When economic insecurity aggravates the wounds of homophobia

From the very first days of his second term, Donald Trump has implemented a series of hostile measures towards LGBTQ+ people, including cutting funding for research and aid programs concerning them. A brutal institutional policy that risks having lasting consequences for the LGBTQ+ community not only in the United States, but worldwide. In fact, in almost 40% of countries where data is available, at least one in three people say they don't want a gay person as a neighbor. This rejection, highlighted by the World Values Survey, is not insignificant. It weighs heavily on the well-being of those concerned.

How does this rejection affect the mental health of LGBTQIA+ people? Especially when it is interwoven with a fragile economic context that increases the vulnerability of the most disadvantaged? For health economists Erik Lamontagne and Bruno Ventelou, the diagnosis is simple: the more homophobic the living environment, the greater the ill-being of LGBTQIA+ individuals, but the combination of a homophobic environment and economic insecurity forms a particularly deleterious cocktail.

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Dialogues économiques is a digital journal published by the Aix-Marseille School of Economics (AMU, CNRS, EHESS, Centrale Méditerranée). A gateway between academic research and society, Dialogues économiques provides all citizens with the keys to economic reasoning. Articles are published every two weeks.

Homophobia remains deeply entrenched worldwide

Their study is based on a worldwide database - the Global LGBTQ+ Happiness Survey - gathering responses from over 80,000 people in 153 countries, in partnership with community representatives. This partnership is one of the strengths of this study, given the difficulty of reaching communities in some highly heteronormative countries. Participants were mainly recruited online on dating apps, but also through what the authors call a "snowball effect" to reach people with limited internet access or in places where coming out is risky.

A quarter of LGBTQIA+ respondents said they were suffering psychologically, and almost half were not accepted by their families. Physical assaults remain frequent: 21% have already suffered one because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This is not the first time the team has used this database. It had already been used for a previous study revealing an increased risk of depression and anxiety among LGBTQIA+ people at high risk of contracting HIV.