Sexual and Gender Minorities Facing the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Systematic Review of the Distinctive Psychosocial and Health-Related Impact

ABSTRACT

Sexual and gender minorities (SGM) constitute vulnerable groups in many countries. Thus, they might be affected to a different extent than heterosexual and cisgender individuals by the Coronavirus pandemic. This systematic review aimed to summarize the state of international research on the mental and physical health-related as well as socioeconomic effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on SGM individuals. Following the PRISMA protocol, we identified 35 publications, including different article formats. We considered minority stress theory and intersectionality in synthesizing the reviewed literature. Our key finding implicates that both minority- and pandemic-specific adversities have increased the vulnerabilities of SGM individuals during the Coronavirus pandemic. Minority-specific stressors include discrimination experiences, poorer mental and physical health, and fewer socioeconomic resources. Pandemic-specific challenges such as the deferral and delay of medication or school closing have exposed certain SGM subgroups (transgender individuals, young SGM) to particularly high risk. Moreover, the reviewed evidence suggests distinctive interactive effects of minority-specific stressors with pandemic-specific challenges (e.g., being forced to stay close to rejecting others during lockdown periods). A significant share of the included literature was US-based, while research from other countries remained scarce. The specific mechanisms still deserve to be better understood to protect SGM in future crises, especially during pandemics.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual minorities
• gender minorities
• pandemic
• minority stress
• intersectionality
• LGBTQ

List of abbreviations

• AIDS = Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

• LGBTQ* = individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, or queer and feel affiliated

• MH = mental health

• MSM = men who have sex with men

• PH = physical health

• HIV = Human Immunodeficiency Virus

• SEC = socio-economic circumstances

• SGM = sexual and gender minorities

• SMW = sexual minority women (lesbian, bisexual, queer women)

• TGNB = transgender and/or nonbinary

• US = United States

Acknowledgments

Studies initially included as preprints and published during revision were updated in the reference list.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2022.2074335

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.