OutCasting Episode 40: Minority stress — a conversation with Ilan H. Meyer, Ph.D.

(September 1, 2017)

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Everyone has stresses in their lives.  But when you're a member of a minority, things get worse.  The ordinary stresses can strike more frequently, and there are new stresses resulting from discrimination.  And if you're LGBTQ, the stigma and prejudice may be inflicted by your own family and friends.  You can internalize negative stereotypes.  You can feel forced to the soul-deadening concealment of your identity.  You may come to expect rejection.  You are at greater risk of bullying and physical violence.  And for people who are LGBTQ who are also members of other minorities, things can get worse still.  It can add up to a toxic mix particularly for vulnerable LGBTQ youth, leading to depression, desperation, and suicidal tendencies.

On this edition, OutCaster Sarah talks with Ilan H. Meyer, Ph.D., Williams Distinguished Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at the UCLA School of Law.  Through a number of frequently cited papers, Dr. Meyer has developed a model of minority stress for examining the factors that can cause health disparities between LGBTQ people and straight, cisgender people.

Ilan Meyer

• • • • Previous episodes:  Connecting LGBTQ youth to history — a discussion with Professor Karla Jay, longtime LGBTQ activist, about the Stonewall uprising in 1969 and the new wave of activism that followed it
      • Next episode:  Representation of LGBTQ people and issues in the media and why it matters — a discussion with Larry Gross, professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California