CloseUp

LGBTQ Closeup

Marco A. Hidalgo is a PhD candidate in clinical-community psychology at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. He also works at Chicago's Howard Brown Health Center, the Midwest's premier healthcare organization specializing in the unique medical and psychosocial needs for LGBTQ communities since 1974. Marco's work in research and clinical therapy focuses on implementing developmentally and culturally appropriate psychosocial interventions among LGBTQ youth and adults. At Howard Brown, Marco directs a federally funded, community-based research study aimed at developing a comprehensive, sex-positive HIV prevention curriculum for young men who have sex with men. He also conducts individual and group psychotherapy with victims and survivors of same-gender intimate personal violence.

Everyday LGBTQ youth are breaking down societal barriers and gaining recognition and acceptance at levels that were relatively unseen among youth of previous generations. Ostensibly, as members of sexual minority and gender identity minority groups, many LGBTQ young people are confronted with various forms of heterosexist stigma that impact their mental health, sense of identity, and healthy behavior. Parallel to the lived experiences of LGBTQ youth, the aims of non-profit LGBTQ youth-focused research is vast and diverse. (See the complete list of research studies on LGBTQ youth)

To coincide with Pride festivities across the US and internationally, IssueLab has asked me to be a guest editor of their June/July CloseUp. It has been my pleasure to encourage other non-profit agencies to share with each other the insights, struggles, best practices and successes of conducting non-profit research with LGBTQ youth. As suggested by its name, this Close-Up is also intended to provide its growing readership with a close up inspection of current non-profit research with and among LGBTQ youth.

IssueLab's effort is of tremendous service to the fields of LGBTQ youth research and practice by essentially providing a one-stop, (free) "shopping" place for non-profit research reports, occasional papers, evaluations, data sets, surveys, and case studies vital to the work of organizations working in LGBTQ research.

This month's Close-Up is truly a living compendium. So many organizations have already contributed to IssueLab's goal of more effectively sharing nonprofit research on topics related to LGBTQ youth resilience, school safety, suicide, special health issues, and the documented impact of social oppression on LGBTQ youth of color as well as sexual health. Yet a reflection of the diversity of LGBTQ research that exists among non-profits is only beginning to materialize. If you would like to be among the organizations contributing research on this topic please create an account today!

Our LGBTQ Youth CloseUp has yet to explore topics like:
  • LGBTQ youth issues of (dis)ability
  • LGBTQ youth cultures
  • Cyberworlds and LGBTQ youth
  • LGBTQ youth in rural environments
  • Special health issues faced by LGBTQ Youth
These issues will be at the heart of research among LGBTQ youth in the coming years and are addressed by many of the reports found here on IssueLab from non-profit sources. I encourage you to explore some of these studies and comment on them as well. Nonprofits working in the area of direct service to LGBTQ youth and in the policy arena will be tackling these issues for years to come.

And if you know of studies, reports, demographics that should be on this site, please get in touch with IssueLab staff. And if you work for a nonprofit that is doing research in this area, please register your organization today to share your work with a broader audience.

See the complete list of research related to LGBTQ youth

(Subscribe to IssueLab RSS feeds and receive the latest titles from issue areas related to this CloseUp.)

And don't forget ... to register as a LabRat today so you can comment on and review the research that is included in this CloseUp.