Announcing our 2022 Pride webinar series: Pride @ SARAVYC

As part of Pride, SARAVYC is hosting three webinars discussing the results of research at our centre on the experiences of gender and sexual minority youth. Each webinar focuses on a different project and discusses a diverse range of 2SLGBTQ+ youth experiences. Learn more about each and find registration information below!

Part 1: Experiences of South Asian Sexual Minority Youth in Canada with Dr. Monica Rana

RESCHEDULED!
June 10, 2022  June 28, 2022
11:30 AM Pacific Time  12:00 PM Pacific Time

Dr. Monica Rana, Interim Managing Director of SARAVYC, discusses findings from both qualitative and quantitative research done among South Asian youth. The first is a qualitative study of South Asian gay and bisexual men’s coming out experiences. The second quantitative analysis uses BC Adolescent Health Survey data to understand risk and protective factors of suicidal outcomes for South Asian LGB girls.

Register: Now closed

Part 2: First Time Sexual Experiences of Sexual Minority Girls and Girl2Girl, a Sex-positive Teen Pregnancy Prevention Intervention for Queer Girls with Drs. ChiChun Lin and Elizabeth Saewyc

June 14, 2022
12:00 PM Pacific Time

Drs. Lin and Saewyc discuss their recent published paper “First time sexual experiences of sexual minority adolescent girls in the United States”. In this paper, they used qualitative description to explore with whom sexual minority girls had their first sex, where it took place, and the context surrounding the experience and they aimed to provide direction for future interventions to support sexual minority girls’ skills in negotiation and decision-making before first sex, and to promote healthy choices and behaviours once they are sexually active.

In this webinar, they also discuss the development of Girl2Girl, a text-message based intervention to promote sexual health and prevent unwanted teen pregnancy among lesbian and bisexual adolescents. The intervention has been tested in a national randomized trial in the United States, and Dr. Saewyc will share short-term and longer-term results of Girl2Girl.

To read the paper: https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2022.2049631

Register: Now closed

Part 3: Trans & Non-Binary Protective Factors, Capacity, and Celebration with Ace Chan, Jimmy Chokmeesuk, and Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc

June 22, 2022
12:00 PM Pacific Time

In this webinar, Ace Chan will present “Role Models and Well-being Among Trans and Nonbinary Youth” to explore the association between having role models and health outcomes. There were two different role model variables analyzed: having a role model you want to be like or having a role model you look up to. We also looked at whether there was an association between something youth were good at and health outcomes.

Jimmy Chokmeesuk will then discuss their thesis, “‘I am smart and strange and beautiful’: Celebrating BPOC Trans Pride Through Observing Sense of Mastery.” This presentation is going to explore the sense of mastery of BPOC transgender and nonbinary while celebrating their pride and self-worth in the White-centered and cisheteronormative society.

Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc will round out this webinar with a focus on positive health highlights among trans and non-binary youth in the BC Adolescent Health Survey, from our report co-created with the McCreary Centre Society, Gender Diverse: A Spotlight on the Health of Trans and Non-Binary Young People in B.C.

Register: Now closed

About Our Presenters:

Monica Rana, Ph.D.

Dr. Rana holds a PhD in Public Health from the School of Public Health, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. During her PhD, she worked with adolescent students who have been involved in any kind of bullying and conducted one of the first anti-bullying intervention programs in schools in India. At SARAVYC, she has been working to understand coming out experiences among sexual and gender diverse youth. Additionally, she is using qualitative and quantitative methods to understand health disparities in South Asian LGBTQ+ youth.

ChiChun Lin, Psy.D.

Chichun Lin holds a Doctorate of Psychology (Psy.D.) in marital and family therapy and is a post-doctoral fellow at SARAVYC. His dissertation used a qualitative approach to explore Asian gay men’s barriers of seeking psychotherapy and their potential issues. In his Psy.D., he completed 3,000 clinical hours and two years of clinical supervisor training resulting in being an AAMFT-approved supervisor. After his Psy.D., he became highly passionate about doing research on the mental and sexual health among marginalized groups; thus, he went to Johns Hopkins University and got his Master of Health Science (MHS) in mental health. As a Postdoctoral Fellow at SARAVYC, he will be leading the East Asian LGB youth portfolio and the sexual debut paper of Girl2Girl.

Elizabeth M Saewyc, PhD, RN, FSAHM, FCAHS, FAAN

Dr. Saewyc is an internationally recognized leader in research about vulnerable and marginalized adolescents and the director of SARAVYC. Over the past 20 years, she has conducted mix-methods research with many different groups of vulnerable youth, including runaway and street-involved youth; sexually abused and sexually exploited teens; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Two Spirit, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) adolescents; youth in custody; immigrants, home-stay students and refugees; and Indigenous youth. Her research emphasizes how stigma, violence, and trauma affect adolescent health and risk behaviours, as well as the protective factors that foster resilience among these vulnerable populations of youth.

Ace Chan

Ace Chan, MSc, is a doctoral candidate in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. Ace’s research interests include health disparities, creating inclusive and accessible health care spaces for marginalized communities and illuminating. Ace’s passion for accessible and inclusive services for gender diverse people extends beyond academia and into the community as well. Ace has served as a member of the Trans and Gender Variant steering committee for the City of Vancouver, is a member of the community advisor group to Trans Care BC and is also a board member for the Catherine White Holman Wellness Center which provides lower-barrier health care services for gender minority people. Ace has demonstrated the ability to communicate science to people of all ages including stakeholders, with their position at Telus World of Science, as a community scientist and being a part of the leadership team for the BC Knowledge Translation Community of Practice.

Jimmy Chokmeesuk

Jimmy (he/they) is a 4th-year BA Psychology Honours student in the Psychology Department who is also minoring in Interpersonal Development under the faculty of education at UBC. They are the current President of the UBC Psychology Students’ Association and currently work on Online Focus Group project at SARAVYC. They are passionate about psychopathology and its psychotherapy, in which he hopes to better the system and psychotherapy that overlook transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people’s diverse lived experiences, especially in BIPOC populations.