The authors explore mentoring relationships in which one or both members are lesbian, gay, bisexual, ortransgender (LGBT). They highlight the role of stigma, in its variable presentations, as an importantunderpinning of these relationships. They argue that explicit attention to stigma, both within thementoring relationship and beyond, is of value to the mentoring process and outcome. The authors offera developmental perspective on mentoring needs, and they suggest specific considerations for LGBT andheterosexual mentors of LGBT students.Keywords: mentoring, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgenderWhensomeonewiththeauthorityofateacher. . .describestheworldandyou are not in it, there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if youlooked in the mirror and saw nothing. (Adrienne Rich, 1986, p. 199)
Families high in cohesion and adaptability are often able to function better than families low in cohesion and adaptability. This study hypothesized that heterosexual family members who report their family adaptability and/or cohesion to be high rather than low would have more contact with their GLBT family member, report more GLBT friends, family members, and GLBT acquaintances, as well as have more favorable attitudes toward and greater knowledge of GLBT issues. This study explored family environment (adaptability and cohesion as assessed by FACES III) of 136 family members of GLBT individuals and knowledge and attitudes (assessed by the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Knowledge and Attitudes Scale for Heterosexuals; GLB-KASH). Participants reporting high adaptability in their families reported having more contact with the GLBT family member and more GLBT acquaintances than participants reporting low adaptability in their families. Participants from more cohesive families reported more GLBT friends and family members, more knowledge about GLBT issues, and more internalized affirmativeness than participants reporting unbalanced cohesion. Participants from families high in both cohesion and adaptability reported more contact with GLBT family members, more GLBT friends and family members, more GLBT acquaintances, more knowledge about GLBT issues, and more internalized affirmativeness than participants reporting either unbalanced cohesion or adaptability in their families. Implications for counseling are discussed.
SUMMARY The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of gender expression on queer women's experiences of identity, social interaction and discrimination. This article presents the results of a questionnaire, completed by 149 queer women involved in a southeastern U.S. women's community in which interactions and norms are strongly influenced by butch-femme gendering. Questionnaires ascertained participants' age of first awareness of their queer orientation and their gender expression. In relation to their gender expressions, their experience of discrimination, from both the general population and the lesbian community, was assessed. Participants were asked to specify the degree to which their gender expression was important in their social interactions and to assess the impact of butch and femme identities upon the identifying women and the lesbian community. Results indicated that gender expression may relate to butch and femme women's age of first awareness of sexual orientation and gender expression; experience of discrimination and social interaction; and valuing of butch-femme identification within the queer community.
Research often erases the distinct experiences of bisexual and queer women through collapsing participants with lesbian or gay women. In addition, queer is often not included as a sexual orientation identity in research, therefore limiting the available information about how this group experiences minority stress. Given these limitations, we sought to compare groups, based on their sexual orientation identity, on experiences of minority stress and mental health to further understand between group differences that often go unaccounted for in research.Participants (N = 249; age range 19-77; M = 38.43, SD = 12.98) completed an online survey exploring experiences of minority stress and mental health.We found that the group most at risk for encountering minority stressors depended on the specific stressor being examined. Queer and gay or lesbian women encountered greater victimization, discrimination, and expectations of discrimination than bisexual women. However, bisexual women had higher levels of identity concealment and internalized heterosexism than gay, lesbian, or queer women. While queer women tended to have fewer proximal stressors, they were similar to bisexual women in terms of psychological distress, with both groups scoring higher than gay or lesbian women.These results highlight the need to examine between group differences in future research. The experiences of minority stress appear to complexly relate to psychological distress in varying ways for different groups of women, with bisexual and queer women having the highest rates of psychological distress although they vary in the types of stressors that they encounter. In addition, the experiences of queer women were divergent from those of gay, lesbian, or bisexual women across many of the stressors, indicating that there is a need to further recognize this distinct group of women in future research.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship characteristics of women in interracial same-sex relationships with respect to their current level of stress, internalized homophobia, perceived relationship equality, relationship satisfaction, and social support. Four groups were compared according to their current type of race relationship (ethnic minority women with White partners, White partners only, both ethnic minority partners, and White women with ethnic minority partners). No significant differences were found in terms of children and income; however, ethnic minority women with ethnic minority partners reported lower education attainment than the other groups. Relationally, there were no significant differences by race relationship for social support, relationship equality, relationship satisfaction, or stress. Internalized homophobia was lowest for interracial partnerships (ethnic minority paired with White partner). These findings are discussed in relationship to minority stress.
