LGBT+

“I am proud, that I found the courage to deal
the initial blow to the hydra of public contempt.”
-Karl Heinrich Ulrichs.

LGBT has become a widely accepted designation for minorities based on sexual and gender orientation. All members of these subgroups are subject to similar prejudices rooted in beliefs and traditions about sexuality and gender. LGBT people, as members of a social minority group, are suffering from various forms of socio- economic and cultural injustice. The lack of social recognition has an effect on the capacity of LGBT people to fully access and enjoy their rights as citizens. They are more likely to experience intolerance, discrimination, harassment, and the threat of violence due to their sexual orientation, than those that identify themselves as heterosexual

Concept of LGBT: LGBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. The initialism LGBT is intended to emphasize a diversity of sexuality and gender identity-based cultures and is sometimes used to refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non cisgender instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer and/or are questioning their sexual identity as LGBTQ

Impact of Exclusion and Discrimination:

The exclusion and discrimination have major impacts on the lives of lesbian, gay and transgender persons. This has resulted in the following:

Dropping out of school earlier
Leaving Home and Family
Unable to find regular jobs, have less options than others.
Being ignored in the community and isolated
Unable to access various services and Unaware of what they are entitled to *Mobility, Move to other areas, (such as the city and urban areas)

Lack of family and social support
Migrate to other countries for seeking safer livelihood and acceptance
Rejected from Religion (Esp. Muslim and some Christian Fundamentalist sects) * Attempt suicide
Decide to follow their parents to marry opposite sex and then divorce.

Impact of Family Reactions on LGBT Children: Conflict and Rejection

In the past, very few adolescents ―came out‖ to their families or told others they were gay. Most lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (LGB) waited until they were adults to talk about their LGB identity with others. Fear of rejection and serious negative reactions kept many LGB adults from openly sharing their lives.

A family’s accepting or rejecting behaviors toward a young person’s LGBTQ status has significant implications for that child’s health and well-being. Young people with high levels of family rejection were:

Eight times more likely to report having attempted suicide
Nearly six times more likely to report high levels of depression
More than three times more likely to use drugs or have unprotected sex.

In another study, she found that family acceptance helps protect adolescents against suicidal behavior, depression, and substance abuse. Young people with accepting families also reported higher self-esteem, social support, and overall health. The overall objective in helping families learn to support their LGBT children is not to change their values or deeply-held beliefs. Instead, practitioners should aim to meet parents, families, and caregivers “where they are,” to build an alliance to support their LGBT children, and to help them understand that family reactions that are experienced as rejection by their LGBT child contribute to serious health concerns and inhibit their child’s development and well- being.

Psychological Distress

LGBT people face considerable levels of stigmatization, discrimination and harassment in their daily lives. The majority of LGBT people learn to cope with this, particularly when they have the support of family and friends, and participate with LGBT organizations and social networks. However, a significant number of LGBT people, most particularly younger LGBT people, had to cope with stigmatization, discrimination and harassment without support. Many also faced additional stress from experiences such as very high levels of homophobic bullying in schools and physical and verbal attacks. This had a negative impact on their mental health, leading to significant levels of psychological distress, self-harm and suicidality. LGBT teenagers can be particularly isolated, given that many will be exploring their sexual orientation or gender identity without any support. At this time of negotiating their journey to adulthood, a critical period of social and emotional development, they can be particularly vulnerable. It is often more difficult for LGBT people to be out in rural areas. Cities are more conducive to allowing LGBT people to select which areas of their life they wish to be out in and to whom they are out to e.g. work, with friends, to family, neighbours, with medical services and associative activities. This is more difficult in rural areas where being out in one domain e.g. at work means it is more likely that one‘s community, one‘s family and one‘s friends are aware that one is LGBT.

Experiences that could negatively impact mental health:

Hostility from or rejection by loved ones or religious groups
Bullying at school, harassment by neighbors, danger of violence in public places
Casual homophobic comments on everyday basis
Prejudice/embarrassed response from professionals
No protection against discrimination at work, housing, pensions, etc.
Childhood sexual abuse
Verbal harassment, greater fear of physical violence and discrimination.

Protecting LGBT people from violence and discrimination does not require the creation of a new set of LGBT -specific rights, nor does it require the establishment of new international human rights standards. The legal obligations of States to safeguard the human rights of LGBT people are well established in international human rights law on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequently agreed international human rights treaties. All people, irrespective of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, are entitled to enjoy the protections provided for by international human rights law, including in respect of rights to life, security of person and privacy, the right to be free from torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, the right to be free from discrimination and the right to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.

The core legal obligations of States with respect to protecting the human rights of LGBT people include obligations to:

Protect individuals from homophobic and transphobic violence.
Prevent torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
Repeal laws criminalizing homosexuality.
Prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Safeguard freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly for all LGBT people.