How Will You Stay Positive for Pride This Year?

Heading Towards Pride, Let’s Talk About LGBTQ+ Mental Health

Sometimes It’s Looking Beyond Rainbows to Prioritize Our Mental Wellness in Challenging Times.

AI-generated image based on the author’s prompts.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States. It reminds me to focus on my well-being and that of the LGBTQ+ community. Self-acceptance for LGBTQ+people has always presented challenges. 2025 demands that the community confront a barrage of new challenges. We must use our resilience to prioritize our well-being.

The journey of self-discovery, coming out, and daily life for LGBTQ+ people involves conquering internal battles. Marginalization drives LGBTQ+ individuals to develop remarkable resilience, often costly to our mental health.

The Past Enhances LGBTQ+ Resilience.

Resilience starts by remembering our progress toward acceptance and equality over the years. Tireless activism led to achievements like marriage equality and greater LGBTQ+ visibility. This progress lessened shame, isolation, and discrimination, leading to better mental health.

These victories contributed to a sense of inclusion, recognition, and being valued. This period of progress brought relief, allowing people to live more openly and comfortably as their true selves.

Change has led to safer spaces that improve our mental well-being. It recognizes that our joy is valid, our love is legitimate, and our existence deserves acknowledgment.

The Tides of Progress Shifted.

Today, the acceptance and rights of the LGBTQ+ community are under attack by discriminatory laws, inflammatory language, and renewed prejudices that create a hostile environment affecting our sense of safety and mental well-being.

This feels like painful whiplash. After a time of visible progress, the resurgence of targeted attacks is deeply disheartening. This isn’t about political disagreement. It’s about everyday impacts on our lives, our peace of mind, and our ability to thrive. The mental tolls are undeniable.

• The fear of personal safety and the erosion of hard-earned fundamental rights.
• Political attacks that reignite internalized stigma and shame we thought we’d defeated.
• Exhaustion from being constantly vigilant and defending our very existence.
• Demoralizing feelings that battles once won must be fought again.

We Must Prioritize Our Mental Health

This moment requires LGBTQ+ people to move beyond awareness and take action. A vital aspect of this is a steadfast commitment to our mental health and the well-being of our community.

Prioritizing our mental health isn’t a choice. It’s an act of self-preservation, a crucial tool for navigating these turbulent times. By building inner strength, we empower ourselves to stand tall and advocate for ourselves and our community.

Self-care and community care are acts of resistance, not weakness. They help us refuel, mend, and build the stamina needed for future challenges.

My Coming Out and My Mental Health

In my early twenties, I was struggling and desperately seeking someone to help me navigate my internal conflicts. A mental health agency advertised that they addressed sexuality in their counseling services. Nervously, I made an appointment, knowing that staying where I was wasn’t an option. I had to take a bold step forward.

That step was one of my most uncomfortable and disheartening life experiences. I openly shared that I was a gay man wrestling with coming out. The counselor’s response was defensive. He repeatedly emphasized that he wasn’t gay, as if to shield himself.

Rather than offering professional help, he suggested I confide in a pastor, a friend, or my parents. His body language betrayed his unease. I walked out of that office feeling even more hopeless and confused than before.

That encounter made it clear: seeking mental health support as a gay man was a dead end when a trained counselor was unwilling to offer help. I proceeded on my own, never to seek professional help again. Ultimately, I found self-acceptance within a supportive community of gay men.

My journey would have been much easier with a counselor who understood the unique challenges of being gay, a person who affirmed my truth instead of treating it as a problem. I needed a person to provide the guidance I desperately needed. The good news is that many LGBTQ+-affirming counselors currently offer that specific support.

Mental Health and LGBTQ+ daily lives.

LGBTQ+ people experience disproportionately higher rates of mental health concerns compared to those outside our community. These are not signs of weakness but the result of the heavy burdens we bear in living authentically.

