Healthy L G B T Q Youth of Color: True Colors, Like a Rainbow Michael Mobley, Ph.D.

1. Healthy LGBTQ Youth of Color: True Colors, Like a Rainbow Michael Mobley, Ph.D. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Solutions to a Crisis: Supporting Students ~ Saving Lives Center for Excellence in School Counseling and Leadership (CESCaL)

2. Healthy LGBTQ Youth of Color: True Colors, Like a Rainbow • School counselors and educators to understand the voices and experiences of LGBTQ Youth of Color • oppression (heterosexism, racism, sexism) • coming out to parents • managing multiple identities and cultural communities • identifying role models and support networks. • School counselors and educators may act to empower and advocate for LGBTQ Youth of Color ensuring that their cultural self-identity expressions shine through beaming their true colors, like a rainbow.

3. Healthy LGBTQ Youth of Color: True Colors, Like a Rainbow • Baseline Common Perspectives: • Multicultural Framework • Salience of Culture • LGBTQ 101 • Cultural Identity Development Models • Cultural Competence: LGBTQ Youth of Color • Empowerment & Advocacy - Social Justice

4. Healthy LGBTQ Youth of Color: True Colors, Like a Rainbow • President Obama & Kevin Jennings: Youth = Future • Youth of Color 46% U.S. (Census, 2000) • Youth of Color are increasingly at greater risk, disparities in health and education, particularly limited access to competent diagnosis and treatment (U.S. HHS, 2001) • 10% Youth of Color - LGBT youth

5. What do we know about LGBTQ Youth of Color? • Review of literature (psych info), 1995 - 2010 • 73 studies & reports • Categorized 4 groups: • Quantitative (n=30) • Qualitative & mixed-design (n=17; n=2) • Conceptual papers (n=6) • Reports: GLSEN (n=9), NGLTF (n=1), and National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health(commonly referred to as ADD Health)studies (n=8)

6. What do we know about LGBTQ Youth of Color? • Results • Sample representation varied from 13% - 100% • Degree of Visibility vs. Invisibility • “Representing” based on article or report titles - less than 25% • 23% quantitative (11 out of 48) • 65% qualitative (11 out of 17) • 87% concept & mixed design (7 out of 8) • Assess dimensions of sexual orientation identity including • Coming out (i.e., to self, friends, & family) • Degree of comfort with sexuality (internalized homophobia) • Gay-related Stress

7. What do we know about LGBTQ Youth of Color? • Results • Focus of studies assessed: • Depression, Sexual Behavior (i.e., unprotected anal intercourse), Substance Use (alcohol & drugs, cigarettes, marijuana, etc.), Victimization (harassment, physical & sexual abuse, verbal & emotional attacks, etc.), Suicide, and Anxiety • Social Support (family, friends, and teachers), Self-Esteem, Life Stress, Emotional Distress, Delinquency

8. What do we know about LGBTQ Youth of Color? • Results • Ecological perspective 12 studies (40%) assessed LGBT adolescents’ perceptions of treatment (i.e., support, harassment, etc.) experienced in relationship with significant others (e.g., parents, peers, teachers, etc.) in various settings including home, school, work, neighborhood, and church. • 4 studies homelessness among LGBTQ adolescents, nearly 50% to 82% of sample participants were racial and ethnic minority youth • Only two studies(Barney, 2004; Warren, et al., 2008) directly assessed ethnic identity among LGBTQ Youth of Color

9. What do we know about LGBTQ Youth of Color? • Results - Qualitative & Mixed Design (n=19) • Among 17 qualitative studies, 10 studies (59%) focus exclusively on LGBT Youth of Color • 5 studies sample representation ranged from 49% to 93% • 82% (14 out of 17) conducted 2007 - 2010 • 41% (seven) focused exclusively on experiences of African American adolescents, primarily gay and bisexual males. • One study focused on “lesbian gang Dykes Taking Over” in a school setting • Engaged a subculture within the African American/Black gay community: Ballroom Community among AA GLBTQ youth in San Francisco and Detroit.

