Gay Mental Health: Mental Health Issu Facg Gay Men | HealthyPlace

Contents:

• A SECRET GAY HISTORY OF UK PNAGE: ‘THE SKILL-SET OF HOMOSEXUALS AND SPI OVERLAPPED’
• LBIAN UPLE W IVF ‘GAY TAX’ BATTLE
• RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN
• ESTATE AGENT JAILED FOR VIC ATTACK ON TWO GAY MEN HOLDG HANDS
• DEPRSN IS KILLG GAY MEN
• HOMOSEXUALS AND DEPRSN: HELP FOR GAYS WH DEPRSN
• PRSURE TO KEEP UP: STAT IMBALANCE A MAJOR FACTOR STRS GAY MEN
• GAY MENTAL HEALTH: MENTAL HEALTH ISSU FACG GAY MEN
• DEPRSN AND SUICIDALY GAY MEN: IMPLITNS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIRS

A SECRET GAY HISTORY OF UK PNAGE: ‘THE SKILL-SET OF HOMOSEXUALS AND SPI OVERLAPPED’

The seri, which last year was distilled to the thrillg book Bad Gays: A Homosexual History, apprais a sometim roguish gallery that clus the Roman emperor Hadrian, Lawrence of Arabia, Lord Castlereagh, Morrissey, Roger Casement, Freddie Mercury and Francis date, Lemmey and his -prenter Ben Miller are the only historians to properly evaluate the “evil twk energy” of Bosie, aka Lord Aled Douglas, the thor of Osr Wil’s downfall. “The fil started to e out my teens, and to see that English relatnship wh sexualy om 20 years ago, and this sire to look for a figure who rencil the story of homosexual inty England to the Brish state such a way that acknowledg what the Brish state did to a certa extent – but then also valoris the Brish state by sayg he was a hero for Bra and this is how we treated him and, actually, now he’s on the £50 note. It’s no accint that the film is narrated by Whishaw, the 007 veteran and London Spy gay subtexts of John le Carré’s ld-war-era spy fictns The Spy Who Came om the Cold and Tker Tailor Soldier Spy have been ma more explic recent adaptatns.

LBIAN UPLE W IVF ‘GAY TAX’ BATTLE

*Government lays ban for five years*Prsure on Sunak to act*LGBTQ+ activists fear loophol*Campaigners divid over trans rightsBy Lucy MiddletonLONDON, July 20 (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - When Alex me out as gay, the 15-year-old’s parents issued a stark ultimatum: unrgo nversn therapy or clear out of the fay home the northern English cy of chose optn one and unrwent multiple ssns wh elrs om the fay’s Jehovah’s Wns ngregatn, seekg a ‘cure’ for homosexualy. A ernment survey showed that more than half of Brons who had tried nversn therapy were offered through a relig group, almost 12% were signposted by a health re Ozanne, a gay evangelil her 50s who chairs the UK’s Ban Conversn Therapy Coaln, sought treatment her 20s and 30s, after fallg love wh a procs led to hospal admissn for a nervo breakdown.

A lbian uple who lnched a legal battle over equali IVF treatment between heterosexual and same-sex upl have dropped their fight after their lol re board pledged to make treatment sts media fluencers Megan and Whney Ban-Evans lnched a landmark “gay tax” discrimatn se after NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB) said same-sex upl, sgle women and upl unable to have vagal terurse would have to pay for 12 rounds of IVF before qualifyg for NHS assistance.

Image source, Emma RileyImage ptn, Rad operator Emma Riley was discharged om the Navy for beg a lbian the 1990sRishi Sunak has apologised for the historil treatment of LGBT veterans who were sacked or forced out of the ary for beg PM lled the ban an "appallg failure" of the Brish was illegal to be gay the Brish ary until 2000 - wh thoands of veterans thought to be affected. Acrdg to the report, the Mistry of Defence said at the time that jtifitn for the policy clud "matenance of operatnal effectivens and efficiency" - but the report said there had been an "prehensible policy of homophobic bigotry" the armed forc.

RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN

It heard shockg acunts of homophobia, bullyg, blackmail, sexual asslts, "disgraceful" medil examatns, and nversn mak 49 remendatns to the ernment cludg:Affected veterans to be given an "appropriate fancial reward" pped at £50m overallThe rtoratn of medals that had to be hand back on dismissal or dischargeThe clarifitn of pensn rights The prentatn of a special veterans' badgeThe ernment said would rpond full after summer of the veterans affected watched the PM's public of them, Emma Riley, 51, was a Royal Navy rad operator for three years before she was arrted and discharged for beg a lbian after tellg a lleague her sexualy the early told BBC News she weled the report, and hoped would be put to place "swiftly.

"Olympian Dame Kelly Holm, who served the army and me out as gay last year, lled the publitn of the report a "historic moment", while Cathere Dixon, a former army officer who is now vice chair at Stonewall, said was "an important step towards jtice" for those whose ary reers were "ed" bee of their sexualy. Many still have a crimal rerd to this also tails how some veterans faced a plete loss of e, while others were emed eligible to claim their pensn bee of their report more than 20 years after four servicemen and women, who were sacked for beg gay, won a se the European Court of Human Rights and overturned the armed forc chary Royal Brish Legn lled on the ernment to accept the report's remendatns chary's director general Charl Byrne weled both the report and Mr Sunak's "landmark apology", sayg many people who had dited their liv to the untry were "forced or felt prsured to leave the armed forc, and this mistreatment stroyed or shortened their reer". The 2013 fifth edn of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's Diagnostic and Statistil Manual (DSM) f prsn clilly as a prsive mood or loss of tert or pleasure nearly all activi over a two-week perd, along wh four of the symptoms: “chang appete or weight, sleep, and psychomotor activy; creased energy; feelgs of worthlsns or guilt; difficulty thkg, ncentratg, or makg cisns; or recurrent thoughts of ath or suicidal iatn or suici plans or attempts.

ESTATE AGENT JAILED FOR VIC ATTACK ON TWO GAY MEN HOLDG HANDS

Health re provirs workg wh gay men should first tablish rapport and tst by displayg empathy and not makg assumptns about an dividual’s behavr and sexual choic based on generalizatns about “all” gay men. Speakg openly and ankly about the disproportnate impact of prsn on gay men, and prrizg our mental health and well-beg, we n chase that big gray elephant out of the room—and keep om harmg any more of . The persistence of mental health hardships among gay and bisexual men, which endure even as LGBTQ people ga greater acceptance and civil rights, n be explaed at least part by the rrosive effects of stat nscns, petivens and racism wh the gay muny are the strikg and potentially ntroversial fdgs of a study published January the Journal of Personaly and Social Psychology that may broan appreciatn of the unique strsors faced by gay and bisexual and lbian people have a more than fourfold higher rate of suici than the general populatn.

Pachankis and his lleagu found that the strs gay and bisexual men reported experiencg related to their muny’s preoccupatn wh sex, stat and petn, as well as racism wh their ranks, was associated wh promised mental health, pecially for those lower on the gay-stat totem nnectns held even when the vtigators ntrolled for tradnal factors tied to the strs of beg a stigmatized sexual mory as well as general life study culmated wh a seri of experiments which gay and bisexual men participated a chat room wh other men. When the participants experienced rejectn om gay or bisexual men they perceived to be of superr stat, bee of a higher level of masculy, attractivens and e, this proved particularly a stat imbalance did not tensify feelgs of rejectn if the higher-stat man was straight.

Rejectn om gay and bisexual peers, Pachankis found a follow-up study soon to be published the Annals of Behavral Medice, was also associated wh an creased likelihood that men would engage sex that put them at risk for fdg reveals an apparent bld spot HIV preventn.

