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What We Lose When We “Don’t Say Gay”: Generational Shifts in Sexual Identity and Gender

What We Lose When We “Don’t Say Gay”: Generational Shifts in Sexual Identity and Gender At a time when anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is on the rise in more than a dozen states across the United States, social work providers and researchers must be acutely aware of the ways in which their practice may unintentionally invalidate the identities of LGBTQ+ youth. Concurrently, language used in the LGBTQ+ youth community to describe both sexual identity and gender has moved away from monosexual and binary labels toward nonmonosexual and nonbinary descriptions. The adoption of such language, in practice and in research, is a simple step toward combatting invalidation in the social work field. This commentary explores the expansion of identity labels through the lens of a study conducted across four leading LGBTQ+ agencies in New York and New Jersey with youth and staff. Authors review data that demonstrate the evolution of labels and argue that adopting these terms in practice and research will have fruitful and affirming effects on access to care, treatment attrition, and the design and quality of research in and for the LGBTQ+ community. This shift in language must be comprehensively addressed to ensure that practice and research continue to adopt and advocate for ways to affirm LGBTQ+ people, particularly given the recent onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Social Work Oxford University Press

What We Lose When We “Don’t Say Gay”: Generational Shifts in Sexual Identity and Gender

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References (24)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© 2023 National Association of Social Workers
ISSN
0037-8046
eISSN
1545-6846
DOI
10.1093/sw/swad006
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

At a time when anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is on the rise in more than a dozen states across the United States, social work providers and researchers must be acutely aware of the ways in which their practice may unintentionally invalidate the identities of LGBTQ+ youth. Concurrently, language used in the LGBTQ+ youth community to describe both sexual identity and gender has moved away from monosexual and binary labels toward nonmonosexual and nonbinary descriptions. The adoption of such language, in practice and in research, is a simple step toward combatting invalidation in the social work field. This commentary explores the expansion of identity labels through the lens of a study conducted across four leading LGBTQ+ agencies in New York and New Jersey with youth and staff. Authors review data that demonstrate the evolution of labels and argue that adopting these terms in practice and research will have fruitful and affirming effects on access to care, treatment attrition, and the design and quality of research in and for the LGBTQ+ community. This shift in language must be comprehensively addressed to ensure that practice and research continue to adopt and advocate for ways to affirm LGBTQ+ people, particularly given the recent onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

Journal

Social WorkOxford University Press

Published: Jan 20, 2023

Keywords: anti-LGBTQ+; legislation; gender identity; LGBTQ+; youth; policy; sexual identity

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