Abstract
Intersectionality, minority stress, and social ecological theories have all been important frameworks for understanding mechanisms that create and maintain sexual and gender minority health disparities. In this study, we integrated these frameworks to guide a grounded theory examination of identity-related experiences in specific settings among 33 Black, White, and Latino young sexual minority cisgender men who lived in Chicago. Analyses identified four key categories: Racism Manifests in Context- and Sexual Minority-Specific Ways, Sexual Orientation Can Mean Feeling Safe and Seen or Threatened and Alone, Gender is a Matter of Self-Expression, and Bodies Are Not Always Made to Fit In. Participants reported both identity-based privilege and marginalization as well as unique forms of minority stress at the intersection of specific identities. Across these categories, participants’ experiences of their intersecting identities and associated forms of minority stress were embodied in their physical appearance, situated in specific neighborhoods and contexts, and co-constructed through their interpersonal interactions with others. Further, participants’ narratives provide powerful insights about the nuanced ways in which young sexual minority men understand and negotiate their lived experiences. Findings highlight how experiences of identity and minority stress are both intersectional and located within specific social ecological contexts, which has important implications for research, clinical practice, and advocacy.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Balsam, K. F., Molina, Y., Beadnell, B., Simoni, J., & Walters, K. (2011). Measuring multiple minority stress: The LGBT People of Color Microaggressions Scale. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 17(2), 163–174. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023244
Birkett, M., Espelage, D. L., & Koenig, B. (2009). LGB and questioning students in schools: The moderating effects of homophobic bullying and school climate on negative outcomes. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38(7), 989–1000. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-008-9389-1
Bowleg, L. (2013). “Once you’ve blended the cake, you can’t take the parts back to the main ingredients”: Black gay and bisexual men’s descriptions and experiences of intersectionality. Sex Roles, 68(11–12), 754–767. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-012-0152-4
Brennan, D., Asakura, K., George, C., Newman, P., Giwa, S., Hart, T., Souleymanov, R., & Betancourt, G. (2013). “Never reflected anywhere”: Body image among ethnoracialized gay and bisexual men. Body Image, 10(3), 389–398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2013.03.006
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32(7), 513–531. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.32.7.513
Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association.
Calabrese, S., Earnshaw, V., Magnus, M., Hansen, N., Krakower, D., Underhill, K., Mayer, K., Kershaw, T., Betancourt, J., & Dovidio, J. (2018). Sexual stereotypes ascribed to black men who have sex with men: An intersectional analysis. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47(1), 143–156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0911-3
Collins, P. H. (1998). Fighting words: Black women and the search for justice. University of Minnesota Press.
Collins, P. H. (2002). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.
Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2014). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (4th ed.). SAGE Publishing.
Crenshaw, K. (2014). The structural and political dimensions of intersectional oppression. [2000] In P. R. Grzanka (Ed.), Intersectionality: A foundations and frontiers reader (pp. 17–22). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 140, 139–167.
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). SAGE Publishing.
Creswell, J. W., & Miller, D. L. (2000). Determining validity in qualitative inquiry. Theory into Practice, 39(3), 124–130. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip3903_2
Díaz, R. M., Ayala, G., Bein, E., Henne, J., & Marin, B. V. (2001). The impact of homophobia, poverty, and racism on the mental health of gay and bisexual Latino men: Findings from 3 US cities. American Journal of Public Health, 91(6), 927–932. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.91.6.927
Duncan, D. T., & Hatzenbuehler, M. L. (2014). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender hate crimes and suicidality among a population-based sample of sexual-minority adolescents in Boston. American Journal of Public Health, 104(2), 272–278. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301424
Duncan, D. T., Hatzenbuehler, M. L., & Johnson, R. M. (2014a). Neighborhood-level LGBT hate crimes and current illicit drug use among sexual minority youth. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 135, 65–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.11.001
Duncan, D. T., Kapadia, F., & Halkitis, P. N. (2014b). Examination of spatial polygamy among young gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in New York City: The P18 cohort study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 11(9), 8962–8983. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph110908962
Dyar, C., Feinstein, B. A., & Davila, J. (2019). Development and validation of a brief version of the Anti-Bisexual Experiences Scale. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48(1), 175–189. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1157-z
Feinstein, B. A. (2019). The rejection sensitivity model as a framework for understanding sexual minority mental health. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(7), 2247–2258. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-1428-3
Feinstein, B. A., McConnell, E., Dyar, C., Mustanski, B., & Newcomb, M. E. (2018). Minority stress and relationship functioning among young male same-sex couples: An examination of actor–partner interdependence models. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 86(5), 416–426. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000296
Ferguson, R. (2014). Queer of color critique and the canon. In P. R. Grzanka (Ed.), Intersectionality: A foundations and frontiers reader (pp. 61–66). Westview Press.
