This chapter provides an overview of theory and research in relation to identity development, coming out, and connecting with LGBTIQ communities. An introduction to – and critique of – stage model approaches to conceptualising sexuality and gender is provided, alongside an overview of how people come to understand their sexuality and gender. The complexities of sexual identity are exploredfrom the increasing use of plurisexual identity labels (e.g., pansexual, polysexual, queer) to the popularisation of public displays of suggestive lesbian acts and the heteroflexible ‘girl crush’. The process of identifying as trans and navigating transitioning is also discussed. Next, the chapter focuses on the disclosure of LGBTIQ identities through a review of research focusing on ‘coming out’ to families and friends, responses to disclosure, and the (often) strategic choice not to disclose. The final section of this chapter focuses on the ways in which LGBTIQ people find community, with a particular focus on the increasing use of online spaces. Some of the challenges of accessing these spaces and/or axes of exclusion experienced by some LGBTIQ people are also discussed.

This chapter will discuss information pertinent to understanding gender identity. We will discuss key terms and the importance of understanding language usage as a foundation for communicating respect, knowledge, and awareness. Counselors create safe and affirming spaces for the clients we serve. As such, counselors must understand the complex past and historical discrimination clients have experienced while examining their own understanding of these communities. Counselors will also seek to understand their ethical and legal responsibilities to marginalized and minoritized communities while understanding the importance of cultural considerations. Barriers to services and our collective responsibility to address these barriers rooted in discrimination will be addressed. While counselors maintain culture humility in an attempt to avoid ethnocentrism regarding their own beliefs around gender identity development, we seek to grow in knowledge and awareness. While antitrans legislation continues to increase, counselors must remain steadfast in their approach to advocacy and to providing ethical care.

This chapter explores the lifespan identity development of LGB individuals throughout childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and older adulthood. Identity models are explored and applied to various age groups. The chapter includes applicable case studies. Included are examinations of themes that LGB people experience over the lifespan, including managing identity disclosure, intersectionality, and biopsychological, environmental, and political factors that impact development.

This chapter delves into the historical perspectives on sexual-affectional identity development, encompassing key aspects such as the development of terminology, significant dates and events for sexual-affectional identity minoritized groups, cross-cultural perspectives, the role of helping professions in marginalization, and a critical review of models of sexual-affectional identity development. By exploring historical shifts in language and conceptualization, students gain a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of key terms used to describe sexual-affectional identity. The chapter critically evaluates the role of helping professions in perpetuating marginalization and discrimination against sexually minoritized individuals, emphasizing the need for ethical and inclusive practices within clinical mental health counseling. The chapter critically appraises existing models of sexual-affectional identity development, questioning linear and stage-based frameworks. Students will employ alternative models that recognize the fluidity, intersectionality, and diverse experiences within sexual-affectional identity development. Finally, this chapter provides graduate-level students with the historical, cultural, and theoretical foundations to approach sexual-affectional identity development from a comprehensive and inclusive clinical mental health counseling perspective. It enables them to better support and advocate for individuals with intersectional, minoritized sexual-affectional identities in their professional practice.

Wilson articulates a theory of multilayered representation in which nonprofit organizations play an important role. Applying James Madison’s Federalist No. 10 to the nonprofit sector, the author maintains that nonprofits offer additional layers of representation outside of election cycles and party platforms. Nonprofit organizations enable multilayered representation by reflecting the multidimensional needs and aspirations of individuals and the communities to which they belong. This representation lessens the possibility of faction as nonprofits create a wide and varied range of opportunities for identity development at both the individual and community levels.

Over a relatively short period of time, critical consciousness (CC) has become a prominent framework for describing how the developing person addresses systems of oppression. However, there has been less work to situate CC within developmental systems theory. The phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) is a developmental systems theory that accounts for how the reality of oppression influences developmental contexts and processes. We draw on PVEST to illuminate new theoretical directions for CC, including: (1) considering the broader context of CC within the developmental system; (2) addressing meaning-making as a primary developmental process that impacts CC; (3) considering CC as embedded in time, and (4) focusing on the dynamic and collective nature of CC. We explore the combined strengths of CC and PVEST to imagine new research questions that explore the contextualized and dynamic ways young people contend with systems of oppression across development.

We suggest studying how using social media affects adolescent identity development to understand the mechanism of the impact of social media on adolescent mental health. We present a model of the dual aspect of adolescent identity development – the progression towards the formation of self-evaluated commitments and values and construction of a coherent life story – and discuss how using social media facilitates or hinders processes involved, namely introspection, storytelling, and dialogue. Social media topics include dialogue with a diverse group of people, censorship, the permanence of social media data, potent social norms and values, and emphasis on appearance. Future research should develop methods for studying narratives on social media and establish the adolescent development of a narrative identity. We also suggest examining the affordances of social media platforms and how they affect processes of identity development. The chapter calls for media developers to design social media environments that support identity development.

Despite the pervasive use of social technology among minoritized youth, digital media research has been primarily based on White samples of older adolescents and emerging adults. It is critical to understand how overlooked populations including racial-ethnic, sexual and gender, and other minorities use digital media for purposes associated with their marginalized backgrounds. As social media adopters are becoming younger, we must explore how the pervasiveness of constant exposure and use affects marginalized identity development in early adolescence. This chapter provides an overview of how understudied subgroups of adolescents, namely racial/ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, economically disadvantaged, and neurodiverse individuals, are influenced by online representations affecting their identity development, and inherent opportunities for risk and resilience. Social media research needs a) to begin at earlier developmental stages to capture critical identity development online and offline; b) more nuanced research beyond digital access to examine online connections for healthy identity exploration of marginalized adolescents.

Building from the importance of awe, wonder, and care as points of entry that foster humans’ emotional bonds with animals and lead to internal tensions around the moral and relational implications of that connectedness, Chapter 9 explores related processes from an internal psychological perspective. We introduce the idea that, in ways other cultural venues cannot, zoos help individuals understand more about who they are, suggesting that personal identification with animals and conservation goals can predispose people to act. We look specifically at place identity, environmental identity, religious identity, and how identity work might lead zoogoers further toward an integrated ethics of compassion that features feeling for and with other beings.