Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

“In the Beginning, It Was Little Whispers…Now, We’re Almost a Roar”: Conceptualizing a Model for Community and Self in LGBTQ+ Health Information Practices

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Sustainable Digital Communities (iConference 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12051))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Although LGBTQ+ populations experience significant health challenges, little research exists that investigates their health from an informational perspective. Our study addresses this gap by exploring the health information practices of LGBTQ+ communities in South Carolina, focusing on how sociocultural context shapes these practices. Thirty semi-structured interviews with South Carolina LGBTQ+ community leaders analyzed using open qualitative coding informed the development of a conceptual framework describing their information practices. Findings show that participants engaged in two broad types of practices – protective and defensive – as responses to risks and barriers experienced, which are in turn produced by social and structural factors. Findings advance information practices and marginalization approaches and offer ways for medical professionals to improve service to LGBTQ+ populations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Institute of Medicine: The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding. National Academic Press, Washington, D.C. (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, LGBT Youth Homepage. https://www.cdc.gov/lgbthealth/youth.htm. Accessed 19 Nov 2019

  3. HealthyPeople.gov Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health U.S. Department of Health Evidence-based Resources Homepage. https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives/topic/lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender-health/ebrs. Accessed 19 Nov 2019

  4. James, S.E., Herman, J.L., Rankin, S., Keisling, M., Mottet, L., Anaf, M.: The report of the 2015 U.S.C transgender survey. National Center for Transgender Equality, Washington, D.C. (2016). https://www.transequality.org/sites/de-fault/files/docs/usts/USTS%20Full%20Report%20-%20FINAL%201.6.17.pdf. Accessed 19 Nov 2019

  5. Transgender Law Center at Southerners on New Ground. The Grapevine: A Southern Trans Report: Prioritizing Issues Impacting Transgender, Gender Nonbinary, and Gender Nonconforming Southerners. (2019). http://transgenderlawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/grapevine_report_eng-FINAL.pdf. Accessed 19 Nov 2019

  6. Morris, M., Hawkins, B.: Towards a new specialization in health librarianship: LGBTQ health. J. Can. Health Librar. Assoc. 37(1), 20–23 (2016). https://doi.org/10.5596/c16-007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Romanelli, M., Hudson, K.D.: Individual and systemic barriers to health care: Perspectives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults. Am. J. Orthopsychiatr. 87(6), 714–728 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Perrin, P.B., Sutter, M.E., Trujillo, M.A., Henry, R.S., Pugh Jr., M.: The minority strengths model: development and initial path analytic validation in racially/ethnically diverse LGBTQ individuals. J. Clin. Psychol. 76(1), 1–19 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22850

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Matthews, D.D., Lee, J.G.: A profile of North Carolina lesbian, gay, and bisexual health disparities, 2011. Am. J. Public Health 104(6), 98–105 (2014). https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301751

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Williams Institute: LGBT people in South Carolina (2018). https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/South-Carolina-fact-sheet.pdf. Accessed 19 Nov 2019

  11. Mallory, C., Sears, B.: Discrimination against LGBT people in South Carolina. UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, Los Angeles, CA (2019). https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/South-Carolina-ND-July-2019.pdf. Accessed 19 Nov 2019

  12. Coleman, J.D., Irwin, J.A., Wilson, R.C., Miller, H.C.: The South Carolina LGBT needs assessment: a descriptive overview. J. Homosex. 61(8), 1152–1171 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2014.872515

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Savolainen, R.: Information behavior and information practice: reviewing the “umbrella concepts” of information-seeking studies. Libr. Q. 77(2), 109–132 (2007). https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/517840

  14. Savolainen, R.: Everyday Information Practices: A Social Phenomenological Perspective. Scarecrow Press, Lanham (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  15. McKenzie, P.J.: A model of information practices in accounts of everyday-life information seeking. J. Doc. 59(1), 19–40 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410310457993

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Frohmann, B.: The power of images: a discourse analysis of the cognitive viewpoint. J. Doc. 48(4), 365–386 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026904

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Talja, S.: Constituting “information” and “user” as research objects: a theory of knowledge formations as an alternative to the information-man theory. In: Vakkari, P., Savolainen, R., Dervin, B., (eds.). Information Seeking in Context: Proceedings of an International Conference on Research in Information Needs, Seeking and Use in Different Contexts, pp. 67–80. Taylor Graham, London (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Julien, H.: Where to from here? Results of an empirical study and user-centered implications for information design. In: Wilson, T.D., Allen, D.K., (eds.) Exploring the Contexts of Information Behaviour, pp. 586–596. Taylor Graham, London (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Savolainen, R.: Everyday life information seeking: approaching information seeking in the context of “way of life”. Libr. Inf. Sci. Res. 17(3), 259–294 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1016/0740-8188(95)90048-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Marmot, M., Wilkinson, R.: Social Determinants of Health. Oxford University Press, New York (2005)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  21. Colpitts, E., Gahagan, J.: The utility of resilience as a conceptual framework for understanding and measuring LGBTQ health. Int. J. Equity Health 15(1), 60 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-016-0349-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Gibson, A.N., Martin III, J.D.: Re-situating information poverty: information marginalization and parents of individuals with disabilities. J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 70(5), 476–487 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Chatman, E.A.: The impoverished life-world of outsiders. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. 47(3), 193–206 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)10974571(199603)47:3%3C193:AID-ASI3%3E3.0.CO;2-T

