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Substance Use Disorder and the LGBTQ Youth Community
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared with the general population, gay and bisexual men, lesbian and transgender individuals have higher rates of substance abuse, are more likely to use alcohol and drugs and to continue heavy drinking into later life...
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Transgender and HIV: Stigma and Discrimination Can No Longer Have a Place in Healthcare
In the past five or six years, I was privileged to be invited by several non-profit organizations and universities to deliver cultural humility trainings and presentations about transgender identities and experiences, and how to improve services to meet the needs of the transgender community. As a...
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Understanding Eating Disorders in Gay Males
The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders estimate that men account for 1 million of the roughly 8 million Americans that suffer from eating disorders (McMurray, 2013). Within the gay community there is a hidden epidemic of eating disorders. Gay men are up to three times...
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Uniquely LGBTQ
This article is the second in a quarterly series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The authors of this column facilitated a focus group of their peers to inform this writing. The authors are served by Services...
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What This Parent of a Transgender Child Wants You to Know
I am the proud mother of two young men, but I didn’t always know I had two sons. For 15 years, I believed I was raising a daughter. My younger child, who I now know is my son, is transgender. My husband and I supported his transition, at 15, from female to male. I’ve been criticized and...
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The Right Support
Creating an atmosphere of inclusion and acceptance for all people coming to an organization for help begins with the core values of that agency. Here, at ICL, we believe in and offer person-centered, recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, and integrated physical and behavioral healthcare. No matter a...
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The NYSPA Report: Conversion Therapy
Primum non nocere, “first do no harm,” is a maxim well known to physicians and might be one that should be taken to heart by state decision makers. It is with this dictum in mind that NYSPA urges the NYS Senate to finally pass during its 2016 session the bill defining the practice of “Sexual...
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Caring for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Clients and the Providers Who Serve Them
To paraphrase Tolstoy: happy clients are all alike – but unhappy clients are each unhappy in their own way. However, as the recovery movement gains ground, providers are finding that clients can have a bewilderingly diverse array of ideas about what would make them happy. These days, clients...
