Every time our mind encounters ideas that are opposed to those we are used to, conflicts arise. These conflicts are resolved through mental shortcuts that are acquired through culture, through what we have learned and what we have lived. But what happens when our own identity conflicts with the culture, with what we have learned and lived? What happens when attraction towards people of the same sex is the conflict?

Hiding from other people something one considers to be reprehensible can spare an individual from social punishment and discrimination. We punish moral transgressions of others to improve our social reputation¹ and, today, social networks amplify and magnify that punishment. When it comes to pointing out this moral outrage, people do so more to guard their reputation than to understand, tolerate, and accept. So, if moral transgressions are punished and the transgressors are punished, it is understandable why non-traditional sexual orientations are hidden.

The relationship between emotions and prejudice has been explored, in which certain widely accepted beliefs, but not necessarily correct, can trigger affective states in certain people² and reduce the threshold for prejudice, this can go further when homonegativity can only be evoked with imagination³. A simple conversation about a topic, in a context with ideas that are opposite to one’s own, can lead to these ideas being repressed, and for this to be reproduced in other contexts to the point where one rejects their original ideas, which can lead to intrapsychic conflicts⁴.

This edition of the Journal “Medicina Clínica y Social” presents a study carried out at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the National University of Asunción⁵, which shows that the concealment of people's sexual orientation occurs not only outside the academic environments, but also in the same academic training unit, in which “coming out of the closet” can be even more challenging when the individual’s career is at stake.

Let us use a wall as an analogy for the decision to express or to conceal one’s sexual orientation. If we consider that culture, academic or work environment, family and primary support networks will mark the height of the wall, how high is the wall on which you live, work or study? What can we do as a society, and what can the institutions do to lower the wall?