Mental Health Issues in the LGBTQIA+ Community

Have you ever felt like killing yourself? Or as if no one cares about your existence? Is there any empty feeling inside you? Do you think you are nothing, will ever-go suffer right for you.

In this hectic lifestyle, we always say that “we do not have time,” but I wonder how people get time to insult and humiliate others. Above all, how they bully to the extent that their mental health has to suffer, especially the LGBTQIA+ community at the prospect of their sexual orientation.

Grip Of Inequality

Over the years, the LGBTQIA+ community has faced intense prejudice, discrimination, and violence because of their sexual orientation. Also, various Social and Personal factors have had a huge impact on the community. Consequently, LGBTQIA+ individuals are at greater risk for poor mental health across developmental stages.

Unfortunately, due to such ill-treatment, people in the LGBTQIA+ community experience mental health issues at in greater numbers. A recent study found that 61% have depression, 45% have PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress disorders) and 36% have anxiety.

They go through what we cannot imagine.

It is programmed into our minds to stay away from the people of this community since childhood. As a result, we are unable to talk to them and know about them.

In the society of enormous hands, not a sole palm is there to hold them tightly and hug them.
Therefore, we need to put the handcuff of our love, care and concern in their hands.

Lockdown

The phase of lockdown has provided a unique opportunity to reconnect memories and revaluate priorities for family          

BUT

No one is there for them to share their bunch of emotions.

God has made us with a number of potentials. Our soul equips us with potential elements which are sometimes unutilized because people made us accept that we have nothing or started accepting that is nothing.

If I can survive the war that I battle with myself, then I can survive anything.

With self-belief and self-respect as her greatest motivation, Kalki says, “I am different, yet I am as good as anyone else, striving to be the better and the best. I keep continually learning in life.

The First Transgender to play the lead role in a movie was Kalki Subramaniam, a rights activist and the movie was the 2011 Tamil film Narthagi. She is also an artist, writer, and entrepreneur. In 2008, Kalki founded the Sahodari Foundation, an organization that actively advocates for transgender people in India.

“I will not let my pain turn my heart into something ugly. I will show that surviving can be beautiful.”

This harassment and mistreatment can manifest in several ways. A survey was conducted to see the same and the respondents noted the following rates of mistreatment:

• 6 per cent were sexually assaulted.
• 50 per cent reported being harassment by coworkers.
• 41 per cent said they had been asked inappropriate questions about their transgender or surgical status.
• 23 per cent said they have missed out on a promotion.
• 20 per cent said they did not get to directly contact clients.
• 7 per cent reported experiencing physical violence.

Case Study

• In the case of Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India, the Supreme Court ruled that the Indian Constitution bans discrimination based on sexual orientation via the category of “sex.” Similarly, in the case of the National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, the Supreme Court held that gender identity discrimination is constitutionally prohibited.
• The Indian Armed Forces do not allow LGBT people to openly serve.

In late December 2018, Member of Parliament Jagdambika Pal (BJP) introduced a bill to the Indian Parliament to amend the Army Act, 1950, the Navy Act, 1957, and the Air Force Act, 1950 that would allow LGBT people to serve in the Armed Forces but the bill never got converted into the act.

It’s not about “THEY” or about “WE.” It’s about “US.”

Co-Authored and Edited by: Devansh Dev