Anti-LGBTQ laws are harmful, even when their intent is symbolic

By Chad Meyerhoefer, Bingjin Xue, Anna Poznańska and Nic Johnson

Anti-LGBTQ bills are being introduced in extraordinary numbers in the United States and abroad. According to the ACLU, as of August 5, more than 525 bills aimed at restricting LGBTQ rights were currently under consideration in more than 40 states.

While some of these proposed policies are largely symbolic and may seem devoid of concrete day-to-day implications, each of them poses a real threat to LGBTQ people.

Our data-driven claim is based on analysis of anti-LGBTQ legislation that took root in Poland following the political rise of the far-right Law and Justice (PiS) party in the late 2010s.

Many of these resolutions aimed to create “LGBT-free” zones without clearly enforceable principles, but they largely succeeded in further marginalizing LGBTQ people in their home communities.

The analysis showed an alarming 16% increase in suicide attempts in non-LGBT areas. In addition, deaths from external causes, including suicide, increased by 10%.

This finding, while heartbreaking and disturbing, is not surprising. Consistent with the minority stress model, negative mental health consequences can be expected from efforts to further devalue members of the LGBTQ community, who already face higher levels of stigma, discrimination, and mental health issues.

The minority stress model asserts that external stressors, such as discrimination, contribute to internal experiences of stress, such as self-hatred, which in turn explain adverse mental health outcomes in minority populations, including LGBTQ people. This model has considerable research support, highlighting the urgent need for intervention.

By officially sanctioning widespread discrimination against LGBTQ people, these resolutions, even if they are not adopted, cause stress, feelings of isolation and hostility among members of the LGBTQ community. For those who already suffer from mental health issues, the social stigma associated with laws targeting their identity can lead to suicide attempts.

At the national level in Poland, much rhetoric has been directed toward restrictions on LGBTQ rights, including a “family charter” signed in 2020 by President Andrzej Duda as part of a re-election campaign promise to promote family values ​​and assert parental control over childcare and extracurricular school activities, limit the teaching of LGBTQ issues in schools, and “prohibit the spread of LGBT ideology.”

Although relatively few substantive laws have been passed at the national level, similar anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has spurred a multitude of legislative efforts at the local level.

As of 2019, 91 powiats (counties), gminas (municipalities) and provinces had adopted some form of anti-LGBTQ legislation. This number grew to over 100 by 2020, ultimately covering about a third of the country and some 10 million of its citizens.

Our analysis compared areas that passed anti-LGBTQ resolutions with others that deliberated but did not pass resolutions or never introduced such laws. Controlling for other factors that may influence mental health outcomes, our findings are surprising: exposure to anti-LGBTQ legislation significantly increased suicide attempts and deaths from external causes.

Unfortunately, Poland is not an isolated case.

In many other countries, the situation is arguably even more dire, with widespread anti-LGBTQ sentiment and extreme penalties enshrined in law. Human Rights Watch found 67 countries with national laws criminalizing same-sex conduct between consenting adults, and nine others with laws against the expression of transgender or gender nonconforming identities.

A wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation in many African countries is expanding the reach of anti-LGBTQ laws and toughening the penalties that come with them, which in some cases include the death penalty.

It is encouraging that in Poland a combination of activism, court rulings and economic pressure from the EU has led to the reversal of most of the initially LGBT-free zones.

In the 2023 elections, a centrist coalition has formed to oust PiS from power and install Donald Tusk as prime minister. The former prime minister has focused on LGBTQ and women’s rights during his campaign.

Polish public television recently apologized to the LGBTQ community for its past broadcast of anti-LGBTQ propaganda in line with the PiS platform.

These developments bring hope for a more inclusive future in Poland and for a broader movement to restore liberal democracy.

Unfortunately, for many members of the Polish LGBTQ community, these remedies come too late.

We urge members of legislatures at all levels to consider the potential impacts of anti-LGBTQ laws before introducing them to the public. Some harms cannot be undone.

Chad Meyerhoefer And Nic Johnson are on the faculty at Lehigh University, where Meyerhoefer is the Arthur F. Searing Professor and chair of the Department of Economics and Johnson is an associate professor of counseling psychology. Bingjin Xue is an assistant professor of economics at the University of New Hampshire and Anna Poznanska is a researcher at the National Institute of Public Health of Poland NIH – National Research Institute.

Anti-LGBTQ laws are harmful, even when their intent is symbolic. first appeared on Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News.