Cultural Immersion Project: The Lesbian LGBTQ Community in the US

1. Part One: Research Section

1.1. Key Elements of the Cultural Group
1.1.1. Inter- and intra-group characteristics
In terms of their characteristics, lesbians, who make up about 20% of the LGBTQ
population (Pew Research Center, 2013), share a few things in common with the rest of the
LGBTQ sub-groups. For example, virtually all members of the LGBTQ community long for
social acceptance. Although 92% of the adult LGBTQ community agree social acceptance
has increased significantly, just 19% is fully accepted today. The majority (56%) say there is
some acceptance, and 21% believe there is little or no acceptance. Also, the LGBTQ
population has some values in common, including the desire to marry and raise families.
Differences between lesbians and other LGBTQ sub-groups include the greater extent to
which lesbians are willing to come out and let people know they are lesbian; 71% of lesbians
are likely to open up compared to 54% of all LGBTQ and 28% of bisexuals. However, even
among themselves, lesbians are a very diverse sub-group. For example, the attitudes and
experiences of younger lesbians differ significantly from those of older lesbians, perhaps
reflecting the more accepting society in which younger adults have been brought up. Also,
younger lesbians are more likely to disclose their sexual orientation than their older
counterparts.

1.1.2. Common attitudes, beliefs, and values
Together with the rest of the LGBTQ community, lesbians hold some common
attitudes, beliefs, and values concerning various issues. Some of their most important issues
that reveal their attitudes, beliefs, and values include (in order of importance) equal
employment rights, legally supported same-sex marriages, prevention and treatment for
HIV/AIDs, same-sex couples’ right to adopt children, support for LGBTQ youth

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organizations, legally supported same-sex domestic partnerships and civil unions, and health
insurance of health issues pertinent to the LGBTQ population. From these, the LGBTQ
community certainly believes in marriage and family, including raising children. This is
understandable when one considers that their ability to raise families is critical to their social
acceptance. Meanwhile, the LGBTQ community perceives some institutions as friendlier and
others unfriendlier. Friendly institutions include the entertainment industry and the
Democratic Party, especially during the Obama administration. Institutions considered
unfriendly include the Republican Party, professional sports leagues, and the military.

1.1.3. Spirituality and religion
Religion is important to a majority of the adult LGBTQ community, including
lesbians, with nearly half of them considering themselves either moderately or highly
religious (Conron, Goldberg, & O’Neill, 2020). That proportion increases to 65% among
older LGBTQs aged 65 and older than 40% among LGBTQ adults aged 18 to 34 years.
Overall, religious adult LGBTQs are socio-demographically varied, are found in every state
and region, and are drawn from major religions and denominations. Black adults, older
adults, and those living in the South are the most likely to consider themselves religious. For
instance, 71% of Black LGBTQ adults consider themselves religious, while 54% of LGBTQ
adults in the South are religious. Despite their religiosity, LGBTQs consider most religions
and religious denominations unfriendly (Pew Research Center, 2013). These include Islam,
the Mormon Church, the Catholic Church, evangelical churches, the Jewish religion, and
non-evangelical protestant churches. This hostility, coupled with a tension between their
religious beliefs and sexual orientation, could explain why LGBTQ adults are less religious
than the general population.

1.1.4. Key factors/historical events impacting group’s societal perceptions

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In recent decades, the LGBTQ community has experienced more societal acceptance
and expects society to become more accepting of it in the coming decades (Pew Research
Center, 2013). This increasing acceptance is attributable to various factors and events,
including more and more Americans coming to know and interact with someone who is
LGBTQ, the LGBTQ adult population raising families, and high-profile advocacy on the
community’s behalf. Zeroing in on major events and prominent personalities who have
boosted the public perception of the LGBTQ community, it is worth noting that before
WWII, there were few attempts to advocate the welfare and rights of gays and lesbians
(Morris, n.d.), despite gay life flouring in leading urban centers like New York’s Harlem and
Greenwich Village as early as the 1920s. A major post-war event that drew the public’s
attention to an existing yet vulnerable population was Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s investigation
of homosexuals in government employment in the early 1950s. Then, in April 1997, actress
Ellen DeGeneres elevated the profile of the LGBTQ community when she boldly disclosed
her sexual orientation on national TV. More recently, President Barrack Obama has been one
of the prominent advocates of the LGBTQ population.
1.2. Historical and Current Oppression
Despite a growing sense of social acceptance, discrimination remains an enduring
form of oppression the LGBTQ population faces. As of 2020, close to two in five LGBTQ
Americans (or 36%) reported having experienced discrimination in the past year (Gruberg,
Halpin, & Mahowald, 2020). While that level is significantly lower than the 53% reported in
2013 (Pew Research Center, 2013), Americans still have a long way to go to fully embrace
the LGBTQ community. In terms of how or where incidents of discrimination are
experienced, the majority (51%) of incidents of discrimination or harassment are experienced
in a public place like a restroom, public transportation, or a store; 36% in the workplace; 21%
at school; 20% from residential neighbors; 15% during interactions with law enforcement,

