Through the Eye of a Needle: Understanding the Identities of LGBTQ+ Teachers Within Catholic Institutions in the Philippines

The pervasive Catholic culture permeates through the social fabric of the Philippines and exerts unique pressures on Filipinos. This study highlighted the unique experiences of Filipino LGBTQ+ educators of private Catholic schools. Using the grounded theory approach, seven participants who identified as LGBTQ+ and taught in private Catholic schools in the Philippines for a minimum of one year were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews with the participants illustrated that these LGBTQ+ educators had to contend with negotiating their identities while carefully navigating through their work environment. This yielded three key themes: (1) Recognizing the political dimension of private schools, (2) Threading the Needle, and (3) Obtaining and Optimizing Safe Spaces. As a result, the Constricting Contexts Model was proposed to better understand and contextualize such factors and emphasize the role that environments and expectations play into the identities of marginalized groups such as the LGBTQ+ community.

A systematic mapping literature review of education around sexual and gender diversities

Education around sexual and gender identities is highly important to understand diversity and prevent discrimination, violence, and even murder. Nevertheless, educational institutions around the world are lacking a curriculum that explicitly includes diversity and acknowledges the LGBTQ+ community, a minority that over the years has been facing consequences from this exclusion. This study presents a detailed description of the process applied to analyze the studies using a systematic mapping literature review, as well as the positive results found from those educational institutions that started their path to inclusion around sexual and gender diversities through their curricula. The research questions targeted in this work are: What is being taught in educational institutions regarding sexual and gender diversities? What are the approaches used inside the classrooms to teach sexual and gender diversities? Which students are receiving education regarding sexual and gender diversities? Is there a technological approach and/or tool used to teach sexual and gender diversities? After applying the filtering processes, 69 studies were selected from five different online libraries: ACM, DOAJ, Lens.org, SCOPUS, and SpringerLink. The conclusions made from the findings of this review are that those studies that do tackle concerns around the topic have proven to benefit the LGBTQ+ community, the education around sexual and gender diversities predominates within the healthcare field, there are a lack of studies around this topic in Latin American countries, and technological tools are minimally used during the teaching processes.

A commentary on the challenges for nurses in identifying and responding to intimate partner violence amongst gay and bisexual men

AIM

This commentary elucidates the challenges for nurses in effectively identifying and supporting gay and bisexual men who experience intimate partner violence and offers guidance for education, training and practice to nurses when responding to patients who may be experiencing intimate partner violence.

DESIGN

The commentary highlights issues raised by Callan et al.'s (2020) scoping review, translating the experiences of male sexual minorities undergoing abuse to a nursing context, in particular, issues such as homophobic remarks and heteronormative practices in health care and nursing-led environments militate against the identification of individuals who may be experiencing coerced sexual risk-taking, homophobia and sexual orientation outing.

RESULTS

Intimate partner violence is a widespread issue that permeates across heterosexual and LGBTQ+ communities, while impressing on the everyday realities of nurses. The potential for discrimination against sexual minority patients may be offset by improving training, education and offering recommendations for nurses in how to identify IPV and how to assess risk.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses possess essential training and transferable skills such as empathy, adaptability, active listening and diplomacy and are ideally placed to facilitate disclosure of intimate partner violence. Gaps in knowledge, training and organizational support for nurses may be effectively addressed through drawing on extant research and international best practice guidelines.

IMPACT

Suggestions for research, education and practice to identify gay and bisexual male survivors, intervene appropriately and avoid missed disclosure opportunities are made. We conclude with a table of recommendations with a view to enhancing the essential response of nurses in addressing intimate partner violence in marginalized communities.