Discrimination of sexual minorities and plans to relocate

LGBTQ individuals make relocation decisions with their sexual orientation and gender identity in mind (Gorman-Murray, 2007). The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between non-violent discrimination faced by LGBTQ individuals and whether or not those individuals have future plans to relocate. A literature review of LGBTQ discrimination and LGBTQ relocation is discussed, and a secondary data analysis was conducted on a sample of LGBTQ individuals who participated in a quality-of-life survey. All hypotheses were supported except the hypothesis that analyzed anti-LGBTQ discrimination and its association with time until relocation. Results indicated that experiencing anti-LGBTQ nonviolent discrimination was significantly associated with reporting plans to relocate. A logistic regression also reported that experiencing anti-LGBTQ nonviolent discrimination predicted plans to relocate. Lastly, low age was significantly associated with reporting plans to relocate

Building LGBT Nonprofit Leadership Talent: Thoughts and Suggestions for LGBT Organizations and Funders

Offers a model for supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender nonprofit leadership development: define strategic aims and recruit, manage, develop, and retain talent. Includes practical guidance and list of LGBT leadership development programs

A MIXED- METHODS EXAMINATION OF THE HEALTHCARE, SOCIAL SUPPORT, AND RELIGIOUS NEEDS OF SEXUAL AND GENDER MINORITY (SGM) OLDER ADULTS IN TEXAS

Shared historical and social contexts influence a generational group’s needs, risk factors, and resiliency mechanisms. Sexual and gender minority (SGM) older adults have experienced structural exclusion and systematic discrimination throughout their lifetime. The minority stress model posits that SGM individuals experience stressors, like discrimination, unique to their social status which affect physical and mental health. SGM older adults experience worse physical and mental health outcomes than their heterosexual peers suggesting unique needs for SGM older adults. Research also points to resiliency mechanisms that offset the impact of stressors on SGM older adults. The examination of these needs and resiliency mechanisms help to better understand how to improve quality of life and health outcomes among SGM older adults. To identify needs and resiliency mechanisms, a concurrent mixed method study was conducted with SGM older adults (50 years and older). First, a secondary data analysis of a statewide cross-sectional online survey examined the community needs of SGM older adults in Texas. A total of 104 SGM older adults completed the survey (7.63% of survey participants). Comparisons across gender and sexual identity were conducted using chi square and Fisher’s exact tests to probe for significant findings. Three categories of needs were identified: culturally sensitive healthcare, mental health and suicide, and social determinants of health. Second, primary data collection through focus groups and semi-structured interviews further explored community needs. Three one-hour focus groups were conducted with SGM older adults. Emerging needs for SGM women included the role of social support, pets, and religion/spirituality in health. Thirty- seven semi-structured interviews were then conducted to better understand these needs as well as the emerging resiliency mechanisms of SGM women and gender non-binary adults. Two resiliency mechanisms were identified from the interviews, social networks and religiosity or spirituality. Common themes were identified surrounding experiences influencing support networks types and their influence on health. Another important source of resiliency was an individual’s religiosity or spirituality. There were differences among those who reported conflict between their SGM and religious identity during their lifetime. These findings suggest implications for interventions tailored to specific SGM older adult populations to increase healthcare and social support resources especially for those experiencing isolation and/or conflict between SGM or religious identity

J Community Appl Soc Psychol

F32 AA023138/AA/NIAAA NIH HHSUnited States/P2C HD041041/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/U48 DP006382/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/2021-01-05T00:00:00Z34366639PMC83409381010

Surviving Homophobia: Overcoming Evil Environments

Thinking of the evils of homophobia and what is needed to survive them requires acknowledging a new category of evil besides the evils of individual deeds, social practices and social structures. That further category is evil social environments. Building on the work of Jeremy Waldron on the harm in hate speech, this chapter extends that account to certain hate crimes that, like the written word, send a lingering social message. The cases of four women survivors of homophobia are then examined in relation to such harm. Two who wrote memoirs had been targeted for murder, one in an evil environment, the other in a more positively responsive environment. The remaining two survival stories are less dramatic. But they are important in how they illustrate ordinary challenges faced successfully by lesbians and gay men in emotionally toxic environments, and how, in this sense, those not directly threatened with murder might still be justly regarded as survivors. The chapter concludes with reflections on the meanings of survival and some of the costs of surviving an evil homophobic environment

