Our understanding of human identity, experience and the myriad of ways we live, identify, experience love and attraction and navigate the world is always adapting and growing.
That’s why, in recent years, Pink Therapy has moved beyond just using the familiar acronym of LGBTQ+, to a broader term of Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity.
This term, academic and theoretical in origin, is not designed to replace or displace the marker LGBTQ+ (or any other forms of acronym or identity which people may choose), but is adopted as a professional organisation in recognition that many other marginalised communities and people also experience significant barriers to accessing knowledgeable, evidence based and affirmative mental health care, and that while there may be significant overlap (for example, experiences of pathologisation or othering based on attraction or relationship style) not all people experiencing this will identify as LGBTQ+.
Pink Therapy’s foundations are firmly of, and in, the LGBTQ+ community, and yet as practice evolved, research deepened, and theory expanded we recognised that the term “LGBTQ+” could not easily capture the full breadth of gender, sexual and relationship diversity that we were witnessing, supporting, studying, training on, and advocating for. Rather than suggest a different community identifier, we advocated for a broader, more inclusive, academic term to describe not just the communities but also the burgeoning specialism of “GSRD Therapy”.
As always, our understanding of GSRD continues to adapt and evolve as language, life, research and communities change and develop. The following descriptions give insight into our current understanding and usage, designed to be evolving and inclusive, rather than rigid and exhaustive.
