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Intersections of Race-Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexual Minority Communities

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Handbook of Race-Ethnicity and Gender in Psychology

Abstract

Conceptualizing and defining “sexual minority communities” have been an ongoing challenge for researchers and theorists in the social sciences (Moradi, Mohr, Worthington, & Fassinger, Journal of Counseling Psychology, 56: 5–22, 2009). The term “sexual minority” represents a diverse group of people and, in many ways, is an imprecise construct to describe the many unique specific characteristics and concerns of individuals generally included under this umbrella term. In this chapter, this term is used in an effort to reflect the diverse gender and sexual identity expressions (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) among individuals often labeled as LGBT. The specific focus of this chapter is to highlight some of connections and similarities relative to the stigma, oppression, and discrimination experienced by sexual minority communities on the basis of gender, sexual identity, and race/ethnicity. Although much of the extant literature focuses on lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, more recent literature has focused on transgender communities (Hendricks & Testa, Professional Psychology, Research and Practice, 43(5): 460–467, 2012; Institute of Medicine, The health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, andtransgender people: Building a foundation for better understanding. The National Academies Press, 2011; Nadal, Rivera, & Corpus, Sexual orientation and transgender microaggressions in everyday life: Experiences of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender individuals. In: Microaggressions and marginality: Manifestation, dynamics, and impact, Wiley, 2010) and will be discussed here as well.

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  1. School of Education, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA

    Angela D. Ferguson, Gizelle Carr & Aviella Snitman

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Correspondence to Angela D. Ferguson .

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  1. Columbia University Teachers College, New York, USA

    Marie L. Miville

  2. Department of Human Development and Psyc, Howard University, Washington, USA

    Angela D. Ferguson

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Ferguson, A.D., Carr, G., Snitman, A. (2014). Intersections of Race-Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexual Minority Communities. In: Miville, M., Ferguson, A. (eds) Handbook of Race-Ethnicity and Gender in Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8860-6_3

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