Disclosure of sexual orientation and/or gender identity is a milestone event for lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) youth and can have both positive and negative mental health consequences. Twenty-nine urban, ethnically diverse LGBT high school students participated in face-to-face, in-depth interviews. Qualitative results revealed two…

Using an ecological model, the individual-, school-, and sociocultural-level characteristics that affect gay-straight alliance (GSA) advisors were examined in the current study. The formation of GSAs has been one way that schools have sought to improve the school climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth. Limited information…

Researchers suggest that supportive school personnel may decrease some of the challenges encountered by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth in schools (Russell, Seif, & Truong, 2001); however, little is known about the approaches used by school-based advocates for LGBT youth. This exploratory study investigated the strategies used…

This qualitative study investigated the barriers and facilitators that advisors of gay-straight alliances encounter when advocating for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) youth within schools. Twenty-two advisors were interviewed, and data revealed that multiple ecological systems (e.g., sociocultural, school, and individual…