LGBTQ+ Sexual & Mental Health

We live in a heteronormative society. This means that most all of society uses heterosexuality and cis gender identities as the bar by which, we are all measured. LGBTQ+ individuals deal with an array of aggression that seeks to eradicate or place our identities into heteronormative boxes.

If you’re Black, Indigenous, or belong to any ethnicity that is not white, then the aggression is compounded because we also live in a country founded by white supremacists and their descendants. Many of these descendants too often refuse to acknowledge that reality or their own complicities in inherited systems that favor and protect white lives, specifically white, heterosexual, cisgender lives.

James operates from the philosophy that to be LGBTQ+ affirming, not only demands an intersectional lens, but also a stance that does not gloss over aspects of our humanity by ignoring the political. Our humanity is frequently politicized by people intent on misunderstanding our reality and that politicization deeply impacts our quality of life. To remain apolitical or neutral as an LGBTQ+ therapist is a gross denial of the realities we face.

James is adept at identifying where our identities and relationships experience vilification and how that impacts our sexual and mental health outcomes. It is critical that we examine and deconstruct heteronormative and cisgender concepts that have rarely, if ever, worked for us. Our own inability to do so leaves us susceptible to internalizing and reinforcing worldviews that uphold heterosexist, patriarchal, ableist and white supremacist ideologies.