Ferlatte, O., Salway, T., Trussler, T., Oliffe, J., & Gilbert, M. (2018). Combining intersectionality and syndemic theory to advance understandings of health inequities among Canadian gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. Critical Public Health, 28(5), 509–521. https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2017.1380298
Filice, E., Raffoul, A., Meyer, S. B., & Neiterman, E. (2019). The impact of social media on body image perceptions and bodily practices among bay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men: A critical review of the literature and extension of theory. Sex Roles, 82(7–8), 387–410. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-019-01063-7
Frost, D. M., Lehavot, K., & Meyer, I. H. (2015). Minority stress and physical health among sexual minority individuals. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 38(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-013-9523-8
Ghabrial, M. A. (2017). “Trying to figure out where we belong”: Narratives of racialized sexual minorities on community, identity, discrimination, and health. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 14(1), 42–55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-016-0229-x
Goldbach, J. T., Tanner-Smith, E. E., Bagwell, M., & Dunlap, S. (2014). Minority stress and substance use in sexual minority adolescents: A meta-analysis. Prevention Science, 15(3), 350–363. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-013-0393-7
Green, A. I. (2011). Playing the (sexual) field: The interactional basis of systems of sexual stratification. Social Psychology Quarterly, 74(3), 244–266. https://doi.org/10.1177/0190272511416606
Halkitis, P. N., Green, K. A., & Wilton, L. (2004). Masculinity, body image, and sexual behavior in HIV-seropositive gay men: A two-phase formative behavioral investigation using the Internet. International Journal of Men’s Health, 3(1), 27–42. https://doi.org/10.3149/jmh.0301.27
Hatzenbuehler, M. L. (2009). How does sexual minority stigma “get under the skin”? A psychological mediation framework. Psychological Bulletin, 135(5), 707–730. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016441
Hatzenbuehler, M. L. (2010). Social factors as determinants of mental health disparities in LGB populations: Implications for public policy. Social Issues and Policy Review, 4(1), 31–62. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-2409.2010.01017.x
Hatzenbuehler, M. L. (2011). The social environment and suicide attempts in lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth. Pediatrics, 127(5), 896–903. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2010-3020
Hennen, P. (2005). Bear bodies, bear masculinity: Recuperation, resistance, or retreat? Gender and Society, 19(1), 25–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243204269408
Hogan, B., Melville, J. R., Phillips II, G. L., Janulis, P., Contractor, N., Mustanski, B. S., & Birkett, M. (2016, May). Evaluating the paper-to-screen translation of participant-aided sociograms with high-risk participants. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 5360–5371). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858368
hooks, B. (1981). Ain’t I a woman: Black women and feminism. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Institute of Medicine. (2011). The health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people: Building a foundation for better understanding. National Academies Press.
Katz-Wise, S. L., Mereish, E. H., & Woulfe, J. (2017). Associations of bisexual-specific minority stress and health among cisgender and transgender adults with bisexual orientation. Journal of Sex Research, 54(7), 899–910. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2016.1236181
Kimmel, S. B., & Mahalik, J. R. (2005). Body image concerns of gay men: The roles of minority stress and conformity to masculine norms. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(6), 1185–1190. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.73.6.1185
Kosciw, J. G., Palmer, N. A., Kull, R. M., & Greytak, E. A. (2013). The effect of negative school climate on academic outcomes for LGBT youth and the role of in-school supports. Journal of School Violence, 12(1), 45–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2012.732546
Lehavot, K., & Simoni, J. M. (2011). The impact of minority stress on mental health and substance use among sexual minority women. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 79(2), 159–170. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022839
McConnell, E. A. (2018). Race-related social contextual factors, substance use, and HIV among young men who have sex with men in Chicago [Doctoral dissertation, DePaul University]. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/OSF.IO/AF2UV.
McConnell, E. A., Birkett, M., & Mustanski, B. (2016a). Families matter: Social support and mental health trajectories among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. The Journal of Adolescent Health, 59(6), 674–680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.07.026
McConnell, E. A., Janulis, P., Phillips, G., Truong, R., & Birkett, M. (2018). Multiple minority stress and LGBT community resilience among sexual minority men on a geosocial networking application. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, 5(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000265.
McConnell, E. A., Todd, N. R., Odahl-Ruan, C., & Shattell, M. (2016b). Complicating counterspaces: Intersectionality and the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. American Journal of Community Psychology, 57(3–4), 473–488. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12051
Meyer, I. H. (2003). Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: Conceptual issues and research evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 129(5), 674–697. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.5.674
Meyer, I. H. (2015). Resilience in the study of minority stress and health of sexual and gender minorities. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 2(3), 209–212. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000132
Mitchell, R. C., Davis, K. S., & Galupo, M. P. (2015). Comparing perceived experiences of prejudice among self-identified plurisexual individuals. Psychology & Sexuality, 6(3), 245–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2014.940372
Neal, J. W., & Neal, Z. P. (2013). Nested or networked? Future directions for ecological systems theory. Social Development, 22(4), 722–737. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12018
Nero, C. I. (2014). Why are the gay ghettos white? In P. R. Grzanka (Ed.), Intersectionality: A foundations and frontiers reader. Perseus Books Group: Westview Press.
