WARRIORS: “Unity in Diversity”

Written by Andi Bazaar, Co-wrote by Clayton-Euridicé Schofield | Feb 3, 2023

45% of LGBTQIA+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year (3x more than heterosexual youth) many individuals suffer with mental health issues surrounding the acceptance of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Studies show that LGBTQIA+ youth have the highest rate of suicide attempts.

• LGBTQIA+ youth contemplate suicide 3x more than heterosexual youth.
• 6.8 million Black americans suffer from mental illness.
• Only 1 in 3 Black adults who need mental health care receive it, their fight is your fight!

I respect all the warriors out there fighting for different causes. There is honor in it, purpose and it can make our world better. I just want to remind you what I’m fighting for: "your mental health is more important today than it ever has been, you’re not alone."

The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQIA+ Youth Mental Health demonstrates that rates of suicidal thoughts have trended upward among LGBTQIA+ young people over the last 3 years, making our life-saving work all the more important.

Capturing the experiences of:

• Nearly 34,000 LGBTQIA+ youth ages 13 to 24 across the United States with 45% of respondents being LGBTQIA+ youth of color.
• 48% being transgender or non-binary, our 4th annual national survey is one of the most diverse surveys of LGBTQIA+ youth ever conducted.

These data provide critical insights into some of the unique suicide risk factors faced by LGBTQIA+ youth, top barriers to mental health care and the negative impacts of COVID-19 and relentless anti-transgender legislation. This research also highlights several ways in which we can all support the LGBTQIA+ young people in our lives and help prevent suicide.

It’s essential to emphasize that we still do not have known counts or registries of the LGBTQIA+ youth population and comprehensive, intersectional data on LGBTQIA+ youth mental health outcomes remain limited.

So our annual national survey strives to fill in these gaps and amplify the experiences of young LGBTQIA+ people, a marginalized group consistently found to be at significantly increased risk for suicide because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society.

We hope these data and trends will be used by fellow researchers, policymakers and youth-serving organizations to advance policies and practices that better support LGBTQIA+ youth around the globe and work to end the public health crisis of suicide.

Over the next year "The Trevor Project" will release new data from this diverse, national sample in the form of research briefs and research reports on a wide variety of topics related to LGBTQIA+ youth mental health and suicide prevention and as always they will continue to do all we can to advocate for LGBTQIA+ inclusive policies, raise public awareness and acceptance and be there for every single LGBTQIA+ young person who needs help or support, 24/7.

• 45% of LGBTQIA+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.

Nearly 1 in 5 transgender and non-binary youth attempted suicide and LGBTQIA+ youth of color reported higher rates than their white peers.

• LGBTQIA+ youth who felt high social support from their family reported attempting suicide at less than half the rate of those who felt low or moderate social support.
• Fewer than 1 in 3 transgender and non-binary youth found their home to be gender-affirming.
• LGBTQIA+ youth who found their school to be LGBTQIA-affirming reported lower rates of attempting suicide.
• 60% of LGBTQIA+ youth who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to get it.
• LGBTQIA+ youth who live in a community that is accepting of LGBTQIA+ people reported significantly lower rates of attempting suicide than those who do not.

New report "YouGov" have conducted two surveys, one of a sample of all British adults and the other specifically of LGBTQIA+ adults.

BOTH WERE ASKED ABOUT:

• Public attitudes
• Media portrayals
• Family formation
• Safety
• Workplace
• Mental health

HERE’S WHAT THEY FOUND

• The public are generally likely to support their family members coming out, although there’s more support for LGB people than trans people.
• 79% of all GB adults would support a family member coming out as lesbian, gay or bi compared to 63% supporting a trans family member.
• When asked what has formed their opinion of LGBT+ people, here’s how all adults (vs) LGBTQIA+ adults responded:

1. Friends and family (38% vs. 54%)
2. Own personal experience (32% vs. 67%)
3. Social media (24% vs. 44%)
4. TV documentaries (26% vs. 28%)
5. Newspapers (12% vs. 14%)

• 74% of Britons would support LGB people fostering or adopting, 67% would support having kids via surrogacy, and 68% support IVF.
• While the numbers are about 10% lower for trans people, a majority support *all* LGBTQIA+ people forming families via any of these routes.
• LGBTQIA+ people feel less safe in public than the general population, demonstrating the impact of hate crimes and harmful rhetoric.
• Only 57% of trans respondents said they felt safe in the street/area they live (vs) 74% of cis-LGB adults and 78% of all Britons.
• There’s still a long way to go to achieve equality in the workplace, 64% of LGBT+ respondents agree that LGBTQIA+ people face discrimination at work based on their sexual orientation and 70% based on their gender identity.
• On the impact of COVID-19 on mental health, 45% of Britons said that it’s had a negative impact compared to 58% of LGBTQIA+ respondents.
• 51% of LGBTQIA+ adults had been diagnosed with or experienced a mental health condition over the last year compared to 33% of all adults.

This research is further proof that the majority of Brits support LGBTQIA+ people and approach the challenges we face with compassion but while these figures are encouraging they illustrate than even a tiny, bigoted minority can have a huge impact on our wellbeing.

We need the silent majority of Brits to take action and fight for a more equal world by actively championing LGBTQIA+ people all year round not just during Pride Month.

A History Moment and LGBTQIA+ Hero, when did the struggle for LGBTQIA+ equality begin? A key figure from well before the Stonewall Riots was "Barbara Gittings."

Here she is on local New York TV in 1983 recollecting the impact the Civil Rights movement had on gays in the 1960s.

Barbara Gittinhs first marched in a gay picket of the White House in 1965, here she describes an Independence Day protest in Philadelphia in 1967. Later that year she'd help counter "expert" advice to the Defense Department that homosexuality could be "cured".

