New Year’s is a time when we reflect on personal past year events in our lives, and often, with the preponderance of media “Best or Worst of…” lists, world events. Rarely has there been such a tremendous link between the two as in 2020. The personal, the professional and the political were enmeshed in this past year in a way that was surprising and shocking, but perhaps shouldn’t be. Those who come from marginalized communities, like LGBTQ + or racialized people, already know the impact that issues like access to health care, poverty and discrimination have on their lives in real ways. But a worldwide pandemic that has been incompetently managed by political leaders has a way of illuminating for us all why these social determinants of health matter, why good policy and leadership matters. So while there is new hope for 2021 with multiple Covid-19 vaccines in the pipeline, and a new administration in the United States that will put greater regard on professional expertise in disease management, we shouldn’t forget that social change continues to be a necessary fight so lives can be improved on a large scale, just as they were devasted on a large scale this year by the novel coronavirus.
In this first issue of JGLMH of 2021, we are pleased to publish a large number of original research studies examining some of these social factors affecting sexual and gender minorities. Conlin and colleagues examine how cisgender people’s gender conformity and identification (or not) as a feminist may influence their inclination to be transphobic. Taube and colleagues examine a measure of positive transgender identity and Parra and colleagues present their survey of transgender patients’ satisfaction with their health care providers. Villarreal and colleagues look at the how experiences of heterosexism and other factors are connected to alcohol use among LGBTQ emerging adults. Pellicane and colleagues’ study continues our recent trend of publications examining social media effects on LGBTQ young people. We end out first issue of the year with another contribution to JGLMH’s Oral History Series, with Emeritus Editor Dr. Jack Drescher interviewing psychologist Harold Kooden, PhD.
Editor-in-chief, Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health
Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
[email protected]