CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE A GAY LIBERATION HISTORY WEBSITE: DECREASING THE SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR OF GAY IDENTIFIED MEN BY INCREASING SELF-ESTEEM A graduate project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Science in Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy By Ramon Solache May 2018 The graduate project of Ramon Solache is approved: ____________________________________ _________________ Alejandra Trujillo, LMFT Date ____________________________________ _________________ Bruce Burnam, Ph.D Date ____________________________________ _________________ Shari-Tarver Behring, Ph.D Date ____________________________________ _________________ Stan Charnofsky, Ed.D, Chair Date California State University, Northridge ii Dedication My project is dedicated to all the same-sex loving men from our past and those yet to come who seek out a better understanding of gay love. To all those same-sex loving who suffer and struggle in isolation or silence un-aware of the immense contribution same-sex loving men have had in our society and will have in the future. To Harry Hay, who in my youth told me that we are not a skewed version of heterosexuality and are nothing like heterosexuals, which is a beautiful thing. This project is particularly dedicated to Mitch Walker who today continues to write scholarly works about the psychological importance of Gay love and the Gay subjective experience. iii Acknowledgements I am very grateful and appreciate all the support I received from everyone that helped this project come to fruition. The list by no means encompasses of all those who deserve my grateful appreciation: To my partner, James Mclendon: Thank you for having such a supportive attitude and allowing me to take over our home with the bombardment of books and printed journals. To my Mother, Silvia Perez, who has supported any endeavor I have sought out; and there have been many. To the Institute for Uranian Psychoanalysis (IUP), who’s trainees and member’s like Christopher Kilbourne, Douglas Sadownick, Roger Kaufman, and Dustin Kerrone continue to question, explore, and inspire the mysteries of Gay spirit and Gay love. Special love to Mitch Walker, a founding member of the Institute, who’s scholarly body of work is not only inspirational but in my opinion is leaps and bounds beyond anyone else’s psychological understanding of gay spirit. To my academic supporters, Bruce Burnam and Stanley Charnofsky who continued to support and guide me through this elongated process, which at times, thought I would never complete. I would particularly like to thank Alejandra Trujillo who has always expressed her belief in my abilities and agreed to help by joining my committee after losing one of my members at the very last moment. I could not have completed this stage of my journey without this support. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature page ii Dedication iii Acknowledgements iv Abstract vi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Review of the Literature 7 Chapter 3: Project Audience and Implementation of Factors 31 Chapter 4: Conclusions and Recommendations 36 References 41 Appendix 46 v ABSTRACT A GAY LIBERATION HISTORY WEBSITE: DECREASING THE SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR OF GAY IDENTIFIED MEN BY INCREASING SELF-ESTEEM By Ramon Solache Master of Science in Counseling Marriage and Family Therapy In modern times, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community has gained increasing political power and continues to foster safety for people living as homosexual or bisexual. Despite significant advances in civil rights, gay men and especially gay men of color continue to be at the highest risk of suicide, drug abuse, and exposure to HIV/AIDS. The modern gay movement has shifted from a focus on gay liberationist ideas to that of civil rights, which does little for fostering self-esteem. Although the internet offers other websites concerning gay history, the website proposed by this project differs in that it will focus less on civil rights and more on historical movements that have led gay people through millennia to contemporary times, honoring the experience of same-sex love. This connection to the historical gay past will decrease self-destructive behaviors. vi Chapter I Introduction Although considerable accomplishments in recent years have advanced the LGBT civil rights movement, this project discusses a gay liberation movement with a different concentration and the importance of such ideas in saving and fulfilling gay lives. This project by no means seeks to disparage the great strides made by the civil rights movement’s efforts to seek a more egalitarian society. This movement is an essential external struggle, but an external focus tends to sacrifice internal psychological experiences. Dr. Mitch Walker (2009), a modern gay liberation leader, proposes that implicit homophobic societal messages homosexual children receive during development, which reinforce self-destructive behaviors later in life, often taint their internal experiences. These implicitly homophobic messages begin at an early age as definitions of male and female. Heterosexual patriarchal societies use these descriptions to categorize people into a binary male/female system (Neill, 2009). A movement that focuses exclusively on civil rights disseminates implicit messages that a heterosexual construct is the only or most desirable system available. Gay liberational leader Mitch Walker (2009) describes: …the strategic reign of gay assimilationist ideologies, in gaining their very sociopolitical successes, can also be promoting to that validational extent a paradoxical negation of what makes being gay gay for members of the concerned community otherwise benefitted, thereby fostering a discordant contradiction thus so sympathetic or helpful to the ugly forces of heterosexist hatred still working their nasty will on us, most acutely and dangerously as the Trojan Horse within, as persistent or deep-seated “internalized homophobia (p.7). 1 The idea that awareness and appreciation of the fundamental experience of being gay are necessary for a gay person’s healthy development has faced challenges in contemporary academia. History often excludes same-sex-loving people and events and minimizes the homosexuality of pivotal historical figures, leading to an assumption that such characters were heterosexual. Liberational leaders such as Harry Hay and Mitch Walker believe that gay identity, rights, and freedoms connect with a long historical lineage. Over millennia, and even in the face of danger, people have cultivated the idea that homosexuals are a unique people with their own experiences, spirituality, and history. Walker (2009) evokes the dedicated work of past generations as an essential link to the critical development of the modern gay liberation movement: …homosexuals have gradually evolved a name and an identity for ourselves that nurture and inform the humanization of being a same-sex-loving person of dignity, value, and contributive creative potential. We have by the way of many generations, gone through a long journey of gradual self-awakening and discovery, from initial musings about who we are, to a variety of alternate understandings and terminologies, to today’s proud and self-respecting lesbian- and Gay-identified peoples (p.32). Statement of the Problem According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC, 2017), young gay and bisexual males are at disproportionately elevated risk for HIV and other STDs. Schools and other youth organizations can help reduce sexual risk behaviors by teaching young males lifelong attitudes that promote and support their health. However, while sexual education alone can help reduce risk, it does little to deter risky behaviors resulting from low self-esteem. 2 Young homosexuals often develop poor self-esteem and are left feeling empty and alienated by failing to meet implicit expectations of their heterosexual families. Connecting homosexual youth to their historical past has proven to increase self-esteem and therefore decrease self-destructive behaviors (Baim, 2011). Purpose of Project The goal of this project is to develop a website focusing on the expansion of gay liberation as an essential tool for cultivating and fostering healthier self-esteem and thereby reducing self-destructive behaviors. The website will promote exploration of gay liberational history and leaders who have facilitated a fecund development of gay spirit and myth of meaning. It will make this information accessible to many youths and adults who live in remote parts of the country, have difficulty connecting with such information, or are too afraid to seek information outside of the privacy of their own homes. The website’s intent is not to isolate gay, homosexual, or same-sex-loving males from the dominant heterosexual society, but instead to build self-esteem through historical knowledge by developing a homosexual myth that decreases the tendency to isolate, fall apart, endure distress, or disappear when functioning in a primarily heterosexual society. This electronic link to the past can increase self-esteem and motivate readers to strengthen an appreciation of psychology on their path to gay liberation and individuation. Terminology This project uses the following terms, described by the following definitions. 3 Coming Out: According to belongto.org (2017), a national organization for LGBT young people, “coming out is the process through which an LGBT person accept their sexual orientation or gender identity as part of their overall