Sample Discussion & Writing Prompts

Curated by Amy Minervini

These ideas come from Northeastern University Library and can be modified to generate discussion or to fit various writing modes: personal narrative, reflection, informative, persuasive, and analysis depending on your purpose:

• how people who identify as non-binary navigate a world that sees gender in binary terms
• contrast how LGBTQA people are treated in other countries compared to the United States
• compare and contrast laws and culture within Asian countries– which are the most friendly to LGBTQ people
• how well does medical establishment treat transgender people?
• the history of how LGBTQA people have or have not been integrated into the priesthood of a particular faith
• what new elements have LGBTQA people brought to a particular faith
• how the nonbinary identity differs from the transgender identity
• LGBTQA mental health; research shows LBGTQA people have higher overall rates of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse disorders
• gender nonconforming children in schools
• legal rights of transgender people
• asexuality– what is means, how it is often misunderstood
• marriage of LGBTQA people to heterosexuals in order to “pass” (especially in traditional cultures)
• gender dysphoria and the controversy of diagnosing “gender identity disorder” in the mental health profession
• queer film festivals as a step toward visibility
• new reproductive technologies for LGBTQA people
• LGBTQA pioneers and activists
• coming out stories/ coming out process
• transgender visibility and “passing”
• transgender history– e.g., search transgender history in San Francisco
• history of bisexuality– at what point was it recognized as an identity?
• LGB history– the influence of cultural norms and attitudes of a specific century or decade, and how/why people hid their feelings of same-sex attraction
• lesbian and gay history– was there a time period and location in which the social climate was more accepting of same-sex attraction and desire?
• biography of a specific person in history whose trans identity or same-sex attraction was known or documented

(Northeastern University Library, 2020)

Sample Essay from The York Review: How Are LGBT Youths Affected by Discrimination and What Can Schools Do to Help? by Gaell Jocelyn-Blackman

Northeastern University Library. (2020, August 9). Subject guides: LGBTQ studies: Research and topic suggestions. Subject Guides at Northeastern University. https://subjectguides.lib.neu.edu/c.php?g=336054&p=2262977