My Role Model Post

Here is part of my role model post for my health and wellness class discussion I mentioned. I found the American Psychological Association web-site to be very informative and positive when discussing sexual orientation and homosexuality.

• "The American Psychological Association (2004) reports that research show that individuals with positive attitudes toward gays, lesbians, and bisexuals (GLB) know one or more GLB as a co-worker or friend. Sharing one’s sexual orientation, known as “coming out”, is beneficial for one’s mental health and helps to higher self-esteem. Additionally, educating individuals within a community will likely diminish anti-gay prejudice. One may ask what the effects of anti-gay prejudice are. In a lifetime victimization study Balsam et al. (2005) they did a comparison study of LGB and heterosexuals in a primarily European American sample. They found that LGB individuals reported more occurrences of physical and psychological abuse by parents, more partner abuse in adulthood, more childhood sexual abuse, and more sexual assault in adulthood than heterosexual individuals.
  
  In the past few years it has been more challenging to get out into the community to promote health and wellness with being a new parent to two young ones, however I have found a way to get to the community from within the compounds of my home. This is through the wonderful world of blogging. In Saipan there is a social network of bloggers. In my blog, www.gayinsaipan.blogspot.com, I have addressed such issues as suicide for GLBT teens, “coming-out”, local events for GLBT support, GLBT health issues such as breast cancer and prostate cancer, disabilities and sexuality, GLBT equal rights issues, and more. In Saipan the GLBT community is mostly underground as 80-90% of the community is Catholic and the social atmosphere is similar to the militaries “don’t ask, don’t tell”. It is through my blog that I hope to share and bring awareness to the community about GLBT issues and promoting health and wellness. As our children get older, as a family unit and individually, I will become involved again in promoting health and wellness within our community from outside of our home."

Island Dyke

Reference:

Balsam, KF, Rothblum, ED & Beauchaine, TP. (2005). Victimization over the life span: a comparison of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual siblings. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 73, No. 3, pp. 477-87. Retrieved on February 28, 2008, from PubMed.

No author listed. (2004). Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality. American Psychological Association. Retrieved on February 28, 2008, from http://www.apahelpcenter.org/articles/article.php?id=31.

Health & Wellness

I am just finishing up with a six week course on health and wellness. I am down to the final discussion board post in which they ask how how am I serving as a role model in my community for promoting health and wellness. I am planning on sharing how in this blog I address issues about health and wellness that affect this local community as well as other communities as blogs are world wide access. It is not my only goal to raise community health and wellness issues but to also raise community awareness for GLBT issues.

One interesting aspect I would like to share from my class is five of the "Ten Warning Signs of Wellness:

• Episodic outbreaks of joyful, happy experiences
• A tendency to identify and communicate feelings
• The persistent presence of a support network
• Chronic positive expectations; the tendency to frame events in a constructive light
• An increased appetite for physical activity" (Insel & Roth, 2004, pp. 3)

And now for my 'Top Five Warning Signs of a Well GLBT Individual':

• Episodic bursts of jumping up and down to YMCA
• Non-stop talking about how one is sooooooo upset because so and so hurt their feelings, can you believe it?
• The presence of 'Queer as Folk' and 'The L-word' parties for GLBT network and support
• Flaming events under stage lights, beauty pagent positive expectations of being crowned
• An increased appetite for physical activity, baby!

Ok, I was just having a little fun. Come up with a better list. ;0)

Island Dyke

Reference:

Insel & Roth (2004). Core Concepts in Health. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., New York, NY, 10020.

Lesbo Connections in Saipan

The resources of lesbian networking in Saipan are limited. And although I love hanging out with my gay and straight friends I do need my intermittent fix of lesbian socializing. When we lived in San Diego we had our connection. It was a group of lesbians and bisexual women that met once a week for a social connection, we were called LINC (Lesbians in North County). Lately there has been a few new coming outs along with making some new connections which has helped improve our Saipan lesbian socializing. I wonder though how other lesbians on Saipan are fairing. Is there some other secret group that gathers?

Katie Peoples (2007, pp. 54) in Curve gives 10 recommended sites for lesbian social networking. These include: OurChart, MySpace, Linkedin, Imeem, GLEE, Olivia, Flickr, Facebook, Bebo, and FabFemme. She further states that "a recent Harris Interactive/Witeck-Combs survey showed that queer women use social networking sites much more than straight gals". Well if you live on a small island where the odds are severely limited I can definitely see why lesbians would be surfing these sites.

Reference:

Peoples, Katie (2007). Networking Lesbians Three women find the MySpace connection. Curve The best-selling lesbian magazine, Vol. 17, No. 10.