Out of the Closet, Not Yet Out of the House: Gay Men’s Experiences of Homonegativity and Internalized Homonegativity

This paper explores how Australian gay men experience gender and sexuality in relation to heteronormative gender norms, specifically masculinity. A sample of 32 gay men 22–72 years of age participated in an online interview, using a videoconferencing software, on masculinity and homosexuality. Thematic analyses revealed that gay men experience gender and sexuality-related strain across all levels of their socioecological environment through social regulation, homophobic discrimination/harassment, and anti-effeminacy prejudice. The gay men expressed feelings of self-loathing, shame, internalized homonegativity, and isolation as a result. In examining interactions at each level of the socioecological environment, future research and practice may gain understanding in the social phenomena and how to ameliorate such strain.

An Exploration of Factors that Mediate the Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Sexual Assault Victimization Among LGBTQ+ College Students

Despite alarming rates of sexual assault on college campuses, little research has examined risk factors for sexual victimization among LGBTQ+ college students. This exploratory study aims to examine adolescent sexual assault, internalized homonegativity, and problematic alcohol use as mediators linking several types of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; i.e., childhood sexual abuse, parental abuse, and household disorder) to collegiate sexual assault. Utilizing data from 241 LGBTQ+ college students, path analysis findings demonstrated that these proposed mediators increased risk for sexual assault and that various types of ACEs exerted differential impacts on sexual re-victimization, internalized homonegativity, and problematic alcohol use. Practice-based implications are offered, including the need for affirming programming that includes problem drinking prevention components and considers the role of ACEs and internalized homonegativity in increasing risk for sexual assault during college as well as the need for LGBTQ+ resource centers on campus.

Social Support and HIV Prevention Behaviors among urban HIV- Negative Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men who Have Sex with Men

Objective: Supportive social relationships can have direct positive effects on health and miti-gate the negative impact of stressors. This study investigated the main effect of perceived social support on STI/HIV risk and prevention behaviors. The buffering effect of perceived social support on the impact of proximal minority stressors, like internalized homonegativity, was also examined on one risk behavior specifically, condomless anal sex (CAS) without HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use. Methods: HIV-negative gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) were recruited using respondent driven sampling from three major Canadian urban centers (n = 1,409). GBM completed measures of perceived social support, proximal minority stress, and engagement in STI/HIV risk and prevention behaviors. Results: Higher perceived social support was positively associated with a several health behaviors, in-cluding recent STI and HIV testing, discussing HIV status with prospective partners, the use of behavioral HIV-risk reduction strategies during sexual encounters, and a lower likelihood of en-gaging in CAS without PrEP. There was evidence of moderation as well. Among GBM with higher perceived social support, internalized homonegativity was no longer associated with in-creased odds of engaging in CAS without PrEP. Conclusions: The results of the current study advance social support theory to GBM in the context of biomedical prevention, showing both evidence of both direct associations and buffering effects on STI/HIV risk and prevention be-haviors. This highlights the importance of promoting social support seeking in interventions aimed at improving GBM health.

Coming Out, Distress and Identity Threat in Gay Men in the UK

Introduction Coming out as gay can be a psychologically challenging event, and recall of a negative coming out experience can initiate subsequent identity changes in gay men. We tested whether baseline levels of identity resilience and internalized homonegativity moderate these effects. Methods A between-participant experimental study, with an ethnically diverse sample of 333 gay men in the United Kingdom (UK), examined levels of contemporaneous identity threat of reflecting upon recollections of either a coming out experience that had a negative or a stabilizing effect on self-schema. Data were collected in 2020 and analyzed using multiple regression and path analysis. Results Path analysis showed that a model predicting level of identity threat after recall of a negative coming out experience fitted the data well. Identity resilience was negatively correlated with internalized homonegativity and distress during memory recall. Both distress and homonegativity correlated positively with identity threat. The relationship between recalling a negative coming out experience and distress was mediated by the perceived typicality of the recalled experience. Conclusions Through its effects on distress and internalized homonegativity, identity resilience reduces the threatening effect of recollecting a negative coming out experience upon contemporary identity. Policy Implications Offering gay men awareness of the social and psychological routes to raising identity resilience may be beneficial in reducing internalized homonegativity and the ongoing effects of remembered negative coming out experiences.