Heterosexism and Social Work

Abstract

This study examined heterosexism among 409 Illinois school social workers. Heterosexism was found to be negatively correlated with “education about” and “positive contacts with” gay and lesbian individuals and positively correlated with “religiosity.” Most respondents showed some level of heterosexism with a few having very high levels. Only 15% were non-heterosexist. Respondents reported receiving little or no education about sexual minorities in their social work training. Most indicated that the training received was not adequate preparation for working with gay and lesbian individuals. Amount of education received increased with each of CSWE's educational mandates about sexual minorities but had no significant effect on heterosexism.     

Traversing the Margins: Intersectionalities in the Bullying of Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth

SUMMARY

This study explores the perspectives of service providers and youth advocates on bullying of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth and intersectionalities in LGBT peer victimization. In depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine key informants (4 male, 4 female, 1 transgender male; 4 gay, 3 lesbian, 2 non-identified; 6 white, 1 South Asian, 2 Middle Eastern) recruited using purposive sampling from diverse education and social service settings. Narrative thematic analysis and a constant comparative method were used to identify themes. Five themes emerged from the data: (1) “transgressing gender norm boundaries”; (2) homophobic sexism vs. sexist homophobia; (3) “you choose sexuality or you choose race”; (4) newcomer youth and citizenship; and (5) “multiple wires together … create the cage.” Findings suggest the importance of an intersectional approach to conceptualizing and addressing LGBT bullying and to uncovering the differential experiences of bullying among LGBT youth. Bullying related to sexual orientation should not be assumed to be the only or primary form of violence shaping the lives of LGBT youth.     

Whose Problem is This?

Abstract

This paper is concerned with how the needs of lesbian and gay youth are situated and defined in educational contexts and the intended and unintended consequences of framing their needs in particular ways. It is based on a case study of a senior college in New Zealand where a strategy for dealing with gay and lesbian youth was framed within a climate of market-driven educational reforms and where queer youth were viewed within the discourse of being “at risk.” This enabled the school to promote itself as providing a caring and nurturing environment without jeopardizing its position in the marketplace. However, this strategy had the unfortunate consequences of re-pathologizing lesbian and gay students and constructing their sexuality as a personal problem.     

Learning Difference

SUMMARY

This paper explores some of the relationships between the ways in which (White) dominant group children learn about racial differences and the ways in which difference is represented within gay and lesbian families. Research in the latter area has typically provided two dominant (though contrasting) accounts of difference within gay or lesbian families: (1) that children of gay or lesbian parents will have a better understanding of difference; and (2) that there are no significant differences between heterosexual and gay or lesbian families. In order to explore the implications of this current research in regards to constructions of difference within predominantly White gay and lesbian families, an analysis of storybooks aimed at children with gay or lesbian parents was conducted. The findings suggest that representations of difference within such books often reinforce a White heterosexual norm for parenting. To counter this, it is proposed that a shift is required in research focusing on gay and lesbian families, the intent being both to examine the simultaneous ways in which race privilege and sexuality-based discrimination shape the lives of White lesbian or gay parents and to broaden the scope of research in this area to more adequately reflect the diverse communities it seeks to represent.     

Rural Lesbians and Gays

Abstract

The author examines rural helping professionals' perceptions of lesbian and gay consumers and the effects their perceptions have on the provision of services to this population, including the tensions that result when helping professionals' perceptions hinder their acceptance of gay and lesbian consumers. This article uses reports from helping professionals to supplement the discussion. This article challenges helping professionals to evaluate their perceptions of gay and lesbian social service consumers which may hinder their accepting these consumers so that practitioners may gain full acceptance of their gay and lesbian service consumers.     

Gay and Lesbian Couples at Home: Identity Work in Domestic Space

ABSTRACT

Social research into gay/lesbian experiences of home has tended to posit domestic environments as alienating for gay/lesbian subjects, silencing their sexual identities. Meanwhile, work on the spatiality of sexual identity more broadly has largely focused on individuals or communities, not couples or households. In this context, this article aims to recover the importance of home for gay/lesbian couples. I explore how cohabiting gay/lesbian couples generate shared identities through domestic space, examining various ways in which these couples use homes to establish and consolidate their partnerships. Empirical data is drawn from twenty-three in-depth interviews with gay/lesbian Australians who are cohabiting, or have cohabited, with a long-term partner. The sample is largely limited to white, educated, middle-class gay men and lesbians living in urban Australia, providing an ethnographic window into the domestic identity-formation of a particular community of practice. Four key themes regarding “coupled identities” at home emerged from the interviews: (i) the importance of privacy and control at home for enabling gay/lesbian partnerships; (ii) the negotiated creation and use of shared domestic spaces; (iii) the accumulation and arrangement of household objects in those domestic spaces; and (iv) the importance of maintaining separate “personal” spaces for each partner for the well-being of the relationship.     

