Abstract
This chapter brings awareness to culturally affirming school counseling practices in support of youth who carry lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, two-spirit, gender expansive, queer, questioning, intersex, agender, asexual, aromantic, pan*, poly*, and other related identities (LGBTGEQIAP+) toward creating safe, inclusive, and affirming educational environments that foster connectedness and allow all students to develop and achieve consistent with their peers and abilities. The authors build and fortify the reader's awareness before outlining resources and practices in support of culturally affirming school counseling for LGBTGEQIAP+ youth by providing an overview of issues faced by this community and relevant standards and competencies for best practice in serving the population.
TopCheck-In: Establishing Your Baseline
As readers engage with content in this chapter, it is important to be mindful of positionality. Where are you starting? What do you know? Where are your limits? The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Development of Clinical Skills Scale (LGBT-DOCSS;Bidell, 2017) is a self-assessment for health and mental health professionals. The assessment (Bidell, 2017, pp. 1458-1460) has been modified in Figure 1 to account for a broad population from a school counseling perspective. This modified version of the scale provides an opportunity for school counselors, school counselor educators, and school counselor supervisors to reflect on their own skills related to the LGBTGEQIAP+ community.
Figure 1. Modified LGBT-DOCSS (Bidell, 2017) for School Counseling
Regardless of an individual’s starting point, there is always opportunity for growth and this chapter will help to highlight those opportunities. The authors provide an overview of relevant literature and facilitate connections between theory, practice, and standards across the discipline. This chapter will be a significant contributor toward fortifying the reader’s ability to provide culturally affirming school counseling for LGBTGEQIAP+ youth.
TopBackground
Establishing a foundation of awareness related to this population is critical. A common understanding of trends, statistics, language and legislation cannot only better equip school counselors to work with the LGBTGEQIAP+ population, but to better understand the needs of the communication and limits of professional competence, communicate with stakeholders, and comprehend relevant media (e.g., research, documentaries, legislation).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Coming Out: A lifelong, developmental, contextual, personal and interpersonal process related to acknowledging, accepting, embracing, and choosing to share an identity/identities with others.
Queer: A term used to express a variety of identities which do not align with mainstream, heteronormative, and/or binary assumptions; the term has been/is sometimes used as a pejorative and has been reclaimed within the LGBTGEQIAP+ community during the 21 st century.
Romantic Orientation: The gender(s) to which an individual is predisposed to be emotionally attracted (e.g., homoromantic, panromantic) and/or the nature of an individual’s experience of attraction (e.g., demiromantic, aromantic); sometimes used interchangeably with affectional orientation.
Sexual Identity: An umbrella term, representative of an individual’s sense of self related to a variety of identities, including biology, gender, preferences for related relationships and behavior, and affectional/romantic and sexual orientation/attraction.
Transgender: Used as a noun or adjective, serves as an umbrella term to describe individuals who do not adhere to traditional gender norms; may include individuals who identify as genderqueer, gender non-conforming, non-binary, crossdressers, and many other identities, and should only be applied if an individual self-identifies with the term.
Gender: Representative of an individual’s gender identity (personal perception of their gender) and gender expression (e.g., clothing, pronouns, mannerisms), regardless of social constructs related to their sex assigned at birth (e.g., male, female, intersex).
Binary: A socially constructed system that assumes and limits an identity (e.g., gender, sexual orientation) to two distinct categories (e.g., male/female, gay/straight) and associated social constructs.
Asexual: Traditionally understood as a lack of sexual attraction, the asexual (or “ace”) identity spectrum is inclusive of many identities/positionalities, related to an individual’s sexual disposition, that are inconsistent with allosexuality (i.e., the experience of sexual attraction to others), such as grey-a, a/sexual-ish, demi-/semi-sexual, fray-/ignota-sexual, and cupiosexual.
Fluid: Relating to an identity (e.g., gender, sexuality) that is subject to change.