1. Religious Attitudes, Homophobia, and Professional Counseling.
- Author
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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
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