Standing OUT/Fitting IN: Identity,Appearance, and Authenticity in Gay and Lesbian Communities

Sexuality scholars have noted the historical connection between appearance and gay or lesbian identity. However, as the social landscape for lesbian women and gay men has shifted over the past forty years, little research has documented how such changes influence gay and lesbian individuals' appearance choices as they form, manage, and maintain their identities. To explore the impact of this “post‐closet” ( Seidman 2002 ) era on the identities and appearances of lesbians and gays, in‐depth interviews were conducted with twenty individuals, aged eighteen to thirty. Findings suggest that while most people use appearance to attain a sense of authenticity after “coming out,” achieving a feeling of authenticity in gay and lesbian spaces presents unique challenges as individuals come under scrutiny by the community.     

Sticks and Stones Can Break Your Bones

Summary

Utilizing the narratives of 54 youths and 88 child welfare professionals, this article explores the experiences and lives of gay and lesbian youths in child welfare agencies in three cities—New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto—who have been subject to verbal harassment and physical violence within those systems. The author additionally explores the multiple layers of verbal harassment and violence in both the youths' families and in the foster care system, offering recommendations to social work practitioners interested in creating gay and lesbian affirming environments.     

Youth Perspectives on Being Adopted from Foster Care by Lesbian and Gay Parents: Implications for Families and Adoption Professionals

ABSTRACT

This article presents findings from a qualitative study on the perspectives of youth who were adopted from the United States foster care system by lesbian and gay parents and includes focus group data from adopted persons and survey data from adoptive parents. This study fills a unique gap in the literature by hearing directly from the youth through focus groups. Findings indicated that children use a variety of strategies for sharing or not sharing that their parents are gay or lesbian and that many experience bullying and teasing that may be different than experienced by other children. The children adopted by lesbian and gay parents often perceive themselves as being more accepting of others, having more understanding of people, and being more compassionate toward people than those not raised by lesbian or gay parents. Suggestions are provided for training of adoption professionals and prospective families about the challenges and benefits for youth adopted by lesbian and gay parents.     

Articulations of Same-sex Desire: Lesbian and Gay Male Dating Advertisements

A survey of self and other categorisation in 200 lesbian and gay male dating advertisement texts, taken from current magazines and newspapers, reveals the discursive means by which homosexual advertisers in our corpus commodify and market sexual/self-gendered identities. Detailed analysis of a sub-sample of the advertisements allows us to trace the discourse processes and conventions used in formulating identity in such texts. We interpret these discourse practices in relation to a social critique of gay attitudes, beliefs and lifestyles. The different conventions for self-commodification followed by lesbians and gay men in this survey suggest generalisable differences in sexual stance and cultural identification     

Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to review the research literature concerning the development of children with gay and lesbian parents. It begins by discussing some of the social, theoretical, and legal implications of studying this population, and critiques a number of the assumptions guiding this research. The review then proceeds to include studies on children of divorced lesbian and gay parents, as well as studies conducted on children of gay and lesbian families that are planned. The body of literature generally concludes that children with lesbian and gay parents are developing psychologically, intellectually, behaviorally, and emotionally in positive directions, and that the sexual orientation of parents is not an effective or important predictor of successful child development. The paper also includes a discussion of the limitations of these studies, provides suggestions for future research, and discusses the challenge these families pose for the meaning and definition of family.     

“My Adoptive Father”

Abstract

Gay men's intimate life worlds have been the topic of some empirical inquiry since the late twentieth century. Drawing on the symbolism of love, friendship, and biology, these studies discuss the recent changes in queer communities that have shaped contemporary discourse about gay and lesbian family life. What appears missing in these intimate accounts are the lesser known readings of gay male intimate relationships which are both sensitive to the complex, interactive, and often contradictory experiences of everyday family life and attentive to the contextual ways these stories become constructed. This paper is a presentation of an experimental case study narrative which grapples with the practical, everyday considerations of what it means to create and sustain a supportive familial relationship between two gay men. Documenting the complexities of this contemporary familial arrangement provides us with some important opportunities for gay storytelling. In this instance, it allowed the author to better understand how two gay men like Ted and Simon came to construct their own notions of a father-son relationship. It also encourages us to explore how new gay identities and relationships are forged and negotiated over time through the biographical lens of family membership.     

Invisible students: experiences of lesbian and gay students in social work education in Greece

This article explores through semi-structured interviews the experiences of four lesbian and two gay students from the Social Work Department in the Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Greece. The complete absence of openly out lesbian or gay students or faculty members in the Department was considered reflective of the particular social and cultural context of Greece. Participants reported that lesbian and gay issues were marginalised in the curriculum and that heteronormativity often prevailed in the classroom. Consequently, same-sex sexuality was generally invisible and, when discussed, certain faculty members and peers often appeared to be uncomfortable. Within this context, participants stressed the importance of the professors’ role regarding the climate and content in the classroom. None of the participants considered that their sexual orientation had affected negatively their academic attainment; the lesbian or gay identities sometimes had a positive effect on participants’ academic attainment level exactly because of the negative impact these identities had on their social life. Most participants felt that their studies had not prepared them adequately for gay affirmative practice. Implications for social work education are considered.     

