Intolerant Society Contributes to Mental Disorders among LGBT
[Please not this article -is not- about homosexuality being a mental disorder, it is about how social environment contributes to mental disorders]
By Neal Broverman
History books will remember 2015 as a turning point for LGBT rights, when national marriage equality went from hazy dream to solid reality. The fact that the same year the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage 115 anti-LGBT bills were introduced across the country, and 160 the following year, likely won't be recalled as clearly. Except, of course, by the people targeted by them.
Many like to think of antigay Kentucky clerk Kim Davis — who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and was briefly jailed for her intransigence — as a historical footnote, but the scores of antigay "religious discrimination" bills she inspired will have an effect on LGBT people far beyond what county office or florist they can patronize. In the same vein, the dozens of proposed anti-trans "bathroom bills" and an antidiscrimination ordinance voted down in the country's fourth-largest city trickle down into the self-worth of millions of queer Americans, especially impressionable youth.
Study after study shows LGBT Americans suffer from mental health disorders at rates far exceeding heterosexual people — depression strikes gay men at six times the rate of straight men; nearly half of transgender people encounter symptoms of anxiety and depression; lesbians and bisexual women also deal with higher rates of mental health struggles than their straight sisters, with bisexual women faring even worse than lesbians. LGB youth are four times more likely, and questioning youth three times more likely, to attempt suicide as their straight peers; 41 percent of transgender people have attempted to end their lives.
Health professionals see a direct parallel between these findings and government-backed prejudice.
"Everyone understands that social stigma and discrimination against LGBT people can be hurtful, but they imagine the wounds are minimal and emotional," says Liz Margolies, a psychotherapist and the executive director of the National LGBT Cancer Network. "They are not ... they lead to mental illness, heart disease and death."
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http://www.advocate.com/health/2016/3/18/how-our-intolerant-society-contributes-lgbt-mental-disorders
