LGBTQ Issues
Sexual orientation is one component of a person’s identity, which is made up of many components, such as culture, ethnicity, gender, and personality traits. Sexual orientation is an enduring emotional, romantic, sexual, or affectional attraction that a person feels toward another person. Sexual orientation falls along a continuum. In other words, someone does not have to be exclusively homosexual or heterosexual, but can feel varying degrees of attraction for both genders. Sexual orientation develops across a person’s lifetime. Different people realize at different points in their lives that they are heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
Sexual behavior does not necessarily equate to sexual orientation. Many adolescents-as well as many adults-may identify themselves as homosexual or bisexual without having had any sexual experience. Other people have had sexual experiences with a person of the same gender, but do not consider themselves to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual. This is particularly relevant during adolescence because it is a time for experimentation-a hallmark of this developmental period.
“Coming out” is the process through which individuals come to terms with their lesbian, gay, bisexual orientations. Coming out includes both learning about oneself and sharing that knowledge with others. It also involves coping with societal responses and attitudes toward homosexuality. The coming out process is very personal. It happens in different ways and occurs at different ages for different people. Some people are aware of their sexual identity at an early age; others arrive at this awareness only after many years. Coming out is a continuing, sometimes lifelong process.
While some anxiety related to sexuality is common among college students, the problems facing gays are often more difficult than those facing others. The experience of gay, lesbian, and bisexual teenagers is often one of isolation, fear of stigmatization, and lack of peer or familial support. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth have few opportunities for observing positive modeling by adults due to the general cultural bias that makes gay, lesbian, and bisexual people largely invisible. It is this isolation and lack of support that accounts in part of the higher rates of emotional distress, suicide attempts, and risky sexual behavior and substance use that gay, lesbian, and bisexual students report compared to heterosexual students.
The Counseling Center is a resource for students who are struggling with issues relating to their sexual identity. We encourage you to make an appointment with a counselor at the Counseling Center if you could use a listening ear and support. For information on how to make an appointment, click here.
LGBTQ Support Group
You are invited to join a new counseling support
group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students. This
group will focus on the particular concerns that the group members
identify in a safe and respectful space. Weekly sessions will focus on
concerns or obstacles group members are facing, which may include, but
are not limited to: coming out, personal empowerment, dating, family,
community, and/or spiritual concerns. The Group will be held on Tuesday
afternoons. Any LGBTQ student interested in attending the support group
should either email or call the Counseling Center to request further
information. Requests should be directed to Kim Charniak at the
University Counseling Center at 920-424-2061 or to charniak@uwosh.edu.
Handouts about LGBTQ Issues
Coming Out
Be Yourself (Adobe PDF)
Bisexuality Resource Packet (Adobe PDF)
Faith in our Families (Adobe PDF)
Holiday Tips (Adobe PDF)
Our Daughters and Sons (Adobe PDF)
We also have these handouts online if you have questions about sexual orientation development and could use some more information. Please take a look at these handouts or make an appointment with a counselor at the Counseling Center.
Additional Handouts:
Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation Development
What are your beliefs about Gays and Lesbians
What if…
Suggestions for creating a non-homophobic campus environment
The Closet
Take the Closet Quiz
Resources for Allies:
Being an Ally Poem
Benefits of Being an Ally
Characteristics of being an Ally
Principles of being an Effective Ally
Strategies for being an Effective Ally
Tips for becoming the Best Ally Ever
Websites and resources for support:
- Rainbow Alliance for HOPE: http://www.uwosh.edu/hope/
- UWO LBGTQ Education & Advocacy Council: http://www.uwosh.edu/lgbtq/
- LGBTQ Area Resources: http://www.athenet.net/~newiglb
- LGBTQ Wisconsin Resources: http://www.cbtl.org/glb/glb.htm
- PFLAG Fox Cities: 128 N. Oneida St., Appleton, WI 54911
- Hotline number is 920-882-4056. Monthly meetings held in Multicultural Center in downtown Appleton (next to Harmony Cafe)
- Harmony Cafe: http://www.focol.org/harmonycafe/
- GLBT Partnership: http://www.focol.org/glbtpartnership/mission.asp
- Diverse and Resilient: http://www.diverseandresilient.org/flashintro.asp
- GLSEN: http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/home.html
(there is at least a Madison chapter, not sure about more local).
- Delta Lambda Phi National Social Fraternity: http://www.dlp.org/main
- National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (Campus Issues) http://www.thetaskforce.org/theissues/issue.cfm?issueID=22
- GLBT College Students: What Institutions Need to Know
http://www.aacu.org/ocww/volume34_3/feature.cfm?section=
Resource links and books/videos from PFLAG about LGBTQ persons of color.
The Blackstripe - for GLBT people of African Descent http://www.blackstripe.com/
GAPA - Gay Asian Pacific Alliance http://www.gapa.org/
LGBT Youth of Color - http://www.lgbtfunders.org/lgbtfunders/youth/youth4.htm
LLEGO - The National Latino/a GLBT Organization http://www.llego.org/
Trikone - GLBT South Asians http://www.trikone.org/
Books/Booklets:
The Self Help Library in the Counseling Center has several books available to be checked out to students and staff. The books pertain to information about LGBTQ issues and coming out on a college campus. Listed here are some additional books not found in the Self Help Library.
Author: Bulkin, Elly, Minnie Bruce Pratt and Barbara Smith.
Title: Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism.
Information: Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books. 1984.
Author: Kivel, Paul.
Title: Uprooting Racism: White People Can Work for Social Justice.
Information: Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.
Author: MAPLBN
Title: Beloved Daughter. A booklet of letters from Chinese mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters to their lesbian/bisexual daughters/sisters.
Information: $3. Contact: maplbn@labrys.org or MAPLBN, c/o Hanna Lu, 3103 Shelter Creek Lane, San Bruno, CA 94066.
Author: Pharr, Suzanne.
Title: Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism.
Information: Chardon Press, 1995. Includes a chapter on the common elements of oppression.
Author: Anzuld?a, Gloria, ed.,
Title: "Making Face, Making Soul," Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Women of Color.
Information: San Francisco: Anut Lute Foundation Books, 1990.
Videos:
Author: API-PFLAG Family Project
Title: Coming Out, Coming Home: Asian and Pacific Islander Family Stories.
Information: API-PFLAG Family Project, PO Box 640233, San Francisco, CA 94164, 415-921-8850 (voicemail box #2) or apipflag@aol.com.
Author: Woman Vision.
Title: All God's Children. A powerful documentary short about the Black Church's embracing of African-American lesbians and gay men.
Information: Woman Vision, 1996. 1-800-343-5540.