Abstract:

Despite the growing acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) in the world, homosexuality in Ghana is illegal. LGBTs in Ghana are subjected to myriads of discrimination and abuses. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact discrimination and abuses faced by the LGBTs have on their mental and general health conditions. A total of 494 self-identified LGBTs, recruited via non-probability sampling technique of snow-ball participated in the study. The survey included four categories of survey items: demographic information, forms of discrimination and abuses, general health, and mental health. The findings of the study indicated that the major forms of discrimination and abuses faced by the LGBTs are of legal, social and employment forms. The findings of the study revealed that LGBT individuals in Ghana experience somatization, depression, and anxiety several days. On the contrary, a significant proportion 218(48.3%) of the LGBTs considered themselves to be in good general health condition. A simple linear regression analysis performed to examine the impact the discrimination and abuses faced by the LGBTs have on their mental and general health conditions revealed that the legal, employment, and family discrimination and abuses faced by the LGBTs have a detrimental effect on the psychological distress of anxiety, somatization, and depression of the LGBTs. It is recommended that policies and laws against LGBTs in Ghana be changed to allow for their acceptance, otherwise LGBTs in Ghana will continue to experience discriminations and abuses which will have negative effects on their mental and general health.

Keywords: Homosexuality, sexual orientation, discrimination, abuses, LGBTs, Ghana.

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