Although group facilitators should become familiar with all nine social justice competencies, the first four are most relevant to the issues addressed here (Constantine et al., 2007). The first competency encourages counselors to become aware of the different ways that oppression and social inequities can impact various systems (i.e., individual, institutional), as well as how these injustices may be experienced by individuals, groups, and so forth. In the case example described above, a social justice-oriented group facilitator should be aware of the various ways in which heterosexism is manifested in U.S. society (i.e., the fact that Massachusetts is the only state that recognizes same-sex marriages), and how institutional discrimination affects the worldviews of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gendered (LGBT) group members. It would also be important for the group facilitator to know how welcoming his community is towards LGBT individuals. It is possible that the gay male client and the facilitator live in a town where there is a high level of homophobia. For instance, the town may have a history of authorities ignoring hate crimes against individuals perceived to be LGBT. This would be critical information for group facilitators to have because it would help them contextualize the client’s reluctance to engage in a group composed of residents from the town.