Minority Stress: What Is It And How Does It Affect People?
The aversion towards homosexual men and women is known as homophobia, although this term has also been applied to refer to contempt towards other members who also represent sexual diversity, such as bisexuals or transsexuals. This is associated with a degrading, discriminatory, offensive or unfavorable attitude towards a person due to their sexual orientation The hatred and irrational fear that homophobic people experience towards homosexual individuals is the driving force behind violence and discrimination towards this group. Although in many countries these hateful behaviors are punishable by law, there are still places on the planet where what is punished is not discrimination, but the very fact of being homosexual.
Although important progress has been made in the Western world in terms of rights for the LGTBIQ+ community, the truth is that there is still much to do. The people belonging to this group have been walking a difficult path, to say the least, full of obstacles and a lot of pain. The activism of the members of the collective is what has allowed them to maintain a firm and demanding attitude, without which the rights achieved today would continue to be a utopia.
Thanks to this movement it has been possible for non-heterosexual people to start living without asking permission or giving explanations. However, this does not mean that everything has passed and that discrimination no longer exists. There are many people who continue to live without openly recognizing who they are for fear of stigma who lack references around them or do not even feel they have the right to show their love for another person if they are of the same sex.
Discrimination is incompatible with leading a full and happy life. And feeling despised is one of the things that weighs the most and hurts the most. As social beings that we are, we require the support of our group. If this does not appear, our stress levels skyrocket and we live in a permanent state of alert. This phenomenon, known as minority stress, is the core of this article.
Fortunately, today homophobic violence receives social condemnation that was unthinkable a few years ago However, hate and explicit discrimination against sexual minorities is something that has begun to be eradicated a few years ago. Although it may seem unreal to us today, the truth is that in the sixties homosexuality was included as a psychiatric disorder in reference manuals. In fact, the word homophobia was used for the first time in this same decade by psychoanalyst George Weinberg, a pioneer in identifying the presence of this type of violence among mental health professionals.
Until that moment, homophobia had not even had a name. It was not considered a relevant problem, the pain that people from the LGTBIQ+ community endured every day was completely ignored. Weinberg compensated for that gap and therefore his term began to quickly gain a lot of popularity, being immediately used in all journalistic, scientific and political media.
Since that moment, the achievement of rights by the group has been increasing. It began to be recognized that homophobia not only encompasses individual violent actions, but also discrimination by governments, states and large organizations. Already in the early seventies, a key event took place known as the revolt of the guests of the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan. There, for the first time, there was an explicit rebellion by non-heterosexual citizens, who demanded the same rights that the oppressive system in which they lived had taken away from them
Today, there are numerous LGTBIQ+ associations that work tirelessly to combat the scourge of homophobia. On this path of vindication there have been many obstacles, but goals have also been achieved that a few decades ago were impossible dreams. An example of this is the legalization of homosexual marriage in many countries, as well as the criminalization of certain homophobic behaviors.
This fight is extremely necessary, since existing suffering from violence and discrimination is incompatible with living a meaningful, full and happy life. This is why people belonging to sexual minorities show a greater risk than the general population of suffering from mental health problems. Accepting oneself necessarily requires having been accepted and loved unconditionally. Living with contempt for who you are is a punishment that no one should suffer. Studies on this issue have contributed to give shape to the term “minority stress”, which refers to the emotional response derived from the discrimination suffered by people from the LGBTIQ+ group
The term stress is familiar to everyone today. Despite its bad reputation, the stress response is necessary for our survival. It is thanks to it that we become alert to possible dangers and react to preserve our safety. However, when this reaction continues over time without ever returning to calm, it can be devastating to health.
People who belong to the LGTBIQ+ group start from a disadvantageous situation compared to the rest of society. The discrimination that they usually suffer in many aspects of life makes them feel higher and sustained levels of stress for a long time That is why a specific concept has been developed to talk about the stress response in this group of the population.
Ian Meyer was the pioneering author who decided to talk about the psychological impact that discrimination has on people belonging to sexual minorities. He observed that these individuals suffered enormously due to rejection, prejudice, and lack of rights compared to the rest of the population. Meyer proposed his theoretical model in 2003, with the aim of identifying those stressors that most affect the psychological discomfort of these people. This allowed us to understand their painful reality in a much more specific way, since these are specific stressors that have no effect on the rest of the population.
Stressful experiences associated with minority stress
Meyer identified some stressful experiences common to the majority of people in the LGTBIQ+ community. Let’s go see them.
1. Discrimination
People belonging to sexual minorities are often familiar with discrimination. They have felt rejection from other people, whether colleagues, friends or even their own family. This generates intense suffering associated with emotions such as guilt or shame
2. Negative expectations
Given that they frequently suffer discrimination and in various scenarios, people in the group often end up developing a negative view of relationships, with clear expectations of rejection. This makes it difficult for them to get one hundred percent involved in their relationships of any kind, because they fear that the rejection they have experienced before will be repeated again. The environment is presented as threatening, untrustworthy and even frightening.
The people in the group get used to living in hiding, hiding who they really are for fear of what could happen if they truly expose themselves. Their experiences of discrimination have taught them that the safest thing to do is to show a mask to the outside that fits what is expected of them Needless to say, a life based on repression and fear cannot be happy or full.
4. Internalized homophobia
When the people around them, including their own family, show rejection towards the person, it is expected that they themselves will internalize that hatred as their own. This is known as internalized homophobia, an experience that leads the individual to not accept who they are, showing a very negative relationship with themselves. Internalized homophobia can be so intense that it leads the person to hate the LGTBIQ+ group, since they see in it everything about themselves that they associate with rejection. It can also condition some serious decisions, such as trying to modify her sexual condition through pseudotherapies.
5. Uncertainty, ambivalence and learned helplessness
People belonging to sexual minorities can show marked ambivalence, that is, a permanent doubt about whether to show themselves as they are or not. Whatever they do, they feel like they are losing. If they expose themselves without masks, they risk being rejected. On the other hand, if they choose to hide, they assume a life based on fear and repression Therefore, a kind of learned helplessness develops that makes them feel vulnerable and unable to control what happens around them.