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Thompson, K.M.: Furthering understanding of information literacy through the social study of information poverty. Can. J. Inf. Libr. Sci. 31(1), 87115 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Lingel, J.: Information tactics of immigrants in urban environments. Inf. Res. 16(4) (2011). http://www.informationr.net/ir/16-4/paper500.html. Accessed 16 Nov 2019

  26. Greyson, D.: Health information practices of young parents. J. Doc. 73(5), 778–802 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-07-2016-0089

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Veinot, T.C.: A multilevel model of HIV/AIDS information/help network development. J. Doc. 66(6), 875–905 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1108/00220411011087850

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Kitzie, V.: “That looks like me or something I can do”: Affordances and constraints in the online identity work of US LGBTQ+ millennials. J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 70(12), 1340–1351 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Floegel, D., Costello, K.L.: Entertainment media and the information practices of queer individuals. Libr. Inf. Sci. Res. 41(1), 31–38 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2019.01.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Steinke, J., Root-Bowman, M., Estabrook, S., Levine, D.S., Kantor, L.M.: Meeting the needs of sexual and gender minority youth: formative research on potential digital health interventions. J. Adolesc. Health 60(5), 541–548 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.11.023

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Schmitz, R.M., Sanchez, J., Lopez, B.: LGBTQ+ Latinx young adults’ health autonomy in resisting cultural stigma. Cult. Health Sex. 21(1), 16–30 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2018.1441443

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Duggan, L.: The Twilight of Equality?: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy. Beacon Press, Boston (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Spade, D.: Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law. Southend Press, New York (2015)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  34. Puar, J.K., Rai, A.: Monster, terrorist, fag: the war on terrorism and the production of docile patriots. Soc. Text 20(3), 117–148 (2002). https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/31948. Accessed 19 Nov 2019

  35. Halberstam, J.: In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies Subcultural Lives. New York University Press, New York (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Strauss, A., Corbin, J.: Basics of Qualitative Research Techniques. Sage, Thousand Oaks (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Saldaña, J.: The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. Sage, Thousand Oaks (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Hillary, G.A.: Definitions of community: areas of agreement. Rural Sociol. 20, 111–123 (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Worthen, M.G.: The interactive impacts of high school gay-straight alliances (GSAs) on college student attitudes toward LGBT individuals: an investigation of high school characteristics. J. Homosex. 61(2), 217–250 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2013.839906

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Weiser, S.M.: The art of resistance: an arts based understanding of activism. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Columbia, SC (2018). https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/4777. Accessed 19 Nov 2019

  41. Koh, K.: Adolescents’ information-creating behavior embedded in digital Media practice using scratch. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 64(9), 1826–1841 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22878

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Greyson, D.: Information world mapping: a participatory, visual, elicitation activity for information practice interviews. In: Grove, A., (ed.) Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 1–4 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Strauss, A., Corbin. J.: Grounded theory methodology: an overview. In: Denzin, N., Lincoln, Y. (eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research, pp. 273–285. Sage, Thousand Oaks (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Charmaz, K.: Constructing Grounded Theory. Sage, Thousand Oaks (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Creswell, J.W.: Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Sage, Los Angeles (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Geertz, C.: The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, New York (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  47. Dentato, M.P., Halkitis, P.N., Orwat, J.: Minority stress theory: an examination of factors surrounding sexual risk behavior among gay and bisexual men who use club drugs. J. Gay Lesbian Soc. Serv. 25(4), 509–525 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1080/10538720.2013.829395

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Kangovi, S., Grande, D., Trinh-Shevrin, C.: From rhetoric to reality—community health workers in post-reform US health care. New Engl. J. Med. 372(24), 2277 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1502569

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Spivak, G.G.: “Can the subaltern speak?” In: Nelson, C., Grossberg, L., (eds.) Marxism and Interpretation of Culture, pp. 66–111. University of Illinois Press, Urbana (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  50. Ahmed, S.: Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Duke University Press, Durham (2006)

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Vanessa L. Kitzie, Travis L. Wagner & A. Nick Vera

Authors
  1. Vanessa L. Kitzie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Travis L. Wagner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. A. Nick Vera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vanessa L. Kitzie .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

    Anneli Sundqvist

  2. OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

    Gerd Berget

  3. University of Boras, Boras, Sweden

    Jan Nolin

  4. OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

    Kjell Ivar Skjerdingstad

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Kitzie, V.L., Wagner, T.L., Vera, A.N. (2020). “In the Beginning, It Was Little Whispers…Now, We’re Almost a Roar”: Conceptualizing a Model for Community and Self in LGBTQ+ Health Information Practices. In: Sundqvist, A., Berget, G., Nolin, J., Skjerdingstad, K. (eds) Sustainable Digital Communities. iConference 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12051. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43687-2_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43687-2_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-43686-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-43687-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation