Introducing the “So Good” Series: Sharing LGBTQ+ Graduate Student Perspectives

The APAGS Committee for Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (CSOGD) is proud to introduce a forthcoming blog series exploring the unique needs of LGBTQ+ graduate students in psychology, including experiences at the intersection of multiple minority identities. The series, titled So Good, will showcase narratives authored by winners of the first-ever APAGS-CSOGD Writing Grant. The initial inspiration for this series was based in admiration of the consistent, timely, and informative blog posts shared through the CARED Perspectives series, sponsored by the APAGS Committee for the Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Diversity. The series was also intended to build upon prior blog contributions by CSOGD under the leadership of J. Stewart to support LGBTQ+ research and psychology.

Our vision for this series was to provide a space for LGBTQ+ students to share their diverse personal and professional experiences, with the explicit intent of amplifying voices that have historically been excluded from dominant narratives of the “typical” graduate student experience. Culturally inscribed understandings of leadership traits and styles are often grounded in white dominant norms (Ospina & Foldy, 2009; Parker, 2005) and APA leadership, including graduate student leadership, tends to be predominantly white. Such representation does not reflect the increasing diversity of psychology graduate students, who embody a range of racial and ethnic minority identities (Michalski et al., 2019; Bailey, 2020), as well as sexual and gender minority identities. As such, we were determined that this project go beyond an illusion of diversity, as is often true of institutionalized projects of “multiculturalism” (Ahmed, 2006, 2012; Stewart, 2017). Thus, this series reflects nuanced depictions of students’ lived experiences, integrating rich personal narrative with exploration of unique research areas salient to the student authors. Another goal of this series was to provide students with support in navigating the authorship process. As graduate students we are aware that it can be challenging to publish in a peer-reviewed journal as an early graduate student. We hoped this series would provide students with the opportunity to engage with a formal submission and review process, including built-in editorial support, and result in an additional item for their CV.

The Current Project

This series emerged from discussions with the CSOGD 2019-2020 members as students navigated a challenging year through the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing racialized violence targeting Black folx, and the 2020 presidential election – in addition to the typical stressors of graduate school. As we planned the series, we were aware that LGBTQ+ people, especially LGBTQ+ people of color, have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, across various safety and financial concerns (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020; Katz-Wise, 2020). Given the disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) LGBTQ+ graduate students, we prioritized these narratives in our call for submissions. We therefore also felt it important to provide financial support to the student authors for their time and for sharing their stories. Obtaining funding to pay people for writing is a complicated task, particularly in a large system like APA. We were lucky enough to work with APAGS staff who supported our vision for and values underlying this project, and through their dedication and ongoing collaboration we were able to secure a small grant to award the hard work and openness of our writers.

The call for submissions was circulated throughout December 2020 and entries were reviewed by CSOGD committee members in January 2021. Submissions were edited for grammar and spelling, and at times writers were encouraged to reflect on their content, specifically by adding depth surrounding more privileged identities. Committee members charged with reviewing submissions attempted to strike a balance between the desire to empower student authors to speak their truths, and an awareness that writers’ perspectives may shift over time – we are all always growing and evolving in the areas of diversity, identity, and privilege. As graduate students, speaking up in a public forum while still navigating relationships within academic departments can be a challenge, and so reviewers also encouraged authors to consider the possible ramifications of sharing these experiences in their current student roles. We are thrilled with the resulting eight essays which have been selected for publication on the blog, and we are eager to share the enclosed narratives which reflect students’ various positionalities.

Future Directions

It is our fervent goal to establish the So Good blog series as a staple project within APAGS-CSOGD, and intend to continue showcasing the work of diverse student authors. We also hope we are able to continue awarding writers for their hard work and for sharing their stories, and we will collaborate with APAGS staff in an ongoing attempt to secure additional funding toward that end. The enduring purpose of So Good will be to amplify the voices of LGBTQ+ psychology students and increase awareness of the unique needs of this population, with special attention to salient intersecting identities and contemporary issues. It is our intention that the series adapt to the evolving needs of this student population over time. We hope you enjoy the stories to follow and welcome ideas for future submissions.

Finally, we would like to extend our gratitude to the many collaborators and contributors who made this project a reality. Special thanks to the current and former members of CSOGD who provided feedback and ongoing creative support for this project: Taymy Caso, Rachel Carretta, Elyssa Berney, Alvin Akibar, and Juan Pantoja-Patino. We are so grateful to the current and former APAGS staff who have backed this project, including Heather Dade for her tireless work in securing funding, and to Ritu Verma, Eddy Ameen, and Garth Fowler for their guidance and support.


Authors

Mallaigh McGinley (they/them/theirs) is a current member of APAGS-CSOGD (2019-2021). They are currently a doctoral student in Counseling Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Dr. Meredith Maroney (she/her/hers) is the past-chair of APAGS-CSOGD (2018-2020). She currently works at the Center for Behavioral Health Promotion and Applied Research at the University at Albany. 

Emily Boswell Strain, MA (she/her/hers) is the current chair of APAGS-CSOGD (2020-2022). She is currently a doctoral student studying Counseling Psychology at Ball State University.


References

Ahmed, S. (2006). The nonperformativity of antiracism. Meridians, 7(1), 104-126. https://doi.org/10.2979/mer.2006.7.1.104

Ahmed, S. (2012). Diversity: Problems and paradoxes for black feminists. In Y. Taylor (Ed.), Educational diversity (pp. 203-218). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137271129_11

Bailey, D. (2020, January 1). Enticing new faces to the field. Monitor on Psychology. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/01/cover-trends-new-faces.html#:~:text=The%20largest%20increases%20were%20for,a%20racial%20or%20ethnic%20minority

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, April 22). COVID-19 in racial and ethnic minority groups. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html

Katz-Wise, S. L. (2020, April 30). COVID-19 and the LGBTQ+ community: Rising to unique challenges. Harvard Health Blog. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/covid-19-and-the-lgbtq-community-rising-to-unique-challenges-2020043019721

Michalski, D. S., Cope, C., & Fowler, G. A. (2019). Graduate study in psychology summary report: Admissions, applications, and acceptances. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/education/grad/survey-data/2019-admissions-applications.pdf

Ospina, S., & Foldy, E. (2009). A critical review of race and ethnicity in the leadership literature: Surfacing context, power and the collective dimensions of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 20(6), 876-896. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.09.005

Parker, P. S. (2004). Race, gender, and leadership: Re-envisioning organizational leadership from the perspectives of African American women executives. Psychology Press.

Stewart, D. L. (2017). Language of appeasement. Inside Higher Ed, 30. https://english.rutgers.edu/images/documents/ARC/Colleges_need_a_language_shift_but_not_the_one_you_think_essay.pdf