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Ilan Meyer Abstract
Demography Workshop Speaker: May 14th
Abstract: The model of minority stress describes the relationship of social stressors and mental
disorders and helps to explain lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) health
disparities. The model has guided research on LGBT health disparities by identifying the
pathways by which social stressors impact health and describing the harm to LGBT people from
prejudice and stigma. The shifting social climate in the United States—characterized mostly by
greater social acceptance of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (LGB)—raise new research
questions about the relationship of the social environment and the health of sexual
minorities. There are also new opportunities for researching the LGBT population. In this
lecture, Dr. Meyer will describe the foundations of minority stress approach to the study of
LGBT health disparities and discuss challenges and critics of the theory. Dr. Meyer will describe
two new studies (Generations and TransPop) that use an innovative methodology to capture a
representative sample of the U.S. LGBT population to assess stress, resilience, and health.