Need of Supporting Queer People During Quarantine

By Rupin Shaha

Being the part of LGBTQA+ community has many challenges and difficulties as the ratio of bullying and harassment towards the people of the community is higher than any other sections. This results in depression, suicide and due to hatred of people or unavailability, there is lack of treatment and support. 

With the emergence of COVID-19, a lockdown has been issued. The problem is that many people do not have a supportive family and hence that hampers their mental health due to hate speech. A recent article published in The Jerusalem Post described how the lockdown exposed LGBTQA+ people to family abuse. Staying at home can eliminate their access to private spaces and increase bullying. This affects mental health majorly.

It is important that services should be provided through this period as situations worsen. Yet there is no program or a helpline that could help LGBTQA+ people in India. The most important and easiest thing that can be done is providing free counselling over the phone and delivering medications to patients with HIV. 

Social media can always play a role in helping the people and provide a safe space through which people can discuss the situations they are in to get help. Openly talking about these issues is extremely important. We ignore the fact that by ignoring these situations or getting harassed and thinking that no option is left; will obviously won’t solve the problem, it’s better to talk and mention what people are doing wrong and seek help if required.

At the end stay strong, stay healthy and seek help whenever you need it.