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Makaylla Brooks

Prof Dunham

Eng 1201

27 March 2022

Research essay

Being a part of the LGBTQ+ community affects your mental health in many ways such

as affecting your confidence and motivation. This community is so accepting and can make you

feel so loved and welcomed. The downside of that is the steps it takes to really enjoy being

around those that are like you. Being a part of a community this big can be amazing but no

matter how many people are a part of it you can still feel so alone. One of the scariest things

someone can do is identify themselves as being a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

In the 1730s the first lesbian was wrote about in William Kings book. The term gay was

starting to be used by people in the 1950s when refering to same sex couples. Homosexual and

queer people have been around longer than anyone will ever know because expechially back then

noone would want to come out. People would get hanged and tortured for liking the same sex or

dressing up as the opposite sex. I believe some people still feel hate towards our community

because of the history of people hating us.

Four point five Percent of the United States has openly came out as gay, bisexual, or

lesbian. Over thirty nine percent have reported having a mental illness in the past year. That is

not even including the people who have not openly discussed that topic. That is over five point

eight million people with mental illnesses. Being a part of this community is definitely not an

illness though.
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Some people might get it switched up thinking since a lot of the community have mental

illnesses that being gay queer is a mental inless in general. That is totally wrong though. Being

bisexual or transgenger have the highest rate of having a mental illness. Bisexuals have some of

the most hate because people always have something to say which causes their mental health to

be worse. When you are constantly being told to pick one side and you can’t like both it forces

you to try to do what they say. It is hard to express yourself fully when you're stuck in between

because you don’t know where to fit in. People don’t believe you can be with one sex and still be

attracted to the other. To come out as bisexual or trans are harder than to just come out as gay or

queer.

There is a newspaper saw called “The ‘Double Closet’: Why Some Bisexual People

Struggle With Mental Health.” This is a newpaper that talks about bisexual people. One thing I

will say about bisexual people before I get into this is a big thing people don’t think about are the

fetishes people have when they hear about bisexuals. I have some friends that are girls that have

said when they date a guy and they hear they like women too. Usually the guy doesn't get jealous

but they want to have threesomes and they want to see them kiss another girl. People can be

really weird and that can also cause people to be scared to tell their partners about their sexuality.

Back to the newspaper this woman talks about people not believing someone when they say they

are bisexual just because they have dated men in the past.

The Effects of Polyvictimization on Mental and Physical Health Outcomes in an LGBTQ

Sample. This is a Journal website that talks about these issues. There are a lot of statistics about

how much violence we as a community get. Studies show lgbtq+ people are more likely to get on

drugs. Homosexual women are also more likely to get sexually asaulted than heterosexual
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women. There are so many issues that mostly can be revented if people did not care about other

peoples sexual orientation.

Homosexuals and queer people are just like any other people. There is no difference

between people, some people just want to say we're different from them because what we do is

not normal in their eyes. They may not like how we look or dress because it is different from

what they are used to. People are learning to be more accepting of others which should be the

case for everyone. It is no one's business judging other people for who they like or think of

themselves.

If you look “gay” or “dress like a boy or girly” people will stare and imagine what the

person they are staring at will think. It makes people not even want to go outside because of how

they are looked at. It is a known fact that there is a big chance you will be discriminated in some

way at atleast one point in time by being yourself and that is stopping people from showing the

world who they are. Not being able to come out because you're scared or can't really mess with

your head. Some people don’t like the way others dress or act because of their sexuality which

causes them to not want to be around them. It is sad how bothered people can be just by seeing

someone.
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LGBTQ+ teens are six times as likely to have depression than regular teens. Their

depression symptoms can be much worse too. They also are four times most likily to commite

suicide. People do not understand fully how hard it is especially for younger people to come out

to their family, friends, and the public. Most LGBTQ+ people avoid trying to reach out and get

help because of the thought of being shut down or not actually getting the help they need.

Businesses turn down queer people more than you think or if they do accept your service they

might treat you badly or say things behind your backwhile your are there. Twenty seven percent

of transgender people are denied their needed healthcare.

A big problem not many think about is how queer people cant do their jobs. People for

some reason does not like to be touched by queer people because they think they are nasty. When

they are trying to do a job like being a nurse or if they work at a restaurant and a person says well
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I don’t want you touching me or I don't want you to handle my food that affects their working

environment. Some people are forced to quit their job because they can't do it the way they need

to. Being harassed at work can have an effect on how you work and your mentality is at this job.

You'll soon hate your job and life because people can’t even treat you right at your workplace.

Many people have gotten fired just because people don’t want them to do their jobs because of

their sexual orientation. Especially with older people they do not understand how society works

all the way now and they still are thinking about the past. In the 1980s when people started to

become aware of gay and queer people there was a rumor that if you touched someone gay they

would give you aids or hiv. Everyone called it “the gay plague” becuase there was no cure. This

gave a way worse name to the community even though it was not true that they could get it from

that.

For some younger people it is most hard to come out because they are scared to be kicked

out or abused. It could be safer to not come out to certain people but that also can make you

more depressed and have a lonely feeling. Between eleven and forty percent of all homless teens

are homeless because they got kicked out for being queer. More and more teens are getting

tossed on the street just because of who they are. A lot of those teens will stop going to school

because they have no way to get there. They Have no clothes or no motivation and it would just

be hard in general to be homeless and trying to get an education when they can barely get food or

money.
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For those who come out and still are able to stay in their home are lucky but can also be

just as bad. Verbal and physical abuse are common for LGBTQ+ teens. Some people can’t get

away from their families no matter how hard they try because their family wants to try to change

them and make them “normal” again. From personal experience being face to face with someone

trying to tell them who you really are and them saying that what you say is wrong and that's not

who you really are can make you feel hurt and mad when you just have to listen to that.

