Faith and Identity: Finding Support for 2SLGBTQIA+ in Catholic Schools
Words Matter: The Impact of Language in Transgender Healthcare
Demisexuality: a Review of Language and Literature
2SLGBTQIA+ Catholic high school students could be one of the most vulnerable populations. Historically, religion and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community have clashed, and students within these communities will have to adhere to expectations from both. Because of this, they may lack support from their families, friends, educators, and peers. We know from Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1977) that people within your microsystem will have the biggest impact on development, so a lack of support from these individuals may negatively impact a child. Our goal is to investigate where 2SLGBTQIA+ Catholic school students receive support in their day-to-day life. We will focus on support found within the Bronfenbrenner microsystem, such as people within school or work, family, and friends. Additionally, we will look at support that may come from intrinsic spirituality. Our method involves multiple previously validated scales to measure perceived social support, outness, and intrinsic spirituality. We will also include demographic questions. These will be asked in a survey through Prolific. We will use a snowball technique to advertise the survey to our population. We are working with a protected population and will require consent from both the legal guardians and the underage participant. We are expecting to find data showing where 2SLGBTQIA+ students attending Catholic school receive support. These findings may show where there are deficits or gaps in support for 2SLGBTQIA+ students attending Catholic school. From this, we may be able to show where Catholic schools can better encourage support for their 2SLGBTQIA+ students.
Many transgender individuals still face significant barriers to receiving affirming, equitable medical care, despite growing awareness of the unique healthcare needs of transgender individuals in recent years (e.g., Renner et al., 2021). This project investigates the impact of healthcare providers' language in patient satisfaction, trust, and overall health outcomes of transgender individuals. With the recent creation of restrictive policies under the incoming executive administration, including limitations on legal recognition and bans on funding gender-affirming care (Simmons-Duffin, 2025), transgender patients face an increasingly hostile healthcare environment, making provider interactions more critical than ever.
This study will focus on transgender individuals in the St. Louis area to assess local healthcare experiences and identify disparities in care across different neighborhoods. Both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected. A survey will be distributed to a broad sample of transgender individuals residing in St. Louis to evaluate factors such as comfort with providers, the frequency of affirming versus discriminatory interactions, and the influence of language on patients’ willingness to seek medical care. Additionally, in-depth interviews and focus groups with approximately twenty participants will provide deeper insights into personal experiences, highlighting issues such as the impact of incorrect name and pronoun use, the definition of inclusive versus non-inclusive language, and the ways in which communication styles affect patient-provider relationships.
Demisexuality is a sexual identity characterized by a need for emotional connection in order to establish sexual attraction (Barton, 2019). Psychological research on demisexual individuals is extremely limited. For example, the APA dictionary has yet to include and define demisexual (APA Dictionary, N.D.). The scant preexisting literature compares Demisexuality to other identities within the asexuality spectrum, especially asexuality, going as far as discussing possible treatments for asexuality/demisexuality (Barton, 2019; Copulsky & Hammack, 2021; Hille et al., 2020; Fiorini, 2022; Nimbi et al., 2024). Not fully acknowledging the demisexual identity, as well as pathologizing, further isolates people who identify as demisexual (Fiorini, 2022; Pitcher et al., 2024). The lack of literature around demisexuality as an identity independent of asexuality not only seemingly provides a basis for the debatability of the identity's validity and existence, but also creates a lack of understanding of the variability within experiences that exists within the demisexual community. This study aims to contribute to the literature by providing a comprehensive review of the existing literature regarding demisexuality as well as provide a qualitative study to gain an understanding of the self-describing language people who identify as demisexual. Our study differs from previous studies in that individuals are asked to provide self-descriptive language rather than select from a descriptive list. Data is being collected via the online research platform Prolific giving us a community sample (data collection in progress). Through this method, our hope is to reveal unique differences that will reinforce the validity of demisexual as a unique sexual identity. Results of our study will increase, if not introduce, knowledge around the variability and validity of demisexuality as an identity independent of asexuality. Further, results will begin to assist all communities better understand and respect the vast spectrum of sexuality.
