LGBTQ resources expand in state
Needs grow, too amid pandemic
Advocates and grassroots groups in Arkansas have expanded community support and resources over the past year, despite the hurdles of the covid-19 pandemic, to meet the needs of LGBTQ residents — an already under-served population, according to advocates.
Services for LGBTQ people in Arkansas, especially people of color and transpeople, are needed more than ever before, largely as a result of the pandemic causing a rise in financial insecurity, housing instability, and domestic violence, according to several national and state advocacy organizations.
“Because we are already a marginalized community, any situation that causes harm to the general population is going to cause exponentially more harm to the LGBTQ community, and especially people who are transgender,” said Mac Bolt, operations coordinator at the Harm Reduction Project, a grassroots organization that seeks to end opioid overdose deaths in Arkansas and provide public health services to under-served communities.
Nearly 14 million LGBTQ adults and 2 million LGBTQ youth are living in the United States, according to the latest Human Rights Center Foundation estimates. More than 5 million work in jobs that are more likely to be affected by covid-19 with 2
million of those being in the food industry alone, followed by hospitals, schools and higher education and retail. One in four transpeople of color reported being unemployed since covid-19 reached the U.S., based on the foundation’s surveys and research.
LGBTQ Americans are also more likely than the general population to live in poverty and lack access to adequate medical care, paid medical leave, and basic necessities during the pandemic, according to the foundation’s research. These factors may lead to more adverse health outcomes, though the foundation noted it is impossible to know how many have contracted the virus, as many states do not collect data on sexual orientation or gender identity.
It is difficult to get reliable statistics on state or regional levels because there is so little data on LGBTQ people, said Ty Cobb, senior director for strategic initiatives and research for the foundation.
ISSUES, RESOURCES
More resources and awareness of existing resources are needed in Arkansas, advocates said.
“People are wondering where are the resources. Sometimes, I’m trying to figure out where they’re at myself,” said Antoine Ghoston. He is the executive director of the Arkansas Black Gay Men’s Forum, a nonprofit organization providing services to address health, social and economic disparities among gay Black men and others in the LGBTQ community.
Last year in response to the pandemic, the nonprofit set up a relief fund for community members in need. It also launched the Utopia LGBTQ Health & Wellness Program to help directly address health issues that are prevalent in the LGBTQ community, such as stopping the spread of HIV/ AIDs. The organization has also provided food and utility assistance, Ghoston said.
“The program focuses on the overall health and well-being of the LGBTQ community, with a special emphasis on transwomen and men of color,” he said. “A lot of people have been displaced. Part of the marginalized population suffers with HIV and AIDs; they’re not able to go to work, because they’ll be at risk due to underlying health conditions. That’s why we started that mutual aid fund.”
Nearly one in ten LGBTQ people are unemployed and are more likely to live in poverty than straight and cisgender people — those whose gender identities match their sex at birth — according to a 2019 analysis by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. About one in five LGBTQ adults in the United States (22%) lives in poverty, compared with an estimated 16% poverty rate among straight and cisgender residents.
“As people are struggling to find stable employment, we are also seeing many LGBTQ people turn to sex work as one of their only options for employment, because they face the doubled economic impact of both the pandemic and the job discrimination that they already faced,” Bolt said. “Many LGBTQ people are being forced to move into unsafe living situations, such as back home with unaffirming family, where tensions may be rising due to being quarantined together.”
In early 2020, the project expanded by hiring more people and starting a street outreach program to help unhoused community members who were seeing a reduction in services as a result of the pandemic. The organization has plans for continued expansion and partnership this year, Bolt said.
“With this new program, we are now able to bring food and health services directly to our unhoused neighbors in Little Rock rather than only being able to serve people who reach out to us at our office or through our hotline,” Bolt said. “We also began distributing PPE, giving out hundreds of masks since the pandemic began. In 2021 we are continuing to expand our reach.”
More time spent at home with unsupportive families (around 50%) has also had a negative effect on LGBTQ youth, said Sam Brinton , vice president of advocacy and government affairs for the Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people.
In general, LGBTQ youth report nearly four times the rate of seriously considering suicide as their peers. Data is not yet available on suicidal thoughts or attempts among LGBTQ youth during the covid-19 pandemic, but 2020 Trevor Project polling data shows that 35% of LGBTQ youth (ages 13-24) reported feeling much more lonely since the start of the pandemic compared with 22% of other youth, and 28% reported feeling much more anxious compared with 18% of straight and cisgender youth. The Trevor Project has seen a doubling of people reaching out to its crisis line, Brinton said.
Something as simple as using youths’ preferred pronouns can save lives, Brinton said.
The Harm Reduction Project has also worked with other organizations to rehouse transgender youth who were living in an unsafe housing situation early in the pandemic, Bolt said.
“The CAHR Project is doing everything we can to help fill the gap in services that this vulnerable community has always seen, and is especially seeing since the onset of COVID-19,” Bolt said.
Meeting the community’s physical needs is important, but having a safe space is also essential for both LGBTQ youth and adults, advocates said.
VIRTUAL COMMUNITY
Both the Human Rights Center Foundation and the Trevor Project have online communities and have also hosted online events during the pandemic.
TrevorSpace — a moderated forum for ages 13-24 — has been around for a few years and has around 200,000 online users from around the world, Brinton said. It doesn’t tolerate bullying and makes sure to reach out to anyone showing symptoms of being in crisis.
“There’s so much doom-scrolling this day; it’s really powerful to see LGBTQ youth cheer scroll. It can be a welcome relief from bullying… and helps loneliness,” Brinton said.
More locally, the Black Gay Men’s Forum has been holding regular online check-ins to give people a space to share their experiences, Ghoston said. It has also hosted a few socially-distanced, in-person events.
Little Rock Queer Girls is another, less formal group, that has seen the growing desire for online community during the pandemic. Yosh Howard founded the group in the spring of 2018 as a way to connect with other queer women, but she never expected it to grow to the over 2,200 members from Arkansas and beyond it has today, she said. The group has doubled since the beginning of 2020.
“It’s taken on a life of its own. It’s grown into a family. I’ve definitely grown by being over the group,” she said. “It’s become a lifestyle for many.”
During the pandemic, members post humorous photos and personal stories. They post about job openings, queer-friendly businesses, mental health and questions about local resources.
“We have a lot of connected people in the group — resourceful and associated with big organizations,” Howard said. “I’ve even seen people post about insurance. Even if people don’t have the answer, they find it.”
The group hosted several in-person events during the pandemic, including a bonfire, drive-in concert and a salsa night. The events were well-attended, but Howard said she will probably wait until it warms up outside and will keep watching the virus case numbers before planning another.
The sense of community has helped members cope with stress and loneliness both before and during the pandemic, several members said.
Paola Cavallari, 33, has been a member since 2018 and said it’s great to see people engaged. It has also helped her mentally, especially when she is home in Italy, where she doesn’t have a queer community, she said.
“So many people figure out their sexuality later in life, like me. I struggled because I didn’t have queer friends growing up. It’s just good knowing I was not the only one,” Cavallari said.
Nicole Williamson said she felt isolated during the pandemic and when she moved to Benton County after graduating from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Then she joined the queer girls group a little over a year ago.
“I wanted to connect and missed my friends in the area. I’ve been able to meet other queer people in the group I wouldn’t otherwise, because I’m stuck at home on social media…At first, it really shocked me — the amount of people that were like, ‘I’m here. I’m queer,’” she said. “We are such a resilient community. We handle whatever life throws at us. We make it work.”