A new study finds that the health of gay men living in states that pass laws allowing same-sex couples to marry actually improves — whether or not they actually get married. The Columbia University study focused on gay men in Massachusetts and found in the 12 months after Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage, gay men went to doctors and mental health professionals less frequently.
It’s not much of a jump, therefore, to suggest that politicians and religious activists who are actively working to deny same-sex marriage equality are literally making the LGBT community sick.
This study should be sent to every lawmaker in the country.
“Gay men are able to lead healthier, less stress-filled lives when states offer legal protections to same-sex couples, according to a new study examining the effects of the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts,” a Columbia University news report states. “The study, ‘Effect of Same-Sex Marriage Laws on Health Care Use and Expenditures in Sexual Minority Men: A Quasi-Natural Experiment,’ is online in the American Journal of Public Health.
“Our results suggest that removing these barriers improves the health of gay and bisexual men,” said Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, PhD, lead author of the study and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the Mailman School.
In the 12 months following the 2003 legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, gay and bisexual men had a significant decrease in medical care visits, mental health care visits, and mental health care costs, compared with the 12 months before the law change. This amounted to a 13-percent reduction in health care visits and a 14-percent reduction in health care costs. These health effects were similar for partnered and single gay men.
“Marriage equality may produce broad public health benefits by reducing the occurrence of stress-related health conditions,” Hatzenbuehler stated, according to the BBC, which also reports:
They found a 13% drop in healthcare visits after the law was enacted.
There was a reduction in blood pressure problems, depression and “adjustment disorders”, which the authors claimed could be the result of reduced stress.
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A spokesman for the Terrence Higgins Trust, a UK-based sexual health and HIV charity, said: “There is a known link between health and happiness.
“It’s no surprise that people who are treated as second class citizens tend to have low self esteem, which in turn makes them more likely to take risks.
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Research has already suggested that gay men are more likely to suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts than heterosexual men, and that social exclusion may be partly responsible.
Earlier this ear, regular readers will remember, Hatzenbuehler was responsible for a study that found that gay and straight teens who live in socio-politically conservative areas are more likely to attempt suicide, and the degree of an area’s political conservatism reflects the degree teens — gay or straight — are likely to attempt suicide. Conversely, the rate at which teens attempt suicide decreases with the more liberal an area is, defined by the number of Democrats and same-sex couples, along with gay-straight alliances, and anti-discrimination and anti-bullying policies that specifically protect lesbian, gay, and bisexual students in schools.
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