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and 14% somewhere else. The discrimination experienced by LGBTQ Americans is a
formidable barrier to accessing services, with 28% of LGBTQs reporting that discrimination
had a moderate or significant influence on their ability to buy or rent a home.
However, more important than the ability to access services, discrimination hurts
LGBTQ Americans’ psychological, spiritual, physical, and economic health. About 52%
believe discrimination negatively affects their psychological well-being to a moderate or
significant extent. Roughly 36% believe discrimination negatively affects their spiritual well-
being to a moderate or significant extent. Another 32% believe the issue adversely affects
their physical well-being to a moderate or significant degree. Discrimination also seems to
affect LGBTQ people’s economic security, possibly by limiting their access to economic
opportunities, with close to one-third of them (29%) believing that to be the case. That
proportion is even higher for Black LGBTQ individuals (37%) and transgender persons
(54%).

2. Part Two: Events Section
   2.1. My Experience of the Two Events Attended
   I recently attended two LGBTQ events in a small city in close succession: a gay pride
   parade and an LGBTQ Families Day celebration. This was the first time I was attending such
   events. This being a small city, both events were sparsely attended; there were probably
   fewer than a thousand attendees at each, most of them being members of the LGBTQ
   community in the city. This was a far cry from the five million people who attended the
   World Pride event in New York City in July 2019 (Haynes, 2020). Both events felt like social
   gatherings and, as is characteristic of small towns and cities, people seemed to know each
   other very well. The pride parade lasted about half a day and activities included mostly
   peaceful street marches with rainbow flags and signs and song and dance. However, there

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were some informal speeches about halfway into the event. Overall, I got the impression that
the atmosphere was one of celebration and having fun.
The second event, also organized at a public square by the LGBTQ community in the
city to mark the LGBTQ Families Day, was more formal in tone and less about having fun.
Formal speeches occupied the better part of the half-day event, although there were some fun
activities like bouncing castles for children. Unlike the pride event, which young people
mostly attended, attendance at the second event was dominated by older adults with a
significant presence of children under ten years of age, suggesting that these were
predominantly LGBTQ families. About twenty police officers provided security at both
events.
2.2. How My Participation in the Events Impacted Me
My attendance at both events left me feeling more affectionate toward LGBTQ
people. Before attending the events, I harbored a rather hostile, judgmental, and indifferent
attitude. That was likely because until attending the events, I had not known or interacted, at
a personal level, with someone who was LGBTQ. However, as I interacted with the event
participants and engaged them in conversations, putting their sexual orientations aside, I felt
that the LGBTQ people were, in many senses, ordinary, reasonable, and likable people just
like everyone else. One of the people I engaged in conversation with at the pride parade was a
75-year-old lesbian photographer who told me she has been attending and photographing
pride parades since the early 1970s when they first emerged, first in major cities like New
York and Chicago, and now in the small city to which she has retired. She recounted how,
back then, passersby would taunt them, motorists would drive by and spit at them, and
random people would yell at them constantly. Now passersby, drivers and pedestrians alike,
wave and smile at them. This confirms my research finding that the general public is
becoming more tolerant and accepting of the LGBTQ community.

