Mental health treatment for LGBTQ individuals has evolved to recognize that sexual orientation is just one piece of a complex identity puzzle. New research reveals how young Black and Latino gay and bisexual men experience and benefit from specialized therapy that addresses the unique stresses they face as members of multiple minority groups.
Understanding Minority Stress in Therapy
Researchers studied 20 young Black and Latino men who participated in LGBTQ affirmative cognitive behavioral therapy, a treatment specifically designed to help sexual minorities cope with discrimination and stigma. The therapy introduces participants to the concept of "minority stress," which describes how belonging to a stigmatized group can create psychological pressure and mental health challenges.
When therapists presented this framework to participants, something interesting happened. Rather than focusing solely on stress related to their sexual orientation, these men naturally drew connections to other aspects of their identities that also created stress in their lives.
Six Types of Stress Emerge
The study identified six distinct themes that emerged when participants discussed minority stress during therapy sessions. These themes reveal the complex web of challenges that young Black and Latino sexual minority men navigate daily.
Racial discrimination appeared as a significant source of stress, with participants describing encounters with racism in both general society and within LGBTQ communities. They spoke about being fetishized based on their race or experiencing rejection from potential partners due to racial prejudices.
Gender expectations created another layer of pressure. Participants described feeling compelled to monitor their behavior constantly to appear more masculine, both to avoid detection of their sexual orientation and to meet community standards within gay culture. This self monitoring proved emotionally exhausting and contributed to ongoing psychological strain.
Religious conflicts emerged as a third major stressor. Many participants grew up in religious households where their sexual orientation conflicted with taught beliefs. Some described attending religious services as a way to conceal their identity, while simultaneously struggling with internal conflict about their authentic selves.
Concerns about aging within the LGBTQ community surfaced as an unexpected source of anxiety. Even young participants worried about becoming older gay men, fearing rejection based on youth obsessed community standards. They described pressure to achieve financial success quickly to maintain social value as they aged.
Financial hardship represented a fifth category of stress that significantly impacted mental health. Participants discussed struggles with basic needs like housing, employment, and healthcare access. These economic pressures intersected with other identity based stressors to create compounded challenges.
Finally, participants did address stressors specifically related to their sexual orientation, including family rejection, workplace discrimination, and challenges within LGBTQ communities. Bisexual participants particularly noted feeling excluded from both gay and straight communities.
The Intersectional Approach
What makes this research particularly valuable is how it demonstrates the interconnected nature of identity based stress. Participants didn't experience racism separately from homophobia or financial stress in isolation from religious conflict. Instead, these various pressures overlapped and reinforced each other in complex ways.
This finding has important implications for mental health treatment. Traditional therapy approaches might focus on one aspect of a person's identity while overlooking others. The research suggests that effective treatment for young Black and Latino sexual minority men requires addressing the full spectrum of identity related stressors they experience.
Treatment Effectiveness
Previous research had shown that this particular therapy approach worked especially well for young Black and Latino men compared to White participants. The current study helps explain why this might be the case. The minority stress framework resonated strongly with participants who had extensive experience navigating discrimination based on multiple aspects of their identity.
The therapy's focus on external sources of stress, rather than internal psychological problems, aligned well with participants' lived experiences of societal discrimination. Many had developed coping strategies for dealing with racism that they could adapt to address other forms of minority stress.
Implications for Mental Health Care
These findings suggest that mental health providers working with multiply marginalized clients should adopt a comprehensive approach that acknowledges all aspects of a client's identity. Rather than focusing exclusively on one source of stress, therapists can help clients understand how different forms of discrimination interact and develop strategies for managing multiple pressures simultaneously.
The research also highlights the importance of cultural competence in therapy. Providers need understanding not just of LGBTQ issues, but also of how race, class, religion, and other factors shape their clients' experiences.
This research contributes to a growing body of work emphasizing the importance of intersectional approaches in mental health care. For young Black and Latino sexual minority men who face discrimination on multiple fronts, therapy that acknowledges and addresses this complexity appears to be more effective than treatments that focus on single aspects of identity.
The study also demonstrates the value of analyzing real therapy sessions rather than relying solely on retrospective interviews. By examining how participants actually responded during treatment, researchers gained insights into the therapeutic process that might not emerge through other research methods.
For the broader mental health field, these findings underscore the need for treatments that can flexibly address the diverse stressors that marginalized individuals face. As society becomes increasingly aware of how different forms of discrimination intersect and compound, therapeutic approaches must evolve to meet these complex realities.
Jaramillo, J., Kalra, N., Reyes, N., Rodriguez-Seijas, C., Rogers, B. G., Morris, F., ... & Harkness, A. (2025). Young Black and Latino Sexual Minority Men’s Responses to the Minority Stress Model in the Context of LGBTQ-Affirmative CBT. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice.
