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Reducing Inequalities Between Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Adolescents and Cisgender, Heterosexual Adolescents Proceedings of a Workshop (2022) / Chapter Skim
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4 Promising Interventions for Families and Communities
Pages 39-48

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From page 39...
... Family is critical in the development of a healthy psychosocial identity, she said, and family support allows LGBTQ youth to "live in their truth." There are interventions that can improve a family's ability to support and communicate with their child. For example, an online intervention has been developed to help families of trans children find the proper language to use, and it teaches them about key challenges facing their children (Sharek et al., 2021)
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From page 40...
... Huebner noted that researchers have recently begun to explore how interventions developed for the general population can be used in the LGBTQ population, including one study on sexual risk behaviors among gay and bisexual boys that reported positive results (Ocasio et al., 2021)
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From page 41...
... Before delving into the details of interventions, Huebner described the foundational premises of his work on interventions with parents of SGM youth. First, his work is based on the premise that parent behaviors are powerful predictors of the health of SGM youth and therefore intervening to change parent behavior is one approach to improving children's health.
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From page 42...
... Huebner said the intervention seeks to accomplish this by targeting parent behaviors that are shown to be supportive of adolescent sexual health: communicating with their sons about HIV, instructing their sons on the mechanics of condom use, facilitating their sons' access to condoms, and helping their sons get HIV tests. The intervention is based on the inte­ grated behavior model and is aimed at increasing parents' self-efficacy to support their children's sexual health, improving attitudes, reducing ­barriers around parent support for adolescent sexual health, and changing parents' expectations about the consequences of talking about sex.
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From page 43...
... He noted that there are almost no inter ventions for parents of gender-diverse youth that have any empirical support, and he encouraged the development of complementary interventions to ad dress the needs of LGB youth and gender-diverse youth. Huebner also stated that parent-focused interventions need to be designed not only to i­ncrease general parent acceptance, but also to help parents engage in the specific behaviors that are likely to have an impact on the health risks that SGM youth disproportionately face.
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From page 44...
... This new tool will use science-backed methods to help youths explore topics related to their queer identities and experiences. Other digital programs include: • Trevor Space, a social networking site for LGBTQ youth; • Gender Spectrum, online support groups for trans and gender-diverse youth; • Roo, an AI-powered chat bot that answers questions about sexual health and relationships; • OkaySo, an app that connects young people to vetted experts who pro vide personalized support and information; and • RealTalk, an app that crowd-sources and curates authentic stories from teens.
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From page 45...
... Almost half of CenterLink's programs serve primarily youth of color, and these centers are more likely than others to provide key social services such as educational programs, job placement, and transitional housing. As the community center model is scaled, she said, it is essential that communities of color have the resources and staff necessary to "be the village" for LGBTQ youth of color.
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From page 46...
... RPYA also works to support youth engagement and leadership in schools and faith communities. The staff of RPYA reflects the diversity of the community, said Ramsey; they "live, work, play, and attend spiritual services" in the area, are familiar with neighborhood histories, and have established relationships with key "­cultural brokers." Ramsey's presentation also highlighted the Pride Youth Leadership and Resiliency Project, a school- and community-based program for LGBTQ youth that was adapted from the Fairfax Resiliency Prevention strategy.
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From page 47...
... Levine responded that parents are an untapped resource. LGBTQ community centers were founded at a time when there was an assumption that most parents would not be involved in supporting LGBTQ children, she said, and this paradigm is shifting quickly.
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From page 48...
... Another workshop participant asked about the role of LGBTQ elders and intergenerational connections to help support LGBTQ youth. Levine responded that a number of centers have LGBTQ elders as volunteers, and described one center that mixes seniors with young people for job train ing.
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Key Terms

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  • sgm youth
  • lgbtq community
  • pride youth
  • community centers

  • lgbtq centers
  • youth leadership
  • youth alliance
  • sexual minority
  • sexual health

  • adolescents talking
  • rainbow pride
  • healthy sexuality
  • huebner noted
  • digital tools

  • support lgbtq
  • supporting lgbtq
  • youth programs
  • family support
  • parent behaviors

  • adolescent sexual
  • sexual risk
  • risk behaviors
  • adolescent health
  • reported positive

  • social services
  • workshop participant
  • chosen family
  • rpya offers
  • protect lgbtq


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