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mdavi060 · 6 years ago

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Proposition of Proposal

After conducting two very informative interviews, I believe the best way to combat minority stress for LGBTQ students (which studies have shown increases both anxiety and depression in minority students) would be to first have an increase in counselors, of course, this will not be easy as this is a very expensive solution to propose; however I would argue that when it comes to talking about students health, and even the counselors themselves, that the cost would be more than justified. Having a counseling center that is understaffed for the number of students seeking help not only harms the students who are there seeking treatment, but it is also very likely stressful for the counselors who have to fit in as many students as they can on such a regular basis.

Even though Old Dominion does a great job with actively attempting to create safe spaces for LGBTQ students, someone who identifies as LGBTQ can never be really 100% certain that whoever they are talking to does not hold biases against them, unless they ask or are told directly that the person they are with is an ally to the community (and this does not always happen for various reasons).

The second part of my solution involves creating a separate counseling center for just LGBTQ students. I believe this would be helpful because LGBTQ students would then be 100% certain that whomever they are speaking to can relate to them on a personal level. I think that LGBTQ students being able to talk to professionals who consider themselves part of the community or are allies who specialize in seeing LGBTQ people, then that would be an enormous help. Not only would this be beneficial for LGBTQ students but it would help every student in general who seeks counseling because then there would be more counselors available on campus. By creating two counseling centers, it would free up some of the space available for the general counseling office which is often packed to a point where students have to wait weeks to see someone, and counselors are likely generally very overwhelmed with all the students they have to see.

My third part of the solution I would like to propose would have more anti-bullying advocation on campus specifically towards LGBTQ people. Bullying is harmful and terrible for everyone, however, the reasons behind being bullied as a queer student, is not the same as being bullied as a straight student, if that LGBTQ student is being targeted solely because of their sexuality, gender presentation, sexual orientation, gender, etc. then it becomes completely different than just discussing bullying in general.

#GIF attributed to just-positive-thingys

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mdavi060 · 6 years ago

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Interviewing Professionals at Old Dominion University

I conducted two interviews to help me advance my research project. Both people I spoke with were equally interesting and advantageous to my project. The first interview I had was with Jeff Moe, an associate professor who works in the counseling center (interview one). The second person I scheduled an interview with was Cathleen Rhodes who is a senior lecturer in women’s studies (interview two).

They both could not have been more kind, insightful and helpful people. I appreciated and valued the time they both took to discuss my topic (mental health for LGBTQ students at ODU) with me. I’m going to break down my blog post into discussing first the input I got from Jeffry Moe, and then Cathleen Rhodes.

Interview one: Jeffry Moe stated that ODU does indeed have many ways in which LGBTQ people can become involved in the communiity. There are quite a lot of recourses promoting diversity for LGBTQ students, which include: the lavender room in residents hall, Safe Space, SAGA, and mentorships (these are some of the first listed when asked). One suggestion made by Jeffry Moe that could be added to the list of LGBTQ recourses at Old Dominion was to have queer studies as an available major.

When it came to asking the more difficult questions such as the negative effects of minority stress for LGBTQ students, I got a lot of very helpful information. Jeffry Moe discussed how the reason why anxiety and depression are more prevalent among sexual minorities is due to minority stress, and this, in turn, is due to oppression and social marginalization (this is often seen for ethnic & racial minorities, women, and immigrants - these are some of the examples Jeffry Moe gave me). He also pointed out how no matter how good ODU’s counseling center is, there is a very long waitlist. For more at-risk minority groups such as LGBTQ people of color (people who fit into multiple marginalized groups) “have a higher need for mental services for the small number of mental services available.”

Some of the main problems discussed were that there were not a lot of mental health services available for everyone in general. ODU’s counseling has a very long waitlist. He explained even if a self-affirming LGBTQ member of the community who was trained in dealing with LGBTQ issues, offered to take on LGBTQ patients, that may be less qualified counselors had, then even that person who offered to see LGBTQ students would have to be put on their own waitlist, which would already be very long. Meaning that a counselor who is self-affirmingly involved with LGBTQ students couldn't possibly take all LGBTQ clients. Essentially whichever counselor you get is out of the student's control, and they might not even meet again with the same counselor.

Jeffry Moe suggested that one solution to this overcrowding counselor problem would be to create a specific counseling service for LGBTQ students. He used UCLA as an example of a school that has a specific counseling service for LGBTQ students. As of right now, Old Dominion does have the office of intercultural relations and an LGBTQ service coordinator which is a new (instated in the last two years) position inside the office of intercultural relations.

