Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the lives of most people in the world, but those who were already socially and structurally marginalized have been especially vulnerable to such a public health crisis. Transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse (TNGD) people experience structural transphobia (e.g., employment discrimination) and social stigma (e.g. family rejection) to a high degree and are vulnerable to disparate levels of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. The Gender Minority Stress & Resilience (GMSR) measure is a psychometric tool that measures the level of mental health distress TNGD people experience in response to external/internal stressors as well as resilience factors that mitigate stress. Using previous GMSR research, this study conducted a bivariate statistical analysis to compare baseline GMSR levels (pre-COVID) with GMSR levels of a TNGD sample of 100 (n=100) living two years into the pandemic (post-COVID) to see if there were significant changes to baseline scores and if so, which specific stressors or resilience factors were most affected. Results: baseline GMSR levels significantly increased during the pandemic; the most significant increase was in the external stressor “nonaffirmation of gender identity”; the internal stressor “negative expectation for future events”, and the most significant finding was in the overall increase in the resilience factor “pride”. TNGD adolescents and young adults (ages 12-17.99) had divergent scores; an indication that TNGD youth experience gender minority stress at much more, extremely high levels when comparing their baseline scores to adults' baseline scores and even when compared to adults’ levels in a pandemic. The implication for this research shows that while TNGD adults should be considered at-risk for experiencing elevated levels of gender minority stress (mental health distress symptomology) during a pandemic, service providers should pay particular attention to TNGD youth who have been in a public health crisis since before any the pandemic began.