Life Course Diversity Among Older Lesbians and Gay Men: A Study in Chicago

How much can we assume about the shared life experiences of older lesbians and gays? This article is broadly concerned with rethinking the significance of this question as it pertains to cultural images and stereotypes of “older gay and lesbian” identities in a large and diverse American city. In 1996, the authors completed a 10-month needs assessment study regarding the lives and needs (social and psychological), which must be addressed for older lesbians and gays in the city of Chicago. The authors take the approach that simply being of the same or similar age is insufficient to understand the meaning of people's sexual identities. They entered into this study aware of some stereotypes about older lesbians and gays, but like previous investigators, they were surprised at the range of diversity that they uncovered. They discovered not only the common denominators in their participants' experiences and their lives, but as some commentators have already suggested, they also discovered a great deal of variation. To address the issues, the authors describe conceptual problems that emerged in a recent needs assessment of older lesbians and gay men in Chicago.     

Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Aging into the Twenty-First Century: An Overview and Introduction

This paper provides an introduction and overview for the papers in the special issue of this Journal devoted to the latter half of life among gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals. Key issues are highlighted in terms of their impact on gay, lesbian, and bisexual cultural communities: the impact of the large aging population of baby boomers; the significance of age as a social organizer; and the areas of research included in this special issue (intimacy and relationships, HIV and AIDS among elders, and the identities and needs of those growing into middle and later life).     

The Privatization of Social Services from Public to Sectarian

ABSTRACT

This article explores the privatization of social services from public to sectarian points of view while examining the implications of the Charitable Choice movement on the gay and lesbian community. The history of this movement is explored from a developmental perspective outlining the socioeconomic makeup of gays and lesbians, the societal perceptions and mythology of the economic status of homosexuals, and actual figures related to the number of gays and lesbians who rely on publicly supported social service providers. The article explores the history as well as the positive and negative aspects this type of privatization movement involves. Finally, a comprehensive assessment of the effects of this movement on the gay and lesbian community is presented and future recommendations will be made.     

“If You Knew Who I Really Am …”

This paper describes the work of a White lesbian analyst with her White gay male patient who carries a secret feminine self of which he is mortifyingly ashamed. Together they discover this feminine self as the site of childhood gender trauma—for years the patient was violently and persistently bullied for not being a masculine-enough boy. To enable this patient to address his shame and find an internal space to develop an authentic gender identity, analyst and patient must take account of and process the field of the treatment room as it exists within the larger social/political field of Trump’s America, in which the forces of misogyny, homophobia, gender rigidity, and racism combine to collapse any breathable space for this dyad’s multiple “deviant” identities.     

Greedy Spouse,Needy Parent: The Marital Dynamics of Gay,Lesbian, and Heterosexual Intergenerational Caregivers

It is well established that married heterosexual women do more intergenerational caregiving for aging parents and parents‐in‐law than married heterosexual men do. However, gay men and lesbian women's recent access to marriage presents new questions about the gendered marital dynamics of intergenerational caregiving. We use dyadic data with gay, lesbian, and heterosexual spouses to examine the marital dynamics of intergenerational caregivers. Results show that gay and lesbian spouses provided intensive time and emotional support for an intergenerational caregiver. In contrast, heterosexual women described their intergenerational caregiving as rarely supported and at times even undermined by their spouse. Dyadic data on heterosexual men corroborate women's accounts; heterosexual men rarely reported providing intergenerational caregiving, and thus heterosexual women rarely described providing spousal support. These findings provide new insight into the intermingled roles of “greedy” marriages and “needy” parents, wherein marital negotiations around caregiving vary by gender for gay, lesbian, and heterosexual marital dyads.     

Gay,Lesbian, Bisexual,and Transgender (GLBT) Elders

Abstract

Current gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) individuals age 65 years and older grew up before the Gay Rights movement. They have learned over many years to hide their identities in order to avoid discrimination and ridicule. Unfortunately, this secrecy has led to the near invisibility of the elder GLBT population and to poor health and service access. This paper reviews what we know about GLBT elders, describes some of the unique strengths they bring to the aging process, and outlines some of the challenges they face. Micro, mezzo, and macro practice implications are suggested.     

The Haunting of Shame: Autoethnography and the Multivalent Stigma of Being Queer,Muslim, and Single

Sociology has neglected the terrain of the gay Muslim single as a sociological phenomenon. Produced and managed via meaningful social conduct, the gay Muslim single often holds negative symbolic and cultural worth, one of lacking identification and presence. The stigma of the gay Muslim single is actively reproduced through social and power relations. I examine multiple stigmas and dichotomies by using autoethnography to illustrate the human lived experience of a gay Muslim single, who is silenced, invisibilized, and embodies a social life of “emptiness.” The gay Muslim single, bringing about a “moral panic,” confronts temporal regulations, norms, and values, notably those of heterosexual ones in everyday social life. He is cast as an “outsider,” which reinforces his stigma in everyday social life.