The government published the results of the “largest survey of LGBT people in the world” earlier this month. It’s a survey that tells us everything we already knew, and yet nothing new, about the lives of LGBT+ people in the UK. Our community is all too aware how wider society can be intolerant and oppressive, that it stifles nonheteronormative identity, and the freedom to express our love. The survey’s results simply underscore the feelings many of us already have about our lives with the kind of statistics that governments like to demand in order to take action.
The survey tells us that LGBT people are less satisfied with their life, rating it just 6.5 out of 10, compared with 7.7 for the general UK population. It’s hardly a surprising fact when you look deeper into the survey’s findings: more than two-thirds of LGBT people avoid holding their same-sex partner’s hand for fear of a negative reaction. If this most simple sign of aff ection causes apprehension in us about our identity, is it any wonder that LGBT people are more likely to seek access to mental-health services? The survey also finds violence and verbal harassment was experienced by two in every five LGBT people, 40 per cent of cases occurring in the past 12 months. Nine out of every 10 of the most serious incidences went unreported: “It happens all the time” or “nothing would happen or change” were the most common reasons given for this. These micro-aggressions have an ability to wear us down. Not all of us are made of RuPaul-like steel.