Background <p>In recent decades social acceptance and legal equality of lesbian, gay and bisexual people (LGB) in Germany have improved. In particular, the debate on the possibility of marriage for same sex couples revealed broad social acceptance; however, health inequalities, such as in self-esteem, continue to exist in relation to heterosexual people. The LGB persons in the second half of life are particularly affected by these disadvantages because they grew up in times of greater discrimination.</p> Objective <p>This raises the central question: to what extent do improved overall social conditions affect the self-esteem of LGB people?</p> Material and methods <p>To answer this question 5 waves (2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2021) of the German Ageing Study (DEAS) are used to examine how the self-esteem of LGB people has changed over time and in comparison to heterosexual people. In addition to bivariate descriptions, random effects models are applied for the analysis.</p> Results <p>The self-esteem among LGB and heterosexual people increased until 2017 and then dropped slightly in 2021; however, the increase among LGB people is more pronounced, so that the difference compared to heterosexual people is no longer significant in 2017.</p> Conclusion <p>The analysis suggests that greater social openness and improved legal conditions for LGB people in the second half of life are positively related to their self-esteem, thus emphasizing the importance of public discourse for the well-being of stigmatized groups.</p>