2 - (SYM 107) Variation in Effects of Bi+ Microaggressions on Aspects of Bi+ Identity Based on Microaggression Content and Perpetrator

The microaggressions experienced by bi+ people (i.e., individuals with attractions to more than one gender) have been prospectively linked with subsequent increases in symptoms of anxiety, depression, and cannabis use disorder. Mechanisms, including internalized and anticipated bi+ stigma have been implicated as mechanisms in this process. However, the microaggressions experienced by bi+ people are diverse, including microaggressions that communicate the perceived instability of bi+ identities, the perceived sexual promiscuity of bi+ people, and more broadly exclusion and hostility toward bi+ individuals. These microaggression are also perpetrated by both heterosexual and lesbian/gay individuals and bias from other members of the LGBT community have been theorized to have a particularly negative impact on bi+ people because of their shared sexual minority status.

The current study aimed to determine whether specific types of microaggressions were more likely to contribute to subsequent increases in internalized and anticipated stigma or decreases in identity affirmation. We also aimed to determine whether these effects differed based on the perpetrator of the microaggressions. We used data from two assessments conducted one month apart with a sample of 355 bi+ cisgender women and gender diverse individuals to examine these research questions.

Results indicated that microaggressions that communicated the perceived instability of bi+ identities (i.e., instability) predicted subsequent increases in internalized bi+ stigma – a construct that includes desire to change one’s attractions to focus on a single gender. This held true for microaggressions perpetrated by both lesbian/gay and heterosexual individuals. Microaggressions that broadly communicated hostility toward bi+ people also predicted subsequent increases in internalized bi+ stigma but only when they were perpetrated by lesbian/gay individuals. Only instability microaggressions from heterosexual people predicted subsequent increases in anticipated stigma and none of the microaggressions examined predicted changes in identity affirmation, suggesting that this dimension of identity may remain stable in the face of bi+ microaggressions despite changes in internalized bi+ stigma.

These results help to add further nuance to the types of microaggressions that may be more detrimental to perceptions of individuals own bi+ identities, suggesting that instability stereotypes in particular may have particularly negative impacts on internalized stigma.