Impact of the Australian marriage equality postal survey and debate on psychological distress among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer/questioning people and allies

Abstract

Objective: In August 2017, the Australian Government announced a voluntary, non-binding postal survey to seek opinion on the legal recognition of same-sex marriage. The government encouraged public debate on the issue. This study sought to identify impacts of the Australian postal survey and associated marriage equality debate on psychological distress experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer/questioning (LGBTIQ) people and their allies. Method:LGBTIQ identified people (n = 5,742) and people who identified as allies of LGBTIQ (n = 1,648) were recruited via social media to complete an online questionnaire administered during the survey and debate period. Participants completed demographic items, and measures of debate-related stress, prior experiences of depression, stress and anxiety, prior stressful life events, and psychological distress. Results:LGBTIQ people and allies reported high levels of debate-related stress, which was moderately and positively correlated with psychological distress. Comparison of means and correlation coefficients, and a preliminary multiple regression model suggested that LGBTIQ and allies experienced debate-related stress differently. Therefore, separate hierarchical regressions were performed for the groups. Debate-related stress accounted for unique variance in psychological distress in each group after accounting for prior life stress, prior psychological distress, and demographic variables. Conclusions: Debate-related stress predicted psychological distress for both LGBTIQ people and allies. Findings suggest that the marriage equality debate represented an acute external minority stress event that had measurable negative impacts on mental health of LGBTIQ people and their allies.

Minority Stress, Campaign Messages and Political Participation during the Australian Marriage Plebiscite

“…We found that exposure to negative campaign messages had a detrimental effect in addition to everyday stress, in agreement with the previous literature (Ecker et al, 2019;Frost & Fingerhut, 2016;Verrelli et al, 2019). However, this detrimental effect did not persist when controlling for known minority stressors (such as everyday discrimination, expectations of rejection and internalized homophobia); we thus provide some clarity on the role of negative campaign messages in the minority stress model, a question that was unaddressed (e.g., Ecker et al, 2019) or only partially addressed (e.g., Rostosky et al, 2009) in the previous literature. Second, we explored the possibility that political participation during the campaign might buffer LGB people from the detrimental effects of negative campaign messages.…”

“…Indeed, exposure to negative campaign messages decreased emotional and relational wellbeing in a small sample of American same-sex couples (Frost & Fingerhut, 2016) during a recent wave of state-level marriage referenda. The same effect was found in two large Australian samples during the postal vote campaign we study in this paper (Ecker, Riggle, Rostosky, & Byrnes, 2019;Verrelli, White, Harvey, & Pulciani, 2019). However, we know relatively little about the extent and mechanisms of this effect.…”

“…Specifically, it is not known if negative campaign messages have an effect on psychological distress above and beyond other minority stress variables: Frost and Fingerhut (2016) found an effect of negative messages on wellbeing, but did not examine the role of other minority stressors. Verrelli et al (2019) and Ecker et al (2019) replicated this finding in large Australian samples. Rostosky et al (2009), on the other hand, integrated exposure to negative campaign messages into a more complex model and found no effect on distress.…”

A qualitative exploration of the impact of the marriage equality debate on same‐sex attracted Australians and their allies

“…Taken together, these findings are revealing a pattern of sexual minority stress effects on non‐heterosexual individuals. While the effects of debate‐related stress were stronger for LGBTIQ people than for allies (Ecker, Riggle, et al, 2019; Ecker, Rostosky, et al, 2019) and for same‐sex attracted gender diverse individuals than opposite‐sex attracted gender diverse individuals, these studies provides evidence for the impact of sexual minority stress on heterosexual individuals. The second major aim of this article is to add to this literature by conducting an in‐depth qualitative exploration to establish the range of the impacts of the postal survey and the surrounding debate on allies.…”

“…A large‐scale study from Australia collected data during the period of the postal survey debate ( n = 7,390) explored the relationship between debate‐specific stress and general psychological distress in a sample of self‐identifying LGBTIQ people (78%) and their allies (22%; Ecker, Riggle, Rostosky, & Byrnes, 2019). They found that debate‐specific stress was the strongest predictor of psychological distress for both the LGBTIQ individuals ( sr 2 = .23) and their allies ( sr 2 = .14) in their sample.…”