Especially when the people you tell are ones you love you would want to say and do anything for

them including hiding yourself and agreeing with them. I feel that Americans should learn to

support others' choices or mind their business because what people do with their lives do not

involve anyone else.

All over the world there has been many marches to spread awareness about the

discrimination and how we as a community are being treated. They fight for their civil rights,

everyone deserves equality. People are still people no matter their skin color, sexiality, or race.

In multiple states there are laws that says you can be fired for being gay or trans. It is completely

outrageous considering bosses are firing people for their beliefs which have nothing to do with

the work they do. No matter how many protests there are, the only thing that can really change

anything are the laws the government makes. There has to be enough people who can speak up

and vote to make the law.

News stories usually just cover the protests in America but this is a problem that people

are fighting for in almost every single country. When are people going to finally realize this is

not going away and people just have to learn to deal with it? This community has fought for so

long to have same sex marrages and just only after a few years of having the law states are trying

to ban the law again. More than 240 anti- LGBTQ bills have been filed. Most of the bills are

attacking transgenger people. In 2018 there were only around 50, this is only getting worse each

year.

One big thing that came to my attention was the new Florida bill. It is called the “don’t say gay

law”. This bill has caused a lot of conflict and schools all over Florida have made protests to

fight back and show their frustration with the bill. The bill basically states no one in school/

classrooms can speak about sexual orientation or gender identity. Especially those at a young age
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are not allowed to be taught they can be whoever they want to be. It is a controversial topic that

most schools disagree with but can only do protests to express how they feel. Maybe if enough

people show their opinions on the bill it could be changed in the future. I believe this is affecting

our first amendment of freedom of speech. The bill is saying the opposite of freedom of speech

by stating we can not express our feelings about this topic.

With all of this hate there is a month in June to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. Some

might not agree with it but in this month it gives people a chance to celebrate themselves and to

act how they want to act. People can embrace themselves and not be judged because they will be

near others like them. There are also marches to “commemorates the ongoing pursuit of equal

justice for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community and celebrates the

accomplishments of LGBTQ individuals.” The first march was on June 28, 1970, one year after

the stonewall uprising in Manhattan.

More things queer students face are the over sexualization by their peers. Most of the

oversexualization is done when boys find out girls like the same sex or have been with the same

sex. I don’t hear many stories about girls making boys over sexualized but that is just personal

experience. All the time when I walk through the halls I hear these boys talk so inappropriate to

girls and it just gets worse when they find out you are queer. As a member of the LGBTQ+

community I have encountered an experience just like this. When I was first coming out and got

a girlfriend some boys would see us in the hall and yell things like “I can change you” “ let me

see you guys kiss” “ yall are gayyyyyy'' those people would make rude and annoying comments

all the time. I just basically had to get used to it.

“While every student’s experience is different, queer students face a number of challenges when

interacting with their peers, teachers, administrators, parents of their peers, and overall

community. Even seemingly small actions like hearing the word “gay” used in a negative way

can build up. More than 90% of LGBTQ students said they felt distressed because of this

language.”

Bathrooms are a very mentally taxing topic. For all queers bathrooms can be hard to go into. For

women who dress like men or have shorter haircuts they could look like a man but are still

female. People feel comfy looking like that without transitioning but non queer people don’t

understand that. I think it is worse for men though because men have a lot of toxic masculinity

and when they see a man walking in with long nails or colorful clothes men can get aggressive.

They want to prove their masculinity by trying to act tough and most of the time they try to fight

you or bully you so you leave. Trans people have the hardest time because they don’t know

where they belong. I can’t imagine how hard it can be to not know where you can use the

bathroom. If you are a transgenger female and you dress like a girl but still look like a man that
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can cause a lot of confusion for others and they could assume the wrong thing. That goes for

transgender males too. Things like that cause body dysmorphia and tons of stress.

In conclusion I talked about many different ways People can be discriminated against

even when they are doing their job. No matter what you are doing someone will find a way to go

out their way to hate on you or gay bash you. It is not fair at all but this community deals with it

because they can not change everything in a day. It is a tough process which hopefully

eventually there will be more change to where people don't get discriminated against. If there

was no dicrimination the mental health of this community would be so much better. No one

would have to worry about getting beat or yelled at or even spit on.

This is a hard world to live in not just for the LGBT community but for so many other

communities. The United States just loves to spread hate to people and cause chaos. The

protests and social media awareness is spreading and more people are starting to come

together and change. It helps everyone feel relieved that they as a community have each

other's backs and also have allies they can go to.

Works Cited Page

“LGBTQ Rights Timeline in American History " Teaching LGBTQ History.” Teaching

LGBTQ History, https://www.lgbtqhistory.org/lgbt-rights-timeline-in-american-history/.

“LGBTQ+ Communities and Mental Health.” Mental Health America,

https://www.mhanational.org/issues/lgbtq-communities-and-mental-health.

Blum, Dani. “The ‘Double Closet’: Why Some Bisexual People Struggle With Mental

Health.” Https://Www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/Well/Bisexual-Mental-Health-Lgbt.html, 30

June 2021.

Kassing, Francesca, et al. “The Effects of Polyvictimization on Mental and Physical Health

Outcomes in an LGBTQ Sample.” Journal of Traumatic Stress, vol. 34, no. 1, Feb. 2021,

pp. 161–71.

For pictures

“Our Issue.” True Colors United, 26 Aug. 2021, https://truecolorsunited.org/our-issue/.

Mental Health in the LGBT Community, https://www.mentalhelp.net/mental-health-in-the-

lgbt-community/?scrlybrkr=6a642374.

“What Challenges Do Queer Students Face?” EDU, 21 Aug. 2020,

https://morgridgeonline.du.edu/blog/challenges-queer-students-schools/.