Chapter 3: Career and College Counseling With Sexual and Gender Minority Students

School counselors are expected to target the academic, career, and personalsocial development of every student by offering individual planning, responsive counseling, small group counseling, and classroom instruction. As part of these services and responsibilities, school counselors are also responsible to advocate for marginalized populations, which include sexual and gender minority (SGM) students. The term SGM can be used as an inclusive term similar to the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus) acronym. Although we acknowledge the infinitely complex identities of the LGBTQ+ community, we will use the abbreviation SGM in this chapter as a holistic term to denote lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and two spirit students as an inclusive group. When needed, distinctions in identity and terminology will be made for the sake of accurately representing the unique histories, lived experiences, and research of this population.