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Every year approximately 50,000 people immigrate to the United States through the avenue referred to as the Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery. In this article, the authors present a literature review of immigration to the U.S. through the DV Lottery, reflect on their own immigration histories, and utilize phenomenology to investigate and describe participant feelings, expectations, and experiences as DV Lottery immigrants. Participants experienced mixed feelings, including high expectations prior to and difficulties after immigrating to the U.S. Findings presented include (a) life experienced in the U.S.; (b) access to learning and training opportunities; and (c) recommended support future DV Lottery immigrants. (Contains 2 tables.)

The authors conducted an ethnography of a university queer cultural center's role on campus and in the surrounding community. The dataset included participant observation, in-depth interviews, and artifacts. The authors present a review of LGBTQA [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, ally, and questioning] issues in higher education, heterosexual attitudes, transgender, ethics, and queer theory literature. The findings of roles/barriers to the Center's mission plus the devastating murder of a woman who was transgender and suicide of a Center student prompted the authors to use research poetry as a means to express the inexpressible. Furthermore, they illustrate tensions between contemporary queer and traditional gay theories through the telling of a "straight tale" (traditional report) and a "gay tale" (experiential report), interrupted with "queer tales" (poetic interludes) and "queer asides." At the heart of the tale is the transformation of a gay man to a researcher and scholar of gay issues. This tale is therefore at all times queer, gay, and straight. (Contains 11 footnotes.)