The multiple marginalized social statuses that Black sexual minorities hold has been termed “triple jeopardy” because of the negative impact racism, sexism and heterosexism has on the health outcomes of sexual minority women of color (Greene, 1996). The minority stress the-ory posits that individuals of one or more marginalized social identities are exposed to prejudicial experiences related to their social status which causes social stress and can lead to negative mental health outcomes (Meyer, 2013) and Black sexual minority women report experiencing more discrimination and less psychological and social well-being than White sexual minority women and more symptoms of depression and poorer social well-being than Black sexual minor-ity men (Calabrese, Meyer, Overstreet, Haile & Hansen, 2014) …show more content…
As their experiences in the healthcare system cannot be deduced by the experiences of women or Black men. Similarly, Black lesbian women are triply marginalized by their social status (race, gender and sexual orientation) so exploration of the discrimination felt by Black lesbian and bisexual women must be directly investigated intersec-tional on Black sexual minority women and not as if these identities were separate constructs to be examined separately together (Bowleg, 2008). A recent study on lesbian and bisexual women argued that the physical health disparities for lesbians and bisexuals were related to minority stress caused by exposure to antigay stigma (Lick, Durso & Johnson,