A Safe Harbor

When I go to Provincetown I see a safe harbor with a breakwater and the curve of the tip of the Cape making the anchorage a safe place for boats, well having a safe place for LGBTQ+ children can do the same thing for them.

Creating Gender-Affirming Spaces Literally Saves LGBTQ Kids’ Lives
A Trevor Project survey found that LGBTQ youth who had at least one accepting adult were 40% less likely to report suicide attempts in the past year.
Huff Post
By Alanna Vagianos
May 19, 2021


Using a transgender or nonbinary kid’s preferred pronouns can quite literally save their life, according to a new survey published Wednesday by The Trevor Project.

The organization, which offers crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth, found that trans and nonbinary kids attempt suicide at much lower rates when adults use their preferred pronouns and when they’re able to change their gender marker on identification documents.

Even just one accepting adult in an LGBTQ kid’s life can lower their likelihood of attempting suicide by 40%. Trans and nonbinary youth who reported having their pronouns respected by the people they lived with attempted suicide at half the rate of those whose preferred pronouns were not respected, The Trevor Project found.

Unfortunately, more than 60% of transgender youth under the age of 18 said that none of the people they lived with respected their pronouns.

Over 40% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the last year. Yet more than half of them said they were unable to get the mental health care they needed.

Unfortunately the Republicans do not want to provide a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth, just the opposite they want to cause harm to them.

“We’re seeing policies that are working to consistently take away the ability of trans and nonbinary youth to be affirmed in their identity and to live their lives authentically,” Green told HuffPost. “The legal initiatives are of course harmful in what they’ll prohibit, but also they’re harmful in terms of the rhetoric that trans and nonbinary youth are hearing about themselves on a national level in such a consistent way.”

We can only assume that is their goal to do harm and take away safe spaces to trans and LGBQ+ children. They know that they it is dangerous to us, there have been medical testimony from doctors, healthcare providers, and therapists warning them of the consequences of their actions.

Green said she hopes readers acknowledge the extent of the problem of suicide within the LGBTQ youth community and realize that those risks get even worse for LGBTQ kids of color and trans and nonbinary youth.

The LGBTQ+ family and youth service agency True Colors, a victim of the shutdown due to the plague, hopefully they will get reorganized and reopen.

I know that just about every school in Connecticut has a GSA program, organizations like GLSEN also provide safe harbors for youth.

The State of GSAs – Where You’re Most and Least Likely to Find Them
A student’s opportunity for camaraderie and community in school shouldn’t depend on where they live. Yet, that seems to be the case for many LGBTQ students across the country.

GSAs – also known as Gay-Straight Alliances or Gender-Sexuality Alliances – are student-led clubs whose members explicitly address LGBTQ topics. In doing so, these clubs raise awareness of diverse sexual and gender identities at school, and can have an impact on overall school climate through education and advocacy efforts. They also help LGBTQ students to meet, support, and affirm one another.

Unfortunately, according to the most recent School Health Profiles (SHP) report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), many LGBTQ students are left without access to this critical support. In fact, the SHP data, as reported by school principals, indicate that the distribution of GSAs across the country is far from uniform.

GSAs and similar clubs are least common in the South and Midwest. For example, you’ll find them in fewer than 1 in 10 secondary schools (9.3%) in South Dakota, and only 1 in 7 (13.9%) secondary schools in Arkansas. You’re far more likely to find an LGBTQ student club in the Northeast or West. In Massachusetts, these groups are in 6 in 10 secondary schools (60.5%). And, when looking across the U.S. as a whole, CDC data indicate that schools commonly lack a GSA. In fact, besides Massachusetts, there are only 2 other states (Connecticut and New York) in which a majority of secondary schools have any GSA or similar club.

These results corroborate some of GLSEN’s National School Climate Survey (NSCS) findings, in which we found similar patterns of GSA availability, as reported by LGBTQ students. For example, we also found GSAs to be less common in the South and the Midwest. Our data also indicated that LGBTQ students in the South and Midwest were less likely to have LGBTQ-supportive staff and administration in school. These lower levels of institutional support could contribute to the scarcity of GSAs in these areas. It may be tough for students to start an LGBTQ student club if a school’s staff and administration have given no indication that they will be receptive to the idea.

We have a new President and a new administration and are polar opposites from the previous administration and they support LGBTQ+ youth and will hopefully help overturn the draconian legislation that the Republicans are passing.

The Republicans have blood on their hands and they revel in our agony.