Abstract
To the Editor
The results of the 2018 General Social Survey (GSS) suggest that gay/lesbian New Zealanders are just as satisfied with their lives as heterosexuals (Statistics New Zealand, 2019). We appreciate any efforts to bring attention to Sexual Minority (SM) health disparities and commend Statistics New Zealand. However, it is critical to bring balance to this positive finding before using it to inform practice or policy (the aim of the GSS).
Research has consistently found that SMs (e.g. lesbian/gay/bisexual) report worse overall health/well-being compared to non-SMs. One factor that appears to drive these health disparities is stigma; an association exists between societal acceptance of SMs and the health of SM populations. Although New Zealand has been ranked as one of the most LGBTQ accepting countries in the world (Van der Star et al., 2019), New Zealand SMs still report experiencing more stigmatization (e.g. discrimination) and worse overall health relative to non-SMs (Adams et al., 2019). The fact that the 2018 GSS contradicts some of these findings necessitates a closer examination of the survey.
One concern is that very few responders in the GSS self-identified as gay/lesbian (n = ~88) or bisexual (n = ~152). Such small samples make inferences of the larger SM population difficult and pose a threat to generalizability. In addition, these results were presented as proportions without error bars or significance testing, which may lead to inaccurate interpretation (especially when published in mainstream media). Thus, additional research is critical and future research should (1) oversample SM participants and/or (2) use Bayesian approaches to utilize prior information from the New Zealand Health Survey to produce reliable estimates of the uncertainty in an effect. The 2018 GSS also found that SMs reported more past-year discrimination and felt less comfortable expressing their identity than non-SMs. These findings belie the presumed LGBTQ-friendly atmosphere of New Zealand. That is, SMs still encounter stigma in New Zealand.
Thus, we believe that the preliminary results of the 2018 GSS should be interpreted with caution. Suggesting that gays/lesbians are as satisfied with their lives as non-SMs presents an incomplete picture of the reality of living as SM in New Zealand. This is concerning as it is extremely easy for research to be misinterpreted when published by mainstream media. Greater efforts are needed to engage SM groups before data can have meaningful impacts on policy and practice. Future research should examine how endemic forms of stigma impact the health of marginalized groups.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