DEPRSN IS KILLG GAY MEN

Th, any subculture posed entirely of the male sex – thk the NFL or a at hoe – is likely to be trsilly stat gay male culture, such petn is pound by the fact that members pete for social and sexual ga and for sex wh each other. Body-nsc gay men often go to extensive lengths to outmatch petors and attract higher-stat efforts n give rise to body dysmorphia, eatg disorrs and harmful e of anabolic steroids, says Aaron Blashill of San Diego State Universy, who rearch body image among men who have sex wh men his studi rarely report, he says, “‘I had a really difficult week bee someone lled me a fag. ”‘No silver bullet’Historilly, most psychologil rearch to health and mental health dispari among sexual mori has foced on the trma of growg up and livg a homophobic 1957, psychologist Evelyn Hooker published a groundbreakg study that found homosexuals were psychologilly healthy, parable to heterosexuals that regard.

“This paper and this work on tra-gay muny strs, ” Meyer says, “is fely potg to a problem that LGBTQ advot and muny centers and people who al wh therapy or rcg distrs the muni need to pay attentn to. ”Pachankis, Meyer and others have neverthels exprsed ncern that the new fdgs may be misnsted or even liberately misread and manipulated to serve an age-old narrative characterizg homosexualy as herently damagg. ”Skyler Jackson, a postdoctoral fellow unr Pachankis who studi tersectnaly, says he hop that “ addn to makg a splash the general arena of LGBTQ health – and gay and bisexual men’s health specifilly – gay muny strs theory may generate new rearch directns among many other populatns that are at risk for tramory strs.

”To unter the imprsn that membership the gay world is overwhelmgly leter, Pachankis emphasiz gay men’s nsirable rilience and creativy the face of great hardship and the myriad means by which gay men provi mutual rg and support agast life strsors.

HOMOSEXUALS AND DEPRSN: HELP FOR GAYS WH DEPRSN

The majory of MSM [men who have sex wh men] are highly rilient and able to pe succsfully wh many negative life strsors, such as those associated wh homophobia and discrimatn;"1 however, this don't mean that there aren't specific gay mental health challeng. Related to this, gay men’s health has often been fed by sexual practic, and poorly unrstood are the tersectns of gay men’s physil and mental health wh social termants of health cludg ethnicy, lole, tn level, and socenomic stat.

In the current article summated is lerature addrsg risk factors for prsn and suicidaly among gay men cludg fay acceptance of their sexual inti, social hn and belongg, ternalized stigma, and victimizatn. Keywords: gay men’s health, prsn, suicidaly, men’s health, men’s help seekgIntroductnDeprsn is prevalent among gay men, where gay men are three tim more likely to experience prsn pared wh the general adult populatn (Cox, 2006; Kg et al., 2008).

PRSURE TO KEEP UP: STAT IMBALANCE A MAJOR FACTOR STRS GAY MEN

Wh this ntext, there is strong evince that gay men are more likely than heterosexual men to experience suicidaly (Brennan, Ross, Dobson, Veldhuizen, & Steele, 2010; Hott, Bogaert, Rhos, Brennan, & Gk, 2016; Kg et al., 2008). In terms of potential of prsn and suicidaly gay men, relatnship problems, acceptg one’s homosexualy, experiencg homophobia, stutnal discrimatn, and alienatn om gay muni have been reported as unrpng issu (Cox, 2006; Haas et al., 2011; Wang, Plörl, Hӓermann, & Weiss, 2015) rearch exists about gay men’s health beyond sexual health issu, most often HIV (Hott, Ferlatte, & Gk, 2014).

Though gay men self-report that they rank mental health as one of their top health ncerns (Grov, Ventuneac, Renda, Jimenez, & Parsons, 2013) prsn and suicidaly the liv of gay men are poorly unrstood (Haas et al., 2011; Kg et al., 2008). DeprsnDeprsn is fed clilly as the experience of a prsive mood or loss of tert or pleasure nearly all activi over a 2-week perd, along wh four of the followg symptoms: “chang appete or weight, sleep, and psychomotor activy; creased energy; feelgs of worthlsns or guilt; difficulty thkg, ncentratg, or makg cisns; or recurrent thoughts of ath or suicidal iatn or suici plans or attempts” (Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, 2013).

