Difficulty—and Resiliency—for LGBTQ Youth of Color.
A growing body of research finds racism can have very real, negative effects on health. The same goes for discrimination against LGBTQ individuals.
Still, “there’s a lack of intersectional analysis that looks at race and gender expression and sexuality,” says Adele Levine. So for their* practicum, Levine helped develop a manuscript reporting the findings of Our Health Matters, a Fenway Institute community survey of about 300 LGBTQ youth of color in Greater Boston.
Levine conducted two literature reviews and helped put the survey findings into a larger public health context.
Race and sexuality/gender expression are “separated out in a lot of the literature right now,” they say, “so looking at those more holistically is really important in thinking about research, policy, and practice moving forward.”
Levine helped craft recommendations to improve the health and well-being of this population, from better monitoring in high schools and culturally competent mental health services to combatting discrimination itself.
The authors of the report underscore the need for those steps. “Among LGBTQ youth,” they write, “the risks that contribute to health disparity conditions disproportionately affect youth of color in Greater Boston.”
The survey found high rates of child maltreatment, discrimination, and food insecurity, which correlated with poor mental health and substance misuse. Half of the respondents reported binge drinking, more than 40 percent reported symptoms of depression and/or anxiety, and almost one in five had attempted suicide in the prior 12 months.
However, Levine says this study is notable in also searching for positives.
“There aren’t a lot of strengths-based analyses looking at topics like resiliency and mental health promotion and economic empowerment, instead of some of these other indicators that are more prevalent in the literature but paint a more negative picture,” they say.
About three-quarters of respondents participated in LGBTQ youth programs and had opportunities to develop leadership skills, and/or make a positive difference in the community.
While participants said they experienced discrimination both as racial and sexual minorities, the survey also found high levels of racial–ethnic pride and LGBTQ pride, “protective factors” that help LGBTQ youth of color cope—and even actively fight these challenges.
That desire to make a difference was clear not just in the numbers, Levine says, but also in how involved the population was in the survey: “Young folks were really integrated, really involved, in the planning process and the implementation.”
Our Health Matters “is a great example of community-based, participatory research.”
Levine’s practicum adviser was Kerith Conron (’97), the study’s co-investigator and report lead. The report was a collaboration between the Fenway Institute, BAGLY Inc., and Boston GLASS, with Judith Bradford as the principal investigator, and funded by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities.
Read the Our Health Matters report here.
*Levine uses the gender-neutral pronouns they/them/their