Quality of Healthcare Resources for Transgender Identifying Individuals in Baltimore, MD

More recently, we have seen an increase in awareness of the transgender community nationwide. Despite the transgender community starting to receive representation in popular entertainment media, politics, and within our own localities, there is still a large number of people who have negative perspectives and beliefs about the transgender community and their rights. The transgender community is under constant scrutiny and has to battle for basic human rights on a daily basis. Our politicians are trying to revoke the rights of transgender individuals to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity as opposed to their sex assigned at birth, prohibit transgender individuals from serving in the military, trying to allow health insurance companies to not cover transgender affirming healthcare procedures and medications, and many other various ways to harm the transgender community. Working within the healthcare system, there are a large number of people who are uneducated on how to work with the transgender community in an affirming way and providing the best quality of care. They constantly misgender or use dead names with transgender patients, refuse to provide scripts for hormone therapy, refusing to write letters for transgender patients to receive gender reassignment surgeries, and purposefully providing inadequate care as a form of discrimination. This portfolio aims to identify methods of education for healthcare staff and advocate for more readily available resources that provide transgender affirming healthcare

Improving the Lives of LGBT Older Adults

Although largely invisible until recently, LGBT older adults make up a significant (and growing) part of both the overall LGBT population and the larger 65+ population. While confronted with the same challenges that face all people as they age, LGBT elders also face an array of unique barriers and inequalities that can stand in the way of a healthy and rewarding later life. This report examines these additional challenges and how they make it harder for LGBT elders to achieve three key elements of successful aging: financial security, good health and health care, and social support and community engagement. The report also offers detailed recommendations for improving the lives, and life chances, of LGBT older Americans

Affirming Care: A Cultural Assimilator for Rural Clinicians Working With LGBTQIA+ Populations

Although the juggernaut of progress continues to provide minority groups, including members of the LGBTQIA+ population, opportunities to achieve equal representation and protection under the law, numerous challenges remain. Significant prejudicial and discriminatory actions, fortified by heterosexism and heteronormativity, not only threaten this community’s continued advancement, but also poses an existential threat to the physical, emotional, psychological, and social well-being of its members. Therefore, it is imperative that psychological clinicians receive adequate academic and practical skills-based training to thoroughly understand and respond to the unique obstacles faced by LGBTQIA+ clients. This goal, while laudable, is made even more difficult for those clinicians hailing from, or residing within, a rural milieu, given these clinicians’ access to culturally informed training opportunities to learn more about the LGBTQIA+ population. However, if a clinician is unable to proffer such services, there is an increased danger manifested by decreased physical, emotional, and psychological functioning, as well as continued stigmatization, internalized homo- and transphobic attitudes, and increased risk of suicide. The current project was borne from the desire to provide expanded training to clinicians so that they will be equipped with a better understanding of, and increased comfortability with, the LGBTQIA+ community. These goals will be accomplished by the creation of a cultural assimilator program which presents the participant with a plethora of thought-provoking scenarios and a variety of responses to choose from that explain the interaction. By completing the training, each learner will gain requisite knowledge relating to the community, as well as a greater sense of mastery in providing supportive, affirming therapeutic services. In turn, this serves to strengthen the therapeutic alliance between the clinician and the client, leading to improved clinical outcomes

The everyday food practices of community-dwelling Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) older adults

Malnutrition during old age is a significant public health issue. Prevailing behavioral and structural senior malnutrition interventions have had marginal success, largely failing to reflect the realities of people\u27s daily lives. This novel study employed Social Practice Theory (SPT) to explore the food practices of an under-researched, yet highly vulnerable, segment of the older adult population—Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) seniors. Four focus groups were conducted with 31 older adult clients and volunteers at a national LGBT social service and advocacy organization. Findings revealed that food practices—far from being mere expressions of individuals\u27 choices or immutable habits—are entities composed of meanings, materials, and competences that are structured as they are performed repeatedly in a social context. Gaining insight into how and why diverse older adults perform food practices in light of obstacles common to aging has important implications for senior nutrition program and policy development