Up to this point, access to mental health resources for queer and trans youth has left much to wish for, exponentially so during the pandemic.Īs an educator themself, Andrea Alejendra Gonzales has experienced the impact the pandemic has had on queer youth personally. Mental health resources specifically for queer people, especially for queer people of color, need to be prioritized to improve the situation for young LGBTQ students in the country, said Gomez. Gomez is also doing research on transgender mental health resources. They have detrimental effects on your overall well-being for the rest of your life.” (Ways of dealing with these long-term effects include supporting mutual aid initiatives and educating people on queer and trans issues.) In these conversations, Gomez is looking at the bigger picture of bullying: “The impact that these forms of bullying and harassment have doesn’t stop after high school. But Spirit Day is about much more than just wearing purple, said Gomez: “I use Spirit Day on campus as a catalyst for larger conversations.” On that day, GLAAD encouraged advocates to wear purple to symbolize support for the LGBTQ community. The issue of bullying is one that the queer rights organization GLAAD aimed to raise awareness about on Spirit Day, Oct.
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Cyn Gomez, a mental health, gun control and LGBTQ rights activist, said that with schools moving to online spaces, many LGBTQ students did not know how to report bullying anymore: There were no structures in place to deal with the increase in cyberbullying and to counteract it. The lack of safe spaces wasn’t the only issue that young queer people were facing throughout the pandemic. That’s why the young activist is currently working with the state of Pennsylvania and a few educators to develop a gender and sexuality curriculum-which is meant to ensure educators running GSAs and similar spaces for queer youth can learn how to navigate these spaces properly and how to support their students in a way that will actually benefit them. “Now that we are transitioning back into in-person learning, it is difficult to find trust within educators to go back to those spaces,” Prom said. But now that schools are moving back to in-person classes, educators and students are facing the challenge of rebuilding the safe spaces in-person that were lost during the past 19 months. Prom eventually was able to find safe online spaces that supported them throughout the pandemic. I didn’t get to talk about my identity and had to conceal my expression at home.”Įducators were feeling overwhelmed with the pandemic themselves and often “gave up on cultivating these safe spaces” in online settings, Prom explained. During the pandemic, the GSA space disappeared and it led to social isolation mainly because I am not out to my parents. “GSA became a safe space for me to talk and express my identity among people who understand and can relate to it. Many of these options disappeared during the pandemic.įor many young queer people, GSAs and similar groups in school were the only ways they could connect with fellow queer people and receive support.ĭarid Prom, a queer rights activist with a focus on supporting queer high school students, had the same experience: As a prevention strategy, the Cyberbullying Research Center suggests strict anti-discrimination policies, queer representation and setting up a Gay-Straight-Alliance (GSA) on campus. LGBTQ people are 50 percent more likely to experience cyberbullying than their heterosexual peers.