Standards of Care in Assessment of Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,Transgender, Gender Expansive,and Queer/Questioning (LGBTGEQ+) Persons

ABSTRACT

A Joint Task Force comprised of members of the Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC) and the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC) present standards of care for assessment of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Gender Expansive, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTGEQ+) Persons.     

Are There Differing Patterns of Health Care Access and Utilization Among Male Sexual Minorities in the United States?

Disparities in health care access and utilization among male sexual minorities in the United States were explored using data from the National Survey of Family Growth (N = 8,846). Bisexual men had a small disadvantage in health insurance coverage but no differences were found in health insurance or consistency of coverage between gay and heterosexual men. Gay men were more likely to have a usual place of care, but were not more likely to utilize services. The current study provides inconclusive evidence for systematic disparities in health care access and utilization among gay and bisexual men in the United States.     

Counseling Competencies for Sexual Minority Clients

Abstract

Being able to work effectively with clients from diverse backrounds has become a necessity in good counseling practice. Professional associations have acknowledged this in recent years by identifying and articulating multicultural competencies that inform both the practice of counseling, but also the training of counselors. Specific attention to competencies in working with LGBT clients has been identified as a sub-set of these overall cultural competencies. In this paper, leaders within the Association for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues in Counseling present specific ways in which counselors can provide culturally sensitive counseling to sexual minority clients and their families that are in line with the counselor training guidelines established by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).     

Oh,Canada

SUMMARY

This article focuses on an exploratory study, documenting the experience of ten working class gay men in Toronto. Using qualitative methods in an effort to uncover clues about how the informants themselves perceive the experience, this article offers practice insight into the world of some working class gay men. Various themes such as the issue of appearance, the role of work, coming out to families, and attitudes and participation in the Toronto gay political/social scene are discussed.     

LGBT voices in work-life: a call for research and a research community

ABSTRACT

Despite an apparent expansive inclusivity of the aims of work–life programmes, there remains a fairly narrowly defined heteronormative view of the family. Alternative and non-normative perspectives of family life, and especially those pertaining to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) identities, remain relatively occluded and under-researched. The aim of this paper is to question the presence and relevance of LGBT voices and perspectives in work–life research as they seem neither visible nor on the frontline of work–life research despite their increasingly legitimate presence in organisational and societal discourses.     

Negotiating Homelessness through the Saliency of Family Ties: The Personal Networking Practices of Latino and African American Men

Abstract

This paper examines the role family networks play in the daily survival of homeless Latino and African American men. Using a qualitative research design and a semi-structured interview technique, I examine how these men initiate, participate in and maintain kin-based social networks and how their networks function. The analysis is carried out comparatively for Latinos and African Americans. Two research questions guide the analysis. First, how do the personal networks of homeless men operate? Second, how do the personal networks of homeless African American men differ from those of homeless Latino men? Key findings suggest differences in provisions for social support available within the respective networks of these men. Overall, participants commonly activated social capital within their personal networks, through the practice of filial fluidity which relaxes expectations of social debt and obligations and thus, facilitates the flow of resources vital to the well-being of these homeless men. These findings support a more empowering view of homeless men as active, rational and competent actors engaged in negotiating their situations of homelessness by maintaining active family-based networks.     

Information Poverty and the Latino Community

Abstract

Social work education can help students to reach a higher understanding of the impact of information poverty on the Latino community by systematically integrating this content into social work curriculum areas of information society, information poverty, and Latino communities. The authors examine the prospects for poverty and inequality in the Latino community as the United States emerges into the information economy and suggest that the Latino population may continue to be at risk for poverty in the information age. This article reviews indicators such as education, access to computers and network communications that may influence access to the emerging economic order and offers technology-based practice strategies, such as community net works and e-commerce, to create local empowerment. It provides recommendations for curriculum development.     

Chemo Killed the Small-Talk Gene

Urvashi Vaid is a community organizer and writer active in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and social justice movements for over three decades. She is currently Director of the Engaging Tradition Project at the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia University Law School. She is founder of LPAC, the first lesbian political action committee, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Gill Foundation. Vaid's past positions include Executive Director of the Arcus Foundation, Deputy Director of Governance and Civil Society Unit for the Ford Foundation, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and staff attorney for the ACLU National Prison Project. She is author of the books Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and The Assumptions of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Politics, and Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay & Lesbian Liberation, and co-editor of the book Creating Change: Public Policy, Sexuality and Civil Rights. Urvashi has had thyroid cancer and stage III breast cancer.     