Achieving mental wellness often presents significant and complex hurdles for us. We must become more attuned to the challenges our mental health faces, and to the mental well-being of our loved ones and fellow members of the LGBTQ+ community.

• Anxiety: 40% of LGBTQ+ individuals report anxiety vs. 30% of the general population. ()
• Suicidal Thoughts: Sexual minority adults are 2–3 times more likely to have suicidal thoughts and 3–4 times more likely to have made a suicide plan compared to heterosexual adults. ()
• Substance Abuse: 34% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults have substance use disorders, over twice the general population rate. Estimates for transgender individuals range from 20–30%. ()
• Trauma: LGBTQ+ individuals frequently experience complex trauma linked to discrimination, bullying, and family rejection. ()
• Poor Mental Health: 39% of LGBT adults rate their mental health as fair or poor, and half report frequent anxiety. ()
• Homelessness: 22% of LGBT adults have experienced homelessness, double the rate of non-LGBT adults. ()
• Forgoing Healthcare: 35% of LGBTQI+ adults have postponed or avoided medical care due to cost, discrimination, or insurance issues. ()

Nurturing Our Mental Health

How can we actively tend to our mental health during these difficult times? The approaches differ, and what helps one person might not work for another. Here are some options that might resonate with you.

Self-Care

• Seek out professional mental health support from affirming sources.
• Practice self-compassion and mindfulness through journaling and meditation.
• Engage in activities that affirm you and bring you happiness.
• Seek comfort, peace, and spiritual refreshment in nature.
• Make physical health (exercise, nutrition, sleep) a priority.
• Be intentional about your information diet, limiting negativity.

Community Care

• Connect with LGBTQ+ friends, family, and organizations.
• Create safe spaces online and in-person for visibility, affirmation, and respect.
• Share experiences and support others through peer and friend networks.
• Advocate for positive change within your comfort zone.
• Mentor and support younger LGBTQ+ individuals.
• Explore diverse ways to celebrate LGBTQ+ culture and joy.

Resilience is Our Legacy.

Throughout history, the LGBTQ+ community has faced mental, social, and political battles. We have confronted prejudice, discrimination, and violence head-on. We haven’t just survived; we have endured and grown stronger.

We organized for our rights, we loved openly, and we fought for our progress. The path to justice and acceptance has sometimes been slow, but we have always moved forward.

This resilience is not merely a chapter in LGBTQ+ history. It’s a living, breathing part of our identity. It’s the inclusive spirit that gives us the power to navigate the present in an often cruel and divisive world. While acknowledging past struggles, we must move beyond victimhood and embrace our rightful place.

Progress is Our Path Forward.

For the LGBTQ+ community, maintaining a positive outlook is vital in this moment. It means recognizing the obstacles we face without being overwhelmed by negativity. Our resilience is rooted in a legacy of overcoming hardship that shapes our identity. This is about reclaiming our narrative and centering our mental well-being, anchored in our enduring strength.

We are stronger, more empathetic, and more resolute because of our history of struggle. Today’s challenges call for that same tenacity. By prioritizing mental health, standing fiercely together, and embracing the power of our community, we can rise above this adversity, emerging more united and resilient than ever.

My Hope for Our LGBTQ+ Community

I share this not as a mental health professional, but as someone who personally learned the importance of seeking support during crises. I hope that no LGBTQ+ individual ever experiences the same overwhelming hopelessness I felt leaving that counseling office in my early twenties.

Today, countless affirming resources address the unique challenges LGBTQ+ individuals face. Seek and reach out to them. Surround yourself with a supportive community. Never see yourself as less than anyone else.

Your identity is a strength, not a struggle. Prioritizing your mental well-being allows that strength to shine brighter and helps you become the most complete version of yourself. That’s pride’s aim.

How does Pride relate to your mental health? Share your thoughts and resources in the comments. Let’s uplift each other with self-love as we move toward Pride.

This story is a response to the Prism & Pen writing prompt, “How Will You Stay Positive for Pride This Year?”