Gay is Good for Kids!

Image of the idealized version of a lesbian couple with child

A new study published in the prestigious journal Pediatrics followed a group of children born to lesbian mothers for nearly 25 years to chart their psychological health and development. Previous studies have found no significant differences in psychological health between children reared by lesbian or heterosexual parents. This led the American Academy of Pediatrics to issue a report in support of same-sex parents raising children.

Read the rest at the Sexual Continuum.

Does “internalized homophobia” still matter?

via The Sexual Continuum, by Brian Mustanski

One of the most widely studied topics in the decades of research on LGBT health has been the concept of "internalized homophobia." Although definitions of IH differ somewhat depending on the theorist, the concept generally refers to the internalization of society's homophobic attitudes within a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) person. Over the years, researchers have found internalized homophobia to correlate with a variety of psychological, behavioral, and medical outcomes like depression, substance use, and sexual behaviors that put one at risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Research on internalized homophobia and sexual risk taking began in the late 1980s in the midst of the HIV/AIDS crisis centered in the gay community. The goal was to understand how anti-gay stigma and victimization affect the health and behaviors of sexual minorities. Ultimately the hope was to use this understanding to help prevent HIV transmission. Since that time many studies have been published on this topic, but the results have been inconsistent.


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Unmasking subtle heterosexism: Microaggressions and microvalidations in everyday life

via The Sexual Continuum, by Dr. Brian Mustanski

Excerpt:

After reading this article on microaggressions in the APA Monitor I have been spending a lot of time thinking about this topic. I have been particularly curious about how gay and lesbian people may experience these kinds of microaggressions and how we might go about studying their occurrence and effects. I turns out almost no research has been done on LGBT people and microaggressions. So I started paying attention and making a note of various kinds of experiences I have in my daily life and recent travels. Here are a few examples of things I have recently experienced:

A customs agent pointedly agent asking my partner and I if we are "friends." While I thought about correcting him and saying in fact we are partners, I eventually decided it wasn't worth it. I wasn't entirely sure why he said it the way he did and didn't want to raise an issue that may not have existed, but it did feel like it invalidated my relationship and made me frustrated that I wasn't sure how to respond.

Read the entire item.


Glossary:

• A microassault is an explicit verbal or nonverbal attack meant to hurt the intended victim through name-calling, avoidant behavior, or purposeful discriminatory actions.
• A microinsult is characterized by communications that convey rudeness and insensitivity and demean a person's racial heritage or identity. Microinsults represent subtle snubs, frequently unknown to the perpetrator, but clearly convey a hidden insulting message to the recipient of color.
• Microinvalidations are characterized by communications that exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of a minority person.

Feast of Fun - Microagressions, Macroconsequences

via Feast of Fun

Microagressions. Do you know what I’m talking about? Those subtle jabs that chip away at our sense of self worth.

On today’s show- Dr. Brian Mustanski, assistant professor for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago talks with us about microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations - all these little bits of hate spewed by others can add up to a mountain of despair or depression if you don’t deal with them.

Brian also writes the Sexual Continuum blog for Psychology Today in which he tackles LGBT health and development issues from the biology of sexual orientation, to talking to your family about sexuality to the pros and cons of the Internet in our romantic lives. You can also become a fan of Brian’s blog on Facebook.

Read more and listen as Brian shares with us some steps you can take to heal and protect yourself from these attacks and how to speak openly and honestly with those around you.

[Brian was a featured panelist on the LifeLube community forum held last July - Driving Tips for Sex on the Superhighway. Check out the podcast and photos from the evening here.]

Mind, body, and the internet

via Feast of Fools today >>>>

How is the internet affecting us? Recenly we held a public form (with LifeLube) on the topic on how online communites, podcasts, forums, blogs and videos are changing not only the way we see ourselves, but how the general public thinks about queer folks.

Let’s face it. There’s a whole lot of crazy on the internet, and what seemed far out a decade ago is kind of boring by today’s standards. Your sex life is probably not as weird as you thought it once was. That’s progress.

On today’s show we’re revising the topic of the impact of the internet with Dr. Brian Mustanski, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Brian developed one of the first online studies of gay lesbian and bisexual people and is now working on “Keep it Up” an online HIV infection prevention program for young men.

The majority of his work focuses on the development of “sexual minority” people and how the Internet affects us. Listen as we talk about internet addiction, the risks of online dating and hookups and what science has taught us about human sexuality in the past year.

Click here to read more, and for the podcast.

Sex on the Superhighway - The Podcast

How do you get off and have a good time on the internet superhighway without a fender bender?







The Center on Halsted last month was the site of the LifeLube/Project CRYSP forum - Driving Tips for Sex on the Superhighway - which featured a Feast of Fools moderated conversation with three delightful experts (Stephan, Beau, Brian) and YOU talking about the expanding boundaries of sex, love, lust, the hunt, addiction, safe spaces, health, porn, photoshop and more, more, MORE internet fun, frolic, and fantasy you can shake your stick repeatedly at.

Just let your fingers do the click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click

Click here for the Feast of Fools podcast and listen for yourself.

Click here for more Sex on the Superhighway photos.

Also of interest - click here for a recent development in the relationship between the internet and gay men's health.

Then leave your comments - keep the conversation going!

And do join us, won't you, for the next forum on tap from LifeLube and the Feast of Fools - "Let's Take a Glass Together" - focused on the LGBT community's complex relationship with booze. Wednesday, July 23 at Sidetrack.