Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T00:11:05.577Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The social and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous LGBTQA+ young people: a global perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2020

K. Spurway Open the ORCID record for K. Spurway [Opens in a new window] ,
K. Soldatic ,
L. Briskman ,
B. Uink ,
S. Liddelow-Hunt ,
B. Hill  and
A. Lin
K. Spurway*
Affiliation:
Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
K. Soldatic
Affiliation:
Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
L. Briskman
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
B. Uink
Affiliation:
Kulbardi Aboriginal Centre, Murdoch University and Telethon Kids Institute, Perth, WA, Australia
S. Liddelow-Hunt
Affiliation:
Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
B. Hill
Affiliation:
Kurongkurl Katitdjin, Pro Vice Chancellor Indigenous and Equity, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia
A. Lin
Affiliation:
Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr. Kim Spurway BA, MSocSci, PhD, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Building EM, Parramatta, NSW2751, Australia. (Email: k.spurway@westernsydney.edu.au)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There has been scant exploration of the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of young Indigenous populations that identify as LGBTQA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Asexual +). Given the vulnerability of this cohort living in Western settler colonial societies, wider investigation is called for to respond to their needs, experiences and aspirations. This paper summarizes existing research on the topic highlighting the lack of scholarship on the intersection of youth, Indigeneity, LGBTQA+ and SEWB. The paper takes a holistic approach to provide a global perspective that draws on an emerging body of literature and research driven by Indigenous scholars in settler colonial societies. The paper points to the importance of understanding converging colonial influences and ongoing contemporary elements, such as racism and marginalization that impact on young Indigenous LGBTQA+ wellbeing.

