Symposia
LGBQT+
Skyler D. Jackson, Ph.D.
Associate Research Scientist
Yale School of Public Health
Brooklyn, New York
Krystn Wagner, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Augusta University
Augusta, Georgia
Mike Yepes, MPH
Student / Researcher
Yale School of Public Health
New Haven, Connecticut
Tyler Harvey, MPH
Program Administrator
Yale University
New Haven, CT
Jackson Higginbottom, MPH
Research Associate II
Yale University
New Haven, CT
John E. Pachankis, Ph.D.
Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences)
Yale School of Public Health
New Haven, Connecticut
Accumulating research suggests that multiple, interlocking forms of stigma (e.g., racism, homophobia, intersectional stigma) drive and maintain specific health disparities among Black and Latino gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM). We tested the acceptability and feasibility of a group therapy treatment that addresses the intersecting stigma-related stressors theorized to drive elevated mental health risk, sexual health risk, and their co-occurrence among US Black and Latino GBM. We modified an existing 10-week, one-on-one, cognitive-behavioral intervention addressing co-occurring health risks among GBM to develop a group-based, intersectionally-informed treatment for GBM of color. An open pilot was conducted (n = 21, across two cohorts) with young Black and Latino GBM. Baseline and 3-month post-treatment assessments and exit interviews assessed the treatment’s hypothesized impact on stigma coping, mental health, and sexual health. Seventeen of the 20 study variables changed in the expected direction, including measures of (a) stigma coping, as demonstrated by decreases in perceived sexual minority stress, racial minority stress, and intersectional stress; (b) mental health, including depression, anxiety, stress, and suicidality, but not alcohol use; and (c) sexual health, including condom use efficacy, sexual compulsivity, and PrEP uptake; with partial support for a reduction of HIV risk acts. Exit interviews and retention data suggest high acceptability of the treatment length, format, and content—and revealed a prominent theme: The treatment and group composition led participants to feel less alone as GBM of color. Any comprehensive public health effort to eradicate the health burdens upon GBM of color must alter the unfair systems of power that drive and maintain them. In the meantime, so long as these health-eroding manifestations of stigma persist, it is imperative that public health scholars and clinicians develop culturally-responsive interventions that empower young GBM of color to develop heightened resilience against stigma-related stress. This study lays the groundwork for a group treatment to address intersectional stigma, mental health, and HIV risk among GBM of color.