10. What do we know about LGBTQ Youth of Color? • Results - Qualitative & Mixed Design (n=19) • The topic focus of these qualitative studies included: • Verbal Harassment & Physical Violence in Child Welfare settings • Cultural and Social Vulnerabilities to HIV infection among GLB Asian Youth • Fragmentation of Identities among Transgender (MTF) Students of Color • ‘Gaybonic’ Language of Black Queer Youth • Activism • Romantic Relationships

11. What do we know about LGBTQ Youth of Color? • Results - Qualitative & Mixed Design (n=19) • Additional topic focus included: • Empowerment • Coping with Heterosexism • Coming Out to Parents • Managing Multiple Minority Identities; • Sexual and Ethnic Identity Development among Male Adolescents • Negotiating Dominant Masculinity Ideology among Male Adolescents

12. Healthy LGBTQ Youth of Color: True Colors, Like a Rainbow • Multiple Sociocultural Identities • Sexual Orientation, Race, Gender, SES, and others • Self-Identification • LGBTQQ; Same-Gender Loving; Men who have Sex with Men • “Multiple-levels of jeopardy”

13. Multiple Sociocultural Identities & Experiences

14. Multiple Sociocultural Identities & Experiences • Racial/Ethnic LGBT Youth • Simultaneous Cultural Identity negotiation and development of racial/ethnic and sexual orientation identities (Harper, et al. 2004; 2007) as well as gender • Primary Identification Lens, e.g., African-American~gay vs. Gay~Asian American (Mobley, 1998; Johnson, 1982) • Salience of Cultural Identity Statuses- varies over time and across different sociocultural environments or safe spaces based on perceived support or barriers

15. Multiple Sociocultural Identities & Experiences • Racial/Ethnic LGBT Youth • Sexual Orientation Development Process • Gain a cognitive self-awareness of a sense of “feeling different” in relationship to perceived heterosexual peers - as early 4 or 5 years of age • Self-identify as having same-sex attractions to SELF at approx. 10 - 12 years of age or earlier

16. Multiple Sociocultural Identities & Experiences • Sexual Orientation Development Process • Self-identify as having same-sex attractions to friends and family (i.e., “coming out”) usually during late adolescence • Historically, “coming out” occurred after moving away from home (i.e., work, college); presently more adolescents “come out”while living at home with family - increased perceived support and acceptance (i.e., LGBT organizations in schools and community)

17. Shared Differences: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students of Color in Our Nation’s Schools (Diaz & Kosciw, 2009) WWW.GLSEN.ORG • 2,130 LGBT Students of Color • 356 African Americans/Black • 805 Hispanic or Latino/a • 253 Asian or Pacific Islander • 385 Native American or Alaska Native • 331 Multiracial • Age range 13 to 21 years • Majority attended public high schools

18. Shared Differences: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students of Color in Our Nation’s Schools (Diaz & Kosciw, 2009) WWW.GLSEN.ORG • Table 1. Demographics - Sexual Orientation (SO) AA H/LA A/PI NA MR Gay or Lesbian 62% 61% 57% 43% 54% Bisexual 32% 37% 36% 53% 43% Other SO (e.g., queer) 6% 3% 7% 4% 2% • Average Age for each group = 16 years • Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding.

19. Shared Differences: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students of Color in Our Nation’s Schools (Diaz & Kosciw, 2009) WWW.GLSEN.ORG • Table 1. Demographics - Gender Identity AA H/LA A/PI NA MR Female 61% 48% 48% 61% 60% Male 31% 42% 39% 25% 32% Transgender 3% 5% 8% 6% 4% Other gender (e.g., genderqueer) 5% 5% 6% 8% 5%

20. Shared Differences: Oppression(Diaz, & Kosciw, 2009) WWW.GLSEN.ORG • BIAS LANGUAGE: LGBT Students of Color reported hearing the following types of specific disparaging comments often or frequently in school • 80% heard the word “gay” used in a negative way, such as the expressions “that’s so gay” or “you’re so gay” • More than 66% heard “faggot” or “dyke” • 70% heard sexist remarks • Nearly 50% heard racist remarks

21. Harsh Realities: Oppression (Greytak, Kosciw, & Diaz, 2009) WWW.GLSEN.ORG • BIAS LANGUAGE: Transgender students reported hearing the following types of specific disparaging comments often or frequently in school • 90% heard derogatory remarks, such as “dyke” or “faggot,” sometimes, often, or frequently in school. • 90% heard negative remarks about someone’s gender expression sometimes, often, or frequently in school. Remarks about students not acting “masculine” enough were more common than remarks about students not acting “feminine” enough (82% vs. 77% hearing remarks sometimes, often, or frequently). • A third of transgender students heard school staff make homophobic (32%) remarks, sexist (39%) remarks, and negative comments about someone’s gender expression (39%) sometimes, often, or frequently in the past year.

