Mental health effects of same-sex marriage legalization

Same-sex marriage legalization (SSML) is a typical anti-discrimination policy to remove institutional discrimination against sexual minorities by providing them with marriage equality. We examine how this legalization in the Netherlands affected mental health. Conducting a difference-in-differences analysis with heterosexual individuals as a reference group, we find that SSML significantly improved mental health of sexual minorities and substantially reduced the sexual orientation gap of mental health. The beneficial effects were present for both married and non-married sexual minorities. This phenomenon suggests that part of the health gains were related to mechanisms beyond marriage itself.

Automated summary

Legalizing same-sex marriage in the Netherlands significantly improved the mental health of sexual minorities and reduced the mental health gap based on sexual orientation. These positive effects were found in both married and unmarried sexual minorities, indicating that health gains were not solely dependent on marriage but likely related to other mechanisms as well.