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Hi everyone,

I'm posting this to find out if there is interest on ACEs Connection for a new community group, focused specifically on ACEs in the LGBTQ Community. Personally, as someone who is a part of the LGBTQ community, I would love to have a community page here for whats going on in the LGBTQ community affected by ACEs.

Data has shown that lesbian, gay, and bisexual community have a greater odds of having a high ACEs score than non sexual minorities. A new community group would allow us to have a dedicated space for discussions and resources for the LGBTQ community. I think it could serve as a platform to create awareness and understanding of the intersection between ACEs and having a LGBTQ identity. 

Thoughts? Opinions? Would you join this group? 

Please feel welcome to react, comment, like, or send me a private message. 

Last edited by Jenna Quinn (PACEs Connection Staff)
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I would join! When I have developed trauma-informed trainings for LGBTQ+ communities I have found it difficult to find information related to this demographic and ACEs. I would suggest we also open it up to the LGBTQ2S community as well. As I also work with LGBTQ+ people who are also Native American, the inclusion of two spirit persons would be appreciated as well. 

I too work in this area as a queer transgender psychotherapist in Australia and would be interested in joining a group like this. I also run trauma informed gender affirming care workshops and others pertaining to the intersections of trauma and gender and sexuality fluidity so I’m always looking for resources and am happy to share. As people have stated there’s not a lot out there yet. You can find me at www.draganzanwright.com

I too work in this area as a queer transgender psychotherapist in Australia and would be interested in joining a group like this. I also run trauma informed gender affirming care workshops and others pertaining to the intersections of trauma and gender and sexuality fluidity so I’m always looking for resources and am happy to share. As people have stated there’s not a lot out there yet. You can find me at www.draganzanwright.com

Thank you for sharing this! I will absolutely reach out. 

How would this group handle conflicts within the LGBTQ Community that deal with or result in ACES?

"Cotton Ceiling" comes to mind. How would your group deal with a young lesbian being told that she is transphobic because she is not sexually attracted to a male  (with a penis and testicles) who identifies as a lesbian?

It is quite traumatic for a gay kid who is just beginning to explore and understand their sexual orientation to be told that they are wrong, sick, evil because they are not attracted to the opposite sex, but within the LGBTQ community that is exactly what happens to young lesbians who say they are exclusively same sex attracted.

Young lesbians currently aren't even allowed to exclude males from their lesbian (or rape survivor) support groups, because it's transphobic to say that a male...with a penis... isn't really a lesbian, as long as that male says that he is.

When the needs of gay females come up against the desires of straight males who identify as lesbians... males desires are always prioritized and lesbians are always abused to some degree even if that abuse is merely insisting that there is something wrong with them for not being sexually attracted to a "female penis". Further abuse includes actual physical abuse and rape, not limited to but including coercive rape. 

 

Also wondering about those in the detrans community especially gay youth who are therefore still a part of the LGBTQ community but being accused of transphobia when they talk about how their experiences , especially of being transitioned by parents and/or professionals when they were small children?

 

There are other less serious but still painful issues, such as the elder members of the gay community, seeing their history being erased and rewritten, subjected to abuse on social media when they speak about their experiences. For example the abuse from "the lgbtq community" hurled at Fred Sargeant who was actually at Stonewall, when he talks about the black lesbian who started the uprising, Storme Delarverie who was an important lesbian figure who many young lesbians look up to, now being erased as a lesbian and "transed" in death and being called a "trans man of color" and having her part in the uprising written out of the story to now include drag queens who not only did not identify as women being transed post mortem and now even though they weren't even there when it started, being given credit for "throwing the first brick at stonewall to which gay people now owe their liberation to trans women of color!" There are a number gay and trans people who were actually at Stonewall who are attacked on social media or their own blogsites for daring to say what they experienced there by those who identify as "queer". (Which by the way is still a very painful slur to many of us but again, we're not allowed to say so because "transphobic".) 

 

So yeah, I'm just wondering who gets to be the voice of the LGBTQ Community when it comes to ACES when so many of us experience abuse within the community itself. My experience tells me that the voices of females who don't center the feelings of males will be quite limited.

 

 

(If you are not informed about the current issues in the "LFBTQ Community" that I've mentioned, please go ahead and do some research about it before declaring that what I've said "never happens".)

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Mary, 

Thanks for bringing these concerns to the discussion. I am aware that these and other complex concerns related to retraumatization and marginalization exist within the LGBTQ community. I don't think we have a roadmap for dealing with any of the situations, and sadly, I haven't seen any of these issues being dealt with globally. 

I wanted to respond to your post to say I hear you, I share your concerns, and I don't have any clear answers. 

I appreciate you naming so many of these concerns in your post. The list is overwhelming when we see so many of them all on one page. 

I did a quick search in the psychology literature to see if anyone has published any research on any of these concerns, and I wasn't able to find anything. I did a general search online and didn't find much, but I did find a previous thread on ACES Connection related to LGBTQ Community & ACES. There may be some resources there to investigate. https://www.pacesconnection.com...-the-lgbtq-community

Is Equality NY doing anything to address these concerns? https://www.equalityny.org  I checked out Equality NC and didn't see anything on their website. If we all contacted our local  Equality offices, contacted local university sociology departments to encourage research in these areas, and keep having the conversations, answers may begin to emerge as we put our heads and hearts together in these sorts of conversations. 

I'm willing to stay in the conversation. I wish I had answers. One approach that you might consider incorporating in the classroom (your profile here indicates that you're a teacher) is Amy Saltzman, MD's mindfulness- based program for kids and teens-- A Still Quiet Place-- as a starting place for having a framework for fostering compassionate awareness of the complex issues amongst the kids in your classes and a framework for supporting compassionate conversations about these issues -- if you're wanting a way to frame dialogue about these concerns in the schools. 

Another thought-- you may consider advocating at your school for some sort of community resiliency training, if that hasn't already been done. At least that provides a resource for you to cope and help you to stay regulated amongst all of these triggering issues and would also provide resources for you to incorporate into the classroom. 

I'll keep thinking about this. Thank you again for starting the conversation here. And I'm sorry I don't have more suggestions to offer right now. 

Peace,

Jen

 

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