Neville, H. A., Awad, G. H., Brooks, J. E., Flores, M. P., & Bluemel, J. (2013). Color-blind racial ideology: Theory, training, and measurement implications in psychology. American Psychologist, 68(6), 455–466. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033282.
Neville, H. A., Coleman, M. N., Falconer, J. W., & Holmes, D. (2005). Color-blind racial ideology and psychological false consciousness among African Americans. Journal of Black Psychology, 31(1), 27–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798404268287
Newcomb, M. E., Ryan, D. T., Garofalo, R., & Mustanski, B. (2015). Race-based sexual stereotypes and their effects on sexual risk behavior in racially diverse young men who have sex with men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44(7), 1959–1968. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0495-3.
Pachankis, J. E., Goldfried, M. R., & Ramrattan, M. E. (2008). Extension of the rejection sensitivity construct to the interpersonal functioning of gay men. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76(2), 306–317. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.76.2.306
Parent, M. C., DeBlaere, C., & Moradi, B. (2013). Approaches to research on intersectionality: Perspectives on gender, LGBT, and racial/ethnic identities. Sex Roles, 68(11), 639–645. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-013-0283-2
Parmenter, J. G., Galliher, R. V., & Maughan, A. D. (2020). LGBTQ+ emerging adults’ perceptions of discrimination and exclusion within the LGBTQ+ community. Psychology & Sexuality. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2020.1716056
Paul, J. P., Ayala, G., & Choi, K. H. (2010). Internet sex ads for MSM and partner selection criteria: The potency of race/ethnicity online. Journal of Sex Research, 47(6), 528–538. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490903244575
Phillips, G., Birkett, M., Hammond, S., & Mustanski, B. (2016). Partner preference among men who have sex with men: Potential contribution to spread of human immunodeficiency virus within minority populations. LGBT Health, 3(3), 225–232. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2015.0122
Rasmussen, A., Akinsulure-Smith, A. M., & Chu, T. (2016). Grounded theory. In L. A. Jason & D. S. Glenwick (Eds.), Handbook of methodological approaches to community based research: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods (pp. 23-32). Oxford University Press.
Reisen, C., Zea, M., Poppen, P., Bianchi, F., & Brooks, K. (2013). Can additive measures add to an intersectional understanding? Experiences of gay and ethnic discrimination among HIV-positive Latino gay men. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 19(2), 208–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031906
Remedios, J. D., & Snyder, S. H. (2015). How women of color detect and respond to multiple forms of prejudice. Sex Roles, 73(9), 371–383. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0453-5
Rostosky, S. S., Riggle, E. D. B., Gray, B. E., & Hatton, R. L. (2007). Minority stress experiences in committed same-sex couple relationships. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 38(4), 392–400. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.38.4.392
Ryan, C., Russell, S. T., Huebner, D., Díaz, R., & Sanchez, J. (2010). Family acceptance in adolescence and the health of LGBT young adults. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 23(4), 205–213. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6171.2010.00246.x
Testa, R. J., Habarth, J., Peta, J., Balsam, K., & Bockting, W. (2015). Development of the Gender Minority Stress and Resilience Measure. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 2(1), 65–77. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000081
Tiggemann, M., Martins, Y., & Kirkbride, A. (2007). Oh to be lean and muscular: Body image ideals in gay and heterosexual men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 8(1), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.1037/1524-9220.8.1.15
Todd, N. R., & Abrams, E. M. (2011). White dialectics: A new framework for theory, research, and practice with White students. The Counseling Psychologist, 39(3), 353–395. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000010377665
U.S. Census Bureau. (2019). QuickFacts: Chicago city, Illinois. U.S. Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/chicagocityillinois.
Walch, S. E., Ngamake, S. T., Bovornusvakool, W., & Walker, S. V. (2016). Discrimination, internalized homophobia, and concealment in sexual minority physical and mental health. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 3(1), 37–48. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000146
Williams, S. L., & Fredrick, E. G. (2015). One size may not fit all: The need for a more inclusive and intersectional psychological science on stigma. Sex Roles, 73(9), 384–390. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0491-z
Wilson, P. A., Valera, P., Ventuneac, A., Balan, I., Rowe, M., & Carballo-Diéguez, A. (2009). Race-based sexual stereotyping and sexual partnering among men who use the internet to identify other men for bareback sex. Journal of Sex Research, 46(5), 399–413. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490902846479
Funding
National Institute on Drug Abuse Grants F31DA040524, K08DA037825, and U01DA939 provided funding for this article.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
E.M. conceived the study. E.M. and M.B. designed and conducted the study. E.M. and P.T. analyzed the qualitative data. All authors contributed to writing the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
This manuscript represents original work that is not previously published or being considered for publication in any other source, and no other work has been published using the same data. APA ethical standards were followed in the conduct of the study and we received Institutional Review Board approval for the conduct of this study.
Informed Consent
All participants provided informed consent prior to participating in the study.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McConnell, E.A., Tull, P. & Birkett, M. Embodied, Situated, and Co-Constructed: Young Sexual Minority Men’s Experiences of Intersectional Identity and Minority Stress. Sex Roles 85, 606–624 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-021-01238-1
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-021-01238-1