Sexual orientation and gender identity in schools: A call for more research in school psychology—No more excuses

Abstract

Research focused on sexual orientation and gender identity among youth is scarce in school psychology journals. Graybill and Proctor (2016; this issue) found that across a sample of eight school support personnel journals only .3 to 3.0% of the articles since 2000 included lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT)-related research. It appears that special issues are a mechanism for publishing LGBT-related scholarship. This commentary includes a call for more research in school psychology and other related disciplines that intentionally addresses experiences of LGBT youth and their families. Two articles in this special section are summarized and critiqued with clear directions for future scholarship. Researchers and practitioners are ethically responsible for engaging in social justice oriented research and that includes assessing gender identity and sexual orientation in their studies and prevention program evaluations.