Category: Queer Mind: LGBTQ and Beyond

Bisexuality is widely misunderstood—by heterosexual and gay/lesbian people alike. Here are some things we are beginning to understand about bisexual people. READ MARGIE’S NEW BLOG HERE: “10 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT BISEXUALITY”

by Margie Nichols, Ph.D. Five decades of interaction between “mainstream” and LGBTQ subcultures made Facebook’s much-publicized profile change inevitable. READ MARGIE’S NEW BLOG HERE: “HOW WE ARRIVED AT 50 SHADES OF GENDER OPTIONS ON FACEBOOK”

by Margie Nichols, Ph.D. A nuanced, flexible, and tailored treatment approach to gender identity issues in childhood and adolescence is the prudent approach. Read Margie’s latest blog HERE: https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-youth-the-real-issues-0414145

By Margie Nichols Ph. D. Recent published reports woefully miss the mark with regard to treatment pertaining to transgender and gender-nonconforming children.  Read Margie’s latest GoodTherapy.org blog here: https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/phony-debate-about-transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-youth-0306144

by Margie Nichols, Ph.D. The neatly categorized notions most people apply to sexual orientation, expression, and gender identity may not be inclusive enough. Read the full blog, published on GoodTherapy.org, here!

by Dr. Margie Nichols When Lou Reed’s New York album came out in 1989, many friends and I related instantly. It was hard, harsh and gritty. It expressed the anger, cynicism and mistrust of the government that we all felt. Although only one song, ‘Halloween Parade,’ explicitly referenced gay people and AIDS, it was easy for us queers who were surrounded by the disease and faced with society’s hatred of gay men and the government’s homicidal negligence to identify with Reed’s polemical songs about classism, racism, xenophobia and environmental plunder. They also expressed pain, hopelessness, despair – and yet, in addition, a shred of hope and mysticism. And some songs did all of this in one, like ‘Busload of Faith.’ One of my most vivid memories of that era, one that makes me smile and cry at the same time, is of IPG therapist Curt Schulze and me singing that song together at the top of our lungs. Curt died a couple of years later, of AIDS.

by Margie Nichols, Ph.D. Check out Margie’s blog on Goodtherapy.org about the problem of suicide among LGBT teens and young adults.  Gay, lesbian, bi and trans and gender non-conforming kids make more suicide attempts than other adolescents – but we can do something about this!

by Margie Nichols, Ph.D. The blog I wrote for Goodtherapy.org about bisexuality must have touched a nerve – more people have commented than any other blog I’ve written.  Who knew, more than 20 years after I came out as ‘bi’ in the 1980’s, that it would still be such a hot-button topic? Read it HERE

by Margie Nichols, Ph.D. On August 11 2013, The New York Times published an article by Judith Warner in its Sunday Magazine, entitled “The Opt-Out Generation Wants Back In,” a revisiting of the women interviewed in Lisa Belkin’s 2003 Times article “The Opt-Out Revolution.”  The women, who had all given up high-powered jobs to be full-time mothers, now were working – or wanted to be.  Sixty percent had returned to work, and some others were trying unsuccessfully.  Not surprisingly, given that Warner’s sample is upper middle class, some had re-entered the work force with ease.  But others could not find paying jobs and still others had to take whatever they could find because they had to bring in money after divorce or because husbands lost jobs.  After the publication of the article, some reporters focused on the clear class bias and how working class and many middle class families cannot afford the choice to ‘opt-out.’   Some commentary focused on another problem highlighted by the account:  none of the women wanted to return to the 50-70 hour work week  they left, but there are still few employers who take part-time workers seriously. As a feminist, I resonate with this second critique. … Read more »