Summary: | <p> Building off of previous research, the study undertook to design a taxonomic classification: defining, codifying, and validating microaggressions experienced by sexual minorities. The resultant classification is intended to serve as a conceptual framework if utilized to effectuate an assessment tool assessing microaggressions against sexual minorities. Initial points of interest included an overview of complex historical shifts increasingly traversing the present zeitgeist, and additionally, theoretical justifications for the chosen methodological approach and subsequent suppositions. This served two purposes; the first availed the reader with a contextual narrative to help facilitate a conceptual overview of the target group(s), and additionally, orient readers to the theoretical underpinnings of this study, preserving the integrity and trustworthiness of the present research. Second, variegated extant research was reviewed and elucidated to explore and explain the covert and insidious phenomenon. Concurrently, research related to racial microaggressions was included due to the abundant and judicious literature, furthering one’s conceptualization of microaggressions as well as fortifying external validation among relevant sexual minority categories. </p><p> Heterogeneous literature and the deconstruction of sexual minority microaggressions were examined, interpreted, and presented. Attention to operational definitions—consistent or otherwise, implicit forms of communication, and sociocultural relationships and interactions, including any purported causal and risk factors were investigated. This study identified categorical constructs related to sexual minority microaggressions, tools for design of an assessment measure, and a methodological approach, served to validate and substantiate a future proposed measurement using additional studies were discussed and recommended.</p>
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