Taking a Paradoxical and Physiological Approach to Cardona, Madigan, and Sauer-Zavela’s Conceptualization of Chronic, Traumatic Invalidation as a Primary Factor in the Relationship Between Minority Stress and Disproportionate Health Burden Among Sexual and Gender Minority Adults

The estimated, more than 14 million sexual and gender minority people living in the United States represent numerous, distinct populations that vary by both sexual orientation and gender identity. What all these various populations also share, unfortunately, are historical and current experiences of discrimination, and disproportionate mental and physical health challenges when compared to their heterosexual and cis-gender peers. Sexual and gender minority individuals shoulder increased risk for anxiety, depression, PTSD, substance use, suicidality, self-harm behavior, homelessness, poverty, familial rejection, urogenital cancers, HIV infection, mental and physical disability, intimate partner violence, and negative experiences in the criminal justice and health care systems. Although the relationship between sexual and gender minority status, and worse mental and physical health outcomes is well-established in the literature, insufficient findings are available to identify the specific causal, underlying processes that account for the development of disproportionate emotional and behavioral health disparities.