Connecting Laws to Lives — Ilan Meyer, United States
Tags: LGBTQ, Law, Transgender

Ilan Meyer

Millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people around the world experience stigma and prejudice first hand as the result of living open, honest lives. The sources of anti­-LGBTI sentiment, marginalization and violence are many, and one of the less­-understood causes is legally-­sanctioned stigma and prejudice in places where LGBTI populations are specifically targeted.

Dr. Ilan Meyer is a Distinguished Senior Scholar for Public Policy at the Williams Institute at UCLA. In high-­profile cases brought in response toRussia’s Propaganda Law and Uganda’s Anti­-Homosexuality Act, Meyer has submitted research showing direct links between laws targeting LGBTI populations and declining mental and physical health outcomes.

“In the Russian case the defense argued that being LGBT represents an array of disorders” that should be reduced by limiting access to information and support. “I explained that in most international contexts homosexualitay is not a disorder and pointed to the real problem being increased social rejection and prejudice ratified by the propaganda law itself,” Dr. Meyer said.

In Meyer’s declaration to the Russian court he noted that ­ “Laws such as Russia’s propaganda law can have serious negative impact on the health and well­being of homosexual youth and adults in that the law increases and enshrines stigma and prejudice, leading to discrimination and violence, and, thus, increasing risk for mental distress and suicide ideation.”

The motivations for creating laws targeting LGBTI people range from long­standing cultural attitudes to more recently introduced concepts of religious morality. In Uganda, a well­-documented campaign by American evangelicals was instrumental in provoking the government to pass the Anti­-Homosexuality Act in 2013.

Even though parts of the law were overturned by a Ugandan court in 2014, the Ugandan non­profit Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) has filed suit against one of the leaders of the religious campaign in U.S. courts.

In the case of Uganda’s Anti­-Homosexuality Act, Meyer argues that ”The social environment brought about by the Anti­-Homosexuality Bill has led to the erection of barriers to healthcare for LGBT people. In addition, the inhospitable environment in Uganda has resulted in a number of stressors on LGBT people that constitute a process called ‘minority stress.’ This well­-documented dynamic can cause a host of mental and physical problems, a reduced sense of well­being, an increase in suicides, and an increase in unhealthy behaviors.”

Meyer’s research model has also been used to show positive effects where LGBTI lives are affirmed through law. “There is quite a lot of research using the same basic model I use to look at areas that have better social environments for people. This could be legal standing or social acceptance. Regions that show lower levels of minority stress and related issues also show LGBTI populations faring better. It is clear that better laws create better social environments especially in areas such as youth suicide.”

These positive effects are found in research conducted by Mark Hatzenbuehler at Columbia University. In a 2014 report on the value of protective school environments Hatzenbuehler and his coauthors state “Our results demonstrate that LGB youths living in states and cities with more protective school climates were significantly less likely to report past­ year suicidal thoughts than LGB youths living in states and cities with less protective school climates.”

For better or worse, laws targeting people often have unseen effects on the lived experiences of individuals. Meyer and his colleagues are working to reveal the hidden connections.