Rainbow Coalition Releases LGBTQ Well being Survey Results

Monday, 12 June 2017 14:58

A new report sheds some light on the experiences of the LGBTQ community living in Oxford County.

The Oxford County Rainbow Coalition has released a report looking at the experiences of the LGBTQ community.

It found that 90 percent of respondents had a least one person in their life that were somewhat or very supportive of their sexual orientation. Additionally, half of participants had five or more close friends or relatives that they felt at ease with and who they felt they could talk with about what is on their mind.

Public Health Nurse Gayle Milne says one discouraging item was only 25 per cent of respondents felt a strong sense of belonging to the community. This is compared to 56 percent of Oxford County residents.

"Not exactly why that is the case, however we can make some assumptions or some speculations that perhaps that has to do with the fact we do not have LGBTQ specific services in Oxford County. Up until a few years ago we did not have any kind of pride celebrations in Oxford County and we don't have many places that have some of the inclusive symbols that you would see in bigger centres, like the rainbow flag hanging up in store windows and that kind of thing. So we don't know for certain the exact answer to that question but perhaps some of those things could play into it."

Over half of participants experienced silent harassment such as being stared at or whispered about. Fear of harassment, being read as non-heterosexual or fear of being outed caused 23% of respondents to avoid religious institutions, 20% to avoid clubs or social groups and 18% to avoid restaurants or bars.

Milne explains what she hopes people will take away from this report.

"We hope that people reflect on the numbers that they see there and look at the information and perhaps think about changes that they themselves could make within their own circle of friends or within their circle of influence with the businesses they choose to go to or the things they could maybe do that effect LGBTQ experiences for people in Oxford County."

You can read the full report online here a summary online here.