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“I Don’t Fit Anywhere”: How Race and Sexuality Shape Latino Gay and Bisexual Men’s Health

  • Chapter
The Health of Sexual Minorities

Abstract

Society’s negative views toward homosexuality continue to decline, although gay, lesbian, and transgender people in the United States experience stigma (Weitz, 1991; Herek, 1999; Kaiser Foundation, 2001; Loftus, 2001). The stigma of homosexuality has serious consequences for many gay men, such as stress, low self-esteem, suicide, unemployment, and dislocation (Cochran & Mays, 2000; Link & Phelan, 2001; Mays & Cochran, 2001; Paul et al., 2002). The AIDS epidemic has intensified this stigma (Herek, 1999). Moreover, stigma of homosexuality may be particularly critical for ethnic minorities, such as Latino gay men, because of the added racial discrimination (Diaz, 1998; Finch et al., 2000; Ramirez-Valles et al., 2005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Jesus Ramirez-Valles

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  1. Jesus Ramirez-Valles
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  1. Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Ilan H. Meyer PhD  & Mary E. Northridge PhD, MPH  & 

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Ramirez-Valles, J. (2007). “I Don’t Fit Anywhere”: How Race and Sexuality Shape Latino Gay and Bisexual Men’s Health. In: Meyer, I.H., Northridge, M.E. (eds) The Health of Sexual Minorities. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-31334-4_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-31334-4_12

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