Stages of Homosexuality in Adolescence

Downing provides a great viewpoint on the meaning of homosexuality throughout this article. I never thought too much about homosexuality and how individuals in this group might feel in their position, but this article gave me an introductory understanding on the origin and how it came to be over the years. Homosexuality is still an unstable topic even in today’s society. Many people have varying views on the matter and conflicting opinions clash on a daily basis. I remember having many gay or lesbian friends in high school, but I never treated them any differently from anybody else. I think everyone has a right to choose the gender or person they are interested in, but this does not work out so easily in reality. Many people are afraid of coming out due to the

School psychologists must help create and foster an environment that educates administrators, teachers, and non LGBT students. Many lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender youth do not feel safe in school. Sexual minority students may suffer harassment (verbal and/or physical) from teachers and peers. As a result, they may experience more absences than heterosexual students. In addition, LGBT youth may turn to drugs and alcohol as a means of coping with the stressful school environment (Patterson 2013, p.192). Many will contemplate or even commit suicide.

In my paper I will be discussing homophobia in schools and how it affects students and even teachers. Homophobia in schools is the leading cause of suicide and depression among teenagers and young adults. I believe that this is a crucial situation and needs to be addressed both at home and in school. School officials must be permitted and comfortable with addressing issues of homosexuality and homophobia that students may have. This is crucial in not only enabling a LGBT teenager to get an education that is in a non-hostile environment, but also in enabling the student to become a strong confident adult.

Most LGBT youth become happy with who they are which gives them room to thrive during their adolescent years. Attending a school that has a safe and comfortable environment for every student is especially important. Positive environments can help all youth achieve good grades and maintain good mental and physical health. However, some youths are more likely than their straight peers to experience bad health and life outcomes. Experiences with violence, compared to other students, come easy to LGBT individuals that can cause increased risks for unfortunate circumstances.‘Violence’ includes behaviors such as teasing, harassment, and physical assault. It is important that students at risk have access to resources and support to deal with any questions or challenges they may have or face as they mature. Surveyed LGBT students reported 10% were threatened or injured, 34% were bullied, and 28% were bullied electronically.

The Bullying Policy has been introduced around the world which, according to the 2014 observations , rates of bullying vary across studies from 9% to 98%. An observation of 80 studies analyzing bullying involvement rates for both bullying others and being bullied for 12-18 year old students reported an estimate rate of 35% for traditional bullying involvement and 15% for cyberbullying involvement (Modecki, Minchin, Harbaugh, Guerra, & Runions, 2014). This means the Bullying Prevention Policy affects million of students nationwide due to the programs created. More specifically, females face a higher indication of bullying victimization than males do. To explain, high percentages of each gender are faced with the aggressive acts of violence, making it extremely hard to perform well in the school environment. Furthermore, as many as 93 percent of students hear derogatory words about sexual orientation at least once every day at school or in their community (violencepreventionworks). Negative name calling and harassment about sexual orientation can be disrespectful to all students. For an example, 3 out of 4 students who are bullied/harassed with such remarks are not identified as lesbian, gay,

GSA groups have been around since the 1980’s and according to the Gay-Straight Alliance Network there are currently over 4,000 school based groups throughout the United States (Currie, Mayberry, and Chenneville, 2012; Tommey, Ryan, Diaz, and Russell, 2011). GSA groups came out of the Gay Rights Movement during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Adolescents identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) or align within the context of this spectrum have been victims of bullying, discrimination, prejudice, persecution, and hate within the school system. For one decade, between 1999 and 2009, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in the United States asking students to describe their high school milieu. According to the findings, 61% of LGBT students feel unsafe, 72% report hearing degrading comments, 85% are verbally harassed, and 40% are physically harassed (Fetner, Elafros, Bortolin, and Drechsler, 2012). The statistics for minority high school students including Latinos and African Americans had slightly elevated rates in both verbal and physical harassment. It was not until the realization that LGBT adolescents, like other adolescents, spend the majority of their time within the confines of the American public education system and suffer, did acknowledgement of creating a safe space for LGBT students develop (Toomey et. al, 2011).

Bullying is progressively seen as a enormous problem in the United States and around the world and unfortunately for many, numerous research has started to prove that its consequences are real and can have long lasting impact for both victim and those who love them. Throughout or society Homosexuality is deemed unfavorable in religious and cultural circles of people in the United States. Thus providing those to be outcast and making them even more of targets for the hostility of others. Bullying it its own right has consequences that are far reaching especially for those in the LGBT community.

