I’ve written extensively on the connection which society forces upon people who are LGBT and have a mental illness. To be clear, there is nothing inherently mentally ill about anyone who is LGBT: It is the societal pressures and discrimination faced by people who are gay or transgender which can give them a mental illness. This is a tragedy and a sin that we must address at a societal level.
If you’ve read this blog long enough, you know that one of the items I regularly harp on is the connection between mental illness and public policy. That connection was first driven home for me in a 2015 study which showed that members of the LGBTQ population had higher rates of mental illness and addiction in states where marriage equality wasn’t the law of the land than in states where it was legal. To be clear, this may be a classic case of correlation not equalling causation, as there may have been other reasons which LGBTQ people had better mental health in these states. However, it would certainly imply that there is a connection between mental illness and discrimination – a finding which was picked up in other countries, like Australia and New Zealand.
Finding that study was a critical moment for me, at least in terms of how I viewed mental health and public policy. Not only does public policy influence mental health, but it influences it in ways which we may not expect.
Well, here’s more proof: As noted in this Upworthy story, suicide attempts by LGBT youth dropped in states that legalized gay marriage and didn’t drop in states that didn’t. Similar findings were replicated in other countries that embraced marriage equality.
Again, the findings aren’t necessarily causational, but they would seem to pretty strongly imply a connection between societal stigma. Countless other studies have proven that treating any typically discriminated group with love, acceptance, and support can reduce their suicide rates. The legalization of gay marriage can make a massive difference here, as it ended a societally-enforced piece of discrimination.
Public policy and mental health matter, and matter deeply. We can, and should, examine all aspects of public policy through a mental health prism, as this connection exists in dozens of public policy spheres – everything from transportation to minimum wage to licensure laws and more.
Mike Schlossberg - Author 