Pressured Gay Men Passing as Straight…

Blashill, A., & Vander Wal, J. (2010). Gender Role Conflict as a Mediator between Social Sensitivity and Depression in a Sample of Gay Men International Journal of Men’s Health, 9 (1), 26-39 DOI: 10.3149/jmh.0901.26

Why are fags so mad? I ask myself that question quite a lot. Look around here and you will find me meandering over that topic from time to time. Two distinct camps have emerged to respond to why the reported prevalence rates of depression and anxiety are higher, in some cases much higher in gay men than they are in straight men. The first camp, and one which I absolutely detest, are those researchers who have set out to prove that homosexuality has a psycho-pathological basis, and as such is amenable to treatment and cure. The other camp, and the one in which I proudly sit, are those researchers who want to explore the influence of social forces on the behaviour and attitudes of gay men. Thankfully, the authors of this article, Blashill and Vander Wal (2010), are in the latter camp.

That said, stating a bald reality automatically invokes the possibility of leading to multiple interpretations. For example, when Blashill and Vander Wal (2010, pp.26-27) claim that yes, gay men are more depressed and more anxious than straight men, some things can invariably be lost in translation. I think of all the gay rights, advocacy, health and well-being organisations here in Australia that happily have got on the psycho-pathological bus, to boldly crusade that fags are the maddest bastards in the whole, damn world and that they must be identified and treated as such, post haste. I could not conjure up a more demonstrably homophobic stance and yet, gay men themselves are now largely responsible for perpetuating that horrid lie. In taking on the sick role, perhaps, that is, the purported sickness of our sexuality, we can eke out a pathetic type of ‘acceptance’.

An eternity after hell freezes over, I would suggest…

Gay men, as Blashill and Vander Wal (2010) demonstrate, do indeed report higher rates of depression and anxiety than straight men (pp.26-27). However, they contend that most of that edge can be attributed to external stressors like, for example, stigma, prejudice, internalized homophobia, hiding/concealing one’s identity, and expectations of rejection due to one’s sexuality’ (2010, p.26). The authors emphasise the deleterious impact on the emotional health and well-being of gay men who feel pressured or otherwise obliged to pass as straight in specific social situations: at the footy, in the locker room, at family events, and when talking about fucking women with straight men, et al. (2010, p.27). They conclude that by seeking to pass as straight in such social situations, gay men are contributing to their own diminished mental health (2010, p.36).

 Just a few extra points…

• Whenever I read articles in which it is stated that gay men report higher rates of mental disorder than straight men (2010, pp.26-27), I immediately think that is mostly because straight men are so incredibly reluctant to ever fess up to being mad (I should know, I am doing my PhD on this subject);
• Although Blashill and Vander Wal (2010) question the proposition that a gay man might ‘‘hide’ his femininity…to avoid possible physical and/or verbal harm’ (p.36), they nonetheless fall into that devilish trap of constructing gender along simplistic binaries (pp.28-29); and  
• For anyone working therapeutically with gay men who have ever felt the brunt of external stressors related to their sexuality, I would strongly advise psycho-education that includes positing responsibility for any emotional harm caused by these external stressors to the actual perpetrator or perpetrators…

See also, below (re links between external stressors and depressive/anxiety disorders):

Hovens, J., Wiersma, J., Giltay, E., Van Oppen, P., Spinhoven, P., Penninx, B., & Zitman, F. (2009). Childhood life events and childhood trauma in adult patients with depressive, anxiety and comorbid disorders vs. controls Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 122 (1), 66-74 DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2009.01491.x

Update: News that the NSW State Government has decided to fund a planning and scoping project (‘scoping’ is in the bean counters’ lexicon of top 10 wanker, weasel words) re GLBTI mental health (see link, below), needs to be read in terms of that ever-growing push to declare anyone who is not straight, totally nuts. The host agency for that project, ACON, comes from the prehistoric, ’mmm and nod’ school of counselling, and is so firmly in the government’s tent that it dare not ever poke its head out for a bit of fresh air…

Funding to Support Better Mental Health in GLBT Community