LGBTQ+ community face disproportionate mental health challenges, including higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Research has shown that LGBTQ+ people have been using large language model-based chatbots, such as ChatGPT, for their mental health needs. Despite the potential for immediate support and anonymity these chatbots offer, concerns regarding their capacity to provide empathetic, accurate, and affirming responses remain. In response to these challenges, we propose a framework for evaluating the affirmativeness of LLMs based on principles of affirmative therapy, emphasizing the need for attitudes, knowledge, and actions that support and validate LGBTQ+ experiences. We propose a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses, hoping to establish benchmarks for "Affirmative AI," ensuring that LLM-based chatbots can provide safe, supportive, and effective mental health support to LGBTQ+ individuals. We benchmark LLM affirmativeness not as a mental health solution for LGBTQ+ individuals or to claim it resolves their mental health issues, as we highlight the need to consider complex discrimination in the LGBTQ+ community when designing technological aids. Our goal is to evaluate LLMs for LGBTQ+ mental health support since many in the community already use them, aiming to identify potential harms of using general-purpose LLMs in this context.

翻译：LGBTQ+群体面临不成比例的心理健康挑战，包括更高的抑郁、焦虑和自杀意念发生率。研究表明，LGBTQ+群体已开始使用基于大语言模型的聊天机器人（如ChatGPT）来满足其心理健康需求。尽管这类聊天机器人能提供即时支持和匿名性，但其提供共情、准确和肯定性回应的能力仍令人担忧。针对这些挑战，我们基于肯定性疗法原则提出了一套评估大语言模型肯定性的框架，强调需要具备支持并验证LGBTQ+经历的态度、知识和行动。我们结合定性与定量分析方法，旨在建立"肯定性AI"的基准，确保基于大语言模型的聊天机器人能为LGBTQ+群体提供安全、支持性和有效的心理健康支持。需强调的是，我们基准测试大语言模型的肯定性并非将其视为LGBTQ+群体的心理健康解决方案，也未声称它能解决该群体的心理健康问题。我们指出在设计技术辅助工具时必须考虑LGBTQ+群体中复杂的歧视现象。我们的目标在于评估大语言模型对LGBTQ+心理健康支持的适用性——鉴于该群体已广泛使用此类模型，旨在识别通用型大语言模型在此情境下的潜在危害。