The costs of being “different”: sexual identity and subjective wellbeing over the life course in contemporary Australia

Vast social transformations in recent decades have resulted in the emergence of a sociopolitical climate that is progressively more accepting of sexual minorities. However, sexual identity remains an important aspect influencing people’s lives, and is believed to have independent effects on subjective wellbeing via stigmatization and discrimination of sexual minorities. We use recently available, nationally representative, Australian panel data (n≈15,000 individuals & 111,000 person-year observations) and panel regression models to provide the most encompassing and generalizable empirical account to-date of how sexual identity influences a range of subjective wellbeing outcomes, including mental health, life satisfaction, psychological distress and feelings of safety, and how its effects evolve over individuals’ life courses. We find that the subjective wellbeing of gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals is significantly worse than that of heterosexual individuals. Disparities are most apparent during adolescence and early adulthood and tend to close as people age, especially for bisexual individuals