ABSTRACT
Studying the mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or trans (LGBT) people is not a straightforward issue. Over the last 20 years there has been a growing acknowledgement that some LGBT people suffer from high levels of mental distress, including anxiety disorders, mood disorders, suicide and self-harming behaviour, substance misuse problems, and this distress is related to elevated levels of discriminatory practices including physical and verbal abuse. In political agendas that aim to tackle social injustice, arts- and culture-based initiatives offer much value in promoting better psychological well-being. Indeed, it seemed that the audience were able to connect because of the way the images, aided by the text, moved them. It was their own embodied experience and relation to depicted affective states that facilitated a dialogue that we had hoped might be part of the process of challenging stigma about LGBT mental health.
