LGBTQ Long Islanders have higher rates of depression and other mental health issues, with nearly one in four seriously considering suicide, the first of its kind announced Friday. was revealed in a survey of
Transgender, gender nonconforming, and pansexual Long Islanders were particularly likely to have “poor” or “average” mental health and to report moderate to severe anxiety and depression.
Conducted by Stoney Brook Medicine with 30 community partners, the study is the first comprehensive survey of the mental and physical health needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning Long Islanders. , said the survey organizers and LGBTQ leaders.
“This is a breakthrough,” Suffolk County Health Commissioner Dr. Gregson Pigot said at a virtual press conference on Friday. Yes, it was speculation, and based on research, we have actual hard data about asking real people these kinds of health questions.”
Alison Erisk, M.D., medical director of the Adolescent LGBTQ+ Care Program at Stony Brook Medicine and principal investigator of the study, emphasizes: They are at higher risk because they are stigmatized and abused in society. ”
Nationwide, LGBTQ people are more than twice as likely as heterosexuals to suffer from a mental health disorder in their lifetime and are 2.5 more likely to experience depression, anxiety, or substance abuse, according to the American Psychiatric Association. double the price.
David Kilmnick, president and CEO of the Hauppauge-based LGBT Network, Long Island’s largest LGBTQ organization, said at the beginning of June that the Smithtown Library Commission would remove Pride Month exhibits from the library’s children’s rooms. He said actions such as his decision helped stigmatize LGBTQ people. islanders.
“These deliberate attempts to target and discriminate against our communities will surely affect everyone’s mental health,” he said.
The library system, under pressure from Governor Kathy Hochul and others, adopted the statement that the decision was wrong and reversed the decision.
The 2021 survey included 1,150 adults living in or attending colleges and universities on Long Island and were primarily residents of Suffolk. 15% were from Nassau.
The survey shows that different groups within the LGBTQ community have very different experiences and needs and are “not monolithic,” says Lauren La Magna, public relations manager at Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, which serves Suffolk. said at a press conference.
A category that includes more than two-thirds of transgender and nonbinary people who identify as reported as “bad” or “average”. , survey found. Pansexual people have sexual or emotional attraction regardless of their gender or gender identity. Gender nonconforming people do not conform to gender stereotypes or societal expectations.
Study participant Myka Schneider, 28, who identifies as nonbinary and transgender and uses the pronoun “they,” Ronkonkoma’s Myka Schneider, was out at Kings Park as a teenager. Being a lesbian “has never been an issue for me,” she said, aside from online harassment.
However, Schneider struggled to come to terms with her gender identity after high school.
“I never felt like I fit in. I didn’t fit in. I didn’t fit in with my soul,” they said. “It hurts your heart, it hurts your being. And when people don’t understand you and don’t try to understand you, it’s really lonely, really isolated.”
Treatment, medication, and meeting other nonbinary and transgender people (mostly online) means, “I am a leap forward from who I used to be.”
Adults aged 18 to 25 were also among the most likely to report mental health problems.
Schneider attributes it to bullying and hate online, where young people spend a lot of their free time.
“People who might not have had the courage or the audacity to say something to me or slander me in person were calling me a slander online,” they said. Told.
Black, Asian, low-income, bisexual/bisexual Long Islanders, and those who identified as queer were also more likely to be in poor mental health and fair.
“We have to deal with discrimination in society based on race and ethnicity, prejudice within communities, and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” Pigott said.
The survey uncovered mistreatment by health care providers. Thirty-seven percent of her respondents (including her 60% of transgender people) said they were treated “disrespectfully or in a non-affirmative manner” by health care providers or office staff.
Two-thirds of respondents said they experienced verbal harassment because of their gender or gender identity, and nearly 32% said they experienced physical harassment.
Jennifer Jamilkowski, director of planning at Stony Brook Medicine, said new studies are planned in the next few years.
In the meantime, Stoney Brook has taken a number of steps in response to the findings, Erisk said., distributing a directory of LGBTQ care providers and services.
David Olson is in charge of healthcare. He has been with Newsday since his 2015, and previously in Southern California, where he covered immigration, multicultural issues, and religion at The Press-Enterprise.
