Homophobia and mental health: a scourge of modern era

Abstract

Homophobia is still a scourge in the modern era. Despite a greater acceptance of sexual variations and same-sex marriage in many countries, homophobia is widely sustained by religious, political and cultural values and beliefs at individual and social level. Most of homophobic attitudes are based on the principle of heteronormativity according to which heterosexuality is the standard for legitimating social and sexual relationships and homosexuality is considered as an abnormal variant. Homophobia may be also recognised at institutional level (state-sponsored homophobia, social homophobia) and supported by laws or religious beliefs. Moreover, internalised homophobia (IH) is defined as the inward direction of societal homophobic behaviours at individual level and refers to the subjective psychological impact of these negative attitudes. In fact, IH is significantly associated with a high prevalence of internalising mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, stress/trauma-related disorders, etc. We believe that a set of immediate actions are needed in order to contrast homophobia and its impact on mental health, in particular political initiatives, educational trainings and scientific research should be promoted with a specific focus on mental health needs of people target of homophobia.