Now I am going to be discussing some of the highlights of my interview with Cathleen Rhodes.

When asked if anxiety and depression is a problem for LGBTQ students, Cathleen Rhodes, immediately answered yes and then went on to expand on why she thought so. “Yes, anxiety and depression is a problem for students.” Cathleen Rhodes has taught students for 12 years and said that she has seen a huge increase in anxiety and depression in general for all students. However, she went on to say LGBTQ students have an extra layer of marginalization due to their sexuality or gender presentation. She believes due to this, LGBTQ students exhibit and manifest depression and anxiety more than straight students.

Cathleen Rhodes does believe that ODU has done a good job of trying to address safety for LGBTQ students, but there are more things we can do to improve it even more. One thing that would be useful she says is increased counseling services. The counseling center is very overburdened. LGBTQ students are generally doubly impacted by that because they are particularly vulnerable to when it comes to mental health. An increase in services or the number of counselors to reach more students and get to them sooner would help address anxiety and depression for LGBTQ students.

Cathleen Rhodes also says that she thinks LGBTQ students could use more professionalization, workshops, which might help them in terms of anxiety and depression. One of the things that cause LGBTQ students anxiety is worrying about what is going to happen when they’re going to go to an interview for example, and this impacts their inner personal skills. They might have a tough time talking to someone they don’t know because they don’t know what they’re reaction is going to be in regards to their gender presentation, sexuality, identity, etc.

It comes also down to how comfortable or not comfortable LGBTQ students feel. For example, Cathleen Rhodes says that both she and her graduate assistant for gay cultural studies have lots of LGBTQ decorations inside and outside of their offices, that signal to people that there are spaces on campus that are welcoming and safe to LGBTQ students. She says that she sees students reading and looking at their LGBTQ decorations on their doors outside their office, and to her, this shows that students are looking for that kind of information to find safe spaces.

When asked if she thinks LGBTQ students have trouble going to counseling, she says that she has referred many people LGBTQ (and otherwise) to the counseling center. Lots of students have trouble, in general, going over there. What she would imagine would be that it is even harder for LGBTQ students (and any marginalized population). This is because (in terms of sexuality) LGBTQ people have to constantly come out throughout their lifetime, and you can never know what the reaction the person you are coming out to, could have.

When asked if mental illness is talked about enough for LGBTQ students, she said that she thinks it is talked a lot about in general terms. An example she made was middle and elementary schools who talked about bullying in very general terms. The anti-bullying awareness campaigning that went on in her example was sparked after a bullying incident that involved a queer student. Although all types of bullying are equally bad, she said, in this particular case the bullying got watered down to talking about bullying in general, when the incident that occurred involved bulling because that student was gay. She says that we have to think about the fact that if you are bullied as a queer student, its different then being bullied in general. One isn’t worse or better but they are different, and that should be established. If you are targeted for your sexuality or race, you have to address it in specific ways, Cathleen Rhodes stated. She would like for more discussion to focus on particular situations - such as, what it means to be bullied as an LGBTQ student. She said similarly, the reasons why LGBTQ students might have anxiety and depression also are probably not the same for LGBTQ students than for straight students.

When I asked her if there are any in people in counseling who specialized in counseling for LGBTQ students she said that there used to be a counselor who was part of the LGBTQ community. She said that he did specific kinds of workshops for LGBTQ students, however, he left earlier this year and since then, she doesn’t know if there is someone who is in the community who is in counseling, which she finds important. Outside of that, she doesn’t know if there is anyone who specialized in LGBTQ concerns. She said that she believes it is important to have queer people in counseling because students who are LGBTQ are looking for someone who can relate and understand their experience on some level even if it differs.

When I asked Cathleen Rhodes if she thinks LGBTQ students would report discrimination she answered with her best-educated guess. She said that because of the power dynamic between professor and student, a student would probably be very hesitant to report something because its very difficult to prove to anyone that someone has discriminated against you due to sexuality, gender presentation, or race. People are afraid of being labeled as a trouble maker. It is very hard for students to report incidents that they cannot necessarily prove.

