Greg Knotts
DeCrescenzo compiles a variety of voices in an effort to address the needs of gay and lesbian youth. Policies and programs affecting schools, law enforcement agencies, and social work are all investigated. The articles in the collection focus on the needs of gay and lesbian youth and how systemic efforts to address those needs can be implemented in a variety of settings. “Helping Gay and Lesbian Youth” focuses on developmental issues, counseling, social policy, and legal issues that affect gay and lesbian youth. Educators, child welfare departments, and mental health agencies could use this collection of articles to know how better to serve gay and lesbian youth. Teachers, guidance counselors, and social workers will find this a practical guide to helping to understand many of the issues surrounding gay and lesbian youth.
DeCrescenzo compiles authors who contribute to this discussion from a variety of perspectives, making this book a resource that could be widely used and applicable to a variety of settings. That gay and lesbian youth need help and support is a given understanding in this collection. What the contributors try to do is place a focus on the education of educators and the creation of policy and programmatic responses to the needs of those youth.
Dennis Durby sets the tone for the collection in an investigation of developmental challenges of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. From coping mechanisms, to issues of both dissonance and resilience, Durby investigates what it means to grow up gay. Involvement with peers, parents, and social expectations are all addressed in this inquiry into developing as a young gay individual. With a focus on the fluidity of sexual identity and sexual behavior typically experienced in adolescence, Durby maintains that it is difficult to get an accurate account of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. What is experimentation one day may be a life choice the next. This knowledge, however, should directly impact how youth in general are addressed — that there is a broad range of sexual expressions and behaviors and youth should be encouraged to fully develop their sexual identities just as they are encouraged to develop the other aspects of their identities.
Educators of youth, from teachers to mental health service providers to the clergy should become educated on the issues involving gay and lesbian youth and the difficulties faced by this population. Durby calls educators to be models of responsible, caring behaviors and how to best foster a world of acceptance for all youth. All youth, including gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth deserve dignity, respect, nurturing, and the freedom to develop in a supportive environment, Durby asserts. It is the responsibility of educators to provide that environment and to help positively contribute to the full development of all youth.
Nancy Taylor contributes a strongly worded inquiry about the 'policy of denial' that typically surrounds issues of gay and lesbian youth in social policy. Since lesbian and gay youth have yet to be clearly defined as a 'population' they are often denied services that other 'at risk' groups are offered. Taylor really takes to task the policy of silence and the assumption that suggests that all youth under age 13 are typically thought to be developing as heterosexual. Because policy debate can be bogged in simply defining the population, 'gay youth,' it is possible to see the difficulty in allocating resources and services to people that some are unwilling to say even exists. Since many people lobby against allowing youth to self-identify as lesbian or gay, or dismiss the idea outright of identifying them at all, clear social policy for gay and lesbian does not exist. The unique needs of this population have yet to be addressed and policy, if it does exist at all, has certainly not taken the voices from that population into account.
Gay and lesbian youth have been systematically denied the opportunity to contribute to the conversation and thus, miss even further opportunities to help address their needs. Taylor couches the need for social policy affecting gay and lesbian youth in a larger discussion of the larger society. Naiveté, ignorance, and denial largely inform this discussion, Taylor asserts, and it is time for policy makers to be ready and comfortable to face the reality that children and adolescents will develop sexually toward homosexuality. The growing presence of gay families and representations in the popular media and culture necessitate a direct need for a defined social policy(s) that address gay and lesbian youth.
Gerald Mallon approaches the issue of counseling to gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. Theoretical, ethical, moral, and practical dimensions must be developed in a policy that addresses counseling these populations. The reality of hiding a developing minority sexual identity, the lack of family support, a social sense of stigmatization, and sometimes daily harassment are all issues that must be addressed when counseling gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. Mallon offers a very practical guide of thirteen steps to follow in order to effectively counsel gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. Being aware of some of these issues is tantamount to effective counseling, but becoming further educated is of utmost importance. The counselors of tomorrow must be educated today — and continue to become educated. This minority population cannot be treated or aligned with other minority populations. The unique concerns and needs of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth must be taught to counselors and included in treatment and policy that affect them—both in the schools and in private practice.
