Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals often experience internalized and/or externalized religious rejection due to their sexual orientation. Initial steps in the coming-out process can be especially difficult and can result in existential crises, including questioning one's place within the religious/ spiritual realm. The authors propose a developmental framework for conceptualizing the role of religion and spirituality in the coming-out process. Cass's (1979Cass's ( , 1984 stage model of coming out and Genia's (1995) model of religious development, along with additional literature addressing LGB spirituality, serve as foundations for this framework. Counseling and research implications of the framework are also discussed.

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In light of rapidly changing demographics within the United States, counselors are challenged to provide culturally responsive services to facilitate optimal client functioning. This article highlights recommended training strategies within a developmental framework to promote multicultural and social justice competencies for trainers of mental health professionals.

Hooking up generally involves casual sex with noncommittal partners. Hooking up is prevalent on college campuses today and can negatively affect the identity development of female students. The authors examined this phenomenon with a feminist developmental perspective, evaluating hooking up in the context of sexual risk taking with physical and psychosocial consequences.

This study of 576 gay men and men who have sex with men examined the predictive value of peer norms, self-efficacy, stigma, social support, age, and recreational drug use on high-risk sexual behavior that enables human immunodeficiency virus transmission. A bivariate analysis found each of these factors significant. A discriminant function analysis revealed that significant predictors of high-risk sexual behavior included low self-efficacy and low outcome expectancy with regard to successfully using a condom, disclosing infection status, and negotiating safer sex and low peer norms for safer sex. Counseling implications for this population are discussed.