22. Shared Differences: Oppression (Diaz, E. M. & Kosciw, J. G., 2009) WWW.GLSEN.ORG • Safety & Experiences of Victimization in School: • Many LGBTQ Youth of Color felt unsafe, 80% experienced verbal harassment (with 60% in school) or physical violence. • 54% of Native American students experienced physical violence due to sexual orientation, in comparison to African American (33%), Latino/a (45%), Asian/Pacific Islander (41%) and multiracial (45%) students • About 33% of multiracial, Latino/a and Native American students were subjected to physical violence due to gender expression, in comparison to about 25% of African American and Asian/Pacific Islander students • Many LGBT Students of Color were also commonly harassed in school because of their race or ethnicity –African Americans (51%), Latino/a (55%), Asian/Pacific Islander (55%), multiracial students (59%), and Native American (43%)

23. LGBTQ Youth of Color Voices & Experiences • Troubling Intersections of Race and Sexuality: Queer Students of Color and Anti-Oppressive Education • Kevin K. Kumashiro (2001)

24. Undressing the Normal: Community Efforts for Queer Asian and Asian American YouthJoan Ariki Varney (2001) • AQUA - Asian Queers Under 25 Altogether - a support group for queer Asian youth • A/PI-PFLAG - Asian/Pacific Islander-Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays • Queer - refers to a “political practice based on transgressions of the normal and normativity rather than a straight/gay binary of heterosexual/homosexual identity (Eng and Hom, 1998, p.1)

25. Undressing the Normal: Community Efforts for Queer Asian and Asian American YouthJoan Ariki Varney (2001) • Asian Culture within context of U.S. • Foreign, alien, unassimilable, “Orientals” • Silencing effect: denying “the right to say anything except words of gratitude and praise about America” (Kim, 1993) • Model minority - successful economically & academically; experience no problems; may be praised by teachers for such performance yet students “censured their own experiences and voices” (S. Lee, 1996)

26. Undressing the Normal: Community Efforts for Queer Asian and Asian American YouthJoan Ariki Varney (2001) • Family, Shame, & Lost of Face • Like many others who refuse the privilege associated with heterosexuality, queer Asian Americans come out and go home only at the risk of great loss, sometimes terror, even death. Gestures toward home and family seem both necessary and impossible: necessary for a sense of completion, impossible because family requires heteronormativity (Aguilar-San Juan 1998, 38)

27. Undressing the Normal: Community Efforts for Queer Asian and Asian American YouthJoan Ariki Varney (2001) • Family, Shame, & Lost of Face • The Beloved Daughter Project (1999) Mandarin & English - letters written by mothers, fathers, and siblings of Mandarin lesbians about the coming out process and its impact on their lives • “In Chinese tradition, we do not believe in talking about shameful family affairs. We decided not to discuss it and pretend it never happened” (father response to daughter)

28. Undressing the Normal: Community Efforts for Queer Asian and Asian American YouthJoan Ariki Varney (2001) • Family, Shame, & Lost of Face • The Beloved Daughter Project (1999) “The reason I said so much about my own transformation is that if I had not changed my values, I would have had a difficult time accepting Dao-liang’s sexual orientation” • This mother rejected Hollywood and Confucian values, touched by civil rights movements of the 1960s, helped her challenge and rethink heterosexual norms

29. Undressing the Normal: Community Efforts for Queer Asian and Asian American YouthJoan Ariki Varney (2001) • Managing Multiple Cultural Identities • “There were many disjunctions in my life. Everything was completely detached from the other, I had multiple identities existing in multiple compartments of my being, even thought it was all part of one singular individual, me. New York symbolized everything associated with being grown up. The New York me was very comfortable with my sexuality and was very secure as an Asian woman and as a dyke. In order for me to embrace this identity, it meant I had to completely detach from my past and my biological family. No matter how grown up you are, how old your are, when you go home you revert back to the same patterns when you leave off. It’s like time freezes when you leave a place, and for me that was high school.” (Jo Su)

