ABSTRACT
The person:environment* perspective (Germain, 1991), utilized throughout this text as a framework for practice, has been a central influence on the profession’s theoretical base and has usefulness and relevance as an approach to social work practice with LGBT persons. Germain and Gitterman (1996) underscore the point that disempowerment, which threatens the health, social well-being, and life of those who are oppressed, imposes enormous adaptive tasks on LGBT persons. An understanding of the destructive relationships that exist between LGBT persons and a predominantly heterocentric environment is integral to the process of developing practice knowledge about working with LGBT persons as clients. The purpose of this chapter, therefore, is to define and describe the knowledge base of practice with LGBT persons and to review social work’s response to the needs of this population.
