Intersecting Identities and Invisible Struggles: Psycho-Social-Spiritual Challenges Faced by Gay and Lesbian Individuals in Dimapur

Abstract

Lesbians and gay individuals have long been marginalized because of their sexual identity, resulting in devaluation in social contexts, stigma, discrimination, and marginalization stemming from structural-violation in societal norms, cultural values, including religious beliefs or ideologies, and individual biases. Experiences of stigma vary widely from micro-aggressions to extreme acts of harm and aggression. Evidence has shown that negative attitudes toward lesbians and gay people are not only present in society at large, but also replicated within healthcare systems of care, where poor-quality care, spiritual care neglect, misplaced anger, or refusals present as services that Lesbian and Gay may receive. These processes of discrimination resulted in psychosocial and spiritual trauma within lesbian and gay individuals which was investigated in this proposed study conducted in Dimapur, Nagaland with participants between the ages of 15 to 60 years and older. Participants for the study were recruited by mixed methods approach which involved initially, interview participants of ten, while quantitative interview participants were 150. Participating qualitative interview participants answered questions on factors that traumatic experiences shaped psycho-social-personal-spiritual well-being. Quantitative study participant data were collected using closed-ended surveys in Google Forms and distributed on social media including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The results highlight that stigma and discrimination define psycho-social-spiritual well-being. Lesbians were the most resilient on these measures although they also continued to experience stigma as lesbians. Overall, gay participants had the worst combined psycho-social-spiritual outcomes based on the factors identified.