Sharing – Why LGBTQ+ youth have high rate of mental health struggles and how to address them

There are two things in this article I want you to pay attention to:

As to the reasons for these outcomes, LGBTQ+ youth definitely have more negative life experiences than straight and cis young people, as documented in the white paper. Seventy-six percent have experienced discrimination based on their gender and/or sexual orientation. Also, the white paper notes, “they are 2.6 times more likely to have lived with a parent or adult who insulted or put them down, and 2.5 times more likely to have not had their basic needs met.”

Among other populations in the data set, girls generally reported worse outcomes than boys, youth with financial struggles worse than those who were financially secure, and mixed-race young people worse than white or Asian youth.

This should be obvious, but many people still don’t understand it. Some people have more difficulties in life than others, and when viewed statistically, we can see the mental health impacts of racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. Young people of all kinds have struggles. Some have extra struggles because they are more likely to be stigmatized or poorly treated because of who they are. We can’t talk about being supportive of better mental health outcomes for people without addressing how our society causes some and fighting against people who continue to cause more harm to young people.

Secondly, as we continue to talk about keeping kids off social media, we need to address this as well:

However, many LGBTQ+ youth, even those with mental health struggles, report finding a helpful outlet in creative activities. And while some have had negative experiences on social media, “we do find that LGBTQ+ youth in particular are going on social media to foster social connections with others and explore their identity,” says Adele Wang, senior research scientist at Surgo.

Social media for teens and young adults is complicated. Blanket bans like those Australia has passed may cause as much harm as they prevent. Here, we have a tool for underrepresented groups to connect and communicate with each other. Still, we will disconnect them all because of their potential negative impact on some kids and to punish Big Tech. (Also, understand that some people pushing this aim to disconnect groups they do not like. It’s the point, not a side effect.)

The bottom line is that when we talk about young LGBTQ+ people and the lack of acceptance they get from people closest to them, we run the risk of losing more of them to mental health issues. We could make a significant impact on youth mental health if we stopped stigmatizing and acting horribly towards people who are different than us.

If you’re not willing to do that, don’t tell me how much you care about mental health and young people.

https://www.advocate.com/news/lgbtq-youth-mental-health-tracker