Books:

TRANSGENDER EMERGENCE:
Therapeutic Guidelines for Working With Gender-Variant People and Their Families

Explore an ecological strength-based framework for the treatment of gender-variant clients!
This comprehensive book provides you with a clinical and theoretical overview of the issues facing transgendered/transsexual people and their families. Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines for Working with Gender-Variant People and Their Families views assessment and treatment through a nonpathologizing lens that honors human diversity and acknowledges the role of oppression in the developmental process of gender identity formation.

Transgender Emergence is the winner of the American Psychological Association (Division 44) Distinguished Book Award, 2006.

New Edition Coming Soon!

• Book Announcement (PDF)
• Dallas Denny Review
• Reid Vanderburgh Review
• Randall Ehrbar Review
• Rubert Raj Review
• International Journal of Transgenderism (PDF)
• Blade Review
• Eric Aoki Review

“The book offers a clear, comprehensive, and cogent review of the mental health field’s thinking about sexuality and gender, and an extraordinarily thoughtful and extensive exploration of assessment and intervention issues with gender-variant people and their families. Lev’s knowledge of the subject is phenomenal, and the breadth and clarity of her writing are brilliant. This book lays out an enormous amount of complex material in a highly readable and useful text.”

Monica McGoldrick, MSW, Director, Multicultural Family Institute

THE COMPLETE LESBIAN AND GAY PARENTING GUIDE

How Queer! A parenting book for LGBTQ parents!
Gay parenting is a productive and positive decision, but author and lesbian mother Arlene Lev admits it isn’t always an easy one. With practical wisdom and advice, and personal real-life stories, Lev prepares gay parents for this endeavor with everything they need to know and everything they can expect while making their own significant and challenging mark on family life in the 21st century.

• J. Greg Serpa Review
• Jennifer Schumaker Review on The Rainbow Babies
• Virginia Erhardt Review

“Finally a handbook for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender parents that addresses the real struggles and joys our families face. The Complete Lesbian and Gay Parenting Guide is both deeply serious, and belly-laugh funny, while remaining filled with useful advice and heartwarming personal stories.”

Rosie O’Donnell

Web Sites, Articles, Essays, and Interviews

Web Sites

• Lev, A., Alie, L., Ansara, Y., Deutsch, M., Dickey, L., Ehrbar, R., Ehrensaft, D., Green, J., Meier, S., Richmond, K., Susset, F., Winters, K. (2010A). “Statement on Gender Incongruence in Children in the DSM-5,” Professionals Concerned With Gender Diagnoses in the DSM

Articles

• VillageQ Advice: Dear Ms. Radcliffe #1: Same Sex Parents in Pictures. VillageQ, March 9, 2015
• Transparenting, Chronogram, November 1, 2014
• Gay Parents and Gender-Bending Children, The Advocate, July 11, 2006
• Scrutinizing would-be parents originally appeared in Washington Blade
• Invisible Genders in In the Family Magazine, November, 1998
• Couples in Transition: When one is trans and other is not (PDF) In the Family, 8, #4, pp. 18-23. 2003
• Transgender Emergence: A Family Affair, (PDF) published in the Division 44 Newsletter: Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Issues: A Division of the American Psychological Association, Summer, pp. 11-12, 2005.in Division 44, the APA LGBT Newsletter
• Lev, Arlene Istar, Transgender Emergence: Understanding Diverse Gender Identities and Expressions, NASW Focus, Continuing Education curricula, pp. 11-18, 21, 24, February, 2006
• No Place Like Home (PDF) in Jess Wells (Ed.) HomeFronts: Controversies in the Nontraditional Parenting Community, LA: Alyson Publications, 137-156, 2000
• Tenuous Alliance in A.E. Anzaldua and A. Keating (Eds.) This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions of Transformation, NY: Routlege, 473-482, 2002
• Lev, Arlene Istar Lesbian and Gay Parenting in Alternative Family Magazine, Van Nuys, CA, November, 1998
• Transgender Lesbians, (PDF) In The Family Magazine, 1998

GLBTQ Encyclopedia

The following articles were available on the LGBT Encyclopedia website, which has now been archived here.