(2008) noted that general practners ed anxiety-related symptoms to intify addnal signs of prsn gay terms of e–effect and triggers for prsn, a range of factors have been tailed, many of which are tertwed wh the strs that n acpany beg part of socially margalized gay muni (Mays & Cochran, 2001; Meyer, 1995, 2003). In the specific ntext of prejudice events, which refers to the multiple forms of antigay vlence and discrimatn (Meyer, 2003), a Canadian study reported that 47% of gay men had experienced harassment, 42% bullyg, 16. Young gay men n experience prejudice their fay the form of rejectn, often after disclosg their sexual orientatn durg adolcence, which turn n heighten young men’s risk for prsn (Ryan, Huebner, Diaz, & Sanchez, 2009) expectatns of discrimatn and homophobic rejectn n also negatively affect gay men’s mental health (Hatzenbuehler, 2009; Meyer, 2003).

GAY MENTAL HEALTH: MENTAL HEALTH ISSU FACG GAY MEN

For example, an Amerin study of gay men, those who perceived creased homophobia and the world as dangero for gay men were more likely to report prsive symptoms (Hatzenbuehler, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Erickson, 2008). Self-acceptance is therefore a cril element for gay men’s well-beg, as is beg accepted by others (Ash & Mackereth, 2013) addn to the four factors tailed Meyer’s (1995, 2003) mory strs mol, a lack of acceptance and rejectn om the gay muny n also crease the risk for gay men’s prsn. Particularly at risk of rejectn om other gay men are men livg wh HIV (Courtenay-Quirk, Wolski, Parsons, Gómez, & Seroposive Urban Men’s Study Team, 2006) as well as men om racial/ethnic mory groups (Bowleg, 2012; Haile, Rowell-Cunsolo, Parker, Padilla, & Hansen, 2014; Riggs, 2012).

Gay men livg wh HIV are also at creased risk for prsn across the entire illns trajectory cludg diagnosis of HIV, iatn of HIV treatment, treatment failure, diagnosis of AIDS, and/or havg a iend diagnosed wh AIDS (Körner et al., 2008). Health re provirs workg wh HIV posive gay men have nfirmed that the isolatn and loss of social relatnships and fay support experienced as a rult of this health stat are signifint triggers for prsn (Körner et al., 2008) men who belong to an ethnic mory are at higher risk for prsn.

Prsure to nform to such rigid genr norms creat unique discrimatory environments (Guareno, 2007), and gay Hispanic men report higher rat of fay rejectn and negative mental health out pared wh their Csian male unterparts (Ryan et al., 2009). An Amerin study of gay Hispanic men reported homophobic experienc durg childhood, cludg beg told that gays are not normal people (91%), amid harborg beliefs that their sexual orientatn would hurt and embarrass their fay (70%; Diaz et al., 2001).

DEPRSN AND SUICIDALY GAY MEN: IMPLITNS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIRS

A study by De Santis, Col, Vasquez, and McCa (2008) wh predomantly gay Hispanic (75%) men reported siar issu notg that gay Hispanic men who had prsive symptoms were likely to engage sexual practic wh high risks for exposure to HIV. Rearch regardg HIV posive gay men and/or ethnic mory gay men is emergent (De Santis et al., 2008) and future work might efully foc on intifyg and addrsg the unique prsn risk factors among the vulnerable subgroups as a means to improvg their mental and physil health.

Prejudice events, cludg the experience of verbal threats and sults, havg property damaged, and beg physilly or sexually asslted, has been intified as risk factors for suici among gay youth (Mtanski & Liu, 2012) and adults (Ferlatte et al., 2015). In a study wh 350 lbian, gay, and bisexual participants younger than age 21, gay men experienced signifintly more verbal attacks, threats of vlence, and objects thrown at them (D’Augelli, Pilkgton, & Hershberger, 2002).