Abstract

This study investigated the moderated mediating effect of Sense of LGBT Community through Internalized Heterosexism on the relationship between sexual orientation microaggression and psychological distress. The present study conducted online-based survey to 290 Lesbian, gay and bisexual people and tested hypothesis by using SPSS Macro process. There was a significant mediating effect of internalized heterosexism on the relationship between sexual orientation microaggression and psychological distress. Additionally, there was a significant moderating effect of sense of LGBT community on the relationship between sexual orientation microaggression and internalized heterosexism. Finally, the moderated mediation effect of sense of LGBT community on the relationship between sexual orientation microaggression, internalized heterosexism, and psychological distress was found. This study elaborated the role of Internalized heterosexism on LGB people when they undergo sexual orientation microaggression and expand the minority stress model of Meyer(2003) in that not only explicit discrimination but also subtle discrimination like microaggression can affect minority stress including internalized heterosexism. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.