…would you free yourself of these prejudices?
NPR reminded its listeners today that the ban on gay marriage has negatively affected the mental health of gays and lesbians in the states that passed those laws. Mark Hatzenbuehler, a psychologist at Columbia University who studies the health effects of social policies is interviewed in the NPR story.
Hatzenbuehler and his colleagues Katie McLaughlin, Katherine Keyes and Deborah Hasin published their analysis in 2010 in the American Journal of Public Health.
"Lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals who lived in the states that banned same sex marriage experienced a significant increase in psychiatric disorders," says.
"There was a 37 percent increase in mood disorders," he says, "a 42 percent increase in alcohol-use disorders, and — I think really strikingly — a 248 percent increase in generalized anxiety disorders."
What I really found striking is the comparison of psychiatric disorders in states that did approve gay marriage such as Massachusetts. These studies are not new, same-sex marriage in Massachusetts began on May 17, 2004, but they are being discussed now in the aftermath of Minnesota legalizing gay marriage today and the upcoming ruling by the Supreme Court.
In a tracking the health of 1,211 gay men in Massachusetts, Hatzenbuehler found that the men visited doctors less often and had lower health treatment costs after Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage. When the researchers examined the diagnostic codes doctors were giving the men, they saw a decrease in disorders that have been linked to stress, such as hypertension, depression and adjustment disorders.
The best point of the NPR story is the one made by Hatzenbuehler himself.
Hatzenbuehler says his larger point is really that policy makers, judicial leaders and ordinary citizens need to remember that social policies are also health policies.
I was not always a supporter of gay marriage. Only after realizing how much grief these discrimination laws caused my gay friends, even though they seemed to shrug it off to not give the haters the pleasure of seeing their pain. Only after imagining how I would feel if I were gay and had to hear all these arguments and often angry and outrageous rhetoric against gay marriage, did I decide that I could stop some of the suffering if I changed my stance and became more open minded..
I would like some of those survey/polling organization to poll Christian Conservatives and ask:
If you know your prejudices make people sick (as shown in a 2010 study) would you try to free yourself of these prejudices?