Homophobia and transphobia, especially amongst youths, can lead to higher rates of depression and suicide. It is estimated that 30-40% of all LGBT+ youth have attempted to take their lives, the average age for suicide attempts is much lower amongst LGBT+ people (37.5) than those who do not suffer from non-gender/binary identity-related hate (55.7). Active homophobia is often prominent in religious groups, the most homophobic being sub-genres/cultures/divisions of Christianity. A friend of mine attends Korowa Anglican Girl's School, a school which heavily bases its values upon Anglican beliefs. He is transgender and has been victim of homophobia and transphobia from both school officials and from female peers who have had religious upbringings since joining the school in 2012. Due to this abuse, he has been made to feel unsafe both at school and at home for his identity, and has consequently turned to self-deprecating behaviour to alleviate his suffering for a short time. Is this how we, as a nation, want our children and young adults to feel? Do we want them to hate themselves for something they have no control or choice over, especially in retrospect to political agenda, where laws are in place that allow such acts to unfurl? 42% of LGBT+ youth live in an

little literature on bisexual nature, so they were more likely to be “unsure” of their

482). Furthermore, recent studies indicate that school staff have insufficient knowledge and tools in working with the LGBTQ community (McCabe, Rubinson, Dragowski, & Elizalde-Utncik, 2013). Therefore, the school psychologist’s goals are to establish a culture within the school that gives the LGBTQ student a right to an equal education and mental health support. At the same time providing a safe environment in which acceptance can blossom through respect and diversity free off any type of harassment with the help of the teachers and staff (Harrison & Thomas, 2014). Once an individual becomes aware, he or she can begin to realize that he or she sees the world through a filtered lens, which is from his or her own cultural perspective. For this reason, one should familiarize him or herself with current studies and topics related to the LGBTQ community. In the past it used to be the case that a school psychologist must practice within his or her scope of knowledge and refer out when necessary. However, the National Association of School Psychologists dictates that the school psychologist must become competent to work with the LGBTQ community (NASP, 2010). The school psychologist should seek out ways to continually educate him or

In the case of Ashley, I would assume her therapist would point out all the options she has before deciding if she wants to pursue a sexual relationship with her boyfriend. She should explain the variety of emotions an adolescent girl might feel when a boy or young man shows an interest in her. She should let her know that the word love can sometimes be displaced and confused with feelings such as lust, puppy love or even infatuation. She should let her know that for her young age, those are normal feelings and though they shouldn’t be taken lightly, they should also not be taken advantage of by someone who

Along with verbal abuse, LGBTQ youth also experience physical violence in schools across the country everyday. Back in the 1980’s and 1990’s sociologists such as Joyce Hunter thought that much of the physical abuse happening towards the LGBTQ population stemmed from the stigma and fear that came from the AIDS epidemic that was spreading rapidly among the gay community in that time. In a study as recent as 2003, 60% of LGBTQ youth had reported being assaulted physically due to their sexual orientation (Chesir-Taran, 2003) These physical actions towards the gay and lesbian youth has caused many to fear going to school. In fact, many LGBTQ students avoid school in order to escape the physical harassment. This drop in attendance has detrimental effects on the student’s academics (American Educational Research Association).

Marginalization may also be the explanation for the high risk of self-harm in gay, bisexual, transsexual teenagers who are 2 to 3 times more likely to self-harm than heterosexual young people, this groups results in regular absenteeism at school due to homophobic harassment. 50% of those reported bullied at school had contemplated self-harm, 40% of those had self-harmed at least once. A survey in 2000 to 2002 interviewed 2,430 lesbian women, gay men and bisexual men and women in England and Wales and concluded that there is a greater link between discrimination and mental health issues. (Truth Hurts, Mental Health Foundation 2006).

With the recent legalization of gay marriage and its slow progression of acceptance in society, sexuality is a subject that plays a huge role in daily life and is becoming a common and prominent theme in society as more time passes. According to the American Psychological Association, sexual orientation refers to the sex or sexual interest to whom one is sexually and romantically attracted to. Heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality are the three mostly familiar categories of sexual orientation for a typical person, and these sexualities make up for 98.9% of the sexual orientation among American adults (Ward 1, et al). But what about the other 1.1% of sexualities? While these three categories continue to be widely used to refer to

The sexual orientation identity development is a theoretical model that conceptualized the resolution of internal conflict related to the formation of individual sexual identity. For sexual minority people, it is commonly known as the coming-out process (Bilodeau & Renn 2005). There have been many different models elaborated to explain such process. All of them share similar stages: awareness, crisis, and acceptance (Loiacano 1989). When individuals become aware of their queer feelings and attraction, they try to block these homosexual feelings by constantly denying and minimizing them. This mechanism of defense leaves negative sequelae in their overall psychosocial well-being (Bilodeau & Renn 2005). Individuals tend to pass by a