The Social Consequence of Hate Crime and Role of Sexual Minority Politicians in Community Responses

• In Event: Responses to Risk and Marginalization among LGBTQ+ Populations

Abstract

Objectives: This study examines the societal impacts of hate crimes as environmental stressors on the mental health of American adults and evaluates the mitigating effects of sexual minority politicians in reducing the adverse mental health consequences associated with these crimes, focusing particularly on sexual minority adults. The findings will contribute uniquely to our understanding by demonstrating that LGBTQ political representation acts as a protective factor against mental health deterioration due to hate crimes and by showing that indirect exposure to increasing hate crimes detrimentally affects mental health.

Methods: Data from the 2012–2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics Program (HCSP), and profiles of sexual minority politicians from Wikipedia were analyzed to show association using logistic and Poisson regression. Our empirical strategy included employing Estimation of Difference-in-Differences Heterogeneity-Robust Two-Way Fixed Effects Regressions, considering the election of the first LGBTQ leader in the Kansas House of Representatives in 2019 as a policy intervention, with several states lacking LGBTQ leaders serving as controls.

Results: We firstly show a positive association between increased exposure to hate crimes and deteriorated mental health and the mitigation association of having LGBTQ politicians in office. Specifically, in the second half of this study applying the DID method, the results show that following the election of LGBTQ leaders in Kansas, significant reductions in three types of outcomes including likelihood of having mental health issues, likelihood of having extreme mental health issues and the duration of mental health issues. We observe improvements especially in different-sex households.

Conclusions: The findings underscore the social consequence of hate crime on community mental health, and highlight the potential of sexual minority politicians to mitigate these effects. The presence of LGBTQ politicians coming to office not only benefits sexual minorities but also contributes positively to the broader public health. 

Author

• Ke Zeng, NORC at the University of Chicago
  Presenting Author