Mental health, minority stress, and the Australian Marriage Law postal survey: A longitudinal study.

Abstract

Research indicates that marriage equality legislation is associated with improved mental health outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people. However, the public debate that often precedes such legislation may exacerbate psychological distress and minority stress. In 2017, the Australian Federal Government conducted a national survey to gauge support for marriage equality. The present study investigated the mental health of a sample of LGBTQ people during and after this survey period. A sample of 2,220 LGBTQ participants completed measures of psychological distress and minority stress during the survey period. Participants were invited for follow-up 1 week, 3 months, and 12 months after the postal survey results were announced. Data were analyzed using linear mixed models to evaluate change in psychological distress and minority stress across time points, and the influence of exposure to the marriage equality debate, sexual identity, and gender identity on psychological distress and minority stress. Reported symptoms of psychological distress and minority stress significantly decreased following the postal survey period. Greater exposure to the marriage equality campaign was associated with greater psychological distress and perceived stigma but not internalized stigma. Sexual and gender identity subgroups significantly differed on outcome variable means. This study documents the longitudinal effects on a minority group of a public vote and the enactment of legislation regarding their human rights. The results suggest the postal survey served as a significant stressor to Australia's LGBTQ community. Implications for policy and clinical practice are discussed. Public Policy Relevance StatementExposure to campaigns to deny marriage rights to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people has been associated with greater psychological distress for this community. This longitudinal study considers the case of Australia, in which marriage equality legislation was recently passed following a public debate and vote on the topic. The findings suggest that this debate and vote represented a period of heightened stress for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people, and that direct democracy approaches to determining the rights of minority groups have serious implications for the well-being of members of those groups. R elative to the general population, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people are more vulnerable to developing psychological disorders (Bostwick, Boyd, Hughes, West, & McCabe, 2014). For example, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people have 1.5 times the risk of developing a mood or anxiety disorder compared with the general population (King et al., 2008). These poorer mental health outcomes are generally held to be due to minority stress, or the experience of living in a stigmatizing social environment (Meyer, 1995(Meyer, , 2003. Researchers have proposed that marriage equality, being the extension of civil marriage rights to all couples, ...

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