Darryl Jackson and Richard Sullivan propose that institutionalized homophobia both informs and is a byproduct of addressing the developing needs of lesbian and gay adolescents. Jackson and Sullivan first address the cognitive development of gay and lesbian youth. They maintain that youth must first be able to see the positive possibility of becoming gay in order to be able to consider it as a viable developmental option. In terms of social development, youth must be able to see models in order to be able to compare possible outcomes as options for them to pursue. For gay and lesbian youth, there is often no role available to them to compare their subjective experience of their reality.
These hindrances in cognitive and social development are only among the difficulties facing gay and lesbian youth. If a child perceives a lack of support or approval, this will inhibit development. Experiencing social devaluation is also a big hindrance. The level of parental support is a specific need of youth — in any aspect of their development. When applied to a sexual identity, it is important to gay and lesbian youth that their self-concept is affirmed by their parents. The 'campaign of oblivion or denial' on the part of many parents often has drastic implications for the development of gay and lesbian youth. Suicide rates among gay and lesbian youth are 30% higher than their heterosexual peers. There are often lower academic achievement levels, levels of participation in activities, and a lack of leadership positions among gay and lesbian youth. Jackson and Sullivan assert, "Homophobia has assumed the proportions of a social pathology in our culture" (p. 103). This homophobia is fostered in schools, in religious communities, and in social policy. Although evidence supports that gay and lesbian youth are resilient in spite of a large absence of social policy in their favor, it is necessary to systematically implement social policy that supports the needs of gay and lesbian youth in order to better foster their development as human beings and as contributors to society.Greg Greeley provides a helpful look at what service organizations already exist for gay and lesbian youth. Greeley discusses six major organizations that are devoted to the needs of gay and lesbian youth. The Boston Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth, Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services (Los Angeles), the Hetrick-Martin Institute (New York City), the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, Project 10 (Los Angeles), and the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (Washington D.C.) are all addressed. Greeley's investigation is a hopeful look at several communities who are directly impacting and addressing the needs of gay and lesbian youth. If someone were unfamiliar with these kinds of resources, this article provides a great overview of the kind of programmatic services that are available to help gay and lesbian youth. Knowing that these kinds of services exist should help others to know that models are already in place and that it is possible to begin an organization like these in other areas.
William Pederson contributes an examination of HIV risk behaviors in gay and lesbian adolescents. Pederson concludes with an admonition to social services and practitioners who are working in the HIV and AIDS realm. Reexamining the paradigm, Pederson asserts, is necessary in order to better provide an effective education to gay and lesbian youth. Read through a contemporary lens (a decade after this article was written), this admonition is still necessary as HIV infection rates have continued to steadily increase since this article's writing.
Abby Abinati strongly words an argument that gay and lesbian youth must not be last on the agenda of civil rights issues in the gay and lesbian community. Adopting a leadership role in seeking opportunities for gay and lesbian youth must be of utmost importance in the shaping of social policy. Abinati calls for a more parental role, a familial model in the gay community, in fostering relationships with gay and lesbian youth. If we invest in youth today, Abinati asserts, this investment will be returned as gay and lesbian adults approach becoming senior citizens. The gay and lesbian community must begin to see ourselves as part of a larger culture — a culture that includes gay and lesbian youth.
The collection that DeCrescenzo compiles seems to agree on one thing. Gay and lesbian youth know what they need; it is up to the adults who deal with youth to best provide services that can address those needs. Adults must continually become educated. The voices of gay and lesbian youth need to be heard. The systematic silencing of those voices must be reversed if their needs are going to be met. Educators must become the educated.
This collection offers hope. It consciously addresses that there are, indeed, specific needs of gay and lesbian youth. Many of these needs are discussed and defined. They are defined in context and a number of services that address these needs are discussed and evaluated. Another hope of the book, I believe, entrusts those reading it to help solve the needs not yet addressed. The collection sits there like a blueprint waiting to be picked up and lived out. Help us, these gay and lesbian youth are saying, and here is how to do it. Now go do it these authors tell us. Go.
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