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Study: Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Individuals Experience More Anxiety 

Study: Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Individuals Experience More Anxiety

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual
Matthew Henry/Unsplash

You don’t say.

It's no wonder that, growing up in a sometimes-painfully heteronormative society, that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people can be met with incidents and situations that leave them feeling anxious. But now, a new scientific study out of the UK's Office of National Statistics has empirical proof that support the anxiety that riddles members of the community daily.

By the numbers, the study shows that of the LGB people interviews, bisexual men and women were the most unhappy compared to their straight British counterparts. They were 40 percent more likely to describe themselves as unhappy, while gay and lesbian individuals surveyed were 25 percent more likely.

Related | 20 Percent of Millennials Identify as LGBTQ

While lesbian and gay participants collectively reported being 50 percent more likely to experience anxiety, bisexual people veered toward 80 percent, which makes sense considering how much discrimination they can face from society and from within the LGBT community.

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"By publishing this analysis as Pride takes place around the world, we mark the celebration of equality and diversity by contributing to the debate around societal inequalities in regards to sexual identity," said the ONS in a statement pinned to the study's release.

And contribute to the debate it did, finding that, while data from heterosexual people showed similar qualities of life to an average person, lesbian, gay, and bisexual people all described themselves as having below-average quality of life in every category.

To glean this data the ONS surveyed 300,000 people over the age of 16 between January 2013 and December 2015. Read the report from the ONS survey here.

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Dennis Hinzmann