LGBTQ Youth Of Color Research Articles

Queer punishments: School safety and youth of color in the United States

ABSTRACT Although educational research and policymaking in the United States has generally framed LGBTQ youth and youth of color as mutually exclusive groups, LGBTQ youth of color are increasingly included in discourses surrounding school safety. These discourses tend to position youth as vulnerable, at-risk subjects who are passive victims of interpersonal homophobia. Using the theoretical frameworks queer of color critique and queer necropolitics, and a situational analysis mapping strategy, we analyzed GLSEN’s 2019 National School Climate Survey report, breakout reports on LGBTQ youth of color, and related advocacy efforts. These frameworks helped us consider how school climate research and policymaking relies on carceral logics that center and uphold whiteness. The GLSEN reports function as a form of embedded science that mobilizes individual understandings of violence and queer investments in punishment. We offer queer of color critique as a strategy for researchers and policymakers to get unstuck on school safety.

188. Substance Use Behaviors Among LGBTQ Youth of Color: Applying a Novel Method in Two Large Samples to Identify Intersecting Social Positions Bearing the Greatest Burden

The global COVID pandemic, social uprisings, and a wave of discriminatory policy proposals have highlighted the ways in which structural oppression contributes to health disparities facing youth of color and those identifying as LGBTQ. Young people living at the intersection of multiple types of oppression face the greatest burden, yet also have unique strengths and supports. Existing research has demonstrated persistent substance use disparities across sexual orientation, gender identity, and racial/ethnic groups – as individual categories.

LGBTQ Student Health: A Mixed-Methods Study of Unmet Needs in Massachusetts Schools.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and questioning (LGBTQ) youth experience poor physical and mental health outcomes relative to their non-LGBTQ peers. School health professionals (SHPs), such as school nurses, play a key role in addressing LGBTQ student health needs. However, few studies examine school health needs of LGBTQ students from both the youth and SHP perspective. From August 2017 to July 2018, 28 LGBTQ youth and 19 SHPs (N=47) in Massachusetts participated in online focus groups and a brief survey on school health needs and experiences. Qualitative themes were coded using Rapid Qualitative Inquiry principles and NVIVO. Both LGBTQ students and SHPs identified an urgent need for inclusive sexual education and mental health services. LGBTQ students raised access to safer bathrooms, information, and guidance on gender transitioning, and access to safe spaces as school-based needs. Missing from SHPs' perspectives, students also discussed sexual violence/harassment of transgender students and racism impacting youth of color. LGBTQ students, especially transgender students and LGBTQ youth of color, have unmet health needs that need to be addressed. Recognizing these needs is the first step towards inclusive health services and support for all students in schools. Next, interventions to increase the capacity of SHPs to address LGBTQ student health are necessary.

Q Chat Space: Assessing the Feasibility and Acceptability of an Internet-Based Support Program for LGBTQ Youth.

There are few psychosocial support programs specifically designed to meet the unique developmental and health needs of LGBTQ youth. Even when available, many youth face significant barriers to accessing LGBTQ-specific services for fear of being “outed” to parents, peers, and community members. The current study assessed the utility, feasibility, and acceptability of a synchronous, adult-facilitated, chat-based Internet community support program for LGBTQ youth aged 13–19. Chat transcripts were analyzed to examine how LGBTQ youth used the chat-based platform to connect with peers and trusted adults. A separate user satisfaction survey was collected to assess the personal (e.g., sexual orientation, gender identity, age) and contextual (e.g., geography, family environment) characteristics of youth engaging in the platform, their preferred topics of discussion, and their satisfaction with the program focus and facilitators. Qualitative data analysis demonstrated the degree to which LGBTQ youth were comfortable disclosing difficult and challenging situations with family, friends, and in their community and in seeking support from peers and facilitators online. Youth also used the platform to explore facets of sexual and gender identity/expression and self-acceptance. Overall, users were very satisfied with the platform, and participants accurately reflect the program’s desired populations for engagement (e.g., LGBTQ youth of color, LGBTQ youth in the South). Together, findings support the feasibility and acceptability of synchronous, adult-facilitated, chat-based Internet programs to connect and support LGBTQ youth, which encourage future research and innovation in service delivery.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11121-021-01291-y.

LGBTQ Youth of Color in the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Freedom, Liberation, and Resistance

Author(s): Green, Meryl | Abstract: Abstract: Emergent research suggests Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) youth experience increased discipline in school, as well as increased exposure to the criminal justice system outside of school. Additionally, much has been written in recent years about the school-to-prison pipeline’s (StPP) impact upon large numbers of youth of color in the United States. However, a large portion of the existing research regarding the StPP often presumes heterosexuality in dealing with student populations. Further, what research exists on queer and transgender youth in schools often fails to address race in any meaningful way, thus misleading people to assume that the problems facing LGBTQ youth are racially neutral in nature. This paper seeks to synthesize some of the systemic factors that propel school pushout and student criminalization, and impact intersectionally-marginalized student populations like LGBTQ youth of color, as well as pose some possible critical pedagogical interventions in resisting the criminalization of these students under an increased neoliberal governmentality.

Intersectionality and planning at the margins: LGBTQ youth of color in New York

Through an intersectional lens, this article reflects on the dialog between planning and gender, feminist, and queer studies to analyze the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth of color (YOC) community in New York City (NYC). The community is subject to multiple disenfranchisements, given their ethno-racial status, class, age, gender, and sexual orientation. This community's limited access to safe public spaces and amenities, housing, health services, job training, and other opportunities is an urban planning challenge insufficiently understood or addressed. Our methodology includes participant observation and analysis of an LGBTQ YOC tour of West Village in NYC, interviews with LGBTQ individuals and NGO staff, life stories, observations in LGBTQ-friendly meetings and facilities, and content analysis of LGBTQ reports and media coverage. The research shows the agency of an LGBTQ youth group as a resilient community organization effectively participating in planning processes and exerting rights to public space and services. Finally, it offers recommendations to planners and policy-makers to facilitate the recognition and expansion of rights to the city for LGBTQ, particularly YOC, by committing to understanding their unique conditions and needs and expanding their access to safe housing and public spaces, poverty reduction programs and job opportunities, and health and social support services.

Identity Safety and Relational Health in Youth Spaces: A Needs Assessment with LGBTQ Youth of Color

This article focuses on the function of youth organizations for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities of color. LGBTQ young people (N = 29) participated in a series of focus groups, completed a brief demographic survey, and created individual community maps. The youth organization was described as providing LGBTQ youth with a home and sense of “we,” which provided support for developing a sense of authenticity, mutual engagement, conflict tolerance, and empowerment in the face of discrimination. This study documents current forms of intervention occurring within the organization, particularly in providing an identity-safe environment to promote relational health. Findings support recommendations to foster resilience and positive identity development for LGBTQ youth of color.