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Consider the day-to-day ways of diminishment and disregard. Add to that covert and overt discrimination because of sexual preferences and identity. Then mix in a tumultuous racial state of affairs, all while masking up to stave off lethal health threats. 

For those who identify as Black and LGBTQI+, when dealing with the dual pandemics of racism and COVID-19, more strain can be infused into their existing challenges, according to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Courtney Boddie, PhD, associate dean of students for diversity and inclusion and director of Counseling Services. 

“Between the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and public indications from various groups hinting at the possibility of another civil war,” explained Boddie, “one might imagine that this is a lot to navigate simultaneously, while also having a life that is markedly less socially normal.” 

While Counseling Services makes its resources available to all, Boddie added that his office wants Black LGBTQI+ students to know that they are seen, can expect to be heard and will receive empathy. 

“We are a University entity devoted to the provision of culturally-attuned mental healthcare,” he offered. “As such, students working with us can expect to be fully humanized while doing so. Students can rest assured that our providers are skilled and ever-committed to offering clinical services that strive toward cultural competency and humility.” 

However, Counseling Service providers will not pre-decide or pre-package what a client/patient needs, explained Boddie. “Instead, there is preparatory work that goes into considering how salient cultural identities and experiences may inform factors that affect clinical process and outcomes.” 

Boddie also offers a further look into how Counseling Services is available to help LGBTQI+ students who seek assistance, by listing a few common occurring themes and concerns among members of this group: 

• Support for gender affirmation. 
• Support with “inviting in.”
  “A reframe on the notion of ‘coming out’ from the heteronormative assumption that queer and trans folx owe it to, or must share their identity in a society where the same isn’t expected of everyone,” said Boddie, “to a queer-centered idea of selectively and intentionally allowing others access to information about self, such as one’s identity as a member of the greater LGBTQ+ community.” 
• Identity development, which typically takes one of two approaches: a person is in a questioning phase, warranting affirmative, bias-managed exploration of self; or an identity as a complex whole that evolves over the lifespan.
• Internalized stigma, which involves social messaging that communicates derogation, minimization, and dismissal of Black, queer and trans bodies, lives, lived experiences, and realities which have the potential to become internalized.  
• Enhancing capacity to cope with life’s challenges, paired with exploration of personal and professional advocacy to dismantle oppressive structures that maintain inequity and psychological pain. 

There are things that students can do to cope with and help mitigate the stressors of dealing with the two pandemics of racism and COVID-19, according to Boddie. 

• Develop a healthy and affirmative knowledge of the past and present by learning about such people as Marsha P. Johnson, Bayard Rustin, Audre Lorde and Langston Hughes; places and events such as Stonewall; and legislation such as repealing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
• Engage in self-advocacy.
  “There’s nothing quite like finding one’s voice and learning how to use it constructively,” he said.
• Locate and nurture support.
  “For psychological stability and personal protection, it is imperative to have a community of support,” he added, “that involves those with like experiences and accomplices who don’t share those lived experiences.”

Boddie also listed the following few resources for students: the Metro Trans Umbrella Group, the Steve Fund and the National Data Source on LGBTQ+ demographics. 

Photo:
SIUE Counseling Services staff (front row from left to right): Lisa M. Thompson-Gibson, coordinator for Outreach and Prevention Initiatives and staff counselor; Taylor Rogers, triage and assessment counselor; Alyssa E. Loman, Laura Baker and Katie Kirby, all staff counselors. (Left row from left to right): Barry McClintock, staff counselor; Jessica A. Ulrich, associate director; and Courtney Boddie, PhD, director.