An Intersectional Approach to Understanding LGBTQ+ People of Color’s Access to LGBTQ+ Community Resilience

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Counseling Psychology

Volume

68

Issue

6

Publisher

American Psychological Association

Publication Date

1-1-2021

First Page

629

Last Page

641

Abstract

Resiliency research suggests that connection to LGBTQ+ communities helps mitigate the negative impacts of oppression (i.e., community resilience). However, due to various interlocking systems of oppression, those with multiple marginalized identities [i.e., LGBTQ+ people of color (POC)] may not have equal access to LGBTQ+ community resilience resources. Despite the growing body of literature, little research has explored LGBTQ+ POC’s experiences with the LGBTQ+ community from an intersectional framework to critique systems of oppression and provide implications for social justice. Fourteen LGBTQ+ POC participated in semistructured interviews to explore their experiences with protective factors of the LGBTQ+ community and the barriers they face in accessing community resilience. Findings supported three broad categories with subthemes: (1) LGBTQ+ Community Resilience Resources (i.e., Shared Narratives and Feeling Seen and Social Justice and Liberation), (2) Inequity to Accessing LGBTQ+ Community Resilience (i.e., Alienation and Exclusion, Disempowerment and Exploitation, and Invisibility), and (3) Making Space. Utilizing our intersectional framework, we provide implications for social justice advocacy as well as clinical and educational implications for counseling psychologists and community organizations.

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