Human Rights at Home and Abroad: Past, Present, and Future

Concealment of one‘s sexual identity while in a committed romantic relationship can cause major
issues in the relationship. Concealment from family or friends can be easily misconstrued as
embarrassment of one‘s partner, especially if the partners don‘t openly discuss the feelings connected to
internalized homophobia. Not being fully accepting of one‘s sexual orientation could mean that the
individual is subconsciously thinking or hoping that it may change. This may lead them to not put as
much emotional investment into the relationship as their partner, or not expecting the relationship to last
leading to lower relationship quality and satisfaction within the relationship.
Internalized homophobia can infiltrate every aspect of a sexual minority individual‘s mental
health and relationships. It has been found to increase, depression, suicide attempts and rates of substance
abuse and can also cause an individual to conceal their sexual orientation and cause relationship issues in
both romantic and no romantic relationships. The only relief in sight is for internalized homophobia to be
less prevalent and for that to happen society as a whole would have to decrease the heterosexist attitudes
that lead to internalized homophobia in the first place.
Appendix A
Heterosexual Questionnaire
Martin Rochlin (1977) developed a set of questions for heterosexuals that are similar to those that gay,
lesbian and bisexual individuals are often asked when talking about their sexual orientation, but that
heterosexuals are rarely asked. 3
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