Carballo-Diéguez

REFERENCES

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Freud, S. (1973). El chiste y su relación con lo inconsciente. Obras Completas de Sigmund Freud [Complete works, Luis Lopez-Ballesteros y de Torres, Trans.] (Vol. 1, pp. 1034-1076). Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva. (Original work published 1905)

González-Wippler, M. (in press). Santería, the religion. New York: Harmony Books.

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Landers, S. (1988, July). Latinos combat AIDS. APA Monitor, p. 42. Malgady, R., Rogler, L., & Costantino, G. (1987). Ethnocultural and linguistic bias in mental health evaluation of Hispanics. American Psychologist, 42(3), 228-234.

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prevention study, working paper #2. Presented at the American Psychological Association Convention, Atlanta. (Available from the author: [415] 597-9162)

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Alex Carballo-Diéguez is director of the HIV/AIDS Mental Health Clinic at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York City. He is also a co-investigator at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies in New York City. Correspondence regarding this article should be sent to Alex Carballo-Diéguez, HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, 722 West 168th Street, Box 24, New York, NY 10025.

JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1989 VOL. 68

Factors Related to Counselor

Preference Among Gays and Lesbians

DIANE MCDERMOTT, LARRY TYNDALL, and JAMES W. LICHTENBERG

This study explored the preference for counselor's sexual orientation among gay and lesbian clients. Recognizing that the perceived reaction of participants to hypothetical situations may be a viable predictor of future choices, respondents were administered a comfort/discomfort index intended to probe a number of potential counseling concerns. Internalized homophobia (Hudson & Ricketts, 1977) and a scale measuring degree of sameor opposite-sex sexual preferences (Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebbhard, 1953) were also investigated in an attempt to account for variance in the comfort/discomfort ratings. Findings indicated that gay men and lesbians tend to prefer gay or lesbian counselors, although a sizable number believe that counselors' sexual orientations do not make a difference. Internalized homophobia was found to predict discomfort in discussing various topics with a counselor of unknown sexual orientation.

In the past 20 years, there has been considerable speculation on whether special groups of people seeking counseling need to see counselors who share their group membership, or whether the dominant culture counselor with good skills is as effective. Early advocates of paraprofessional counseling were adamant that the most effective counseling was done by those who shared the common subculture of the client (Gordon, 1965; Reiff, 1966). They also recognized that minority counselors were not being trained in sufficient numbers to meet the growing needs of a variety of special populations. Thus arose the popularity of the paraprofessional movement.

The paraprofessional thrust is no longer as popular an issue; many of the concerns, however, still remain. Members of various populations continue to express preferences for seeing counselors who share their group membership. For example, Abbot, Tollefson, and McDermott (1982) found that Black students in a large midwestern university preferred to discuss personal problems with Black counselors, while for informational issues, the race of the counselor made little difference.

The profession, furthermore, is calling for specialized training to work with the culturally different client. The American Association for Counseling and Development and the American Psychological Association have established divisions within their larger organization for those who do cross-cultural or multicultural counseling. Recently, there has been an increase in materials available on cross-cultural counseling, counseling with the handicapped, gay and lesbian counseling, and a variety of other groups and concerns. Additionally, courses are appearing on cross-cultural and multicultural counseling in training programs across the country. Because being gay or lesbian involves a life-style different from that of the dominant culture, it may be appropriately considered in the province of cross-cultural counseling.

As pertains to the present study, the questions under consideration were several: Is there an expressed preference for a gay/lesbian counselor among members of the gay community? Is there a difference between genders on this issue? Are there some issues, for example, sex-related concerns, that would be more difficult to discuss with a counselor of unknown sexual orientation than perhaps a concern that is more peripheral to sexual identity, such as career choice?

To date, little research has addressed any similar concerns of this population. One study somewhat along these lines was that of Atkinson, Brady, and Casas (1981) who found that male counselors who stated a gay orientation were perceived by gay men as both more attractive and more competent. Nanette Gartrell (1984), writing about her work as a lesbian therapist, explicitly states that a lesbian therapist has access to life experiences in common with her clients and, thus, has a deeper understanding of what it means to be a lesbian than a heterosexual female counselor could have.

Several other studies have addressed issues of needs in the gay/lesbian community. Gambrill, Stein, and Brown (1984) surveyed 394 gay and lesbian residents of San Francisco and found that 71% believed there were real problems in dealing with heterosexual service providers. These researchers also surveyed a sampling of service providers and found that most of them did not realize that they had homosexual clients on their caseloads, indicating that clients were probably not "out" to these workers.

Professionals have expressed a need for greater understanding of gays and lesbians. Potter (1984) addressed "lesbian invisibility" and outlined guides for the social worker in dealing with lesbian clients. Potter states that the social worker must become both knowledgeable and comfortable with the gay/lesbian community.

The purpose of the current research was to explore the preference for counselors' sexual orientation among gay and lesbian clients. Recognizing that the reaction of participants to hypothetical situations may be a viable predictor of future choices, respondents were also administered a specially designed comfort/discomfort index intended to probe a number of potential counseling concerns. Factors such as internalized homophobia (as measured by the Index of Homophobia [Hudson & Ricketts, 1977]), and degree of same-sex sexual preference (measured by the Kinsey Scale [Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebbhard, 1953]) were also investigated in an attempt to account for variance in the comfort/discomfort ratings. An ancillary purpose of this study was to describe a lesbian/gay population in a midsized midwestern community along some

JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1989 VOL. 68