Queering the Language? A Roundtable on Jargon in Queer Studies

Within colleges and universities, and academic circles generally, as in other fields, a certain jargon or distinguishable language has developed. There are those who assert that this academic jargon is used to add precision in the transmission of ideas, or to provide a certain degree of legitimacy to a comparatively young academic discipline, while others contend that this “academise” is needlessly dense and exclusionary setting up a hierarchy of knowledge. Three individuals with varying relationships to the “academy” discuss this ongoing controversy within queer studies. The discussants include Paul B. Franklin, a doctoral candidate in the Fine Arts Department at Harvard University. He is currently writing a dissertation on the place of homosexuality in modern art. Adrien Saks is a Boston activist, writer, and publicist. He is the coeditor of Revelations: Gay Men’s Coming Out Stories and the former Marketing Director of Alyson Publications. This is his third year on the planning committee of OutWrite: The National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Writing Conference. Amanda Udis-Kessler is a bisexual sociologist with an interest in race, class, and gender inequality. Her work has appeared in eight books and a number of journals. An acquisitions editor for the journal Empathy, she is currently writing a social history of the bisexual movement/identity.     

THE SOCIAL CAPITAL RESOURCES OF GENDER AND CLASS GROUPS

ABSTRACT

Social capital resources affect careers. Yet, insufficient attention has been given to how access to social capital resources differs for social groups and, therefore, differentially affects careers. This study consists of in-depth interviews with 246 white interviewees from three parts of the U.S.: New Jersey, Tennessee, and Ohio. The interviews provide extensive details about how social capital resources affected the respondents' educational and employment endeavors. We found that men had greater access to social capital resources than women. Thus, career advantages accumulated for men, while career disadvantages accumulated for women. There were few class differences in access to social capital resources, but the middle/upper middle class had better career returns than the working class. Unlike many other studies of social capital resources and careers, our study examines the processes by which the resources were derived, how they were used, and how they affected careers. As such, we detail a primary mechanism of career disparities and, ultimately, socioeconomic inequalities.     

Building Culturally Sensitive Assessments for Transgender Clients: Best Practices for Instrument Development and the Adaptation Process

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on best practices for developing, adapting, and using assessments with transgender clients. The historical context of gender minorities in counseling is discussed, outlining the bias and stigma that has been attached to transgender identities. Due to this historical bias, most assessments use heteronormative language and were not developed for use with gender minorities. As such, we used the guidelines put forth by the American Counseling Association (ACA), the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), and the Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC) to present a guide for developing and adapting assessments for the transgender population. Finally, the authors discuss the clinical application of using a trans-sensitive assessment process for counselor educators and clinicians.     

The relation between cultural values and condom use among Latino gay men

ABSTRACT

Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) are the second largest group to be affected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Latino cultural values may influence sexual behaviors that can result in HIV acquisition. This study explored the relations among traditional machismo, caballerismo, familismo, unprotected anal intercourse (UAI), and the appeal of sex without condoms (ASWC) among Latino gay men. Results indicated that higher levels of familial honor and traditional machismo predicted higher levels of ASWC. These findings suggest that exploration of gender roles and family are important factors to be included in HIV prevention and intervention programs.     

The Vital Role of Social Workers in Community Partnerships: The Alliance for Gay,Lesbian, Bisexual,Transgender and Questioning Youth

The account of The Alliance for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (GLBTQ) Youth formation offers a model for developing community-based partnerships. Based in a major urban area, this university-community collaboration was spearheaded by social workers who were responsible for its original conceptualization, for generating community support, and for eventual staffing, administration, direct service provision, and program evaluation design. This article presents the strategic development and evolution of this community-based service partnership, highlighting the roles of schools of social work, academics, and social work students in concert with community funders, practitioners and youth, in responding to the needs of a vulnerable population.     

