Queer Youth in Family Therapy

• Published date: 01 September 2015
• Date: 01 September 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12170
• Author: Linda Stone Fish,Rebecca G. Harvey

Queer Youth in Family Therapy

REBECCA G. HARVEY*

LINDA STONE FISH

†

Trends in popular belief about same-sex relationships have undergone noteworthy

change in the United States over the last decade. Yet this change has been marked by stark

polarizations and has occurred at varying rates depending upon regional, community,

racial, religious, and individual family context. For queer youth and their families, this

cultural transformation has broadened opportunities and created a new set of risks and

vulnerabilities. At the same time, youth’s increasingly open and playful gender fluidity

and sexual identity is complicated by unique intersections of class, race, religion, and

immigration. Effective family therapy with queer youth requires practitioner’s and treat-

ment models that are sensitive to those who bear the burden of multiple oppressions and

the hidden resilience embedded in their layered identities. We present case examples of our

model of family therapy which addresses refuge, supports difficult dialogs, and nurtures

queerness by looking for hidden resilience in the unique intersections of queer youths’ lives.

These intersections provide transformational potential for youth, their families and even

for family therapists as we are all nurtured and challenged to think more complexly abou t

intersectionality, sexuality, and gender.

Keywords: Family therapy; Resilience; Gay; Lesbian; Transgen dered youth

Fam Proc 54:396–417, 2015

People always did like to talk, didn’t they? That’s why I call myself a witch now: the Wicked Witch

of the West, if you want the full glory of it. As long as people are going to call you a lunatic any-

way, why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention. ―Gregory Maguire, Wicked:

The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Agreat deal has changed since we published Nurturing Queer Youth: Family Therapy

Transformed (2005), and a great deal has stayed the same. The tide seems to have

turned in the larger discourse around sexual minority acceptance. Queer

1

people have

increasing access to equal opportunity in parity laws, the military, gay-straight alliances

in middle and high schools, boy scouts, and recently marriage equality and its benefits in

all 50 states.

*Department of Marriage & Family Therapy, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT.

†

Department of Marriage & Family Therapy, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Rebecca G. Harvey, Department of Mar-

riage & Family Therapy, Southern Connecticut State University, Fairfield, CT. E-mail: harveyr7@south-

ernct.edu

1

We use the term “queer” because it is more inclusive than other terms we have at the moment, and

because we mean to emphasize the liberatory benefits of defining and embracing oneself in the face of

oppression. That being said we encourage people to define themselves and use their own language as much

as possible in therapy.

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Family Process, Vol. 54, No. 3, 2015 ©2015 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12170

CHANGING TRENDS IN POPULAR BELIEF

Greater openness about same-gender sexuality is also reflected in popular attitudes

which have undergone remarkable and noteworthy change in a little more than a decade

(Bowman, Rugg, & Marsico, 2013; Pew Research, 2013). The American Enterprise Insti-

tute found that in the year 2000, 59% of the population of the United States indicated that

consensual sex between two adults of the same sex was “always wrong.” In 2010, this

figure decreased to 46% (Bowman et al., 2013), evidence that a small but increasing

majority of the population has shifted toward acceptance and equality for sexual minori-

ties. Though these trends are promising, polls show attitudes of acceptance and tolerance

vary starkly and widely depending on a range of demographic variables. Younger people

are more accepting than older as are people who live in the northeast and the west of the

United States. Those with more education are more accepting, while those who identify as

more religious are less so. Finally, polls suggest that White respondents are more accept-

ing than Black respondents (Bowman et al., 2013). The Pew Research da ta (2013) support

these findings among the global population: Countries that are more secular and more

affluent tend to be more accepting. Attitudes about homosexuality have remained

relatively stable since 2007 except in the United States, Canada, and South Korea where

acceptance has grown by at least 10 percentage points. Data like these are critical for clini-

cians to know as they attempt to understand the needs of diverse clients who come from a

wide range of family and community backgrounds and face various levels of oppression

and isolation.

RISKS AND VULNERABILITIES

While changing trends in popular belief have progressed, much has stayed the same.

Clinicians must be aware that while overall trends are positive, homophobia and its

effects have gotten worse for some individuals, families, and communities. Queer youth

are still more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to be at risk for homelessness

(e.g., Cochran, Stewart, Ginzler, & Cauce, 2002; Yu, 2010), suicidality (Centers for Dis-

ease Control, 2013), school dropout (e.g., Birkett, Espelage, &Koenig, 2009), addiction

(e.g., Austin & Craig, 2013), risky sexual behavior (e.g., Herrick, Matthews, and Garofalo

(2010), bullying, and school violence (e.g., GLSEN, 2011a,b). Queer youth are also more

likely to be kicked out of their homes because of their sexual orientation or gender non-

conformity, a risk with particularly serious consequences, given that family acceptance is

invaluable to youth’s self worth (e.g., Ryan, Huebner, Diaz, & Sanchez, 2009), and that

homeless youth are more likely to be victimized (Cochran et al., 2002; Corliss, Goodenow,

Nichols, & Austin, 2011; Yu, 2010). Cochran et al. (2002) also discovered that queer

youth were at a heightened risk for unprotected sex and for drug abuse while living on

the streets.

INTERSECTIONALITY AND CULTURAL COMPLEXITY

Though cultural attitudes toward homosexuality have become more accepting in the

past decade, the relational and cultural worlds of queer youth remain complex. As men-

tioned earlier, attitudes toward homosexuality vary widely depending on a host of demo-

graphic variables. As a result, queer youth find themselves at intersections of differing or

conflicting cultures based on their race, class, religion, ethnicity, immigration status , and

regional affiliations. As Collins (1998) notes, these intersections are not “passive backdrop

(s) for active family process” (p. 28) in the lives of queer youth. Rather, they actively affect

and change individual and family processes. As a result, the experience of being queer

Fam. Proc., Vol. 54, September, 2015

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