DEVELOPMENTAL QUEER AND TRANS ACTUALIZATIONS: A clear pathway to promoting health and well-being for sexually and gender diverse youth

Minority stress models and trauma-focused approaches have predominated our understanding and responses to health disparities among sexually and gender diverse (SGD) young people for more than 30 years. While the impacts and root causes of adversities are undoubtedly critical for promoting SGD health and well-being, it is important to highlight strengths-based narratives of the lives of SGD youth: How gender and sexuality are for many a source of joy, euphoria, and vitality irrespective of the presence of minority stress and trauma. We propose a new model to convey this dual importance, ‘developmental queer and trans actualizations’; developmental experiences of gender and sexuality growth which we assert are directly associated with health and well-being for SGD youth, in addition to indirect pathways mediated through minority stress and trauma. Through undergoing developmental experiences of queer and trans actualizations, SGD youth are required to undergo an intense, internal deliberative dialogue regarding aspects of their gender and sexuality, a process which ultimately increases personal growth and self-determination. These experiences may be prevented, slowed, or deterred through minority stress and trauma. This chapter describes this novel model and discusses an exemplary evidence-based approach for supporting developmental experiences of queer and trans actualizations, the school-based ‘Proud and Empowered’ preventive intervention.