Gender and Sexuality Diversity (GSD): Respecting Difference (original) (raw)
Related papers
Gender, sexuality, and relationships are all given a high level of importance in 21st century western culture. We’re generally asked to identify ourselves on the basis of our gender, sexual ‘orientation’, and relationship status on forms and on social media, and there are moral panics over those who step outside the perceived norm in any of these areas. Consider recent news stories, TV documentaries, and social media ‘storms’ around trans people or sex addiction for example. Gender, sexuality, and relationships are likely to be of great significance in our clients’ lives, and it is important to have a good working knowledge of the diversity of forms they can take. Before going into this however, we need to have a clear sense of the understanding of gender, sexuality, and relationships that dominates in our current cultural context. This understanding will shape how we – and our clients – make sense of ourselves and others, and how we experience the world.
How gender and sexually diverse friendly is your therapy training
The Psychotherapist, 2015
We were delighted to see all of the major psychological and therapeutic bodies signing the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy which was launched at the Department of Health earlier this year (UKCP, 2015). This little-read document makes it an ethical obligation that therapists are adequately trained to work with requests for change to clients’ sexuality (and we hope to see gender added to this soon). To meet that obligation, training organisations will need to develop a curriculum that embeds gender and sexual diversity issues throughout the syllabus as well as ensuring some specialist and specific material that stands separate to it.
Relationship therapy with lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans clients
Existential Perspectives on Relationship Therapy., 2013
The history of the psychotherapeutic professions and lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) clients is a deeply troubled one (Davies and Neal, 1996). Thankfully most of the negative attitudes of the past seem to be changing with all of the major UK therapy associations (BACP, UKCP, BPS) providing guidance on working ethically with clients from sexual and gender minorities and making statements critical of conversion/reparative therapy (which is designed to change someone's sexual orientation). In spite of such changes, pathologizing stances concerning LGBT clients still exist amongst some therapists, particularly those from a psychoanalytic perspective and some religiously informed therapists. The earliest school of existential therapy – Daseinsanalysis – does not escape charges of homonegativity and heteronormativity either. Medard Boss, the founder of Daseinsanalysis wrote in his book The Meaning and Content of Sexual Perversions (1947/1949) about homosexuality as a sexual perversion and, even as recently as 1987, thought that the healthiest state for a woman was to have children in a loving relationship with a man (Boss & Kenny, 1987).
This paper explores how people of color, particularly black people in the Atlanta area, navigate inside and outside of their sexual communities -particularly, BDSM, polyamory and swinging communities. I investigated how participants' (N=11) identity construction and sexual actions/behaviors contributed to the benefits and/or consequences that fostered the navigation of non-sexual and sexual communities using queer theory and intersectionality theory with a womanist approach. Particularly, I found that my participants migrated towards communities based on privilege, comfort, and acts of resistance. In addition, I found that while they all identified as "perverts of color," they did not identify as "promiscuous." Overall, this study highlights the potential for people to resist certain oppressions, all while maintaining a sex-positive politic inside and outside of their alternative sexual communities. It also emphasizes the need to broaden our scopes on sexual liberation movements that marginalize those with various intersections of identities.
The kink-poly confluence: relationship intersectionality in marginalized communities
There is little academic literature published on the intersection of kink-and polyamorous-identified individuals, though there are relatively frequent mentions of people who identify as both kinkand poly-oriented in the literature that focuses on one or the other of the two communities. The prevalence of intersecting kink and poly identifications tends to be acknowledged, accepted, and depathologized in both communities, and polyamory is sometimes considered a norm in certain kink subcultures. In order to help and give voice to this understudied population, a review of the literature was conducted on the characteristic commonalities in these communities, as well in kink-and poly-oriented relationships. Common themes in the intersection of these relationship types are identified; historical background is given for the respective communities; theories of identity formation are explored; clinical issues are reviewed; and recommendations for clinical interventions are made.
Kinky clients, kinky counselling? The challenges and potentials of BDSM
Feeling Queer or Queer Feelings: Radical Approaches to Counselling Sex, Sexualities and Genders., 2007
One of the most demonised forms of consensual sexuality is BDSM (bondage and discipline, domination and submission, and sadomasochism). Many counsellors still consider it appropriate to make negative comments about BDSM in a way that is perceived unacceptable in relation to other aspects of sexuality (Hudson-Allez, 2005). Kolmes, Stock and Moser (2006, p.315) found 118 reports of ‘biased or inadequate’ care from psychotherapists in their survey of 175 BDSM clients. These may be rooted in the threat posed by ‘queer’ sexualities that trouble the binary constructions of gender and sexuality underlying conventional heterosexuality (Barker, 2003). It may also relate to perceptions of BDSM as inherently sexual, which make claims for citizenship amongst BDSM practitioners problematic (Langdridge & Butt, 2004; 2005).
Monogamy and Polyamory as Strategic identities
The emerging concept of relational orientations makes shifts in sexual identity difficult to accommodate and may mask women’s actual sexual practice. Drawing on a qualitative study of 40 bisexual women in Toronto, this paper argues that polyamory and monogamy are strategies by which bisexual women explore their sexuality, rather than cohesive identities or behavioural orientations. Nearly a quarter of the monogamous-identified women reported having previously identified as polyamorous. Among total participants, 12.5% reported shifting between monogamy and polyamory more than once. These shifts enable women to manage and negotiate their visibility as bisexuals. There was a significant disjoint between self-identity and sexual behaviour. The majority of the polyamorous women were not dating multiple partners at the time of the interview, while over a quarter of the monogamous women reported having threesomes in their current relationship. Viewing monogamy and polyamory as strategic identities can help health care practitioners more accurately assess their clients’ needs and risks, within a social determinants of mental health framework.
Queer Intimacies: A New Paradigm for the Study of Relationship Diversity
Recognition of sexual and gender diversity in the 21st century challenges normative assumptions of intimacy that privilege heterosexual monogamy and the biological family unit, presume binary cisgender identities, essentialize binary sexual identities, and view sexual or romantic desire as necessary. We propose a queer paradigm to study relationship diversity grounded in seven axioms: intimacy may occur (1) within relationships featuring any combination of cisgender, transgender, or nonbinary identities; (2) with people of multiple gender identities across the life course; (3) in multiple relationships simultaneously with consent; (4) within relationships characterized by consensual asymmetry, power exchange, or role-play; (5) in the absence or limited experience of sexual or romantic desire; (6) in the context of a chosen rather than biological family; and (7) in other possible forms yet unknown. We review research on queer relational forms, including same-sex relationships; relationships in which one or more partners identify as transgender, gender nonbinary, bisexual, pansexual, sexually fluid, "mostly" straight, asexual, or aromantic; polyamory and other forms of consensual nonmonogamy; kink/fetish relationships; and chosen families. We argue that a queer paradigm shifts the dominant scientific conception of relationships away from the confines of normativity toward an embrace of diversity, fluidity, and possibility.