Out with the Family: Surviving the Holidays Being LGBTQ+

The holiday season can be a joyous season full of love and warmth, but it can also be a time of great sadness, isolation, pain, and conflict. Not only do many members of the LGBTQ+ community have various forms of religious trauma due to shame, exclusion, and harassment that can manifest around the holiday season, but we also may have to encounter either close or distant family members who may not be affirming, or even hostile towards our gender or sexual identities. Navigating these situations can be extremely stressful, traumatizing, and potentially hostile. Let’s explore some ways to make the most out of some of these potentially unsafe situations.

Gay Dating: Healthy Boundaries

Boundaries have recently become quite the vogue topic in many dating spheres. However, gay men often struggle setting, enforcing, and maintaining healthy boundaries in dating relationships. Why? Well, the answer is different for everyone. But often, individuals in the LGBTQ+ community have been so invalidated in social and familial relationships that when someone comes along who appears to be offering the very validation and connection we have been looking for, for so long, we are willing to do anything to make it work. That desperation leads to a dissolution of our much-needed boundaries, and eventually, self-respect.

Gay Dating: What Are You Looking For?

Dating is a stressful, confusing, frustrating, emotional, exhilarating, anxiety inducing, traumatic… (insert almost any adjective/emotion here) experience. In the unique world of gay dating, many aspects are even more convoluted and muddied. Most gay individuals struggle to navigate the waters of the dating scene, and many find themselves so disillusioned and hopeless from the process that they give up on finding the love that they have dreamed of for so long.

Codependency in Relationships: Strength or Pitfall?

Codependency has become widely regarded as a dirty word when it comes to relationships in our culture. American culture places a heavy emphasis on being wholly independent, independent from family, financially independent, as well as emotionally independent. We hear through all sorts of media that a strong person is one who does not rely on anyone else.

Understanding Gender Identity

For many people, this may seem like a silly question. Many people do not think much about their gender and how they define it. American culture, along with many others around the world, has had a strong focus on men versus women for a long time. Women have had and still have different rights, advantages, and experiences than men across the globe. Men and women have different societal expectations of roles within families, how they dress, how they play, who they love, and how they work, only to name a few. When most people think of gender, they think of the sexual body parts that we are born with and our chromosomal make-up, however, these things refer to our biological sex, not gender. Gender is how we express ourselves in relation to masculinity and femininity, not our biological sex.

What Masks are You Wearing? Understanding Authenticity

Oh Halloween, a time normally characterized by people of all ages dressing up as princesses, superheroes, or sexy nurses. In 2020, your plans for Halloween may be different. Maybe you are having a zoom party, or having a small gathering with friends, or maybe you have found a way to keep your traditions alive in your own, unique way. Whether or not you are dressing up in a costume this year for Halloween, I want to ask you this question:

Teens and Video Games: Addiction or Connection?

Is how much time my teen plays video games a problem? Should I limit how long my kids have access to their XBOX? Do I need to buy them a top gaming PC? Is my son addicted to video games? Why are kids these days so obsessed with gaming?

Mom, I Think I’m Gay… Sexual Identity Development for LGBTQ Teens and How Parents Can Help

When you look back on your teenage years, do you have memories of confidence, fun, happiness, and connection? Yes? Well lucky you! For most, the teenage years are a pretty rough time riddled with conflict and shame. There is always conflict with parents who are trying to do their best, with friends who are doing whatever it takes to survive, and within our inner selves as we begin the journey of figuring out who we are and what this life is really all about.

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