Coronavirus: LGBTQ+ youths are enduring hostility from unsupportive, homophobic families under lockdown
The stay-at-home orders and lockdowns imposed globally are about to persist for a while longer as the disease rages on continuing to claim lives. The coronavirus pandemic has 1,016,401 confirmed cases worldwide with 53,160 fatalities, as of April 3, according to John Hopkins University's COVID-19 map. Doctors and health experts have time and again cautioned that as long as everyone stays indoors and takes social distancing seriously, the chances of getting infected are relatively less.
People have taken to the comfort of their homes only venturing out to stock up supplies, ever so often. Everyone is in isolation with their families, adhering to the government's move to contain the spread of COVID-19. Even the vulnerable from the LGBTQ+ community.
LGBTQ+ people are at a high risk of contracting the virus, The National LGBT Cancer Network and Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality, has previously outlined in an official statement released on March 11. This raises questions about the well-being of the members of the queer community hailing from unsupportive families. The lockdown has forced them to isolate themselves in an environment charged with hostility and hatred that could do more damage than imaginable.
At the onset of the outbreak, health officials sent out several warning statements detailing that the elderly, aged 60 and above, and those with underlying health issues avoid going out as much as possible. LGBT seniors, in particular, are a high-risk factor. Many live alone and are estranged from their families, they've lost their partners and other loved ones to AIDS or another disease, but mostly their bodies will not be able to withstand the infection as much as younger people can.
Many LGBTQ+ advocates, health organizations and support groups have been working towards protecting all the members of the community during the pandemic. The Outcenter of SouthWest Michigan, a non-profit based in Benton Harbour, Michigan has been at work prioritizing the vulnerable population of the community.
“We understand the need for urgency because some of us lived through the AIDS pandemic and witnessed the horrible results,” said executive director, Mary Jo Schnell to the Herald-Palladium.
The OutCenter has shifted its focus to ensure that the LGBTQ youth, in particular, are safe in their homes. It has also gone the extra mile to make sure that the LGBTQ people in need of health services have access to them.
Schnell affirmed that there is a portion of the young population of the LGBT community who are currently confined in their homes with unsupportive family members. They are forced to dwell among people that bear hostile feelings against them or don't accept their sexuality. Furthermore, she says that many health services tend to discriminate against LGBTQ people seeking help. Transgender youths would possibly have to travel to bigger cities in search of a doctor who is willing to treat them.
“These are the reasons why the OutCenter pivoted so quickly last week and went to virtual programs ahead of the curve in our area and even outpaced some centers in New York City,” Schnell revealed.
Chris Hathaway, the OutCenter's board chair said that the urgency to ensure all the lives at stake have all the support that they require during this time of crisis enabled them to go virtual with their services.
“Leveraging our online infrastructure during times like this is evidence of that. Within days we were able to transition our workforce, programs, and services virtual. We are here for you because we care, because we should be, and because we can be; even now,” Hathaway added.
Even in other parts of the world, the LGBTQ+ are vulnerable to similar situations of discomfort, being forced to isolate alongside unsupportive and queerphobic parents. Many have had no other choice but to move back home and live with parents that treat them like they're the ones with a disease. Those belonging to orthodox religious families are having an even harder time, struggling to be in the presence of unaccepting parents.
"My mum says that homosexuality is an evil disease and that the devil is making me gay. She loudly prays every day that I'll be delivered from sin and find a wife," said Sam, 23, in a BBC interview. "I genuinely have nowhere else to go during this mad time, so I'm just putting up with the abuse." Sam only accounts for one of the possibly several hundred more LGBTQ+ youths who're going through the same plight.
19-year-old Nicky said to BBC that she had to come out of the closet when a family friend outed her. Her family immediately asked her to vacate their home because they did not support her "lifestyle decision." She was only allowed to move back in because of mental health problems.
"Living with my homophobic family is like having flatmates you don't like. You don't talk to them, you just get on with your life," Nicky described the situation after her sexual orientation was out in the open. Initially, her job kept her busy and she'd rarely see her family, but the lockdown completely changed that.
"I'm not allowed to eat the food my mum and her partner buy. My mum's partner talks about me as if I can't hear him. He says I'm disgusting and he hopes he doesn't catch what I have", she said.
akt is a charity organization that supports homeless youth in the LGBT population in the UK. Lucy Bower, the director of services, told BBC that the charity is currently working with approximately 130 youth seeking support, including several 16 and 17-year-olds who contacted them recently.
"Over the last few weeks we have been receiving an especially high volume of referrals from young people," Bower said. "Our services team is adapting to the current climate by providing e-mentoring services, live chats, and online hubs to ensure we are there when young people need us."
The charity is arranging emergency safe-housing with host families, she asserted, with access to food, phone credit top-ups and other vital resources they would require. Many young people from the LGBTQ+ community have confessed to feeling like "they have nobody to turn to", said the chief executive of LGBT Foundation, Paul Martin to BBC.
"I strongly encourage them to reach out to us, where they will find a listening ear. We've got a helpline helping highly vulnerable people and providing that support at an increasingly challenging time," he reassured. He also said that the charity aims to launch a "telephone befriending service to support LGBT people who are highly vulnerable."