Pride Month and Beyond: Helping Youth Combat Identity Stress

This Pride Month, let’s look at just how important it is for LGBTQ+ youth to have safe spaces. LGBTQ+ youth sometimes experience more mental health problems than other groups. Learn about identity stress and get ideas for how to deal with it.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning and other youth whose sexual orientation or gender identity is marginalized (LGBTQ+ youth) sometimes experience more mental health problems than other groups. Why is that?

Research tells us these problems add stress for many LGBTQ+ youth:

• Feeling different or alone
• Parents or other family members not accepting them
• Peers not accepting them
• Hearing bad things about their identity (that it is bad or wrong)
• Being treated unfairly by laws, policies, or people in charge
• Being threatened or hurt because of their identity, or hearing about others who were hurt

We call these problems Identity Stress. And youth who experience more than one marginalized identity (like being Transgender and Black) can experience even higher levels of stress. Research shows Identity Stress can cause or worsen mental health problems like depression, anxiety, substance use, or posttraumatic stress. When youths face lots of rejection, and have little support, they may struggle with school, finding a place to live, or even have thoughts about harming themselves.

Check out these LGBTQ+ mental health handouts for more information and ideas on how you can support youth (and adults) who may be struggling with Identity Stress in your life:
English: https://brnw.ch/21wKwlp
Spanish: https://brnw.ch/21wKwlo