• Family Therapy (PDF)
• Domestic Violence in the GLBT Community (PDF)
• Developmental Psychology (PDF)
• Gay Affirmative Psychotherapy (PDF)
• Elsa Gidlow (PDF)

Essays

• Being a Good Gender Therapist (PDF)
• Guidelines in Seeking a Gender Therapist (PDF)
• Adoption in the LGBT Community (PDF)
• The More Things Change
• Transgender Emergence: A Family Affair, (PDF) published in Association of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Issues in Counseling, vol XXV, #3, Fall, 2005
• Transgendered Lesbian (PDF) Femme Magazine, November 2000
• Sexual Assault in the Transgender Community Forge Newsletter, November, 1999
• How Does She Do it All? (PDF)

Interviews

Media

• Transgender Woman Shares Her Journey, by Rhonda Triller in The Post Star, April, 2016
• Transparenting  by Hillary Harvey in Chronogram, Nov. 1, 2014
• Four myths about Children of Same Sex Parents by Carol Castro in Superinteressante magazine, February, 2012
  NOTE:Original article appeared in the Portugese language. English translations below.
  “Se você cresce com dois pais do mesmo sexo e vê amor e carinho entre eles, você não vê nada de estranho nisso”, conta Arlene Lev, professora da Universidade de Albany.
  TRANSLATION:
  If you grow up with same sex parents and see how much they love each other and how affectionate they are, you won’t think anything of it (or you won’t think it’s strange at all).“Crianças criadas por gays são menos influenciadas por brincadeiras estereotipadas como masculinas ou femininas”, diz Arlene Lev.
  TRANSLATION:
  Children raised by same sex parents are less likely to engage in gender stereotypical play.
• Therapists help transgender patients with psychological issues by Paul Grondahl in the Times Union, December 9, 2011
• New Challenge for Parents: Children’s Gender Roles by Jan Hoffman in the New York Times, June 10, 2011
• Controversy Continues over APA and Gender Variance by Renee Baker in the Dallas Voice, March 11, 2010
• Creating the DSM by Todd Melby in Contemporary Sexuality, Newsletter of the American Association  of Sexuality Educations and Counselors March, 2009
• DSM Controversy Could Overshadow Opportunities & DSM Section 302.85 by Zak Szymanski in The Bay Area Reporter May 29, 2008
• When She Graduates as He by Adrian Brune  Boston Globe April 8, 2007

Journal Articles:

• Gender Dysphoria: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back. Clinical Social Work Journal, 41 (2), 288-296, July 2013

• Challenging Cases for Experienced Therapists (PDF) Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, 15: 2, 180-199, 2011

• How queer – the development of gender identity and sexual orientation in LGBTQ-headed families.(PDF) Family Process, 49 (2), 268-290, 2010

• A Review of “Gay and lesbian parents and their children: Research on the family life cycle; Who’s your daddy? And other writings on queer parenting; Becoming parent: Lesbians, gay men, and family” (PDF) Journal of GLBT Family Studies, August 2010

• The Ten Tasks of the Mental Health Provider: Recommendations for Revision of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of Care. (PDF) International Journal of Transgenderism, 11:2, 74-99, 2009.

• More Than Surface Tension: Femmes in Families. (PDF) Journal of Lesbian Studies, Vol. 12(2–3), 2008.

• Intersexuality in the Family: An unacknowledged Trauma. (PDF) The Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy, (Eds. Vernon A. Rosario & Jack Drescher), 10(1), 2006.

• Gay Dads: Choosing Surrogacy. (PDF) The British Psychological Society Lesbian and Gay Psychology Review, 7 (1), 72-76, 2006

• Disordering Gender Identity: Gender Identity Disorder in the DSM-IV-TR. (PDF) The Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 17 (3/4), 2005.

• Dykes and Tykes: A Virtual Lesbian Parenting Community. (PDF) Journal of Lesbian Studies, 9 (1/2) 81-94, 2005.

• Couple Assessment: Identifying and Intervening in Domestic Violence in Lesbian Relationships. (PDF) Journal of Lesbian and Gay Social Services, 4 (1), 93-106, 1996.

Monographs:

At the Edge: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in Couples and Families

FTA Monograph Series, Vol. 7, Spring.

The AFTA Monograph Series. One theme-based, guest-edited issue each year features original work by AFTA members who are leaders in the field.

Guest Editors: Jean Malpas, LMHC, LMFT & Arlene (Ari) Istar Lev, LCSW-R, CASAC

Download here.

Columns:

In a Family Way
In a Family Way is a column that ran from 1996 through 2009 in numerous magazines and
on-line, recording the antics of a lesbian parent rearing two young boys.

Dear Ari 
Dear Ari is an advice column written for LGBT Parents, and has been published in a number of publications, on-line and in print.

Essays, Reviews, and Commentaries 
These essay, book and movie reviews, and commentaries have been published in various magazines, journals, on-line websites, blogs, and books.

Family Matters 
Family Matters is long essay on LGBT parenting, that is published in The Journal of GLBT Family Studies.