I asked her if in her opinion, working at ODU, if she believes the university does a good job at preventing discrimination of which she answered, yes. She stated that ODU has many things going on campus such which include a vibrant student group, the office of intercultural relations which just hired for the very first time an LGBTQ + coordinator, and his job is to oversee a lot of the programming that happens on campus, this includes LGBTQ speakers who come on campus. She also stated that there are many more faculty that are LGBTQ, many who work in the college of arts and letters, who do LGBTQ research and who are LGBTQ. She said that there is also the LGBTQ cultural studies, which need much more academic support.

I asked her if queer studies is an available major or minor, of which she said neither. She however currently working on making a minor for queer studies at ODU. Cathleen Rhodes is also the president of gay cultural studies, which she says is an outdated name, and is working on a name change. Queer studies along with a few other LGBTQ classes that she teaches are included in the department of women studies (of which she works in).

Lastly, I asked Cathleen Rhodes on her opinion of whether or not she believes minority stress affects the LGBTQ student population at ODU. She said that yes, minority stress can negatively impact a student's ability to learn. She stated that a lot of research suggests when looking at race for example, that even the possibility of someone holding a stereotype against you can impact a student's ability to perform. She stated that studies have shown that If you mention to women anything about her gender, and being a woman right before a test that their scores will drop. She stated that the same thing happens with someone of color. It’s the phenomenon and stress of thinking about the burden of representing your group, whether that be gender, sexuality, orientation, race, etc. "So yes, absolutely," she said.

I gathered a lot of helpful information from both of these wonderful people, who obviously care very very much about the LGBTQ student population at Old Dominion University.

GIF accredited to justalittletumblweed.

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mdavi060 · 6 years ago

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Norfolk Federal Policy

“There are currently no explicit, comprehensive statewide non-discrimination protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender people in Virginia. Public employees, state contractors, and subcontractors in Virginia are protected from employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, via executive orders issued in 2014 and 2017″

VIRGINIA IS ONE OF 30 STATES IN THIS COUNTRY THAT DOESN'T FULLY PROTECT LGBT PEOPLE FROM DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT, HOUSING, AND PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS.

To my disappointment and surprise, it was actually very hard to find federal policies that DO protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in Virginia (on a whole as a state). I did, however, find an article dated in 2017, which was called: “For first time, Norfolk bans hiring discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity”

This article states that “in two 8-0 votes, the City Council voted Tuesday night to add protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people – among others – to the law.” One quote from the article stated that “it changes policy, but it also changes culture," and also called Norfolk “an inclusive and diverse city.”

The policy which was voted into Norfolk (Virginia Beach having apparently similar policies) was a huge step towards showing that Norfolk really does care about its inclusivity and diversity, and it affects Old Dominion University as its an institution within the city of Norfolk. The article stated that Norfolk really does care about its diverse population, reminds me of Old Dominion’s mission statement which similarly puts emphasis on caring about its diversity and multicultural environment.

This policy instated was said to “include protections for sexual orientation, gender identity, age, genetic information, marital status, political affiliation, whistleblower activity, parental status, and military service. Another new law provides all the same protections in city hiring.” This is a huge step for a city within a state that has such vague and seemingly non-existent protection laws for LGBTQ citizens. This policy in Norfolk finally includes LGBTQ people in the list of other groups of people who are often discriminated against and gives them equal protection rights regarding hiring and contracting bias.

I’m not an expert on all the policies Norfolk has or does not have for protecting LGBTQ citizens, however, the fact that it was quite difficult to find many protection policies for LGBTQ citizens already speaks for itself. Virginia as a whole needs more protection laws for its LGBTQ community.

Discrimination and fear of discrimination leads to “minority stress” which is heavily covered in my previous posts. Studies show that minority stress is a main contributor to anxiety and depression for many LGBTQ people. A lack of federal policies protecting LGBTQ citizens from bias in the workforce likely causes extreme minority stress.

GIF accredited to geek-haven

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mdavi060 · 6 years ago

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A Look Into the Past: The Archives

Visiting the archives at Old Dominion University’s library was like staring momentarily into the past. The ways that topics are discussed during the 70′s and 80′s was astoundingly different than how Old Dominion would talk about it now. There were surprisingly several sections in the school’s old newspaper that were actually quite positive in terms of LGBTQ students. I was shocked to see a whole newspaper targeted for gay students, although it was highly sexualized (mainly for gay men), it was still fascinating that they held so many different kinds of gay & lesbian events for LGBTQ Old Dominion students. Although I found one article titled “Homosexuals should be forgiven, not accepted,” the article went into the cliche of “love the sinner, not the sin.” There were several articles named “Gay Alliance earns $2833 for Danceathon” and “No gay rights at Georgetown University” and lastly “Gays have a tough summer.”

