Mental Health, Coping, and Resilience Among Transgender and Gender Diverse People During the 2020 US Presidential Election

Presidential elections have the ability to influence the lives of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people via their impact on governmental policies, inequalities, discrimination, and stigma. The 2020 U.S. presidential election through which Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected signaled a potential turning point following 4 years of increased inequalities harming TGD people during the Donald Trump and Mike Pence administration. This study examined mental health (i.e., anxiety, depression), resilience, and coping among TGD people (N = 158) living in Michigan (n = 39), Nebraska (n = 35), Oregon (n = 45), and Tennessee (n = 39) including baseline data collected Fall 2019-Spring 2020 and 12 monthly surveys spanning April 2020 to March 2021. Using a piecewise plus discontinuous intercept model, we examined changes in dependent variables leading up to the election, shifts in the intercept at the November time point, and changes in dependent variables postelection. Findings indicated that leading up to the 2020 election, participants had increased anxiety and depression and decreased coping and resilience. In November 2020, anxiety and depression decreased and coping improved. Postelection, the overall trajectories of change in anxiety, depression, coping, and resilience did not change significantly. However, trajectories of mental health, coping, and resilience differed based on several individual-level moderating factors, including access to local resources, participant age, experiences of enacted stigma, and levels of social support. These findings highlight the complexity of how societal events can affect the mental health, resilience, and coping of TGD individuals.