Psychologist discusses mental, emotional stresses on members of LGBT community

A University of Montana professor and psychologist who specializes in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies spoke Thursday at Montana State University-Northern's Hensler Auditorium about mental and emotional issues sexual minorities often face.

Bryan Cochran said his talks and studies, which he has said began 20 years while working on his dissertation at University of Washington in Seattle, are to help people understand that LGBT and transgender people are at an elevated risk for mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse and suicide.

"By virtue of having a minority status, one is more likely to experience stress," he said.

Cochran used a PowerPoint presentation of information during his talk.

"I'm a scientist. I love data," he told the listeners in the auditorium.

Studies on the health risks of LGBT largely began in the 1980 and were primarily focused on men who have sex with men, Cochran said. Cochran relayed statistics from the National Interview Survey, some of which include lesbian women are 2.63 times more likely to be heavy drinkers and 2.29 times more likely to be heavy smokers; bisexual women are 3.69 times more likely to incur severe psychological distress and twice as likely to be heavy drinkers and smokers; gay men are 2.82 times more likely to incur severe psychological distress and twice as likely to be heavy drinkers and smokers; bisexual men are 4.7 times more likely to incur severe psychological distress, three times more likely to be heavy drinkers and twice as likely to be heavy smokers.

From the Transgender Discrimination Survey, lifetime suicide attempt rates of transgender people approached 41 percent, and those rates were higher among younger Native Americans and those with lower income; 39 percent of transgender people experienced severe psychological distress, 33 percent had a negative experience with a health provider and 23 percent avoided getting mental health care because they were afraid of being mistreated, Cochran said.

"One thing we know about mental health care is if you don't access it, it doesn't do anything for you," he said.

He said a Gay/Lesbian/Straight Education Network survey says 57.6 percent of LGBT students feel unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation; 70.8 percent are verbally harassed, 27 percent physically harassed, 48.6 experienced cyber bullying, and of the youth who reported an incident, 63.5 percent said the staff did nothing.

"Imagine being a kid who has always felt different, and school is not a safe place for you," he said.

Cochran used the term historical trauma to say that someone does not have to personally experience discrimination or genocide like their ancestors - he cited Native Americans as an example - for those events to still reverberate in their lives today.

"Historical trauma reverberates in LGBT people because of the way they've been discriminated against in the past," he said. "It means this becomes part of your experience as well."

He cited events such as Upstairs Lounge Massacre in 1973 in which 32 people died in a fire in a gay bar in New Orleans; the more recent Pulse nightclub massacre, the largest massacre in recent U.S. history, or the AIDS epidemic and how in the '80s the original term for the disease was GRID, gay-related immune deficiency.

"I was growing up during this time," he said. "No one knew it was a virus or how it was spread."

As for practical steps, Cochran said, trauma can be alleviated by reducing bullying, victimization and assault. Bystander intervention, he said, is to intervene on behalf of someone who is being bullied on the basis of their sexual orientation. Knowing and having contact with people who are different also helps curb prejudice, he said, and everyone should work to eliminate structural and systematic discrimination in the workplace and through political means.

Cochran said, in a follow-up email, that he didn't have any exact data on LGBT population in the Havre area, but he made an estimate based on general data.

"I would estimate based on the population size here that there are 400-600 LGBT people in the town (based on 10K population, 4-6 percent general estimate of LGBT individuals)," he said in the email.

He said that during his short time here he learned of people's concern in the area.

"Of the folks that talked with me after the presentation today, many expressed concern about the climate for LGBT people, feeling that there is considerable homophobia and transphobia - not at all uncommon in small Western towns," he said.