Public Health Scene

For more than 150 years, scholars and educators have debated whether homosexuality is an objective disorder or whether social oppression, not homosexuality, leads to the higher rates of depression, drug use, and HIV in gay men.

In a study of 422 Midwestern gay and bisexual men, Simon Rosser, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist, found that in all cases, internalized negative attitudes about homosexuality predicted poorer mental health.

Rosser says that his findings show that the old advice, which encouraged gay men to deny their homosexuality, is harmful.

• Listen to Rosser on our Public Health Moment podcast