Intersectionality Theory

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The intersectionality of an individual or population links to poor mental health outcomes. Intersectionality is a sociological theory about how an individual or population can face multiple threats of the systematic oppression and discrimination due to the social categorization that include race, gender, age, ethnicity, health, and stigmatized characteristics (Severs, 2016). Significantly, LGBTQI Latinx endure discrimination and oppression due to their intersectionality. For example, homosexuality is stigmatized and rejected in Latin American culture due to the machismo embedded in Latin American culture. To clarify, machismo was adopted from the Spanish during the colonial period and has become normalize throughout traditional Latin American …show more content…
For instance, “how the intersection of multiple stigmatized identities may influence responses to discrimination and mental health outcomes” (McLaughlin, 2010). In other words, there is a correlation between marginalization and poor mental health outcomes. Particularly, LGBTQI Latinx suffer from various mental and social issues due to their cultural and ethnic background that is discriminated because of hegemonic ideals. As a matter in fact, queer Latinx “experience discrimination, racism and homophobia from mainstream society based on their ethnic and sexual identity and from with the Latino community based on their sexual identification” (Guarnero, 2008). In this case, the intersectionality of a LGBTQI Latinx affects in various degrees their psychological health that needs to be acknowledged and resolve. Latinx individuals already suffer from various health problems that are rooted from structural violence and racism in our system. For that reason, health disparities are common within low-income marginalized ethnic minorities. Additionally, “traditional Latino families have negative perceptions of homosexuality[…] they expect a man to behave like a man, that is, he should avoid exhibiting effeminate behaviors found that Latino gay men who exhibited effeminate behaviors tended to report high levels of abuse (verbal/physical) and depressive symptoms” (Guarnero, 2008). In other words, queer Latinx men try to mask their sexuality by over parading their masculinity in order to fit the social structural dogma of traditional Latin culture. This creates a social and cultural gap between LGBTQI Latinx and other Latinx. Therefore, when creating health policies to reduce health disparities, policy makers