The Impact of Trauma and Minority Stress for LGBTQ+ People

Trauma can affect anyone.

Certain groups, like people in the LGBTQ+ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) are more likely to go through trauma. This includes bullying, discrimination, and unfair treatment in work, school, and other community spaces. These experiences can lead to increased stress and trauma.

As we honor Pride Month, it is important to talk about these topics – not only to help people learn more, but to better understand the challenges LGBTQ+ community members face. We want to focus on finding ways to be supportive, make real changes, and break barriers so that everyone can feel safe, healthy, and connected.

As we learn more about the impact of trauma, we can continue to support trauma-informed practices, fair policies, and healing. Pride is not just about being seen, it is about creating a future where all LGBTQ+ people can safely and healthily live as their true selves.

Deepening Understanding

When we work to stop the stigma around LGBTQ+ people, we can remove the unfair treatment and targeted violence against them. LGBTQ+ people experience higher rates of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and higher risk of attempting, and completion of, taking one’s life. This is related to the exposure to what are called “minority stressors.”

Minority stressors includes:

• Feeling the need to hide who you are
• The discomfort or distress a person feels by believing negative attitudes and stereotypes about LGBTQ+ people
• Microaggressions including:
  • Microassaults such as intentionally calling someone a slur or preventing someone’s
    entry to a public restroom
  • Microinsults such as asking a transgender person about their gender re-assignment surgery or a gay couple who plays the “boy or girl” role in the relationship
  • Microinvalidation such as misgendering someone by using the wrong pronouns or calling someone’s sexual or gender identification a “choice” – or denial or minimization of someone’s experience of homophobia and transphobia
• Discrimination events such as hate crimes and violence aimed at LGBTQ+ groups

Trauma-Informed Support

Gaining knowledge about the LGBTQ+ community is a great first step. The next step includes putting that knowledge into action. Whether you are a care provider, family member, or ally, providing affirming support for LGBTQ+ communities is something everyone can do. Affirming support is about letting someone know you see and value them without question.

Acknowledgement and support can look like:

• Thinking about your own beliefs and values and asking yourself if you have any unfair ideas about LGBTQ+ people
• Taking responsibility for our actions (verbal and non-verbal)
• Sharing your pronouns when you introduce yourself
• Believing and not offering excuses to explain someone’s experiences, such as
  microaggressions or discrimination

Can you think of other ways you can acknowledge or support the LGBTQ+ community?

What does that look like in the workplace? In the community?

LGBTQ+ community members deserve to feel seen, supported, and valued in all spaces. This month and every month, we have the opportunity to be agents of change.
To help you learn more, review, and share the resources and events below:

• NYS TINRC Resources for LGBTQ+
• LGBTQ+ Resources | New York State Commission for the Blind | OCFS
• LGBTQ+ Resources in New York | Community Centers
• Pride Center of Western New York
• The Center NYC

Sources:

• Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Microaggressions: Recommendations for Clinical Work, the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity
• Intersecting Trauma; Minority Stress Burden on LGBTQ+ Individuals: Theory, Assessment; Treatment, Nicholos Livingston, PhD, American Psychological Association, Division 56 Trauma Psychology

The NYS TINRC Newsletter is produced by CCSI. The views, opinions, and content expressed in
this article do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or policies of the New York State Office of Mental Health (NYS OMH).