2024 Best Article of The Year Honourable Mention

This article serves as an editorial recognition, announcing the Reviewer of the Year and Best Article of the Year awards for Sexual and Relationship Therapy's 2024 publication cycle.

"Of the 18 nominated articles, we also recognized two articles with an honourable mention award. Indeed, one of the 2024 SRT Best Article of the Year Honourable Mention award goes to first author, Dr. Shemeka Thorpe, Assistant Professor of University of Kentucky in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion in Lexington, Kentucky, USA (and coauthors Natalie Malone, Jardin N. Dogan, Marla R. Cineas, Kasey Vigil, and Candice N. Hargons), for their article, “Exploring differences in Black heterosexual and queer women’s sexual experiences through a Black queer feminist lens.”

We shared findings from a survey (n = 295) of Black cisgender women in the first phase the triphasic Big Sex Study. Their findings showed that Black queer women had more sexual partners and reported self-sex at earlier ages in comparison to their heterosexual counterparts. Black queer women also reported higher pleasure ratings in the following areas—sexual activities, sexual intimacy, and partnered sex. What follows are comments from a few of the SRT Editorial Board members regarding this outstanding contribution to our journal, and the PRT field, in general: “This is an excellent article focusing on Black heterosexual and queer women, populations that are under-researched and marginalized. This is a significant contribution to the field.” and “Wow. Hell yes. This paper provides critically reflective and nuanced definitions of the core constructs being discussed. It is conceptually sophisticated, addresses underrepresented aspects of Black women’s sexualities, and addresses both heteronormativity and cisnormativity.”

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