The impact of internalized homophobia on HIV preventive interventions (1)

American Journal of Community Psychology,  June, 2002  by David M. Huebner

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INTRODUCTION

Discrimination against gay and lesbian people stands as one of the few remaining socially acceptable and institutionally sanctioned forms of prejudice (Vaid, 1995). Not surprisingly, varied manifestations of society's intolerance of gay and lesbian people have been empirically associated with both mental and physical health problems in these populations (e.g., Cole, Kemeny, Taylor, & Visscher, 1996; Hershberger & D'Augelli, 1995). Perhaps the most insidious consequence of the culture's antihomosexual sentiments is the internalization of those values by gay and lesbian people themselves. This phenomenon has been dubbed "internalized homophobia" by clinicians (e.g., Malyon, 1982), and theorists have identified it ...