Triple Jeopardy and Beyond: Multiple Minority Stress and Resilience Among Black Lesbians

SUMMARY

This qualitative study explored the experiences of multiple minority stress and resilience among interviewees at a retreat for Black lesbians. Participants were a predominantly middle-class, highly educated sample of Black women (N= 19) between the ages of 26 and 68. The multicultural model of stress (Slavin, Rainer, McCreary, & Gowda, 1991) and the transactional model of resilience (Kumpfer, 1999) were theoretical frameworks for the study. Most of the participants discussed racism as a mundane and significant stressor, and contextualized their experiences of sexism and heterosexism through the prism of racism. Study findings provide empirical support for the “triple jeopardy” experience of Black lesbians (Greene, 1995), as well as the six predictors of resilience in Kumpfer's (1999) transactional model of resilience.

Key Words:

• Resilience
• black lesbians
• multiple minority stress
• mundane stress