Internalized Homophobia and Relatnship Qualy among Lbians, Gay Men, and Bisexuals - PMC

Contents:

• AM I GAY?
• ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER
• INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA AND RELATNSHIP QUALY AMONG LBIANS, GAY MEN, AND BISEXUALS

AM I GAY?

Internalized homophobia n be fed as the tenncy of some lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ) dividuals to regularly validate, margalize, and/or opprs their own or other LGBTQ members’ sexual orientatn, sexual inty, self-worth, dividual exprsns, and human rights. While some LGBTQ dividuals may ocsnally dabble the followg behavrs, which might not be a ser issue, someone wh strong ternalized homophobia will routely engage one or more of the pathologi (dysfunctns) below, while remag largely unaware of (or unncerned wh) the tangible and psychologil damage done to onelf and others. Helpful rpons of a therapist treatg an dividual who is troubled about her or his same sex attractns clu helpg that person actively pe wh social prejudic agast homosexualy, succsfully rolve issu associated wh and rultg om ternal nflicts, and actively lead a happy and satisfyg life.

The phrase “g out” is ed to refer to several aspects of lbian, gay, and bisexual persons’ experienc: self-awarens of same-sex attractns; the tellg of one or a few people about the attractns; wispread disclosure of same-sex attractns; and intifitn wh the lbian, gay, and bisexual muny. I should also acknowledge there is bate wh the psychologil and scientific muny as to the extent that this impacts gay and lbian dividuals and if we should e the term "ternalized homophobia" or stead nstct and redirect our attentn stead towards "more salient issu of cultural and stutnalized heterosexism.

ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER

Those participants who reported their heterosexualy spe havg hidn same-sex sir were also the most likely to show hostily toward gay dividuals, cludg self-reported anti-gay attus, endorsement of anti-gay polici and discrimatn such as supportg harsher punishments for homosexuals. Theori of inty velopment among lbians, gay men, and bisexuals (LGB) suggt that ternalized homophobia is monly experienced the procs of LGB inty velopment and overg ternalized homophobia is sential to the velopment of a healthy self-ncept (Cass, 1979; Fgerhut, Pepl, & Hgavami, 2005; Mayfield, 2001; Rowen & Mallm, 2002; Troin, 1979; 1989).

Rearch has shown that ternalized homophobia has a negative impact on LGBs’ global self-ncept cludg mental health and well beg (Allen & Olon, 1999; Herek, Cogan, Gillis, & Glunt, 1998; Meyer & Dean, 1998; Rowen & Mallm, 2002) rearch on ternalized homophobia and mental health has adopted a mory strs perspective (DiPlacido, 1998; Meyer 1995; 2003a). For example, a strong sense of nnectedns to one’s mory muny n buffer the ill effects of mory and Dean (1998) have referred to ternalized homophobia as the most sid of the mory strs procs that, although stems om heterosexist social attus, n bee self-generatg and persist even when dividuals are not experiencg direct external valuatn.

INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA AND RELATNSHIP QUALY AMONG LBIANS, GAY MEN, AND BISEXUALS

Wh regard to romantic relatnships, Meyer and Dean (1998) monstrated that gay men wh higher levels of ternalized homophobia were ls likely to be timate relatnships, and when they were relatnships, they were more likely to report problems wh their partners than gay men wh lower levels of ternalized homophobia. Internalized homophobia has been lked to poor relatnship qualy wh both male and female same-sex relatnships (Balsam & Szymanski, 2005; Otis, Rostosky, Riggle, & Hamr, 2006) regard to non-romantic relatnships, ternalized homophobia n affect the qualy of LGB dividuals’ iendships, faial relatnships, and other social relatnships. Higher levels of ternalized homophobia are associated wh greater sexual prsn, sexual anxiety, sexual image ncern, and fear of sexualy as well as lower levels of sexual teem and sexual satisfactn and are predictive of sexual problems among gay and bisexual men (Dupras, 1994; Meyer, 1995).

Distguishg Internalized Homophobia om Its Out and CorrelatRearchers have disagreed about what nstut ternalized homophobia and how is distct om associated nstcts (Currie, Cunngham, & Fdlay, 2004; Meyer & Dean, 1998; Nungser, 1983; Ross & Rosser, 1996; Shildo, 1994: Szymanski & Chung, 2001).

