From Community Organization to Direct Services: The Street Trans Action Revolutionaries to Sylvia Rivera Law Project

ABSTRACT

The literature on transgender social services is limited. Taking a case study approach, this article examines the needs of chronically underserved lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) populations, particularly homeless transgender street youth, and efforts of community-based organizations to address them. To consider their needs, this article considers the legacy of transgender activist Sylvia Rivera along with four organizations that grew out of her work: the Street Trans Action Revolutionaries, Sylvia's Place, Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and New Alternatives for LGBT Youth. These organizations show the promise for using multiple methods, from direct action to direct services, while connecting the lessons of social movements with social services. Future recommendations for improving research and services are highlighted.     

Intersectionality Is Not a Choice: Reflections of a Queer Scholar of Color on Teaching,Writing, and Belonging in LGBTQ Studies and Academia

ABSTRACT

Drawing on my experience as a queer, genderqueer, Puerto Rican counselor educator, this article considers how LGBTQAI+ studies and academia can expand to better include people with multiple marginalized identities. This article highlights some of the contradictions that educators face when engaging in the liberatory praxis that connects and creates a sense of belonging during these tumultuous times. This reflection suggests a decolonizing approach to intersectionality and highlights the importance of transcending binary discourse to engage in deconstructing the multiple layers of colonization in our internal and external spaces that is necessary for liberatory praxis. Finally, a few recommendations for how LGBTQAI+ studies and academia can support scholars with multiple marginalized identities are identified.     

Advancing Research on LGBTQ Microaggressions: A Psychometric Scoping Review of Measures

ABSTRACT

Understanding the nature and consequences of LGBTQ microaggressions is critical to fostering equity and wellbeing among sexual and gender minorities. Yet little guidance is available for researchers seeking psychometrically robust measures of subtle LGBTQ slights, invalidations, and insults. To address this gap, we conducted a scoping review of multi-item quantitative measures that included at least one question addressing LGBTQ microaggressions. This article reports the study characteristics and psychometric properties of 27 original measures we identified and their subsequent adaptations. The article concludes with an assessment of strengths and limitations of LGBTQ microaggression measurement, highlighting aspects of measurement innovation on which future researchers can build. As microaggressions remain a powerful and underexplored mechanism of sexual and gender minority oppression, this review will help to both advance methodological quality in this critical research area and enhance our understanding of how microaggressions manifest in the lives of LGBTQ individuals.     

“Parent Advocacy” as an Ideological Code: LGBTQ Parents Engage with Disability Services

What does the work that LGBTQ parents do to find resources for their disabled children reveal about the social organization of services? This article presents findings from an institutional ethnography study based on interviews with 15 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer (LGBTQ) parents and six key community informants in Toronto, Canada. The analysis focused on the work parents did to engage with disability service systems on behalf of their children, and the ways in which families’ social privilege and/or marginalization affected their experiences. Particular attention was paid to the ways in which “parent advocacy” was taken up, responded to, and critiqued in these interviews. “Parent advocacy” was found to operate as what Dorothy Smith has called an “ideological code” (Smith 1999), offloading systemic responsibilities onto parents, shielding inequities, and promoting individualized competition between service users. This study suggests that the systemic organization that makes “parent advocacy” necessary also renders parents’ relative privilege or marginality central to what their children receive.     

The Normalization Project: The Progress and Limitations of Promoting LGBTQ Research and Teaching in Mainland China

ABSTRACT

This article reflects on the author’s own experience of promoting LGBTQ research and teaching in mainland China, where the fight for institutional legitimacy and recognition has been a core element in this journey. After a historical survey of how Chinese LGBTQ research has grown out of the particular sociopolitical milieu, it focuses on a discussion of the “normalization project”—a key approach to both create and expand the institutional space for LGBTQ studies. Apart from the positive effects this project entails, this article also critically examines its limitations by bringing into the picture certain critical perspectives.     

News and Comment

Abstract

L61 Years in the Schoolroom. By Lawrence Hurst. Boston : Meador Publishing Company, 1952. Pp. 255. $2.50. Reviewed by Walter H. Mohr.

Calling All Citizens. By Robert Rienow with the editorial assistance of Howard R. Anderson. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1952. Pp. xxxiii, 690. $3.10. Reviewed by Ira Kreider.

Social Psychology: An Analysis of Human Behavior. By Leonard W. Doob. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1952. Pp. xix, 583. $5.00. Reviewed by Jerry A. Neprash.

Social Psychology. By Robert E. L. Faris. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1952. Pp. vii, 419. $5.00. Reviewed by Jerry A. Neprash.

Race Relations in Ancient Egypt - Greek. Egyptian, Hebrew, Roman. By S. Davis. Philosophical Library, 1952. Pp. xiii, 176. $4.50. Reviewed by J. F. Santee.

Social Treatment in Probation and Delinquency. Second Edition, By Pauline V. Young. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc, 1952. Pp. xxvi, 536. $7.00. Reviewed by Wayne C. Neely.     

LGBTQ College Students’ Experiences With University Health Services: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

Access to inclusive, equitable health care is central to the wellbeing of all college students yet little is known about LGBTQ students’ experiences with university health services. In this article, individual interviews with a convenience sample of 14 LGBTQ students at a large public university were analyzed to explore their perceptions of and experiences with the university’s health center and its services. Our findings demonstrate that the university is not adequately meeting their health care needs. Participants’ narratives offer insights into how to improve campus-based health services for LGBTQ students.     

Primary Care Providers’ Attitudes,Practices, and Knowledge in Treating LGBTQ Communities

ABSTRACT

Cultural competency in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) health care has been found to be lacking within various medical specialties, but no studies have compared competency among primary care providers. The authors compared 127 primary care providers’ cultural competency regarding LGBTQ health using a survey that assessed providers’ attitudes, practices, and knowledge. Overall, 78.0% of respondents agreed that they were comfortable treating LGBTQ patients. Yet many providers did not feel well informed on specific LGBTQ health needs (70.1%), on clinical management of LGBTQ care (74.8%), nor on referring patients with LGBTQ issues (78.7%). Overall accuracy on LGBTQ knowledge questions was 51.0%. This study revealed a lack of cultural competency and much need for improvement as primary care providers endorsed negative attitudes, biases, inconsistencies in clinical practice, and deficiencies in medical knowledge in specialty-specific ways. There is a need for greater LGBTQ-specific education to increase providers’ comfortability and competency in the needs, management, and referrals within LGBTQ health care.