Social Work with People Practicing Same-Sex ... - ILGA Europe

Photo: Bogdana Bondar,
Photo-project “Different view”,
Non-governmental organization
“Insight”
Do not start. Do not blush. Let
us admit in the privacy of our
own society that these things
sometimes happen. Sometimes
women like women.
Virginia Woolf, English writer
and literary critic, 1882—
1941. A Room of One's Own
1 Cohen, S. and Hoberman, H.M.,
“Positive Life Events and Social
Support as Buffers of Life Change
Stress”, in: Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, 13, 1983, pp. 99-125;
Cohen, S. and Willis, T.A., ”stress,
Social Support and Buffering
Hypothesis”., in: Psychological
Bulletin, 98, 1985, pp. 310—357.
2 Hays, R.B., Turner, H., and Coates,
T.J., ”social Support, AIDS-related
Symptoms, and Depressions among
Gay Men”, in: Journal of Consulting
and Clinical Psychology, 60, 1992,
pp. 463—469; Nott, K.H., Vedhara,
K., and Powers, M.J., “The Role of
Social Support in HIV infection”, in:
Psychological Medicine, 25, 1995,
pp. 971—983; Turner, H., Hays,
R.B., and Coates, T.J., “Determinant
of Social Support among Gay Men:
The Context of AIDS”, in: Journal
of Health and Social Behavior, 34,
1993, pp. 37—53.
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negatively affect the immune system of both HIV-positive
and HIV-negative people.
Practices of the programs operating in the Western countries
have demonstrated that social support and personal qualities
of an individual have no small share in neutralizing stress.
Already in 1980s, researchers and social workers proved 1
that a timely social support offered to homosexual people
suffering from minority stress, resulting from a generally
negative attitude to homosexual people in the society
and the process of becoming aware of one's identity, may
forestall the negative consequences of stress, prevent risk
behaviour, diseases and even save life. Support on the part
of the parents, friends, partners, LGBT community and other
people, whom a homosexual person encounters in his/
her life, help overcome the minority stress and its negative consequences. Thus, for
instance, studies conducted in the 1990s in the US, UK and Australia demonstrate that
support on the part of one's social environment is very important for the HIV-positive
homosexual people (as much as for anyone else) and helps hold out in the struggle
against the disease. One may observe the direct effect of such support on the health
of an individual. At the same time, the lack of support, reproach, rejection and hatred
produce an opposite effect 2 . To conclude, it is the social support that helps people, lends
them strength and energy that enable them to successfully cope with life difficulties,
live and enjoy their lives. Social support represents an antidote to minority stress and
its harmful consequences. Meanwhile tolerance and respect to human personality
regardless of sex, sexual orientation, race, ethnic origin and physical status sets us
on the path toward the moment in time, when the minority stress will be ultimately
consigned to oblivion.