Barbara devoted herself to the theme that being homosexual should not be seen as an illness, "we can't progress until the unsubstantiated assumption of sickness is demolished!" — We can only guess what she'd think about the scandal of LGBTQIA+ teens being medicalised today.

Barbara played a pivotal role in removing homosexuality from the DSM in 1973; in part by convincing a gay psychiatrist to testify to a panel of the American Psychiatric Association. He did so in disguise and with a voice distorting microphone, so scared was he of exposure.

Barbara read aloud letters from others who'd been too afraid to appear, it shocked the profession. She had a huge impact on the public too, aftet a TV appearance where she insisted "homosexuality is good, it’s right, it’s natural" she was approached by a middle aged couple.

"you made me realize you gay people love each other just the way arnold and i do," said the woman.

Barbara Gittings is one of many often overlooked heroes of our movement who by their calm reasoned arguments and their transparent good-will helped change hearts and win rights.

The system is devastating when you are trans, homeless and seeking mental health resources. This isn't news to the LGBTQIA+ community when you're on the streets it's impossible to get help or when you are on the streets and also marginalized "it's 10 times harder."

Some volunteers from our team have been working OTG doing advocacy for the homeless and vulnerable, to eliminate the need for police by preventing crime before it happens. They have been accompanying folks to meetings and developing action plans to get them help.

THIS IS A STORY FROM ONE OF THE VOLUNTEERS:

Today we advocated for an individual who's disability check was being held for change of address, this is a common problem but the solution is daunting. The system is broken, no one wants to help and they always run you around despite sending change of address forms in twice, (once by fax and again that morning) they were inexplicably lost.

So we went in to the social services office to provide support when the woman that we were advocating for was finally called to the front, the social worker loudly and in front of everyone began to dead name her.

The worker was told several times by both myself and our client that this was no longer her name but she continued to address our client by her dead name and seemed completely unconcerned with showing even a tiny amount of humanity and it was very obvious she knew what she was doing.

She made her sign 6 times and initial 6 times confirming her new ID, after being on the streets without the bare necessities for weeks in winter, denied her disability check and now having to deal with some dipshit transphobic government employee. She became rightfully distraught but the worker was relentless.

After jumping through every hoop and being gas lit about them sending in their paperwork, everything was finally completed and we expected to receive the disability check but of course that didn't happen.

The social worker told her she won't get her check until tomorrow, they told her last week that she would be getting it today — thus the whole point of going to social services but that doesn't matter to them.

She sat with us for a few minutes in the social services office, when security came and kicked her out for no reason. This happens every day.

Canada isn't some great socialist place that takes care of its people, I hate it when Americans try to say that it is. Our system is completely broken here and if you're marginalized it's 10 times harder.

Here's one of the most powerful leader in LGBTQIA+ leader original text-speech in Council making the statement for this important symbol and action for LGBTQIA+ people.

There's a lot of education to be done when it comes to reconciliation, I often find myself explaining why this is so important for all LGBTQIA+ community. This is so heartbreaking, it's just part of the process. The speech was pretty powerful. (I always know he'll be good when there is note usage)

***
"I was doing my GCSE's the first time I planned to killed myself for a scared, lonely, queer kid deep in the closet and it felt like the only way out. We've ccome a long way in my life span, we're not there yet and that's why this motion is so important.

• We have surging hate crinme, we’ve talked abiut the gay village attacks just around the corner.
• We have a proposed conversion therapy ban with more holes than the West Midlands Metro.
• We have exemptions to the “Equality Act” that treat me as unworthy of full protection of the law every Sunday morning when I go and pray.

"THERE IS SO MUCH WORK THAT WE HAVE TO DO."

As 12 years old I knew nothing trying to understand my sexuality, I knew nothing of stats or legislative action. I knew what I heard, what I saw and what I felt. I felt a culture and a world that didn't want me, welcome me or love me.

The only time I heard LGBTQIA+ people on TV were when they were the butt of a joke, I'd go to a youth club at church and then read about Bishops telling parliament that I was not worthy of Equal Rights. I spent every day at school where words like gay, homo, fag and queer were the first choice insults and teachers who never even mentioned the existence of our community.

It created a culture that put me in a cage, a cage that led me to join th 68% of LGBTQIA+ people who have contemplated suicide. To join the huge number of LGBTQIA+ people who have self-harmed, a cage that led me to believe that no one would accept me even though logically I knew I couldn’t ask for more loving parent’s and I want to ahou out to my mom whocs watching on th live stream and what I grew up in was nothing compared to the generations of LGBTQIA+ people who preceeded me."

I don't often write about myself, but this is about my generation and what Section 28 did to all of us by silencing teachers about homosexuality. Here, then is what I wished I'd been taught about being gay.

• I wish I had been taught how to come out, what words to use, where best and when best. Why it might stop you killing yourself.
• I wish a teacher had taught me how to say no to a man wanting sex: that I was allowed to, that it is not rude to amd that boundaries can be heard.
• I wish I had been taught not only how to come out but also how transformative it would be. That on one day in 1991 aged 14 telling three close friends “I’m gay” in a paroxysm of need, would begin to fill my lungs. That this would equip me for life ahead.
• I wish I had been taught how to deal with homophobic bullying at school, compared to many I was lucky. It was minimal, that is if you consider hearing boys say "Don’t touch him, you’ll get Aids” as you walk past to be minimal.
• I wish I had been taught what to do when someone or a group of people, chase you down the street threatening to attack you because you are gay. I ask because the police were never much help, is it best to retaliate or to run? Many found out too late.
• I wish someone had taught me how much we would have to fight just for the basics. Just for example, to have the same right to being blown up on enemy territory as straight people. Let alone the right to say, “I do.”