A truly glbtq-positive social work field will consist of several characteristics. First, transgenderism and homosexuality will not be viewed as mental illnesses, but as healthy, normative aspects of humanity. Second, social service providers will perform their duties without prejudice and discrimination in a glbtq-affirming atmosphere. Finally, social workers will have the knowledge and training to allow them to work productively with members of the glbtq population, both on the micro and macro levels, and with the appropriate assessment skills and intervention strategies.

Unfortunately, the profession still has a long way to go. According to studies, many undergraduate and graduate social work education programs do not adequately address heterosexism and homophobia in their curricula, let alone provide information about glbtq issues and needs. In addition, because of a lack of glbtq-awareness education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, social workers have often not dealt with their own heterosexism and homophobia. This results in professionals who may have unexamined judgmental beliefs regarding sexual orientation and gender expression.

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Finally, there are a number of problematic implicit and explicit assumptions that continue to underlie much social work curricula, practice, research, agency policies, and work settings. Namely, clients are automatically viewed as being heterosexual, and normative family relationships are assumed necessarily to be heterosexual.

Today's world is much different for the glbtq community than it was fifty, twenty, or even ten years ago, as much progress has been made in the fight for glbtq rights. Yet prejudice and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender expression are still rife in our society.

Social workers, if they choose to follow their own mandates, will find that they are in the perfect positions to lead the struggle against heterosexism, homophobia, and transphobia, whether on the institutional or individual level. After all, what other profession has a code of ethics that asks its members for their commitment to "respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person" and "challenge social injustice"?

In recent years there has been a push for glbtq-sensitive counselor training and glbtq-affirmative counseling, which, although occurring slowly and encountering resistance, marks a significant move in a positive direction.

Glbtq family therapy is a relatively new field that merges gay-affirmative therapy with family systems theory; its goal is to help glbtq people create and maintain healthy families.

The experience of loss is a universal condition of humanity, but glbtq individuals may face particular challenges in finding support to help them in their grieving process.

There are many excellent resources, both general and specifically tailored for glbtq individuals, which can assist in the process of healing after a bereavement or other major loss.

Homophobia was originally defined as a "dread of being in close quarters with homosexuals," but it is now sometimes used to describe any form of anti-gay bias.

The term "homosexuality," coined in 1869, with "heterosexuality" as its opposite, has led to a binary concept that oversimplifies the complexity of human sexual behavior.

Nursing, which has been both welcoming and hostile to gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered, is important to glbtq history.

Psychoanalysis, which began as a therapeutic procedure, ultimately became one of the most powerful methods of cultural analysis and critique of the twentieth-century.

Psychotherapy, the clinical process of treating mental and emotional health problems, has recently been energized by a movement to depathologize homosexuality and to enhance the dignity and self-respect of glbtq clients.

As an academic field, sociology has only recently begun to examine sexuality, and members of the profession are divided over glbtq concerns.

When the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses, it added in its place "Gender Identity Disorder in Childhood," or "The Sissy Boy Syndrome."

Lillian Wald, an American public health nurse and social reformer, is the model of a Victorian-era lesbian active in the settlement house movement.