Ventriglio Antonio, Castaldelli-Maia João Mauricio, Torales Julio, De Berardis Domenico, Bhugra Dinesh
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy.
Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, Fundação do ABC, Santo André, SP, Brazil.
Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2021 Jun 29;30:e52. doi: 10.1017/S2045796021000391.
Homophobia is still a scourge in the modern era. Despite a greater acceptance of sexual variations and same-sex marriage in many countries, homophobia is widely sustained by religious, political and cultural values and beliefs at individual and social level. Most of homophobic attitudes are based on the principle of heteronormativity according to which heterosexuality is the standard for legitimating social and sexual relationships and homosexuality is considered as an abnormal variant. Homophobia may be also recognised at institutional level (state-sponsored homophobia, social homophobia) and supported by laws or religious beliefs. Moreover, internalised homophobia (IH) is defined as the inward direction of societal homophobic behaviours at individual level and refers to the subjective psychological impact of these negative attitudes. In fact, IH is significantly associated with a high prevalence of internalising mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, stress/trauma-related disorders, etc. We believe that a set of immediate actions are needed in order to contrast homophobia and its impact on mental health, in particular political initiatives, educational trainings and scientific research should be promoted with a specific focus on mental health needs of people target of homophobia.
恐同现象在现代社会仍是一大祸害。尽管许多国家对性取向差异和同性婚姻的接受度有所提高，但在个人和社会层面，宗教、政治及文化价值观与信仰仍广泛助长着恐同现象。大多数恐同态度基于异性恋规范原则，即异性恋是社会和性关系合法化的标准，而同性恋则被视为异常变体。恐同现象在制度层面（国家支持的恐同、社会恐同）也可能存在，并得到法律或宗教信仰的支持。此外，内化恐同（IH）被定义为社会恐同行为在个体层面的内化，指这些负面态度的主观心理影响。事实上，内化恐同与内化性精神障碍（如抑郁症、焦虑症、应激/创伤相关障碍等）的高患病率显著相关。我们认为，需要立即采取一系列行动来对抗恐同现象及其对心理健康的影响，特别是应推动政治举措、教育培训和科学研究，尤其要关注恐同目标人群的心理健康需求。