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I believe I responded the way I did – by developing a little more affection for LGBTQ
people – because attending the events and interacting with LGBTQ persons allowed me to
drop some of the past prejudices and stereotypes I held against them. One of those prejudices
was that LGBTQ people are selfish and pity-seeking. This was an attitude influenced by
mainstream media which I felt was awash with the clamor for LGBTQ rights and left me
wondering whether the LGBTQ community expected the world to drop everything else to
attend to their rights. However, after attending the two events, I felt that LGBTQ people
might not be that self-absorbed after all. As a matter of fact, I went to the events expecting to
find a lot of self-pity and activism. Contrary to my expectations, I found none of that. Indeed,
in the major cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, some LGBTQ has been
criticized for corporatizing pride parades by looking to businesses for sponsorships to help
meet the financial demands that come with managing rapidly growing crowds (Haynes,
2020).
2.3. Three Key Things Learned through the Events
Through the two events I attended, I learned three key things about the LGBTQ
culture: that, as with most cultural practices, there is a history to pride parades; that
attendance at pride parades has been growing over the years; and that gay communities are
relatively well-connected. Regarding the history of pride events, the 75-year-old lesbian
photographer I referred to earlier was my main source of knowledge. According to my
informant, even though she did not know the details, pride parades date back to the Stonewall
Inn Riots of 1969. Located on Christopher Street in the heart of Greenwich Village in New
York City, Stonewall Inn was not only a busy place but also a notorious one. It served
alcohol even though it did not possess a liquor license, it lacked running water, its staff and
customers were often on drugs, and it had ties with the mafia (Armstrong & Crage, 2006).
Among its patrons were customers not welcome elsewhere, including gays and lesbians.

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Greenwich Village itself, a dense, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood, was the epicenter of the
city’s gay life. When police made a routine raid on the inn on the night of Friday, June 27,
1969, they were overpowered by a crowd comprising ejected patrons, passers-by, and nearby
residents. This event emboldened the gay and lesbian activists of Greenwich Village, some of
whom were patrons of Stonewall Inn, to stand up to the authorities. Hence, the birth of pride
parades has been marked since the early 1970s.
Still, according to my informant, pride parades have grown from neighborhood-level
events attended by handfuls, even in major cities, to the mega-events now attended by
millions in metropolitan cities like New York. Meanwhile, the connectedness of LGBTQ as a
cultural group can be seen in their ability to organize an event attended by about a thousand
people, even without the involvement of big-city activists.
All these things – a cultural history, increasing attendance, and connectedness – are
important to the LGBTQ community because they serve two purposes: they contribute
toward public awareness and social acceptance and serve as protection against homophobia.
According to another lesbian attendee I spoke with, if the LGBTQ community does not come
out into the open and stop being ashamed, people will continue treating them as freaks.
Meanwhile, in the face of the ever-present threat of homophobic attacks, especially in small
city environments like the one I attended, staying connected provides a layer of protection.
2.4. Counseling Theories for Lesbians
Of the many counseling theories, few have been empirically validated to work with
the LGBTQ population. These include Carl Rogers’ person-centered and culture-centered
approaches. Several characteristics make the LGBTQ population unique and therefore
warrant unique counseling approaches. For example, many LGBTQ individuals, especially
the younger ones, are afraid of being judged by others and discriminated against based on
their unconventional sexual orientations (Pew Research Center, 2013). Person-centered

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therapy possesses certain characteristics that make them suitable for LGBTQ clients. First,
therapists who practice person-centered therapy are expected to exhibit three qualities:
empathetic understanding, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness (Adikwu, 2020).
These are exactly what judgment-conscious LGBTQ clients need, especially those still
struggling with coming out and developing their gay identity (Roland & Burlew, 2017). The
other important characteristic of person-centered therapy is the essence it attaches to the
concept of boundaries. In most cultures, gay clients will not disclose their orientation
promptly. Even if the therapist has reason to suspect, they should respect the boundary and
allow the client to remain safely “in the closet” until they are ready to open up (Newhouse,
2005).
Like the person-centered approach, culture-centered counseling represents another
effective technique for dealing with the ethnically and culturally diverse LGBTQ population
because it speaks to their peculiar needs, experiences, and worldviews. Important features of
this approach that make it suitable for LGBTQ needs include its emphasis on cultural
awareness (Wynn & West-Olatunji, 2009). For example, a therapist should be aware of the
fact that in most cultures, gay persons are euphemistically described as “strange” or “different
from others.” Meanwhile, like the person-centered approach, the culture-centered approach
demands client-centeredness, with counselors being called upon to refrain from imposing
their own worldviews and instead interpret issues from the client’s perspective.

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References

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