Health-focused frames mobilize Americans to action to address LGBTQ inequality

Abstract

“More than 1 in 8 LGBTQ people live in states where doctors can refuse to treat them.” This headline describes a flurry of laws passed in 2025 allowing doctors to refuse treatment of LGBTQ patients based on personal beliefs. This and other laws like it limit healthcare access and exacerbate health inequality for LGBTQ individuals. But health is not the only domain in which LGBTQ individuals face disparities. Long-standing inequalities also exist in other domains of life, for example, gay men earn up to 32% less wages than their heterosexual peers. In the current research, we ask if exposure to LGBTQ inequality in one domain (e.g., health) motivates more support for action than exposure to inequality in other domains (e.g., economics). In six experiments (five preregistered), we test our hypothesis that emphasizing health-based LGBTQ inequality (vs. economics and belonging) spurs engagement with and support for mitigating action (S1-2). We also investigate why people support action (S1a-1b) and what boosts support (S3a-3c). As predicted and preregistered, we find greater support for action to mitigate health-based LGBTQ inequality, compared to economics and belonging. This occurs, in part, because people blame LGBTQ individuals less for health (vs. economic) disparities and perceive health inequalities to violate morally sacred values, which is associated with greater perceived injustice. Finally, we find that connecting economic inequality to health inequality in individuals’ minds can increase support for mitigating economic inequality.