These articles were actually quite gay-positive, which shocked me for the time periods. Those articles were very focused on the gay student rights movement. “Gays have a tough summer” focused on how gay and lesbian students had to fight for their rights, the article makes the comparison to how black students had to do the same. There was one really good quote, that I found from this article which stated that “gays are a minority fighting against the majority.”

Again, for the time period, I was shocked to find that there was anything LGBTQ related at all. I could not find anything in the newspaper directly correlating LGBTQ and mental illnesses which is pretty normal considering mental illnesses were very stigmatized & taboo (as was being LGBTQ).

Courtesy of ODU Libraries Special Collections and University Archives.

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mdavi060 · 6 years ago

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LGBTQ Students and the link between mental disorders in college

I am going to be discussing and summarizing the first few pages of a study conducted by Michael R. Woodford, Alex Kulick, and Brandy R. from the Sinco University of Michigan, and Jun Sung Hong Wayne State University. This study was published in 2014 and titled “Contemporary Heterosexism on Campus and Psychological Distress Among LGBQ Students: The Mediating Role of Self-Acceptance.”

Various research has shown that college students on average suffer from a multitude of mental disorders, many of which have contributions to the high levels of stress that is often created by classes, commuting, and social life (among other contributors ). Many students who come to college already have mental disorders (diagnosed or undiagnosed), for causes unrelated to college, however this does not mean that reasons related to university life cannot make symptoms of their disorder worse or heightened due to so many different stress factors.

For many minorities, there are a whole other different set of stress considerations that should be accounted for in compared to, for example, a cisgender white male college student. This peer reviewed study discuss such problems that LGBTQ students face. This article largely discusses microaggressions, which are in the article defined as “the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.”

The article focuses on the negative impact microaggressions can have on LGBTQ students who, are already under immense stress from education, and how this added stress of discriminatory behavior can negatively impact their mental health. “Minority stress theory,” is largely touched upon, as it “puts sexual minorities at risk for psychological distress and other negative outcomes.” The outcome of “minority stress” can often lead to students to suffer from chronic stress which can be a leading factor to psychiatric distress. The article mentions disorders such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Another main point in the article that I would like to touch upon, is how it points out that college culture is largely hetero-normative culture, and this in itself can lead to LGBTQ students feeling isolated, which can contribute to anxiety and stress, and lower self-esteem, which can negatively impact self-acceptance. The article defines heterosexism and its impact on LGBTQ students as “heterosexism can be manifested through direct, explicitly heterosexist acts, as well as through subtle, often unintentional behavior.” The article is not stating that heterosexuality is somehow bad, but how an environment based almost solely on heterosexism, can lead to LGBTQ students feeling alienated.

Just to break away from the article momentarily, reading this journalistic study brought me back to my own personal experiences of witnessing teachers blatantly commit such microaggressions in an environment where all students, should be made to feel welcome and above all else, safe. These stories did not take place at Old Dominion University, however, I do believe they are still very relevant. On one instant, in my first semester studying at Tidewater Community College, I had a teacher who, very openly admitted to the class that she quote “could not stand seeing gay people openly displaying affection in public” because she, again, quote “just did not think it looked right to see two people of the same-sex kissing.” If this was not bad enough, she then encouraged the class to openly admit things they were discriminatory about of which she seemed to empathize and agree with a student who said something along the lines of “I don’t have a problem with gays, I just can’t stand how whenever I talk to a gay person, they have to keep mentioning they are gay and telling it to the world like they should be special.” I could instantly see a multitude of students nodding their heads in quick agreement for both the teacher’s statement and the students statement, and among those who agreed with them, there seemed to be only a small number of students who like myself remained silent, but disproving; and likely, feeling just as angry and hurt as I was.

