LGBTQ+ Community: focusing on the needs of youth and young adult males

Tuesday, August 6th, 2024, at Noon Eastern Time 

Speaker: Dr. Noel B. Ramirez, DBH, MPH, MSW, LCSW, BCD of Mango Tree

Dr. Noel B. Ramirez will discuss the LGBTQ+ community, youth and young adult males, coming out, acceptance, mental health, and more.

We don’t get into deep conversations with our youth. We provide resources and trainings. We hope it helps. Trainings include showing them how to cope by building resilience or a discussion of the Eight Dimensions of Well Being.  

A good psychologist can step in and have those deep conversations. However, psychologists are not always available or affordable, and seeing one is often associated with stigma and avoided. Dr. Ramirez will talk to us about being a gay man and the mental health issues related. He will speak to us from both his personal and professional experience.

We know that youth are stepping out into a world that is not always safe. We know they get their information about our world online. Dr. Rameriz will discuss the dangers of the internet for those seeking information. Dr. Ramirez will talk to us about today’s models for young gay men and where they learn how not to get taken in, taken advantage of, or be both physically and emotionally hurt. He will also discuss how to deal with loneliness, which Dr. Ramirez tells us is a pervasive issue in the LGBTQ community.

He will discuss some of the elements of queerness. For example:

  • The importance of intergenerational friendships and relationships, and
  • An example of available resources and a safe third space is William’s Way, a gay community third space in Philly.

Dr. Ramirez will end with what we can do to support our young gay males, to help them create the communities they need.

Recording:

Biography:

Dr. Noel B. Ramirez is a licensed clinical social worker in the Philadelphia Metro Area. He is the founder and director of Mango Tree Counseling & Consulting, an Asian-American Mental Health Group Practice in the Philadelphia Area.  For the past 15 years, Dr. Ramriez has dedicated his career to community-based mobilization projects, including access to HIV care, stigma reduction, and expansion to recovery-oriented care in primary care.  He received his Master’s of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania and a graduate degree in public health from Drexel University. He completed his doctorate in behavioral health from Arizona State University.  In addition to running his group practice, Dr. Ramirez is an adjunct faculty member of Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania’s graduate social work programs, teaching an array of classes in clinical social work practice and decolonization. He is an avid bowler and lover of peanut butter, early 2000s pop culture, and biking.