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Since protease inhibitors were introduced in the mid-1990s, researchers have reported a surge in the number of young gay men who practice unsafe sex, known these days as "barebacking," in part because they thought the drugs would protect them from HIV's worst effects. Some young gay men are presenting a serious challenge for practitioners. "You're not likely to find them saying they're lesbian as a statement against patriarchy or because they don't like the way men take over their bodies or their lives." "Their attitude is, 'What does my sexuality have to do with politics?'" says Iasenza. "Now young lesbians are just as likely to say they feel butch one day and femme the next."Īnother strong feature that distinguishes younger lesbians from their Baby Boomer counterparts is their lack of identification with the feminist movement, says sex therapist Suzanne Iasenza, PhD, a professor of counseling at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "In the generation before mine, if you went to a lesbian bar and didn't identify as either butch or femme, they'd think you were an imposter," she says.
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Rothblum, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Vermont, agrees it's more common for today's young LGBT people to express and accept fluid gender and sexual identities. In communities that include lesbians and bisexual women, for example, "there's more unity and community, cooperation and friendly relationships now than there was 10 or 15 years ago," she says.Įsther D. Many LGBT youth, for instance, now call themselves "queer" as a blanket term for their community, and they're more likely to accept variations in their ranks than previous generations, says Beth Firestein, PhD, a private practitioner in Loveland, Colo., and editor of "Bisexuality: The Psychology and Politics of an Invisible Minority" (Sage, 1996), a compendium of research on bisexuality. Psychologists working with LGBT clients are finding the need to tune in to generational differences, experts note-whether it's understanding young LGBT clients' new ways of thinking about their sexuality or assessing reasons for depression in older gay men. Some cultures within our culture are still very homophobic."Īt the same time, Haldeman says, psychologists are seeing "a whole host of other issues related to the creation of LGBT families, LGBT people in the workplace, generational differences and the reality of multiple-minority identities-issues that demand our best research and clinical skills."
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"People still need help with coming out-when, how and to whom. 44 (Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Issues). "Some issues haven't changed much at all since Stonewall, and others have changed dramatically," comments Doug Haldeman, PhD, a clinical faculty member at the University of Washington and an APA Council representative for Div. Likewise, groups that have been more closeted, including transsexuals and transgendered people, are finding their voice and appearing more often in treatment to work on identity and relationship concerns. Meanwhile, new trends have emerged in therapy, too, as younger generations of LGBT people wrestle with problems such as a resurgence of HIV infection among gay male youth and changing identity issues. Although many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people still bring issues of discrimination and fear of rejection to their psychologists' offices, they are just as likely to discuss such mainstream issues as parenting and fears about aging. In the 32 years since patrons of the Stonewall Inn challenged police who raided the now-famous gay nightclub, lesbians, gays and bisexuals have grown in personal and political power, creating their own communities and finding acceptance in traditional ones as well.Ĭonversations taking place in today's therapy offices reflect this change.