A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) has discovered that the pandemic has caused a worsening of mental health for people who identify as LGBTQ.
KFF has been surveying Americans about how their lives have been changed by the pandemic for several months and separated their data based on respondents who affirmed that they identified as LGBTQ.
They then chose to analyze data related to LGBTQ persons more closely.
According to a co-author of this study, Lindsey Dawson, they singled out the LGBTQ community for further analysis because of this group’s history of stigma and discrimination.
Additionally, previous research has shown that this community has higher rates of mental illness and a lack of access to health care.
Therefore, the authors of this study felt that it was crucial to understanding better how the pandemic affected them.
The analysis showed that 56% of LGBTQ people had someone in their household who lost a job, was put on leave, or had their income or hours reduced du
A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) has discovered that the pandemic has caused a worsening of mental health for people who identify as LGBTQ.
KFF has been surveying Americans about how their lives have been changed by the pandemic for several months and separated their data based on respondents who affirmed that they identified as LGBTQ.
They then chose to analyze data related to LGBTQ persons more closely.
According to a co-author of this study, Lindsey Dawson, they singled out the LGBTQ community for further analysis because of this group’s history of stigma and discrimination.
Additionally, previous research has shown that this community has higher rates of mental illness and a lack of access to health care.
Therefore, the authors of this study felt that it was crucial to understanding better how the pandemic affected them.
The analysis showed that 56% of LGBTQ people had someone in their household who lost a job, was put on leave, or had their income or hours reduced due to COVID-19.
By comparison, only 44% of non-LGBTQ people experienced these things. Furthermore, almost three out of four LGBTQ people reported that pandemic-related stress impacted their mental health.
Why are LGBTQ People More Vulnerable?
The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but LGBTQ people have been hit particularly hard as an already vulnerable population.
The KFF study revealed that people of this community are more likely to have jobs in the hospitality sector and the gig industry.
These industries were both hit hard by the pandemic.
Furthermore, according to the CDC, LGBTQ Americans were at a greater risk of experiencing mental health problems before the pandemic.
Therefore, the stresses of physical distancing, housing instability, and economic strain only exacerbated these issues.
3 Primary Ways COVID-19 Affected the Mental Health of LGBTQ People
1. Loss of Community
A lot of people who identify as LGBTQ depend on their community for support.
Unfortunately, as a result of the pandemic, maintaining community support was a challenge.
Seeing friends and colleagues through video conferencing was a poor substitute for the real thing and negatively affected LGBTQ mental health.
Additionally, according to research conducted by Boston University’s School of Public Health, people who are just beginning their sexual orientation and gender identity exploration may find their growth stunted without a supportive community.
In fact, a survey by The Trevor Project found that 40% of LGBTQ youth in the US felt that COVID-19 negatively affected their ability to express their queer identity.
This number increased to 56% for nonbinary and transgender youth. It’s therefore unsurprising that this report found that 2 out of 5 LGBTQ youth in the US had seriously thought about committing suicide in the last year.
2. Lack of Access to Mental Health Resources
Cost and accessibility have always been barriers that have prevented Americans from accessing therapy.
These barriers were only made more challenging to overcome when the pandemic caused people to lose their jobs and health insurance.
That being said, COVID-19 did help make therapy more accessible by introducing teletherapy.
Teletherapy helped overcome obstacles such as access to therapy in a person’s physical area.
However, teletherapy still costs money, and many LGBTQ people were unable to access treatment for this reason due to the pandemic.
Furthermore, remote therapy was not a viable option for individuals sheltering with people who were unsupportive of their LGBTQ identity.
3. Precarious Living Situations
Unemployment, reduced services at LGBTQ centers, and unsupportive families resulted in many LGBTQ Americans experiencing homelessness or undesirable living situations during the pandemic.
Some LGBTQ community members were forced to hide their queer identities in order to have a place to live. Others were turned out of their rentals because they couldn’t make their monthly payments.
Furthermore, instances of domestic abuse rose during the pandemic. LGBTQ persons who were forced to shelter with unsupportive family members accounted for most domestic abuse incidents.
Summary
According to the report compiled by the KFF, 49% of LGBTQ adults said they felt that the coronavirus had a significant negative impact on their mental health.
By contrast, only 23% of non-LGBTQ persons had the same response.
However, this statistic is unsurprising when we consider that this community was vulnerable to poor mental health before the pandemic.
Before COVID-19, members of the LGBTQ community experienced higher rates of mental health issues and less accessibility to therapy than non-LGBTQ persons.
For instance, the MHA (Mental Health America) reported that over 39% of the American LGBTQ community stated that they had experienced a mental illness.
However, for reasons related to cost and accessibility, many queer people can’t get the help they need.
In addition, the restrictions imposed by the pandemic further compounded this issue.
These restrictions further limited access to mental health resources and the support of their community and forced many LGBTQ people to take refuge among people who didn’t accept their identities.
Therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic affected LGBTQ people’s mental health in three main ways:
- Physical distancing and lockdown policies resulted in a lack of access to a supportive community.
- The loss of jobs, health insurance, and a lack of privacy restricted people’s ability to access therapy.
- Economic instability and loss of services at LGBTQ centers resulted in many queer people losing their homes or sheltering with unsupportive families.
We can thus conclude that the mental health of LGBTQ persons worsened during the pandemic for these reasons.