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How could creating more mental health and housing programs mitigate the…
How could creating more mental health and housing programs mitigate the effects of social and religious trauma on LGBTQ+ youth in the US?
Bullying & Harrassment
In the DSM being LGBTQ+ community used to be a sociopathic personality disturbance, only later to be reclassified as sexual deviation (Cook).
The world has been unfair to the LGBTQ+ community, they have been persecuted repeatedly and even to the point where them loving who they love was claimed as an "illness".
LGBTQ+ youth hold higher rates of suicide and self-harm, and bullying affects suicide rates as it is consistent rather than something that shifts (Cover).
The bullying that LGBTQ+ youth face often causes the feeling of helplessness and in the end, they will choose to take their own lives rather than wait till someone solves the issue, because deep down they know that there are very few that will save them.
Helping One Another
Similarly, the Haitians that Guitele J. Rahill, a professor of social work at the University of South Florida, and her associates wrote about. The Haitians while they had gone through an earthquake that took out many of the Haitians' loved ones but they had still taken care of each other and the areas that held the most disadvantage had demonstrated Haitian resilience and helped each other recover from the trauma which brought them closer together (Rahill).
This group of people brought about a great concept of a community coming together to help one another and bring in the idea of resilience and reworking it so it is not an individual thing but it can work as a group. The Haitians had given themselves their own resources to help themselves, a group's resilience always makes it easier for a group to recover; however, the groups also need outside help which was something the Haitian survivors got that the LGBTQ+ community does not.
The LGBTQ+ community had made a book club over the course of COVID and it focused on affirmation, care, and holding an inclusive place and it was there to also make sure that these people (especially the youth) were doing ok mentally (Martin).
This community that is continuously being persecuted for being their authentic selves was more worried about the youth of their community rather than what others were saying about them, which shows that their priorities are on others and not the “gay agenda” that so many straight white people claim is the reason for everything they do.
Religious Trauma
Evangelical churches aren’t inclusive to LGBTQ+ people, and the accumulation of small and often unnoticed discriminatory behaviors accumulate to form substantial experiences of trauma over the medium to long term, resulting in high levels of stress and anxiety (Hollier).
The discrimination that evangelical churches is often going unnoticed which means others do not catch the trauma these youth are facing, which makes them feel unheard leading to them feeling alone and like they do not matter.
Churches are places of healing and transformation, however they are also bruising and damaging, and some churches weaponize scripture and religion and caused suffering for decades of ptsd, anxiety, self-doubt, and social inadequacy (Schiffman).
Churches are not just what the Christians see and it causes so many mental issues to the people who are on the negative end of religion and it breaks the sight churches put up of being very accepting.
Homelessness
Over a 3 year period the 3/40 Blueprint Project has been reducing the 40% of youth that are homeless and identify as LGBTQ+, and the main reason they are not in shelters is because of the risk these places provide especially to the transgender LGBTQ+ youth, but the True Colors Fund is trying to change that with systemic change (LGBTQ+ Youth Experiencing).
Homelessness is a serious issue that LGBTQ+ youth face and trying to find anything safe while they are homeless is next to impossible, after all, how can someone who is not safe in normal day to day life supposed to find something safe among others who have seen the worst as well, without the struggles they face.
Homeless LGBTQ+ youth have higher mental health risks than homeless heterosexual youth; and there are only about 250 LGBTQ+ specific shelters and transitional living programs (Ream).
Homelessness is an issue many people know about, and most of their solutions is to just “make more shelters” however if a shelter is not safe the LGBTQ+ people who would reside there would not enter and would instead stay on the streets, and it is terrible that they have to choose between shelter and safety, why does one have to exclude the other?
Counter Claim
Queer youth might not all be victims or at least claim to be victims, but they aren’t all resilient and self-reliant, as resilient hopefulness isn’t something you can just hold and claim it is right (Cover)
These youth have been claimed as “victims” to the world, even though some don’t see themselves as that and the world will label their forced resilience as being their protection against “adversity” when really it is the people's way of justifying what’s happening.
Some teachers are aware they need to cover all issues, however they don’t know how to address the issues and worry that it singles out students (Staley).
Some teachers are trying to help, instead of making programs about the kids why does society not just make the programs just for educating others and making sure places have safe spaces for people of the LGBTQ+ community.