As this issue of the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health (JGLMH) goes to press, we continue to grieve and recover from the horrifying massacre that occurred in Orlando, Florida. While it is impossible to speculate on the mental state of Omar Mateen, the outcome of this hate crime is undeniably clear. This tragedy also reminds us that despite all of the progress made in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, there is still much work to be done. Stigma, discrimination, and hate have not disappeared, and for many LGBT people this may affect their mental health and well-being.
Ryan Wegner and A. Jordan Wright look at a scale called the Homonegative Microaggressions Scale and determine that this is a valid instrument to explain “short, everyday verbal, behavioral, and environmental slights of minority populations.” These microaggressions can have a major impact on the mental health of LGBT people. Their findings also provide some insight into the specifics of the slights by focusing on four of the subscales.
A study by Elodie Charbonnier and Pierluigi Graziani examined the stress associated with the coming-out process in a cohort of French LGBT young adults. Many individuals described coming out as one of the most stressful experiences in their life, fearing rejection and fearing they would hurt close relatives. They point out the need for community resources to help support young LGBT people through this process.
Arnold H. Grossman, Jung Yeon Park, and Stephen T. Russell employ the interpersonal psychological theory of suicide (IPTS) to examine suicidal thoughts and behaviors in transgender youth, including those identifying with a nonbinary alternate gender. Including these individuals in research is extremely important so that we may understand how their strengths and vulnerabilities may be different from those identifying in a more binary fashion. Implications for interventions and prevention programs are discussed.
Hilary A. Gleason and colleagues examined the effects of nondiscrimination laws for transgender and gender-nonconforming people. Comparing individuals from American states that had legal protection from discrimination with individuals living in states without such protection, the authors show that individuals living in states with legal protection experienced less stigma in their communities, experienced less anxiety and victimization, and were less likely to have attempted suicide.
Stigma can lead to much stress in the LGBT population. Katie Wang and colleagues report on their study, which showed that adaptive coping with this stigma, which often results in stress-related growth, was associated with better emotional regulation and better mental health outcomes. These findings indicate that targeting emotional regulation in coping with stress may have significant mental health benefits.
Finally, we are very pleased to include the 2016 Resident Paper Award winner in this issue. Dr. Kevin Donnelly-Boylan has written a fascinating case report of a trans woman with serious mental illness who presented to an emergency department with self-mutation. This case illustrates the difficulties in managing such a complex patient and how little is available in the literature to help guide the clinician.