What is it about?

The experience of same-sex-attracted people who have lost a partner is neglected in the existing literature on bereavement. Previous research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and questioning (LGBTIQ) populations tends to focus on the loss of a partner to HIV-related causes, and there is scant research concerning non-HIV-related bereavement. The purpose of this article is to investigate the non- HIV-related bereavement experiences of same-sex partners and to address the potential complications of disenfranchised grief. Coping with the loss of a same- sex partner and the impact of bereavement on subsequent relationships are also discussed.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Implications for counseling of bereaved same-sex-attracted individuals are drawn, and recommendations for future psychological research on the experience of bereavement are made.

Perspectives

Lefteris Patlamazoglou is a psychologist and he is currently completing a PhD investigating the bereavement experiences of same-sex partners and their impact on subsequent relationships. He has experience working as a family counsellor with court-ordered parents and their children, a fertility counsellor with IVF patients, a behaviour support worker with adults with intellectual disabilities, and a teaching associate of counselling and psychology units at Monash University.

Lefteris Patlamazoglou
Monash University

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Same-Sex Partner Bereavement, OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, January 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0030222817690160.
You can read the full text:

Read

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page