Religion and spirituality can have serious negative or positive effects on the identity development of gay persons. A look at "Robert," a case study, illustrates how certain religious beliefs may harm gay persons' development, and how a compassion-oriented spirituality, reflecting contemporary theological and scriptural scholarship, can…

Presents a counter position to Warren Throckmorton's article "Efforts to Modify Sexual Orientation: A Review of Outcome Literature and Ethical Issues." The position of this paper, simply put, is: there is no illness, there is no cure. (Author)

This editorial describes the barriers that exist to carrying out research with gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. It also discusses why it is important to promote research to this group. Describes the articles that address some of the issues related to this population in this volume of the Journal of Adolescence. (MKA)

Argues that gay and lesbian administrators and teachers should be judged on their character and performance, not on their sexual orientation. (PKP)

The male archetypes of king, lover, magician, and warrior provide important and timeless insights into mature masculine qualities. Homosexual identity development models describe tasks that confront gay men as they move through the identity development process. Proposes that by understanding the metaphor of male archetypes, gay men will discover…

This article brings together two significant efforts in the child welfare field: achieving permanence for youth in out-of-home care and meeting the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. During the past several years, a national movement has taken place to assure all children and youth have a permanent family…

Focusing on the disagreements between Muslims and homosexuals over sexuality education, this article highlights the need in liberal societies for respectful dialogue between groups that hold diametrically opposed beliefs and values. The article argues that it should be possible for Muslims to set out a religious perspective that is critical of…

In their introductory article, Morrow and Beckstead (2004 [this issue]) discuss the decades-long controversy surrounding therapeutic attempts to change homosexual to heterosexual orientation ("conversion" or "reparative" therapy). Despite the efforts to resolve this controversy, it shows no signs of abating. The articles in this issue, especially…

Identity formation and self construction are inherently cultural phenomena. Although it may seem that human psychology--e.g., basic traits, tendencies, "characteristics," or even the definition of self--are universal and ahistorical, this essentialist view is quite erroneous and needs to be recognized and avoided. The task of studying one's…

Recent research about sexuality and dance has begun to address the needs of gay male dancers, yet the needs of lesbian dancers have remained mostly absent from scholarly discourse. Exploring the lesbian lacunae, or invisible spaces of dance education, reveals the personal, political, and pedagogical implications of their existence within the dance…

In this article, the authors offer their reactions to the content analysis of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) publications in counseling journals between 1990-1999 by Phillips, Ingram, Smith, and Mindes. The invitation to react to this important contribution was accepted as an opportunity to offer analysis of some of the important issues raised.…

In 2007, Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) conducted the fifth National School Climate Survey (NSCS), a biennial survey of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) secondary school students. The NSCS examines the experiences of LGBT youth in U.S. middle and high schools, documenting bias and behaviors that make schools…

The present study seeks to identify factors among university students that may be associated with homophobic attitudes and whether homophobia may be reduced by educational interventions, such as knowledge-based curricula found in college sexuality courses. Participants were 128 undergraduate students attending a small, private university in the…

The authors examined the effectiveness of motivational interviewing (MI) on club drug use and risky sex in non-treatment-seeking men who have sex with men (MSM). MSM (N = 150) were assessed and randomly assigned to 4 sessions of MI or an educational control intervention. Follow-up occurred at quarterly intervals for 1 year. Primary outcomes were…

This paper considers how three Canadian high-school students--Ryan, Jeremy, and Bruce--engaged in queer critical praxis intended to free lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified, and queer (LGBTQ) students from the silence, exclusion, and symbolic and physical violence that heterosexism and homophobia provoke in schools. We, the authors, construct…