LGBTQQ-Affirmative Psychotherapy

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQQ)–affirmative psychotherapy emerged in response to the rise of the gay rights movement in the late 1960s. For many decades, the mental health profession considered any sexual orientation apart from heterosexuality to be a form of psychopathology. This was true until the mid-1970s, when the diagnostic labels for homosexuality were removed by major mental health organizations. Recognition of normative variability in gender identity has been slower to emerge, but affirmative therapies for people whose gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth have also been developed. LGBTQQ-affirmative psychotherapy is based on one basic premise: There are varieties of sexual orientations and gender identities that are normal variants of human development. This entry describes the core ideas ...