The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community faces both internal and external discrimination and oppression in multiple facets of our society despite the social and political gains within the last couple of decades (Harper & Schneider, 2003). For example, the LGBT community still experiences harassment from law enforcement officials based on their sexual orientation (Mallory et al., 2015). There is a well-documented history of police harassment toward LGBT peoples to include profiling and entrapment that the Department of Justice complied in a brief to the Supreme Court (Mallory et al., 2015). More recently, a national report from 2014 detailed that within the LGBT community, 14% reported that police had verbally assaulted them and 21% reported experiencing hostile attitudes from law enforcement personnel (Mallory et al., 2015). Those that are expected to serve and protect use their position to harass and discriminate against a whole community of peoples.
Despite these hardships that the LGBT community experience, they have still come together across local, national, and even international means to create organizations designed to improve the LGBT’s overall quality of life (Harper & Schneider, 2003). These organizations have given back to their community, providing needed resources for LGBT peoples and being a central point for socializing and activism (Harper & Schneider, 2003). The fight for basic human rights for the LGBT community has been a long one. This historical fight for social justice from the LGBT community (among many other communities, such as the Native Americans, domestic violence victims’ organizations, etc.) helped to create and shape the scope, intent, and context of community psychology (Trickett, 2009; Harper & Schneider, 2003). Furthermore, the “community mobilization and social action efforts that have occurred within LGBT communities throughout history clearly demonstrates that LGBT people and communities have participated in many of the same activities as Community Psychologists” (Harper & Schneider, 2003, p. 244). The oppression that this community has had to experience caused them to rise to the challenge and direct change so that they may survive and, hopefully, thrive (Harper & Schneider, 2003).
Although the LGBT community is attributed for implementing community psychology efforts before the field was fully developed, its noted that there is very little academic or empirical support articles about the LGBT experience (Harper & Schneider, 2003). Community psychology is rooted in core values that seek to improve individual and communities’ well-being, fight for social justice, and develop respect for human dignity while combining research with actionable interventions to support the goals of their core values (Gruman et al., 2016). Community psychologists can benefit from observing what activists within the LGBT community are doing and vice versa (Harper & Schneider, 2003). The awareness of these benefits is gaining traction in the community psychology field. For example, the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) proposed that a Special Interest Group (SIG) be developed to focus on the plights that the LGBT community faces and act as an advocate on behalf of the LGBT community to raise awareness of their issues to community psychologists (Harper & Schneider, 2003).
The discrimination and oppression experienced by the LGBT community has negative effects. As mentioned, law enforcement officers disproportionally target the LGBT community and subject them to verbal or physical abuse (Mallory et al., 2015). This fosters distrust among the two groups which results in LGBT peoples distancing themselves from cooperating with law enforcement (Mallory et al., 2015). Even within the context of schools, LGBT youth experience discrimination which has been linked with negative mental health and increase in risky behavior by LGBT youth (Russell & McGuire, 2008). However, when community psychologists engage in assessing ways to improve the quality of life for communities, positive benefits can occur. Russell & McGuire (2008) conducted a study utilizing the ecological perspective approach regarding school climate and LGBT youth’s sense of connection and discovered that teacher intervention was positively associated with LGBT youth experiencing increased levels of safety. This further illustrates that community psychology will help to enhance the overall well-being of the LGBT community.
References
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.
Harper, G. W., & Schneider, M. (2003). Oppression and discrimination among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people and communities: A challenge for community psychology. American Journal of Community Psychology, 31(3), 243-252.
Mallory, C., Hasenbush, A., & Sears, B. (2015). Discrimination and Harassment by Law Enforcement Officers in the LGBT Community. UCLA: The Williams Institute. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5663q0w1
Russell, S. T., & McGuire, J. K. (2008). The school climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students. Toward positive youth development: Transforming schools and community programs, 133-149.
Trickett, E. J. (2009). Community psychology: Individuals and interventions in community context. Annual Review of Psychology, 60(1), 395-419.