A GBTQ men’s initiative has been launched in Hackney amidst a rise in LGBTQ orientated hate crimes and high numbers of queer suicide in London.
Government figures published this week showed a 25% rise in offences linked to sexual orientation in the UK. Transgender identity hate crimes rose by 37% in 2018.
Last week in Homerton, a mental health charity, Core Arts, hosted ‘Tone It Up’, a panel discussion highlighting the traumas that many GBTQ men face daily and how this impacts their mental health.
The panel facilitator, Collin Clay Chace, said that Core Arts commissioned the GBTQ Men’s Reference Group “in response to the high numbers of suicides in queer men, particularly in Hackney.”
A 2018 government LGBT Health Inequalities report found a two-fold increase in suicide attempts amongst LBG individuals, while 84% of trans individuals considered suicide, with over half making an attempt.
“The number of hate crimes against us has more than doubled in the last five years, while the number of cases that led to charges fell by 10%,” Collin said. To cheers and whistles from the audience, he added, “The good news is, we’re still f***ing here.”
Clay Chace, a queer musician and mental health worker, discussed the panel’s findings on behalf of the group. He drew attention to the ring of empty chairs behind him, there to represent each of the panel members.
“The others in our group are not sitting on these chairs today because they’ve either been sectioned on a hospital ward, have had severe mental health trauma arise, fear for their safety should their community find out they participated or are simply really shy.”
He said there was “something both poetic and very telling about a discussion of queer men’s mental health where the men could not be present.”
