Lesbian Gay Bisexual Queer Intersex) Participants KIMBERLY GIBSON-JONES, MS BRIE RADIS, LCSW Objectives
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Meeting the Needs of Our LGBTQI (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Queer Intersex) Participants KIMBERLY GIBSON-JONES, MS BRIE RADIS, LCSW Objectives TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF SERVICE DELIVERY, ENSURE AFFIRMATIVE ENVIRONMENT, AND CLINICALLY APPROPRIATE SERVICES FOR LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER, QUESTIONING, AND INTERSEX CONSUMERS AND THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS. Objectives The goal of this training is to make your work place more affirming to participants (and staff) who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and people of diverse and unique identities. Objectives Continued Explore the process of “coming out” and the benefits and barriers to this process. Examine our own issues regarding sexuality and gender differences and our own beliefs and values. Discuss what we can do to truly be welcoming and affirming. History History of adverse perceptions towards people who identify as LGBTQI. Many parts of the world you can be punished by death or imprisonment for being who you are. In 81 Countries living as LGBTQI is illegal. In 2007 alone, 1,265 LGBTQI-biased hate crimes were reported to the FBI, which is a 6- percent increase from 2006. Bias-motivated attacks on the basis of gender identity are not tracked on the federal level. Most hate crimes are unreported due to fear.-HRC Annual Report Third highest reason in the US for a hate-bias crime that is focused against a person. More than 2.7 million people live in place where being gay is a crime. Anger as a human response to fear A study of 159 heterosexual men exposed to male-male erotic videos found a significant relationship between sexual prejudice and an anger-related cognitive network (Parrott, Zeichner and hoover 2006,xv 14). The specific negative feelings these men experienced had more to do with anxiety and fear than anger or sadness (Parrott, Zeichner and hoover 2006, 13). History is Changing For the better it seems due to the recent gay marriage supreme court ruling. 5-4 majority in Obergefell v. Hodges , Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote perhaps the most graceful and moving prose of his career. “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed. It is so ordered.” Historical Mental Health Perspective The original DSM (1952) listed homosexuality as a "sociopathic personality disorder." It was later upgraded in 1968 to a "sexual deviation" but it was not until 1973, after the APA's proclamation against homophobic diagnoses, that homosexuality was removed entirely from the diagnostic manual. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association made the much belated decision to delete homosexuality as a diagnostic category from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Ironically, this decision was not based on new scientific evidence but the result of political pressure from activists in and out of the Association (Mohr, 2010). Gender Identity Disorder (GID): Historical Mental Health Perspective Multiple diagnoses related to gender identity first appeared in the third version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), published in 1980. These diagnoses were collapsed into one diagnosis, Gender Identity Disorder, with the release of the DSM IV in 1994. Diagnostic criteria, which are different for children and adults, include a persistent discomfort with the assigned sex at birth; a persistent discomfort with the role typically associated with their assigned sex at birth; and significant discomfort or impairment at work, social situations, or other major life areas. Are you fearful about something you don’t understand or the unknown? Fear is the opposite of love LGBTQI Terminology Bigender: A person whose gender identity encompasses both male and female genders. Some may feel that one identity is stronger, but both are present. Bisexual: A person who identifies as being attracted reationally and sexually to men as women FTM: A person who transitions from female-to-male, meaning a person who was assigned the female sex at birth but identifies and lives as a male. Gay: A man who identifies primarily as being attracted relationally and sexually to other men. Although it can be used for any sex (e.g. gay man, gay woman, gay person)In this presentation gay will be used to talk about gay men. Gender Expression: The manner in which a person outwardly represents or expresses their gender identity to others. LGBTQI Terminology (cont’d) Gender Identity: A person’s internal sense of being male, female, somewhere in between or something else altogether. Since gender identity is internal, one’s gender identity is not necessarily visible to others. Heterosexism: The attitude of a person or society that heterosexuality is a better or more acceptable sexual orientation than homosexuality. Intersex: A term used to describe a variety of situations in which a person is born with reproductive and/or sexual anatomy that does not fit typical definitions of female or male. Intersex people may have various combinations of genitalia, reproductive organs, secondary sex characteristics and sex chromosome combinations. A birth or later, intersex people may undergo surgery to make genitalia conform to the conventions of the gender binary (ie. Male or Female). Characteristics resulting from surgery, or the gender assigned at birth, may or may not match the individual’s gender identity and may cause permanent damage. LGBTQI Terminology (cont’d) Intersex: A term used to describe a variety of situations in which a person is born with reproductive and/or sexual anatomy that does not fit typical definitions of female or male. Intersex people may have various combinations of genitalia, reproductive organs, secondary sex characteristics and sex chromosome combinations. A birth or later, intersex people may undergo surgery to make genitalia conform to the conventions of the gender binary (ie. Male or Female). Characteristics resulting from surgery, or the gender assigned at birth, may or may not match the individual’s gender identity and may cause permanent damage. Lesbian: A woman who identifies primarily as being attracted relationally and sexually to other women. LGBTQI: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning and Intersex Genderqueer: is another term used by intersex or androgynous persons to define self as beyond the binary definition – also agender, thirdgender and other terms MSM: An acronym used to identify men who have sex with men. LGBTQI Terminology (cont’d) MTF: A person who transitions from male-to-female, meaning a person who was assigned the male sex at birth but identifies and lives as a female. Sexual Orientation: A person’s emotional, sexual, and/or relational attraction to others. Sexual orientation is usually classified as heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual (i.e. lesbian and gay). Transgender or Gender Variant Person: A person whose gender identity and/or expression is different from that typically associated with their assigned sex at birth. Also a person who lives either full or part-time in a gender role other than the gender assigned to them at birth. This may include people who identify as transsexuals, cross dressers, drag queens, drag kings, and intersex people. Some transgender people undergo surgeries or take hormones to change the sex characteristics of their bodies, and others do not. Some transgender or gender variant people identify as living outside their traditional gender construct or male body and gender, and female body and gender. Some express themselves in the traditional role assigned to them at birth but do not identify themselves Transsexual: A person whose gender identity differs from their assigned sex at birth. Transphobia: The fear or non-acceptance of transgender people, or related acts of discrimination or harassment. WSW: An acronym used to identify women who have sex with women. Is it a boy or a girl? 2%-4% of all births have ambiguity of which gender the child is born. This is 1 or 2 children in every 1,000 births. In Germany now on the birth certificate they write the third gender. In Canada they issued the first intersex passport in 2012. In the animal world it is common to see gender and sexual variations. Understanding Gender Identity For many, the acronym LGBT reflects a community of individuals who, in some way, are attracted to members of the same sex. However, many people fail to realize that the “T” in the acronym does not relate to sexual attraction at all; rather, it refers to a person’s sense of gender (referred to as gender identity). Transgender: a broader term for a number of gender- variant persons. 1)May identify as transsexual, intersex, or other forms of identity. 2)Includes persons who experience themselves as “in the wrong skin” in terms of male-female. A transgender person often feels like they are born in another body. Gender Identity: Gender vs. Sex Before the 19th century, the terms gender and sex were synonymous. Ongoing work since the 1950s in the field of gender identity development has raised awareness that gender is not exclusively determined by an assigned sex at birth, but determined by a person’s sense, belief, and ultimate expression of self.