1. Religious Attitudes, Homophobia, and Professional Counseling.
- Author
-
Bowers, Randolph, Minichiello, Victor, and Plummer, David
- Subjects
- *
COUNSELING , *HOMOPHOBIA , *PSYCHOLOGY of Minorities , *BISEXUAL people , *CONSUMER attitudes , *COUNSELORS , *GAY men , *GENDER identity , *GROUNDED theory , *HETEROSEXUALS , *INTERVIEWING , *LESBIANS , *MEDICAL education , *ABSTRACTING & indexing of medical records , *SENSORY perception , *POST-traumatic stress disorder , *PREJUDICES , *PROFESSIONAL ethics , *PSYCHOLOGY & religion , *RESEARCH funding , *STATISTICAL sampling , *SEX discrimination , *SOUND recordings , *DATA analysis , *TRANSGENDER people , *CULTURAL values , *SOCIAL context , *CONTINUING education units , *HUMAN research subjects , *PATIENT selection , *EVALUATION , *PSYCHOLOGY - Abstract
During an Australian qualitative and empirical study looking at lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender client's experiences of counseling, and counselor's experiences of working with minority clients, a large body of unsolicited data emerged related to experiences of religious-based homophobia. Analysis of the data suggests that a lifelong process of posttraumatic recovery for many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people follows prior experiences of religious-based homophobia. This paper discusses the sociological debate related to how counselors find themselves at the crossroad between a healthy lifestyle model of homosexuality based in well established contemporary professional ethics versus long standing religious-based attitudes and constraints toward homosexuality. This intersection of conflicting beliefs generates a controversial social and political environment in which counselors must make a basic decision to either support minority clients according to ethical guidelines or to side with socially conservative constructs that, rightly or wrongly, rely largely on Western religious traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2010
- Full Text
- View/download PDF