In the past decade, debates over “cancel culture,” identity, and discrimination have become increasingly heated. Much of that discussion has centered on the mental health of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. A common explanation has been that higher rates of depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems within sexual minority populations are largely the result of discrimination, stigma, bullying, and social rejection.
However, a recent analysis published through Cambridge Core challenges the idea that minority stress alone explains these disparities. The researchers argue that family and genetic factors may account for a significant portion of the difference in mental health outcomes between heterosexual and non-heterosexual people.
“Compared with heterosexual persons, non-heterosexual persons have worse mental health. Sexual Minority Stress Theory (SMST) explains the disparity as resulting from stigma and discrimination,” the researchers wrote. “To the extent that heterosexual genetic relatives reared with non-heterosexual persons also have worse mental health, SMST is falsified. We conducted a systematic meta-analysis of studies containing family-genetic comparison data to interrogate the empirical support for SMST.”
Jay Richards, vice president of Social and Domestic Policy at The Heritage Foundation, told The Washington Stand that he believes the minority stress explanation has always had serious weaknesses.
“The minority stress theory was always implausible. It makes little sense to argue that there’s more prejudice against ‘sexual minorities’ now than there was, say, 50 years ago. Indeed, the most influential parts of our culture go out of their way to praise newfangled ‘gender identities,’” Richards said.
The researchers examined more than 15 studies involving twins or siblings whose sexual orientation and mental health had been documented. Their goal was to determine whether the mental health differences typically associated with sexual orientation became smaller when researchers accounted for shared family background and genetics.
“We conducted a multilevel meta-analysis, focusing on the degree to which any sexual orientation disparity in mental health diminished with genetic relatedness,” the researchers explained. “Most of the mental health disparities between non-heterosexual and heterosexual persons were eliminated after controlling for family-genetic factors.”
The findings do not necessarily suggest that discrimination has no effect on mental health. Instead, they raise questions about how much of the disparity can be attributed specifically to social stigma rather than other influences that may be present before or independently of experiences with prejudice.
Richards also pointed to research connecting severe gender dysphoria with other psychological conditions. “The data has consistently shown that people who suffer from severe gender dysphoria often suffer from other psychological disorders as well,” he said. He argued that some of those conditions may also be associated with family circumstances or other underlying factors.
The wider cultural argument extends beyond academic research. Katy Faust, a children’s rights advocate and founder of Them Before Us, has argued that disagreement over sexuality and marriage is often too quickly described as evidence of hatred or prejudice.
Speaking with Dr. Albert Mohler, Faust recalled what she saw as a major shift in the public conversation after President Barack Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage in 2012.
“What crossed the line for me was when Obama evolved on the topic of marriage in 2012,” Faust said. She described a growing assumption that opposition to same-sex marriage had to be motivated by “bigotry, phobia, and animus towards gay people.”
Faust said her own family experience complicates that characterization. Her mother has been in a same-sex relationship for more than 30 years, and Faust said she deeply loves both her mother and her mother’s partner despite disagreeing with same-sex marriage.
The Cambridge analysis also considered personality traits that could contribute to both mental health outcomes and sexual orientation. One factor discussed by the researchers was neuroticism, a personality trait associated with greater susceptibility to anxiety and negative emotions.
“Signs of a neurotic temperament often emerge quite early, well before puberty when sexual orientation becomes apparent for most persons,” the researchers wrote. They also noted that genetic factors influencing temperament and mental health exist before many later-life experiences with discrimination or social rejection.
The authors therefore argue that researchers should be cautious about assuming that poorer mental health among sexual minorities is primarily caused by minority stress. Their findings point instead to a more complicated combination of genetic, familial, psychological, and environmental influences.
Professor Michael Bailey of Northwestern University’s Department of Psychology, one of the study’s authors, summarized the conclusion plainly: “We need to look elsewhere, other than minority stress, if we want to improve their mental health.”