30. Undressing the Normal: Community Efforts for Queer Asian and Asian American YouthJoan Ariki Varney (2001) • Gender/Cultural Differences in Coming Out in Asian Families • “With Chinese first-born boys, the barriers are outside roles, society, their father, the lineage they have to carry on. With girls, it’s more internal, they themselves are the barriers. I think to myself, “You’re Filipina, you can’t be gay.” I bet ya they have never seen an A/PI lesbian before in their whole lives. Lesbians are Melissa Etheridge and Ellen De Generes; they’re White. It’s like [in the cultural context] women can never be queer, can never be gay. Only men.” (Ofelia Virtucio, AQUA Coordinator)

31. Undressing the Normal: Community Efforts for Queer Asian and Asian American YouthJoan Ariki Varney (2001) • Gender/Cultural Differences in Coming Out in Asian Families • PFLAG pamphlet, All My Children(Japanese & Mandarin translations) • “They imagined giving it to their own parents, they did not find it to be culturally appropriate. The translation was so formal and literal, but not at all the way a Chinese or Japanese person would speak. Also the formal idiom was cold, not warm and familiar, so it lacked persuasion.”

32. Undressing the Normal: Community Efforts for Queer Asian and Asian American YouthJoan Ariki Varney (2001) • Gay Youth Socialization - AQUA • LYRIC - Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center • Some A/PI queer youth felt excluded • Assumptions in LYRIC regarding being gay & speaking good English “The thing about LYRIC is it is primarily Caucasian and African American. Me being an Asian person, sometimes I will try to connect with other races, but that rarely happens in groups. I understand youth to youth, but that’s about it, you can’t connect to them with cultural beliefs or anything.” - Desmond

33. Undressing the Normal: Community Efforts for Queer Asian and Asian American YouthJoan Ariki Varney (2001) • Gay Youth Socialization - AQUA “They always said they’d have my back, and if they see me being gay as creating a problem, people would always be there for me. Because that’s one thing gangs push, like if there is something bugging you, they have to be there. Because it’s like a family, it works like a family….It surprised me because I would have thought that they wouldn’t have taken [my sexuality] that easily” - Desmond attended a predominately Asian high school near San Francisco’s Chinatown; member of a Chinese gang; afforded him protection from sexual harassment based on sexual orientation. He reported having no trouble related to his sexuality at school.

34. Common Threads across Racial & Ethnic Minority Youth Experiences • What are some similarities and differences based on our understanding of Queer Asians in their cultural-family communities in comparison to: • African Americans • Native Americans • Hispanic/ Latino/a Americans

35. Common Threads across Racial & Ethnic Minority Youth Experiences • Similarities and differences: • Church/Religious Beliefs & Practices • Collective Family Network, Interdependence • Family Loyalty (Not Airing Dirty Laundry) • Rejection due to dishonoring family & culture • Fear of being disowned by family & culture

36. Common Threads across Racial & Ethnic Minority Youth Experiences • Similarities and differences: • Challenge as racial/ethnic minorities dealing with racism apart from family support • Pressure in balancing being out, coming out in different personal, social, spaces & places • Balancing Multiple Cultural Gay Communities • Being fully understand, accepted, and affirmed in some White Gay Culture Communities

37. Healthy LGBTQ Youth of Color: True Colors, Like a Rainbow • School counselors and educators to understand the voices and experiences of LGBTQ Youth of Color • oppression (heterosexism, racism, sexism) • coming out to parents • managing multiple identities and cultural communities • identifying role models and support networks. • School counselors and educators may act to empower and advocate for LGBTQ Youth of Color ensuring that their cultural self-identity expressions shine through beaming their true colors, like a rainbow.

38. Healthy LGBTQ Youth of Color: True Colors, Like a Rainbow • Troubling Intersections of Race and Sexuality: Queer Students of Color and Anti-Oppressive Education (Kevin K. Kumashiro, 2001) • True Colors, LGBTQ Youth of Color website • Mental Health Campaign LGBTQ Youth of Color • National Mental Health Study of LGBTQ Youth of Color