SPSSI's New Virtual Series Issue (VSI)

Prism of Progress: Shining Light on LGBTQ+ Rights and Struggles

First published: July 3, 2023
VSI Editor: Kevin R. Carriere, Washington & Jefferson College 

Introduction. Thus far in the 2023 legislative session, the American Civil Liberties Union has tracked 490 bills that target LGBTQ rights in the United States. In the United Kingdom, fights over the process to legally change one’s gender are increasing. In Pakistan, a court recently struck down portions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, naming them to be un-Islamic. From policy processes to public facilities, politicians are promoting a punitive platform of prejudice and persecution.

It is not just the passing of these laws that is damaging, but the mere consideration of these laws in the first place. Introducing legislation that seeks to silence and erase the existence of certain identities is damaging. These individuals already face deep discrimination and systemic barriers, and these barriers damage the societal fabric even without the proposed laws. There are real problems in our world, and psychology can shed real light onto them. But concerns over drag, over pronouns, over ‘exposure’—all aim to get us to ask the wrong questions (West, 2021).

This Virtual Series Issue tries to ask—and potentially answer—the right questions. Each paper in this issue highlights how the current climate of discrimination harms our transgender siblings; how current illuminates affect transgender and LBGTQ+ lives; and how acceptance and allyship can be fostered at the local, state, and federal levels. Continue reading. 

Table of Contents:

• Sexual and gender minority health disparities as a social issue: How stigma and intergroup relations can explain and reduce health disparities (Williams & Mann)
• Minority stress, resilience, and mental health: A study of Italian transgender people (Scandurra, Amodeo, Valerio, Bochicchio, & Frost)
• A critical deconstructed quantitative analysis: Sexual and gender minority stress through an intersectional lens (Williams, Job, Todd, & Braun)
• Stigma, identity and support in social relationships of transgender people throughout transition: A qualitative analysis of multiple perspectives (Lewis, Barreto, & Doyle)
• Policy recommendations to promote health and well-being in sexual and gender minority populations in the United States (Talley, Ibora, Le, & Vugrin)
• Interventions to reduce blatant and subtle sexual orientation- and gender identity prejudice (SOGIP): Current knowledge and future directions (Cramwinckel, Scheepers, van der Toorn)
• Intersectional patterns of prejudice confrontation by White, heterosexual, and cisgender allies (Case, Rios, Lucas, Braun, & Enriquez)
• Institutional allyship for LGBT equality: Underlying processes and potentials for change (Russell & Bohan)
• System justification motivation as a source of backlash against equality-promoting policies—and what to do about it (Liaquat, Jost, & Balcetis)
• Schooling, sexuality, and rights: An investigation of heterosexual students' social cognition regarding sexual orientation and the rights of gay and lesbian peers in school (Horn, Szalacha, & Drill)

Note: Wiley, SPSSI's journal publisher, has unlocked all of the papers in this VSI through September 30. The papers can now be read in full by any member of the public (although they are not available for downloading or printing). Please share this VSI with colleagues and students who might be interested in this content! 

If you would like to download and/or print any of the papers above, first visit SPSSI's website (www.spssi.org), log in as a SPSSI member, and then navigate over to Wiley's website through the "Publications" tab.

Virtual Series Issue (VSI) is a virtual journal based around thematic or significant anniversaries or events (e.g. MLK Remembrance, SPSSI's Annual Conferences), calendar events (e.g. LGBT Pride Month, Earth Day), and major policy initiatives (e.g., immigration reform, major Supreme Court cases). The VSI Editor identifies and selects appropriate articles from previously published issues of SPSSI's journals to be bundled for inclusion in each virtual issue.