Study links anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry and economic instability

There is a link between anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry and economic instability, a study has found. 

The study, which was published in journal Nature Human Behaviour in December, found a link between anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry and unfavourable socio-economic conditions. 

Based on the result of the “Global LGBTQ+ survey” – a survey conducted in 153 countries, gathering data from 82,354 participants, researchers from CNRS and UNAIDS analysed how prejudice manifests itself at institutional, community and family levels. 

The study highlighted family rejection as the most damaging form of LGBTQ-phobia on the wellbeing of those affected. 

Participants from the Middle East and North Africa reported the lowest subjective wellbeing, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia. 

It further found that the more economically precarious a person is, the greater the rejection they experienced. 

“Economic precarity significantly interacted with the negative association between homophobia and participants’ well-being. 

“The weight of a country’s homophobic climate on well-being was nearly halved for economically secure participants compared with those economically deprived,” the abstract of the study reads. 

The study is part of a research program aimed at analysing how the deterioration of wellbeing can impact a person’s ability to cope with social risks, such as an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. 

A report published in October last year found that homophobic and transphobic rhetoric was on the rise across nearly all aspects of western society.

Analysing a variety of issues, including anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes and censorship, the report revealed that, over the past five years, even places such as the UK, the US and European countries had become increasingly dangerous.

The report pointed to politics as an area ripe with anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and homophobic policies.

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