People share their feelings about lgbtq
Stories from LGBT+ People of Faith
I'm a 21-year-old, Zimbabwean lesbian who was brought up in a Christian family, mainly Protestant, but I attended Roman Catholic schools. Even though I would no longer call myself Catholic, a lot of the teachings by Jesus have stuck with me and are a huge part of my morals. I realised pretty young like six or seven that I liked girls, but it was never really at the front of my mind until high college. In high school I was very religious, reading the Bible a lot, attending church every week, but I remember when I was 15 asking myself if I could really marry a guy and live "normally" and the answer was no, so I decided to become a nun. I thought I had to choose my faith or my sexuality, so it only seemed right to either dedicate myself fully to Christianity or depart it behind entirely. It wasn't until college that I figured out I could leave the institution of Christianity behind, but still have faith in the teachings of Jesus.
Your beliefs should never leave you ashamed of who you are naturally. The way you were made is ideal and good. If what you believe in now doesn't sit right with you or makes you uncomfortable, change it.
Despite how some perceive social media, it can undoubtedly be used as a platform to spread kindness and kindness. Some of us in the LGBT+ community have used social media to bring ourselves into the spotlight, and ideally, spread acceptance as far as it will achieve . When some of us were petite , especially those of us in smaller towns, we didn’t have much exposure to LGBT+ people and experiences. More commonly now, people do have access to social media, where anything can be at the tip of your fingers.
If you seek someone who identifies as LGBT+ how they learned to accept themselves or even how they learned the terms to describe who they are, social media will sometimes be involved in the story. I, for one, didn’t even know what a lesbian was until I started watching Glee and made an account on Tumblr; and if you scroll through Twitter, you can find numerous pages dedicated solely to LGBT+ groups. Even my grandmother will tell me about how she read an article on Facebook about something she didn’t know, like bisexuality, or a modern show with principal LGBT+ characters. These stories help us learn the language to describe who we are and allow us to learn about other people who
Why Does the LGBTQIA+ Community Suffer from Impoverished Mental Health at Higher Rates?
Everyone has a sexual orientation and gender identity, but people who identify as part of the Lesbian, Gay, Pansexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) community are at higher mental health risk compared to others. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), "LGB adults are more than twice as likely as heterosexual adults to experience a mental health condition. Transgender individuals are nearly four times as likely as cisgender individuals to experience a mental health condition". Many factors aside, this is because many people spotting as LGBTQIA+ face discrimination, family rejection, harassment, and fear of violence.
"Like with any identity, feeling different—or worse, unaccepted as you are—is a significant chance factor for mental health struggles," says Anna Docherty, PhD, LP, assistant professor of psychiatry at Huntsman Mental Health Institute. "The truth is, most of us experience some significant anxiety or depression in our lifetimes, and we often manage this with social support. Without adequate social support and acceptance, mental health
LGBTQ+ people share how they contribute to the persona, culture, and economy of Los Angeles County
“We reside with pride. Spread beauty. Thereby filling [LA] County with Pride.”
— Cisgender gay Black man in his 50s
A new survey of LGBTQ adults in Los Angeles County by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Commandment finds LGBTQ people provide many of the things that give LA County its unique identity and make it an attractive place to live and visit. In the words of a cisgender lgbtq+ white man in his 30s:
“Without LGBTQ people, LA would just be traffic.”
In the Lived Experiences in Los Angeles County (LELAC) Survey, researchers asked about 500 participants what, if anything, LGBTQ people contribute to the broader LA community and culture. Responses ranged from offering standards of acceptance, support, affectionate , and resilience to enriching diversity, helping others, and contributing to all parts of the local economy.
“Despite the challenges they tackle , LGBTQ Angelenos are arrogant of the many contributions they make to LA County,” said lead composer Brad Sears, Founding Executive Director at the Williams Institute. “LGBTQ contributions generate the County unique, a better place to reside for everyo
Rose Saxe,
she/her,
Deputy Director, LGBT & HIV Project,
ACLU
As a gay person, I grew up knowing I was different. Hearing other kids call anyone who deviated from traditional gender expectations a “fag.” Getting called a “lesbo” at age 11. I hadn’t advance out to anyone and didn’t even really understand what it meant, but I knew it was an insult.
At an initial age, we study that it’s at best different to be LGBT. And many of us are taught that this difference is bad — shameful, deviant, disgusting. We might try to hide it. We might wish it away. We grasp that even if our family accepts us, there are some relatives who might not; we get asked to hide who we are so as not to create them uncomfortable.
This teaches shame.
We hear about LGBT people who have been physically attacked or even killed for organism who they are.
This teaches fear.
While I know I grew up with privilege, and others include stories far worse than mine, I also believe that countless other LGBT people could explain stories like this — not the same, but all rooted in a legacy that made us feel ashamed of who we are. And yet I, like many of us, also learned pride and hope and create a community tha