva and heart rate readings to look at physiological stress levels. This project is still looking for participants. If you are a sexual-minority woman who drinks alcohol, consider checking out the following website to learn more about the study: https://oregonstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8e443Lq10lgyX66?fbclid=IwAR3XOdECIOvCbx1xn3QA5rrCtHfSezZrR5Ppkpnd9sx1SsicZRQnfYHAqb8. Kalina hopes to continue experiment-based research on LGBTQ+ health disparities in the future as she sees the lack of experimental studies to be a major gap in better understanding, and thereby supporting, the LGBTQ+ community.

Interested in learning more about Kalina’s research, the results, and her background? Listen live on Sunday, January 15, 2023 at 7 PM on 88.7 KBVR FM. Missed the live show? You can download the episode on our Podcast Pages! Also, check out her other work here or finder her on Twitter @faheypsych

In the face of national anti-trans legislation, local game developer and OSU graduate raises over $400k for trans advocacy groups

Content warning: this article includes mentions of transphobia and suicide.

Rue Dickey found himself feeling helpless and frustrated upon reading the news about the onslaught of anti-transgender legislation sweeping the country this year. In the four months of 2022 alone, nearly 240 anti-LGBTQ bills have been filed in states across the United States. This skyrocketing number is up from around 41 such bills in 2018, and around half of these bills targeting transgender folks specifically. In February 2022, Texas governor Greg Abbott called for teachers and members of the public to report parents of transgender children to authorities, equating providing support and medical care for trans youth to child abuse –  a move that made national headlines.  It’s imperative that we understand the consequences of this wave of horrific and discriminatory legislation: a survey by the Trevor Project found that 42% of LGBTQ youth have seriously considered suicide within the past year alone, and over half of transgender and nonbinary youth have considered suicide.

Rue (they/he) graduated from Oregon State University in 2019, and they are currently the Marketing Coordinator for the Corvallis Community Center. They also develop and create content for TTRPGs, or Tabletop Role Playing Games. TTRPGs are role playing games in which players describe their characters’ actions and adhere to a set of rules and characterizations based on the world setting, and characters work together to achieve a goal or go on an adventure. They often involve improvisation and their choices shape the world around them. Think Dungeons & Dragons – many TTRPGs involve the use of dice rolling to determine the outcomes of certain actions and events.

Rue Dickey, 2019 OSU graduate and Marketing Director for the Corvallis Community Center.

Gaming as a way to crowdfund for a cause

Wanting to do something to help children and transgender people living in Texas, Rue decided to turn his passion for TTRPGs into a fundraiser. The online indie game hosting platform itch.io has been used in the past to create fundraisers for charities by bundling together and selling games. A few of Rue’s friends who run a BIPOC tabletop server have had experience with creating profit-sharing bundles using the platform in the past, so after he consulted them and walked through the steps, he set up a bund?ndraiser, Rue wanted to ensure that the money was going directly to transgender people. “At the time, a lot of the larger media outlets were encouraging people to donate to Equality Texas, which works to get pro-queer legislature through in Texas, but they don’t necessarily help trans folks on an individual level.”  

After tweeting about the fundraiser and soliciting ideas for charities, he landed on two organizations in Texas that are trans-led and focused on transgender individuals: TENT (Transgender Education Network of Texas, a trans-led group that works to combat misinformation on the community level through the corporate level, offering workshops as well as emergency relief funds for trans folks in need) and OLTT (Organización Latina Trans in Texas, a Latina trans woman-led organization focusing on transgender immigrants in Texas, assisting with the legal processes of immigration, name changes, and paperwork.) Both charities serve transgender folks directly in Texas, and you can donate to the organizations by following the links we have included in the article. Both charities were thrilled to learn about the donation – for OLTT, it’s the largest single donation they have ever received, and they will be able to use it to perform needed renovations and expansions at their shelter facilities.

Since the fundraiser ended, Rue has been interviewed by several national news outlets, including NBC, Gizmodo, and The Mary Sue, as well as gaming-centric websites like Polygon, Dicebreaker, and GamesHub. Although they have received some harassment and nasty DMs, Rue says that the support from the community has vastly overshadowed the naysayers. Similarly, he spoke of the overwhelming rush of support from trans folks, queer folks, and allies to the movement in the face of structural legislation that seeks to harm trans people. 

“It restores a bit of my faith in humanity to see that on a structural level, they are trying to get rid of us, but on a community level, there is support – there will always be a place to go and people looking out for you.”

Tune in at 5 PM on Sunday, April 24 for this special episode of Inspiration Dissemination. Stream the show live or listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts! You can keep up with Rue and their games on twitter and itch.io.

This article was written by Grace Deitzler.

A Space for Me

Minerva presenting at the Radical Imaginations Conference on the panel ” Feminist Radical Imaginations: Marches and Revolutions” with Andrea Haverkamp, Carolina Melchor, Maria Lenzi Miori, Minerva Zayas, and Nasim Basiri

Everyone handles their personal growth differently, and for many finding an identity category can lead to feelings of comfort and an opportunity to find community. However, for folks who identify with more than one category or find identity in LGBTQ+ categories may find difficulty navigating their identity in spaces that have been shaped by the heteronormative majority. Moreover, for people of color, retaining identity in their culture might add another layer of complexity to navigating the path to their goals. Our guest this week, Minerva Zayas a Master’s student in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, is interested in how folks who identify as LatinX and LGBTQ+ navigate the intersection of these identities, especially in university spaces. In particular, Minerva is asking how LatinX, LGBTQ+ individuals engage in a system that has historically catered to white heteronormative college students. Minerva, speaking from personal experience, expects that University life offers little tailored support systems for folks of color who identify as ‘other,’ but that a university campus might offer opportunities to build a support systems that other institutions might lack: the opportunity to participate in a campus cultural/lifestyle community and engage in activism.

Minerva presenting at Corvallis Poetics Open Mic Night on the poem, “My worst NightMare” at Interzone Inc.

Minerva participating in a creative photo session in downtown Corvallis, OR.

For her Master’s, Minerva will conduct interviews with LatinX, LGBTQ+ students and ask questions than run the gamut of identity in sexuality, culture, community, and activism. She hopes to highlight their experiences and examine themes that arise. In addition to her research, Minerva, a poet herself, plans to extend her project in a creative way, ideally through a podcast. After completing her Master’s, Minerva hopes to complete a PhD and has considered becoming a counselor for Spanish-speaking folks. This aim coincides with her mission to bring voice to folks who share identity with her in LatinX culture. Minerva ultimately wants institutions, academia and beyond, to be more inclusive and cognizant of minority identities, but she realizes that change comes from within. By pursuing her aspirations for a PhD and engaging in academia, she hopes that others who share her identity will be drawn to academia so that a system that has been shaped by the majority identity can grow to support all.

Tune in to KBVR Corvallis 88.7 FM this Sunday May, 20 at 7 pm to hear more about Minerva’s research and personal journey to graduate school. Listeners, local and otherwise, can stream the live interview at kbvr.com/listen or find the podcast of Minerva’s episode next week on Apple Podcasts.