Fil-Am professor to launch book on discrimination vs. gays in US

An accomplished Filipino-American professor and writer in the United States will launch this month a book about discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the United States. Dr. Kevin Nadal’s book “That's So Gay: Microaggressions and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community,” also includes advice for people on how to adopt LGBT-accepting views and practices. The book, published by the American Psychological Association, is set to be released by Feb. 28 by online retailer Amazon.com. Nadal, on his website and the book’s Facebook page, however, listed the publication date as Feb. 18. Microaggressions Nadal, who identifies as gay and is a member of the LGBT community, focuses on microaggressions in his book. They are subtle, commonplace forms of discrimination and interactions in settings such as in school, the workplace, among friends and family, or even among some LGBT members. According to the book, these experiences added up can be associated with feelings of victimization, suicidal thoughts, higher substance abuse rates, depression, and other health-related problems among the LGBT. Nadal’s book casts an eye on different literature on the various forms of microaggressions against the LGBT, and each case study is supplemented by analysis of the elements involved in the microaggressions and questions for the reader to reflect upon. However, aside from the case studies, the book also includes advice for people--particularly mental health practitioners, organizational leaders, educators and students--who want to be more open-minded in their views and practices toward the LGBT community. Professor, performer, and author Nadal in his website describes himself as a professor, psychologist, performer, activist, and author. He received his doctorate in counseling psychology from Columbia University in New York City. He is currently an Associate Professor of  psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in the City University of New York, where he is also the deputy director of the Forensic Mental Health Counseling Program. Nadal specializes in microaggressions and the impacts these have on the mental and physical health of LGBT people and other marginalized groups. He is the Vice President-Elect of the Asian American Psychological Association, the president of the metro New York Chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) However, aside from these accomplishments, the California-bred New Yorker is also a part-time comedian and spoken word artist who has performed across the United States since 2000. Bullied and bewildered In a preface excerpted from the book as ran in US publication The FilAm, Nadal wrote of how he was bullied in his younger years and how it eventually had a place in who he is today. "When I was 7 years old and struggling with my gay identity, I often wondered if I could ever be happy. Here I was — the only gay person I knew in my family and community. As a child of immigrants who grew up in a huge Filipino American and Catholic family, I had no idea that LGBT — that is, lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender — people existed,” he wrote. “When I was 14, I was bullied, which definitely made things worse. Some kids at my high school must have thought that I was too effeminate or that my voice was too high-pitched,” he also said. Nadal recalled various instances of bullying he faced, such as hearing the word “faggot” many times on a daily basis, and how he found it hard to admit to himself what he was. “If I couldn’t even admit to myself that I was gay, how would I ever admit to anyone else and tell the teachers that I was being harassed? I’d have to tell them that the boys called me a faggot, which in my head, meant that I would be admitting to being something I wasn’t ready to face,” he said. He said there were instances where he didn’t know how he would be able to pull through because he had no one to run to nor did he have any LGBT role models. Eventually, Nadal said the harassment stopped, and he realized that perhaps he needed to endure what he had gone through to help others. “[P]erhaps I went through this daily experience of physically and psychologically feeling the immense pain and sorrow of being victimized so that I would have the opportunity to gain my passion for social justice and equal rights,” he wrote. “Perhaps I needed to endure this so that, as an adult, I could feel compassion and empathy for kids whose reality is daily bullying. Perhaps this needed to be part of my history so that I could help to change the future,” Nadal also said. - VVP, GMA News