Document Type

Editorial

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1080/26924951.2026.2697410

Publication Title

Journal of LGBTQ Issues in Counseling

Volume

20

Issue

3

Pages

297-298

Abstract

[Introduction] Hello and welcome to the community of counselors, advocates, and scholars who read the Journal of LGBTQ Issues in Counseling. Over the course of the past 20 years, affirmative counseling with and on behalf of LGBTQIQA+ people has developed into a profession-wide expectation as opposed to a specialty area. The synergy of consistent and prolonged social and professional activism with research and practice led the leaders of organizations like the American School Counselors’ Association (ASCA) and the American Counseling Association (ACA) to adopt LGBTQ+ affirmation as the ethical and professional perspective of the counseling field. The leaders of the Society for Sexual, Affectional, Intersex, and Gender Expansive Identities in Counseling (SAIGE) have been instrumental in asserting affirmation as the standard of care for all LGBTQIQA+ people, bringing much needed critique of the mental health professions and the roles that they have played in the oppression of gender and sexual orientation diverse people. Despite apparent consensus among the mental health professions, there are ongoing attempts to push back on the civil rights of LGBTQIQA+ groups, from anti-LGBTQIQA+ legislation to problematic court rulings that relegate LGBTQIQA+ people to the status of second-class citizens, that include undermining the role that counseling and psychotherapy can play in supporting LGBTQIQA+ clients and students.

Rights

© 2026 The authors.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the accepted Manuscript in a repository by the authors or with their consent.

ORCID

0009-0001-0460-5424 (Albright)

Original Publication Citation

Moe, J., & Albright, A. (2026). Editorial for issue 20(3): Special issue: Developmental trajectories in LGBTQIQA+ lifeways. Journal of LGBTQ Issues in Counseling, 20(3), 297-298. https://doi.org/10.1080/26924951.2026.2697410

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