Another two examples include one professor who, during my semester long research paper, attempted to argue with me on my own topic (which was work place discrimination for LGBTQ persons). She argued that my topic was irrelevant (this is after conducting a ten page thoroughly written, non-biased, evidence based research paper with academic sources), because she did not think that people had to know that someone is LGBTQ at work; because that was too personal to openly discuss (this coming from a teacher who discussed her husband on a weekly basis). I attempted to explain why it was important for people to feel safe in the workplace, safe enough to bring their spouses/partners to work outings (many examples of why it was harmful for peoples mental health to feel the need to hide who they were dating/married to were in my paper), yet, she seemed to still think the topic I chose was essentially something that wasn’t worth writing about, because as she said many people in the workplace already “suspect” who is straight and who is not. The same teacher also, inappropriately told me a story of a student she had, who told her that she identified as gay, to which my teacher ‘jokingly’ told me, that “she didn’t have to know that,” and “didn’t see why it was important.” This teacher heavily critiqued my paper all semester, even though I was one of the only people in the class who actually wrote the paper with the exact guidelines she gave us (correct format, word count, non-first person, citations etc.) yet she did not critique or question a student who wrote five pages, in first person, about the ‘research’ he did to fix his car parts.

Last example, I had yet another teacher, at random, make a “joke” about how when you go to a bar, and flirt with someone, you “have to be careful because you might not know what is really under their clothes, because these days you can just change gender,” of which the class howled in laughter.

Now, of course I am paraphrasing these events as they happened during my first, third, fourth etc. semesters at Tidewater Community College however, I am writing these quotes because I was so shocked by them, that I can still remember them fairly well, with disgust. Due to these experiences I was really terrified at the atmosphere I might see and witness at Old Dominion, but to my surprise, all of my teachers are extremely open minded, and non-discriminatory. I cannot imagine any of my professors that I am taking this semester, ever uttering any of those things I talked about above; however, this does NOT mean that Old Dominion does not have any of the problems I had witness in my previous college. One line from the article discussed above, made me think of Old Dominion University almost instantly “although many college campuses are thought to be bastions of diversity and acceptance for minority groups, LGBTQ students, staff, and faculty experience heterosexism and a hostile institutional climate.”

photograph credit to: https://taggmagazine.com/mental-health-in-the-lgbtq-community/

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mdavi060 · 6 years ago

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Blog Post 1#

Many students suffer from mental disorders that go undisclosed from friends, family, and educational board. Depression, anxiety, bipolar, borderline personality, ADD/HD, schizophrenia, etc,. are just a few examples.

This can have a huge impact on students and the way they function daily. If students are on medication for their mental health it may also impact their cognitive abilities; leading to side effects of drowsiness or inability to concentrate for long periods, etc. All these factors mentioned above can negatively impact the way that a student can successfully pursue a college education. For example, a student may have an inability to meet deadlines, depending on their mental disorder there may be several day to day activities in a classroom that they cannot fulfill; an example of this being, someone suffering from mild to severe anxiety may not be able to talk aloud or present in front of a classroom; thus affecting their grade for a teacher whose participation grade is largely given for speaking aloud, or presenting. Another example is someone with depression. A student with depression may not be able to make deadlines for an assignment (there is still a negative stigma around depression where people can mistake it for laziness), similarily as to how someone with ADD might not be able to concentrate on an assignment and miss the deadline.

Even though universities like Old Dominion do indeed have recourses implemented for students with mental health disorders, the process to prove that the mental health disability does exist is often long, frustrating and exhausting; the same can be said for getting approved absences or extension on deadlines or tests. Often times the process to ask for extensions or extra needed time on tests has to be done in advance, making it difficult for students who might not realize they needed the extra help until its too late. Another main problem which needs to be addressed is the fact that many universities require physical proof from medical professionals or councilors that they do need extra help or to be excused from doing certain activities. This is a huge problem because many students do not want to disclose that they have a mental disorder. This can be due to the stigma around mental health, that being that they are feeling ashamed, embarrassed or want to ‘power through’ their disability and shy away from asking for help to their teachers. Many students may fear the teacher saying no, making light of their situation or requiring proof. Not everyone can afford to see a medical professional to get ‘proof’, and some people simply do not want to do so because their families do not know of their disability. Many fear the reaction of their family members if they did seek medical help. Many students do not have medical coverage or do not have medical coverage that would fully cover the treatment.

Various students do not want to see medical professionals because they fear a diagnosis or do not want to be put on medication. Some simply do not want to be treated differently or have ‘special treatment’ once diagnosed. Old Dominion University, when google searched leads you to one of their disability pages which states that “Old Dominion University is committed to providing students with documented disabilities” thus entailing that you need some sort of physical proof documenting your disability in order for it to be recognized, which again, is something many students do not want to do due to the examples listed above or any other personal or professional reason.

The above meme is accredited to

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