Young Adult Suicide and Sexual Orientation

ABSTRACT

The current project focused on the suicidal ideation and risk potential of young adults (N = 312) and explored scores on self-report measures of suicidal ideation inclusive of various sexual orientations. Results suggest that the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) youth surveyed (N = 73) differ in their display of suicide risk with significantly higher Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) and Suicide Probability Scale (SPS) scores. Social support served as a mitigating factor relating significantly to lower levels of hopelessness and suicidal ideation, especially among those LGB participants. The SPS held a significant relationship to suicide attempt in the past year, while the BHS held a significant relationship to suicide attempt in the past six months. Implications for counselors serving young adults are addressed, including specific suggestions to enhance counselor education and supervision related to suicide assessment and LGB counselor competency.     

Introduction: Queering Later Life

Summary

The field of sexual trauma developed from the sociopolitical movements of the feminist, rape, and child protection movements. As thinking in the field developed, however, it has been difficult to integrate the perspective of the male survivor of sexual trauma into these perspectives. Gay men, in particular, have been notably absent from the literature, except when their abuse history is discussed as an etiology for their sexuality. It is clear that gay men suffer violence and oppression in the form of homophobia—an abuse with a sexual focus. Integrating the experience of gay men who have suffered trauma into perspectives regarding sexual trauma offers a possibility to enhance understanding about, as well as prevention efforts against, the sexual abuse of children. This includes expanding definitions and vocabulary regarding sexual trauma, as well as recognizing the impact on mental health professionals of working with survivors of sexual trauma.     

University-Community Partnerships Promoting Anti-Oppressive Action on Behalf of Latino/a Youth

ABSTRACT

This article emphasizes the effect university-community (UC) partnerships can have on addressing the oppression and discrimination of disenfranchised groups. It will present a process-outcome level, Freirian-inspired and Latino culture-focused UC partnership that seeks to promote anti-oppression strategies that benefit Latino/a youth. The model presented is based on the work of Connecticut United for Latino/a Children (CUPNL), a UC partnership created to advocate and promote changes on behalf of Latino/a youth. The value and usefulness of CUPNL is discussed through the example of its most longstanding initiative, the Escúchenos conference. Partnerships like CUPNL can serve as a mechanism for social workers to engage in and promote anti-oppression action.     

Factor Structure and Reliability of the Advantages of Children Scale with Latino and Caucasian Male Emerging Adults

Abstract

Based on the value of children theory, the purpose of this study was to develop and establish the factor structure and internal consistency reliability of the Advantages of Children Scale (ACS), a self-report measure of a modification of Hoffman and Hoffman’s value scheme of the psychological needs children meet for their parents. Data were collected from 685 emerging adult men identifying as Latino or Caucasian who were not parents. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis found a good fit for the six hypothesized subscales on the ACS: connectedness, expansion of self, family heritage, adult status and social identity, development of self, and family maintenance. We discuss potential applications of the measure in research and practice.     

Understanding the Relationship Between Alcohol and Sex: Latino and White College Students and Problematic Sexual Experiences While Drinking

Objectives: The authors examined whether the relationship between alcohol expectancies and sexual experiences while drinking differed between Latino and white college students. Participants: The authors considered students if they were white or Latino, unmarried, aged 18-25 years, reported any drinking, and had at least 1 sexual partner in the present school year. Methods: The investigators collected surveys from a random sample of 13,868 undergraduate students from the 14 California public university campuses. They used tests of group differences and hierarchical multiple regressions. Results: Social-facilitation alcohol expectancies were associated with the total number of different alcohol-related sexual experiences among Latino students. Neither social facilitation nor sexual-enhancement alcohol expectancies were differentially predictive of white or Latino students' frequency of sexual experiences. Conclusions: Additional research is necessary to determine whether concepts targeted by alcohol prevention programs operate in a differential manner for Latino students.     

Gay Youth

Abstract

In recent years there has been a growing awareness among parents and social service professionals of the complex sexual identity development of adolescents. Despite this, adolescents continue to struggle to define their sexual identity. Gay and lesbian adolescents in particular are at risk for a host of problems, including substance abuse and suicide. In this context it is important for social service researchers to study adolescent sexual identity and to report their findings in such a way as to be accessible to professionals and to the public.