What is it about?
Nonbinary people experience patterned forms of mistreatment called distal stressors that can lead to negative mental health outcomes. This study examined how assigned sex, gender expression (i.e., non/conformity with gender norms) and race influence the ways nonbinary people experience mistreatment. The forms of mistreatment measured in this study included discrimination, harassment, rejection, invalidation, burdening (i.e., being expected to spend mental/emotional labor educating or consoling cisgender people), binary normativity (i.e., encountering structures that suggest only two genders exist), and total distal stress levels. Results indicated that assigned female at birth, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary people of color experience significantly higher levels of distal minority stressors than assigned male at birth, gender conforming, and white nonbinary people. We also examined differences in the aforementioned forms of mistreatment across eight subgroups based on varying configurations of assigned sex, gender expression, and racial groups. Interestingly, some different patterns in distal stress levels emerged. For example, assigned male gender nonconforming people of color reported significantly elevated levels of discrimination, harassment, and invalidation than other groups whereas assigned female gender nonconforming people of color reported significantly higher levels of burdening, misgendering, and binary normativity compared to other groups.
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Why is it important?
Nonbinary people are not a monolith and this research is important because it shows that nonbinary people experience different kinds and levels of mistreatment depending on intersecting systems of power, privilege, and oppression. It is also important because it offers a quantitative intersectional approach to minority stress research and provides an empirical rationale for tailoring nonbinary-affirming mental healthcare to subpopulations of nonbinary people.
Perspectives
This project is meaningful to me personally because it helps create visibility and validation about differences between nonbinary subgroups that are often erased in research. I also appreciated learning how to conduct intersectional work quantitatively during this project and have a much deeper understanding of the complexities inherent to intersectional approaches to queer and trans health research.
Danny Shultz
Arizona State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Examining intersectional variations in distal minority stressors among nonbinary adults., Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, August 2025, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/sgd0000873.
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