ORCID

0009-0000-6056-1457

Keywords

Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation; Administrative evil; Minority stress model; Policy-induced harm; LGBTQ+ homelessness; Mental Health; Social equity in public administration

Abstract

In the United States, over 140 state bills were passed between 2014 and 2024 that directly targeted the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals. Drawing on administrative evil and the minority stress model, this dissertation demonstrates how policy environments that normalize discrimination through the passage of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation can lead to devastating consequences. Using a three-essay format, the first study conducts a qualitative content analysis of state level anti-LGBTQ+ laws passed between 2015 and 2024 to identify how administrative evil is woven into the language of the legislation. The results of this analysis show these laws systematically dehumanize LGBTQ+ individuals, restrict their access to healthcare and education, and impose legal consequences on affirming practices, all under the guise of protection through moral inversion. The second essay employs pooled cross sectional survey data and two-way fixed effects models to assess how exposure to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is associated with mental health outcomes among queer individuals. This study found that while LGBTQ+ adults had consistently higher baseline mental health disparities, newly enacted laws were not associated with significant immediate changes in anxiety or depression symptoms, but were linked to emerging access related harms, including unmet counseling needs and reduced prescription use. The third essay uses state year panel data from 2014 to 2024 and applies difference-in-differences and Poisson models to examine how exposure to anti-trans legislation affects homelessness rates of gender-diverse individuals. The results show that cumulative exposure to multiple laws is linked to significant increases in both the proportion and number of gender diverse individuals experiencing homelessness. This dissertation advances public administration scholarship on social equity by demonstrating how policy environments can produce inequality and how public administrators can either mitigate or intensify harm.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Spring

Committee Chair

Sullivan, Andrew

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Community Innovation and Education

Department

School of Public Administration

Format

PDF

Document Type

Dissertation

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