Abstract
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: 32px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people of color (LGB-POC) experience multiple types of discrimination, including heterosexism and racism, that have been conceptualized as being traumatic events. Due to this intersectionality, they are at increased risk for experiencing mental health problems. How LGB-POC respond to discriminatory experiences can significantly influence whether these stressors subsequently impact mental health, especially the development of trauma symptoms following a traumatic event. <i>Rumination </i>and <i>emotional support seeking </i>have been identified as two ways of responding to discrimination that ultimately impact mental health. There is limited research on how LGB-POC respond to the two different types of discrimination (heterosexism and racism). Further, no studies have examined whether LGB-POC respond differently to violent versus non-violent forms of discrimination. To address this gap, the current study utilized an intersectional approach to examine how LGB-POC respond to the different types (heterosexism, racism) and forms (violent and non-violent) of discrimination and their consequences for mental health. This study employed a cross-sectional, convenience sampling approach to recruit 330 self-identified LGB-POC. Results from structural equation modeling showed that nonviolent racism and nonviolent heterosexism were associated with large increases in trauma symptoms and large decreases in subjective well-being. In terms of how LGB-POC respond to discrimination, they ruminate more and seek more emotional support in response to nonviolent racism, and they seek less emotional support for isolated acts of violent discrimination, all of which had resulting impact on their mental health. Implications for theory, research, clinical practice, and public policy are discussed.<o:p></o:p></p>