Lesbian, gay male, bisexual, queer, and other sexual minority (LGBQ+) individuals as well as ethnic minority individuals experience minority stress and demonstrate higher prevalence rates of mental disorders than heterosexual and ethnically privileged individuals. According to the intersectional invisibility theory, individuals with two minority identities experience less discrimination than expected from both minority identities alone, but also less representation and recognition in their communities. We compared minority stress and mental health problems in a sexually and ethnically diverse sample. The participants included n = 137 ethnic minority LGBQ+, n = 686 ethnically privileged LGBQ+, n = 87 ethnic minority heterosexual, and n = 405 ethnically privileged heterosexual individuals. They reported everyday discrimination, victimization based on their sexual and ethnic identities, internalized negativity based on the same, as well as mental health problems. In a moderated mediation analysis, we found that both minority identities predicted minority stress and that minority stress in turn predicted mental health problems. In addition, intersecting minority identities interacted with the predictions, predicting lower everyday discrimination and higher internalized negativity. Everyday discrimination was only slightly lessened by intersectionality, leaving the experiences of everyday discrimination in sexual and ethnic minority individuals higher than those of single minority individuals. Our findings suggest that ethnic minority LGBQ+ individuals should be considered a high risk group for minority stress and mental health problems. Strategies should be developed to reduce minority stress in this group, such as introducing intersectional anti-discrimination laws and educating therapists about intersectionality and its consequences.

Lesbians, gay men, and bisexual individuals (LGB) exhibit higher prevalence rates of mental disorders than heterosexual individuals. Furthermore, sexual identity stressors (stress based on the true sexual identity) are known to predict mental health problems in LGBs. In this study we investigated whether sexual identity stress assessed in both LGB and heterosexual individuals mediates the prediction of sexual identity coinciding with mental health problems, and whether heterosexuals suffer from sexual identity stress, too. In this study n = 787 identified LGB and n = 492 identified heterosexual individuals reported their perceived sexual identity stressors (victimization, rejection sensitivity, and internalized negativity) as well as mental health problems in a German online survey in 2015. While LGBs reported more sexual identity stress than heterosexuals, some heterosexuals also reported sexual identity stress. Our regression models revealed that sexual identity predicted mental health problems significantly, although perceived sexual identity stress mediated this association completely. While LGBs experience more sexual identity stressors than heterosexuals, some heterosexuals are subjected to such stressors also. As sexual identity stressors entirely mediated the association between sexual identity and mental health problems, we maintain that reducing sexual identity stress may improve mental health overall and decrease disparities between LGBs and heterosexuals.

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