The survey has been carried out by ILGA-Europe (ILGA-Europe is the European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association) and the International Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Youth and Student Organization (IGLYO)
The European-wide study looked at discrimination in different areas of life - including health.
The survey clearly demonstrates that discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation and gender identity undermines young LGBT people’s capacity to be socially included and to become active citizens.
It reviews studies focusing on the mental health problems - relating to substance abuse, eating disorders, depression, and suicide - which clearly show the prevalence of mental problems due to stigmatisation.
It notably indicates the example of Northern Ireland where the perceived and expressed mental health needs of young same-sex attracted men reveals that 32% of the respondents had a potential psychiatric disorder; 34% had been diagnosed with a mental illness at some time in their lives; 27 % had attempted suicide,and 71% had thought about taking their own life.
The study concludes with recommendations of actions to be taken at EU and national levels. One of them being that the European Commission should look at the impact of discrimination on mental health and pay particular attention to groups which face increased risk of mental ill-health, like LGBT people, because of discrimination and marginalisation, in the framework of the Green Paper on Mental health.
Methodology
On the basis of international research findings, ILGA Europe and IGLYO identified five main areas where young LGBT people can and often do encounter prejudice and/or discrimination and designed two sets of questions to highlight typical cases and causes of social exclusion as well as good examples of fair treatment: one questionnaire was addressed to individuals,while the other targeted organisations.
These questionnaires in 17 languages were sent to the member organisations of ILGA-Europe and IGLYO,who were asked to collect answers.
754 individual responses from European organisations were collected, 93%of the individual questionnaires came from European Union Member States. 68% of the respondents were male, 29% female, 2% transgender and 1% did not give any gender identification.
Quite strikingly, the average age of respondents was 23 and 60% of respondents were younger than 25.
Related articles:
