Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr Health

Contents:

• APA’S GUIL FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY WH LBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL CLIENTS: THE FUNDAMENTALS FOR PRACTICE
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• LBIAN AND GAY PARENTG
• RUTGERS PSYCHIATRIST, FIRST OPENLY GAY APA PRINT, ADVOT EXPANDG MENTAL HEALTH SERVIC
• LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR HEALTH

APA’S GUIL FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY WH LBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL CLIENTS: THE FUNDAMENTALS FOR PRACTICE

Dpe the persistence of stereotyp that portray lbian, gay, and bisexual people as disturbed, several s of rearch and clil experience have led all mastream medil and mental health anizatns this untry to nclu that the orientatns reprent normal forms of human experience. Helpful rpons of a therapist treatg an dividual who is troubled about her or his same sex attractns clu helpg that person actively pe wh social prejudic agast homosexualy, succsfully rolve issu associated wh and rultg om ternal nflicts, and actively lead a happy and satisfyg life. The phrase “g out” is ed to refer to several aspects of lbian, gay, and bisexual persons’ experienc: self-awarens of same-sex attractns; the tellg of one or a few people about the attractns; wispread disclosure of same-sex attractns; and intifitn wh the lbian, gay, and bisexual muny.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

If they are a heterosexual relatnship, their experienc may be que siar to those of people who intify as heterosexual unls they choose to e out as bisexual; that se, they will likely face some of the same prejudice and discrimatn that lbian and gay dividuals enunter.

LBIAN AND GAY PARENTG

The rmatn this booklet has been veloped by a aln of tn, health, mental health and relig anizatns that share a ncern for the health and tn of all stunts schools, cludg lbian, gay, and bisexual stunts, and believe that all stunts should have an opportuny to learn and velop a safe and supportive environment. However, throughout 150 years of homosexual social movements (roughly om the 1870s to today), lears and anizers stggled to addrs the very different ncerns and inty issu of gay men, women intifyg as lbians, and others intifyg as genr variant or nonbary. Biblil terpretatn ma illegal for a woman to wear pants or a man to adopt female drs, and sensatnalized public trials warned agast “viants” but also ma such martyrs and hero popular: Joan of Arc is one example, and the chillg origs of the word “faggot” clu a stick of wood ed public burngs of gay men.

This creasg awarens of an existg and vulnerable populatn, upled wh Senator Joseph McCarthy’s vtigatn of homosexuals holdg ernment jobs durg the early 1950s outraged wrers and feral employe whose own liv were shown to be send-class unr the law, cludg Frank Kameny, Barbara Gtgs, Allen Gsberg, and Harry Hay. Fstrated wh the male learship of most gay liberatn groups, lbians fluenced by the femist movement of the 1970s formed their own llectiv, rerd labels, mic ftivals, newspapers, bookstor, and publishg ho, and lled for lbian rights mastream femist groups like the Natnal Organizatn for Women.

RUTGERS PSYCHIATRIST, FIRST OPENLY GAY APA PRINT, ADVOT EXPANDG MENTAL HEALTH SERVIC

The creasg expansn of a global LGBT rights movement suffered a setback durg the 1980s, as the gay male muny was cimated by the Aids epimic, mands for passn and medil fundg led to renewed alns between men and women as well as angry street theatre by groups like Aids Coaln to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Natn. Wh greater media attentn to gay and lbian civil rights the 1990s, trans and tersex voic began to ga space through works such as Kate Boernste’s “Genr Outlaw” (1994) and “My Genr Workbook” (1998), Ann Fsto-Sterlg’s “Myths of Genr” (1992) and Llie Feberg’s “Transgenr Warrrs” (1998), enhancg shifts women’s and genr studi to bee more clive of transgenr and nonbary inti. But on April 8 of that year, the APA ratified a change of the fn, thanks to the efforts of a still-nascent Natnal Gay & Lbian Task Force, which marked this off as one of their agenda's first actn nsequenc of this change were empowerg and far-reachg.

Not only was more difficult for doctors natnwi to classify sexual orientatn as eher "abnormal" acrdg to their own personal bias, also removed an thorative voice that homophobic platforms had ed for s as a basis for their, the alteratn fn did ltle to stem attempts to change and nvert LGBT people; nversn therapi have ntued to this day, due part to a proviso the ASA's DSM (Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs) ma as a promise that same year. The phrase Sexual Orientatn Disturbance (SOD) was ed to intify homosexualy as an illns, provid that the dividual ncerned felt that his or her same-sex attractns were troublg or would take the APA approximately 15 more years to strike the ncepts permanently om the rerd, but sce then, they have e a long way.

LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR HEALTH

The APA's current fn of homosexualy, a memorandum published late 2013, reads as follows:"It is the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's posn that same-sex attractn, whether exprsed actn, fantasy, or inty, impli no impairment per se judgment, stabily, reliabily, or general social or votnal pabili. In the three years durg which the Amerin Psychologil Associatn’s “Homosexualy Task Force” was liberatg, llaborated wh numero homosexual activist groups, cludg the Gay Activist’s Alliance, the Mattache Society, and the Dghters of Bilis, while systematilly ignorg anizatns wh views that disagreed wh the activists.

While the Homosexualy Task Forc were preparg their reports, anyone who dared prent documentatn that homosexualy was a psychologil disorr anywhere the untry was shouted down and even physilly attacked at public foms or at lol and natnal meetgs of mental health profsnals.

More specifilly, 1977, four years after the APA flip-flop, the journal Medil Aspects of Human Sexualy revealed that had polled 2, 500 psychiatrists on their view of what “current thkg on homosexualy” was, and, by a lopsid marg of 69% to 18% (nearly four to one, wh 13% uncid), the rponnts answered, “Homosexualy was ually a pathologil adaptatn as opposed to a normal variatn. Unlike heterosexual parents and their children, however, lbian and gay parents and their children are often subject to prejudice bee of their sexual orientatn that n turn judg, legislators, profsnals, and the public agast them, sometim rultg negative out, such as loss of physil ctody, rtrictns on visatn, and prohibns agast adoptn (ACLU Lbian and Gay Rights Project, 2002; Appell, 2003; Patterson, Fulcher, & Waright, 2002).