Also, some have nsired prsn and suicidal thoughts (Nungser, 1983; Shildo, 1994) as well as hopelsns about one’s future (Szymanski & Chung, 2001) as part of ternalized homophobia bee, as we showed above, the are often associated wh ternalized mory strs mol differs om the perspectiv that nceptualiz ternalized homophobia and outns as two separate mory strsors and muny nnectedns as a mechanism for pg wh mory strs. Further, rearchers have yet to exame the unique ways which ternalized homophobia is related to relatnship problems LGB liv, pennt of prsive treatment of outns as an aspect of ternalized homophobia stems om psychologists’ view that g out is a posive velopmental stage LGB inty velopment (Cass, 1979).

But, we ntend, lack of outns should not be taken to dite the oppose and therefore should not be nceptualized as a part of ternalized homophobia (Eliason & Schope, 2007) out regardg one’s sexual orientatn follows self-acceptance, but even after pletely acceptg one’s self as lbian, gay, or bisexual, an LGB person may ci not to be out certa suatns. Th, lack of nnectn wh the muny is not necsarily a reflectn of ternalized homophobia and should be nsired as a separate nstct so that rearchers n tease apart the nstcts unrstandg their associatns wh relatnship associatns between ternalized homophobia, prsive symptoms, and relatnship qualy are obscured by nceptualizatns of ternalized homophobia that volve a nsirable amount of overlap wh prsive symptoms.

The fdgs are acrdance wh the mory strs mol, which nceptualiz ternalized homophobia as a mory strsor which mental health problems cludg prsive symptoms (Meyer, 2003a), however, have empirilly studied whether or not ternalized homophobia and prsive symptoms are penntly related to relatnship qualy (Biss & Horne, 2005). The fdgs suggt that ternalized homophobia may lead to creased prsive symptoms that, turn, rce relatnship Current StudyWe examed the associatn between ternalized homophobia and the qualy and closens of dividuals’ terpersonal relatnships wh iends and fay and wh romantic relatnships. Participants were eligible if they were 18–59 years-old, New York Cy rints for two years or more who uld munite English and self-intified as: a) lbian, gay, or bisexual; b) male or female; and c) whe, black or Lato (participants may have ed other inty terms referrg to the social groups).

MeasurInternalized homophobia (IHP) The IHP sle was origally veloped by Mart and Dean (1992) to asss the extent to which LGB dividuals reject their sexual orientatn, are uneasy about their same-sex sir, and seek to avoid same-sex attractns and sexual feelgs (Herek & Glunt, 1995; Meyer, 1995; Meyer & Dean, 1998).

Although there is no published data explicly addrsg the validy of this measure, the current study nnectedns to the LGB muny was signifintly negatively rrelated wh ternalized homophobia and outns (see Table 1) and signifintly posively rrelated wh the number of LGB-related muny or recreatnal groups participants were members of or active (measured by a 9-em checklist veloped by Mills et al., 2001 for the UMHS; r =. Three parcels were created for each of the followg sl: Internalized Homohpobia (two, 3-em parcels, and one, 2-em parcel); Center for Epimlogil Studi –Deprsn sle (two, 7-em parcels, and one, 6-em parcel); muny nnectedns (two, 3-em parcels, and one, 2-em parcel); and relatnship stra for upled participants only (two, 2-em parcels and one, 3-em parcel). To rrect for this problem, we ed a bootstrappg procre (Bollen & Ste, 1992; 1993) AMOS® to lculate (a) the average standardized path efficients, their standard errors, and associated probabily valu based on timat om 10, 000 sampl dawn randomly om the 396 participants the study, and (b) the Bollen-Ste adjted probabily valu for the chi-square tts of mol Tts of the Associatn between Internalized Homophobia and Relatnship ProblemsAt each step the SEM analys ttg the relatnship between ternalized homophobia and relatnship problems, we f mols separately2 for (a) all participants the study (N = 396) wh a latent oute of relatnship problems, and (b) upled participants only (n = 184) wh a latent oute of relatnship stra.

In our scriptn of the mols below, we e the suffix a to refer to mols tted among all participants the study and b to refer to mols tted among upled participants all participants the study, we observed a signifint unntrolled direct effect of ternalized homophobia on relatnship problems, β =. However, we also showed that outns, muny nnectedns, and prsive symptoms are important to nsir as factors pennt of ternalized hypothized, the direct effects of ternalized homophobia signifintly attenuated when we acunted for the mediatg role of prsn, suggtg that ternalized homophobia leads to relatnship problems primarily by creasg prsive symptoms.

By theorizg and analyzg ternalized homophobia and s mental health out at the same level, rearchers misreprent the nature of the relatnship between the two nstcts, obscurg the medatnal role of mental health out the associatn between ternalized homophobia and relatnship qualy.