Stressor and Resilience Factors for Lesbians, Gay Men and Bisexuals Confronting Antigay Politics

Russell, G. M., & Richards, J. A. (2003). Stressor and Resilience Factors for Lesbians, Gay Men and Bisexuals Confronting Antigay Politics. American Journal of Community Psychology, 31(3–4), 313–328. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023919022811

When lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people encounter antigay campaigns and elections, they face explicit and implicit homophobic attacks. In order to understand the points of stress and the bases for resilience in the face of these attacks, we developed a 130-item quantitative survey on the basis of results of an earlier qualitative study. 316 Colorado LGB people endorsed items representing sources of stress and resilience associated with the campaign for and passage of an antigay referendum. Factor analyses of the results suggested 5 sources of stressors and 5 sources of resilience for LGB persons and their communities.