[Disclaimer: This resource discusses suicide and other sensitive content. If you or someone you know is in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.]

LGBTQ people of color, similar to their broader LGBTQ community, experience alarmingly high rates of mental health challenges. It disrupts their daily lives and can be life-threatening, especially for children and youth. Over a majority of LGBTQ adults of color in the United States are facing significant mental health challenges today. LGBTQ highschoolers of color are also more likely to attempt suicide (27%) compared to LGBTQ highschoolers (22%) and non-LGBTQ highschoolers (5%) in the United States.

We know that LGBTQ people who are BIPOC often face barriers to treatment and care because of mistrust of the medical community, high uninsurance rates among many other societal injustices. In the United States, more than one-quarter (28%) of LGBTQ adults of color have no health insurance coverage, compared to 8% of all adults.

While LGBTQ adults of color experience similar rates of mental health challeneges as LGBTQ adults generally, they receive unequal rates diagnoses. A rate of 29% of LGBTQ adults of color say they have been diagnosed with a depressive order from a provider, compared to 39% of the LGBTQ adults broadly, a ten point gap. Moreover, only 35% of LGBTQ youth of color receive emotional counseling.

Our mental health is important — and we must find solutions to address these inequities. To learn more about mental health in the entire LGBTQ community, see our other resource.