Stereotyping and Healthcare decisions: Gays and lesbians

Essay – Stereotyping and
Healthcare decisions: Gays
and lesbians
1

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Background information on gays and lesbians.......................................................................3
Defining stereotyping and common stereotyping labels in societal behaviour towards gays and
lesbians .................................................................................................................................5
Impact of stereotyping on gays and lesbians..........................................................................6
Strategies to promote inclusiveness of gays and lesbians......................................................7
Reflection on self-awareness and resilience....................................................................................8
Summary and conclusion.................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
2

Introduction
Culture, thoughts and societal ethics forms the basis of one’s thought process as to how they
will perceive others. Judging others’ and their actions by those pre-developed notions is known
as stereotyping (Buckle, 2015). This essay focuses on general assumptions or stereotypes related
to the gays and lesbians and their health. Background information about gays and lesbians, their
issues, risks associated are presented in this essay. Statistics related to gays and lesbians in UK,
their acceptance and societal acceptance towards their orientation are also presented in this essay.
Further, the essay discusses on social stigmas and their impact over physical and mental health of
gays and lesbians. It discusses about discrimination in choices and facilities available to them
and strategies to empower them and promote their inclusiveness (Lipkin, 2018). Also, a
reflection has been drawn on my self-awareness about my learnings about their issues and coping
mechanisms. In the end, a summary of the essay has been provided. For the sake of easy
understanding and coherent expression in this essay, a 47 years old homosexual man Shaun, who
lives with his gay partner is taken as example. Problems faced by Shaun within his family and
personal dynamics, work prospects, unfair treatment by heterosexuals and their impact over
mental well-being of Shaun is discussed.
Main Body
Background information on gays and lesbians
Homosexual men or gay men refers to those men that are sexually attracted to other men.
They are part of lesbian, gays, bisexuals and transgender community which is commonly known
as LGBT community (Clarke and Arnold, 2017). In the views of Fingerhut and Peplau, people
consider it as an active choice made by person and not their natural preference or something with
which they were born with. Therefore, they consider it as a sin and disables. This is considered
as a taboo topic to be discussed and it is assumed that if these things are not discussed openly,
this would not happen. LGBT people lack support from family members and doesn't feel
confident enough to be open and comfortable about their sexual orientation and gender identity
in the society which only considers heterosexuals as normal and acceptable (Garretson, 2015).
For example, Shaun who is a 47 years old homosexual man living with his gay partner is not
considered as normal by his family. Natalie considers it his personal decision to be a gay with
which she doesn't have any problem but doesn't want her children to know about homosexuals as
3

she doesn't want them to “choose homosexuality”. Homosexuals are often subjected to public
humiliation and embarrassment such as keeping them excluded from events or activities, not
considering them manly enough to do physically challenging works, not accepting them as co-
workers, etc. They also suffer physical, mental, sexual and verbal abuses, harassment and
violence such as the This far less acceptance in society has resulted in increased risk of mental
disorder symptoms, suicide, AIDS stigma in them, (Haas and et.al., 2020) etc.
According to the Office for National Statistics, UK, there is an increase in proportion of
the UK population identifying themselves as LGB from 1.6% in 2014 to 2.2% in 2018. Also,
men are more likely to accept their sexual identity than women. Younger men from age range 16
to 24 years were most likely to accept their identity as LGB in 2018 and among all of ethnic
groups in England, white people in London were most likely to identify as LGB while people in
north-east were least likely. More than two-thirds of people who identified as LGB were single
and never married or have been in any civil relationship (Sexual Orientation, UK:2018, 2020).
This shows that society is changing and being open for good but the statistics shows that it is
case of young people in urban areas while older homosexual persons especially in rural areas still
need support to accept their gender identity.
4