I’m a senior sociology student at Northwestern University. I’m currently preparing a senior thesis research study looking into how the political beliefs of gay men and women have changed since the 1970s and early 1980s. I hope to administer a survey to and (in some cases) interview a diverse group of self-identified homosexual men and women who are involved in the local LGBT community. In doing so, I’m reaching out to several key groups. I’ll write my findings by March of next year, which I hope to publish. This research is intended to contribute to thinking about how the major changes in U.S. gay and lesbian communities have affected the mobilization of political movements.
I’m contacting you because I would greatly appreciate any help in recruiting respondents for my study. Asians & Friends is a crucial part of the local LGBT community, and I hope I can somehow work with its staff and those it serves in order to complete this study. Asians & Friends is particularly important for this kind of study, because research of this sort has too often been unable to incorporate minorities. The requirements for respondents are that they are self-identified homosexual men or women and fall into one of two age ranges: 20-26 or 50-60.
Questions will ask the 20-26 range about their current political beliefs and interaction with a gay community, while other questions will ask the 50-60 range about their political beliefs and involvement in the 70s and early 80s. (To draw comparisons, I’m specifically looking for respondents in the 50-60 range who self-identified as homosexual and participated in a gay community during that time.) Both survey questionnaires and optional interviews are completely confidential, and only upon the subject’s agreement and signing of a consent form will I know their identity. From that point on, their identity will only appear on the consent form, which will be kept under lock and key and not publicly released in any fashion. Ideally, if Asians & Friends thought my study was worthwhile, I could coordinate with the group in such a way that initial contact went through the organization so that your staff and members don’t feel solicited–but I would do all the work, obviously, and if clients and staff members were interested in participating, I would then contact them directly.
If you think you could help me in my research process, I would greatly appreciate your time and thoughts on the matter. My contact information is listed below. Please let me know if you’re interested. Thanks for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Paul Schrodt
Department of Sociology
Northwestern University
1125 Davis St.
Apt. F1
Evanston, IL 60201
305-323-2135
schrodt@u.northwestern.edu
