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Abstract

While the United States LGBTQIA+ community has encountered increased support within academic spheres in the last decade, many members continue to face alienation and discrimination within their families. This project explores the effects of familial constraints on the performance of gender and sexuality in LGBTQIA+ youth through mixed-media, specifically interviews that informed found poems and photography portraits. Participants were college-aged members of the LGBTQIA+ community chosen through convenience sampling. Interview questions focused on familial constraints and the performance of identity, the transcripts from which were used to create poems. We took six photos of each model, portraying familial constraints, liberating elements, and artifacts significant to their respective identities. Through these processes, we found that familial constraints such as cultural beliefs and religious doctrine often limit the formation and expression of identity in LGBTAIA+ youth. While each person’s experiences are uniquely their own, there exist many commonalities between the experiences of LGBTQIA+ youth regarding family.

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