"Here in the Bible Belt, It's Predominantly Negative": Sexual Identity Stigma in the American South, 50 Years After Stonewall

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and pansexual (LGB+) individuals have disproportionate rates of mental illness. Minority stress and sexual identity stigma are posited as the primary social determinants of LGB+ mental health disparities. Discussions in the literature have questioned the impact of sexual iden...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inFrontiers in psychology Vol. 12; p. 804064
Main Authors Frey, Joseph J, Hall, William J, Goldbach, Jeremy T, Lanier, Paul
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 21.12.2021
Subjects
LGBTQ
minority stress
Psychology
sexual identity
sexual orientation
stigma
United States South
minority stress
United States South
sexual identity
stigma
LGBTQ
qualitative
sexual orientation
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Summary:Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and pansexual (LGB+) individuals have disproportionate rates of mental illness. Minority stress and sexual identity stigma are posited as the primary social determinants of LGB+ mental health disparities. Discussions in the literature have questioned the impact of sexual identity stigma in a world increasingly accepting of sexual minorities. Additionally, the LGB+ population in the United States South is often overlooked in American research. This article details a qualitative study exploring experiences related to sexual identity stigma among adults who identify as LGB+ in the United States South. Semi-structured interviews with 16 individuals were analyzed using content analysis. Six thematic categories of stigma emerged from participants' experiences: (a) navigating an LGB+ identity, (b) social acceptability of an LGB+ identity, (c) expectation of LGB+ stigma, (d) interpersonal discrimination and harassment, (e) structural stigma, and (f) relationship with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Findings suggest that sexual identity stigma remains a common experience among these Southern United States participants. Further, thematic categories and subcategories primarily aligned with extant theory with one exception: Intracommunity stigma, a form of stigma emanating from the LGBTQ community, emerged as a stigma type not currently accounted for in theoretical foundations underpinning mental health disparities in this population.
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Edited by: Marco Salvati, University of Verona, Italy
This article was submitted to Gender, Sex and Sexualities, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
Reviewed by: Fau Rosati, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; Flora Gatti, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.804064