Keywords

IndigenousLGBT+mental healthsocial and emotional wellbeingyouth
Type
Perspective Piece
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 39 , Issue 2: Themed Issue: Psychiatric Anthropology , June 2022 , pp. 138 - 147
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (1997). Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. AHRC: Canberra.Google Scholar
Balsam, K, Huang, B, Fieland, K, Simoni, J, Walters, K (2004). Culture, trauma, and wellness: a comparison of heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and two-spirit native Americans. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology 10, 287–301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barney, D (2003). Health risk-factors for Gay American Indian and Alaska native adolescent males. Journal of Homosexuality 46, 137–157. doi: 10.1300/J082v46n01_04 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bayliss, T (2015). ‘Introduction: Looking in to the mirror’. In Colouring the Rainbow: Blak, Queer and Trans Perspectives – Life Stories and Essays by First Nations Peoples of Australia (ed. Hodge D). pp. 315–587. Kindle Edition. Wakefield Press: Mile End, South Australia.Google Scholar
BlaQ (2020). About BlaQ (https://www.blaq.org.au/about-about) Accessed 06 March 2020.Google Scholar
Brotman, S, Ryan, B, Jalbert, Y, Rowe, B (2002). Reclaiming space-regaining health: the health care experiences of two-spirit people in Canada. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services 14, 67–87. doi: 10.1300/J041v14n01_04 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R, Dickerson, D, Klein, D, Agniel, D, Johnson, C, D’Amico, E (2019). Identifying as American Indian/Alaska native in Urban Areas: implications for adolescent behavioral health and well-being, Youth & Society 1–22. doi: 10.1177/0044118X19840048 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, R (2004). Adolescent brain development: a period of vulnerabilities and opportunities: Keynote address. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1021, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
D’Amico, E, Dickerson, D, Brown, R, Klein, D, Agniel, D, Johnson, C (2019). Unveiling an ‘invisible population’: health, substance use, sexual behavior, culture, and discrimination among urban American Indian/Alaska native adolescents in California. Ethnicity & Health. doi: 10.1080/13557858.2018.1562054 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elm, J, Lewis, J, Walters, K, Self, J (2016). ‘I’m in this world for a reason’: resilience and recovery among American Indian and Alaska native two-spirit women. Journal of Lesbian Studies 20, 352–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans-Campbell, T, Walters, K, Pearson, C, Campbell, C (2012). Indian boarding school experience, substance use, and mental health among urban two-spirit American Indian/Alaska Natives. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse 38, 421–427.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fieland, K, Walters, K, Simoni, J (2007). Determinants of health among two-spirit American Indians and Alaska Natives. In The Health of Sexual Minorities: Public Health Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations (ed. Meyer, I. H and Northridge, M. E), pp. 268–300. Springer: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gómez, F, Semenyna, S, Court, L, Vasey, P (2017). Recalled separation anxiety in childhood in Istmo Zapotec men, women, and muxes. Archives of Sexual Behavior 46, 109–117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gee, G, Dudgeon, P, Schultz, C, Hart, A, Kelly, K (2014). Social and emotional wellbeing and mental health: an aboriginal perspective. In Working Together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practice – Revised Edition (eds. Dudgeon, P., Milroy, M., Walker, R.). Chapter 4, Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra.Google Scholar
Han, E, Maloney, J (2018). British Colonialism and the Criminalization of Homosexuality (Focus on Global Gender and Sexuality). Taylor & Francis Group, Kindle Edition: Oxford, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, M (2006). Indigenous otherness: some aspects of Irish traveller social history. Éire-Ireland Fómhar/Geimhreadh/Fall/Winter 2006 41, 133–161. doi: 10.1353/eir.2007.0006 Google Scholar
Hillier, L, Jones, T, Monagle, M, Overton, N, Gahan, L, Blackman, J, Mitchell, A (2010). Writing Themselves in 3: The Third National Study on the Sexual Health and Wellbeing of Same Sex Attracted and Gender Questioning Young People. Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University: Melbourne.Google Scholar
Hodge, D (ed.) (2015). Colouring the Rainbow: Blak, Queer and Trans Perspectives – Life Stories and Essays by First Nations People of Australia. Kindle Edition. Wakefield Press: Mile End, South Australia.Google Scholar
Hunt, S (2016). An Introduction to the Health of Two-Spirit People: Historical, Contemporary and Emergent Issues. National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health: Prince George, BC.Google Scholar
Jolivette, A (2018). Examining internal traumatic gay men’s syndrome (ITGMS) and queer indigenous citizenship. Social Alternatives 37, 44–48. Google Scholar
Kessler, R, Berglund, P, Demler, O, Jin, R, Merikangas, K, Walters, E (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of Gen Psychiatry 62, 593–601.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krieg A (2009). The experience of collective trauma in Australian indigenous communities. Australasian Psychiatry 17, 28–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lea, T (2012). Contemporary anthropologies of indigenous Australia. Annual Review of Anthropology 41, 187–202. doi: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145734 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehavot, K, Walters, K, Simoni, J (2010). Abuse, mastery, and health among lesbian, bisexual, and two-spirit American Indian and Alaska Native women. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 15, 275–284. doi: 10.1037/a0013458 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malone, K, McGuinness, S, Cleary, E, Jefferies, J, Owens, C, Kelleher, C (2017). Lived lives: a pavee perspective: an arts-science community intervention around suicide in an indigenous ethnic minority. Wellcome Open Research 2, 1–18. doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.11330.1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGorrian, C, Hamid, N, Fitzpatrick, P, Daly, L, Malone, K (2013). Cecily kelleher frequent mental distress (FMD) in Irish travellers: discrimination and bereavement negatively influence mental health in the All Ireland Traveller Health Study. Transcultural Psychiatry 50, 559–578.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monaghan, O (2015). Dual imperatives: decolonising the queer and queering the decolonial. In Colouring the Rainbow: Blak, Queer and Trans Perspectives – Life Stories and Essays by First Nations People of Australia (ed. Hodge, D.). Kindle Edition. Wakefield Press: Mile End, South Australia.Google Scholar
Moreton-Robinson, A (2011). The white man’s burden: patriarchal white epistemic violence and Aboriginal woman. Australian Feminist Studies 26, 413–431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Centre for Transgender Equality (NCTE) (2015). 2015 US Transgender Discrimination Survey: Report on the experiences of American Indian & Alaska Native respondents. National Centre for Transgender Equality: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Parker, M, Durant, C, Walters, (2017). The relationship between bias related victimization and generalized anxiety disorder among American Indian and Alaska Native Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Two Spirit Community Members. International Journal of Indigenous Health 12, 64–83. doi: 10.18357/ijih122201717785 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Passante, L (2012). Aboriginal two-spirit and LGBTQ mobility: meanings of home, community and belonging in a secondary analysis of qualitative interviews. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Manitoba, Winnipeg.Google Scholar
Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre (2020). LGBTQI (https://www.paveepoint.ie/project/lgbtq). Accessed 03 March 2020.Google Scholar
Quirke, B, Heinen, M, Daly, L, Kelleher, C (2018). 4.2-O2 using the population structure from the All Ireland Traveller Health Study 2007–2010 to facilitate comparison with other Indigenous Ethnic Minority populations globally. European Journal of Public Health 28, (Supplement 1), 62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ristock, J, Zoccole, A, Passante, L (2010a). Aboriginal Two-Spirit and LGBTQ Migration, Mobility and Health Research Project: Vancouver Final Report. University of Manitoba: Winnipeg.Google Scholar
Ristock, J, Zoccole, A, Passante, L (2010b). Aboriginal Two-Spirit and LGBTQ Migration, Mobility and Health Research Project: Winnipeg Final Report. University of Manitoba: Winnipeg.Google Scholar
Robinson, K, Bansel, P, Denson, N, Ovenden, G, Davies, C (2014). Growing Up Queer: Issues Facing Young Australians Who Are Gender Variant and Sexuality Diverse. Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre: Melbourne, Australia.Google Scholar
Scheim, A, Jackson, R, James, L, Sharp Dopler, T, Pyne, J, Bauer, G (2013). Barriers to well-being for Aboriginal gender-diverse people: results from the Trans PULSE Project in Ontario, Canada. Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care 4, 108–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, E, Jones, T, Ward, R, Dixon, J, Mitchell, A, Hillier, L (2014). From Blues to Rainbows: Mental Health and Wellbeing of Gender Diverse and Transgender Young People in Australia. The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health, and Society, La Trobe University: Melbourne, Australia. Google Scholar
Strauss, P, Cook, A, Winter, S, Watson, V, Wright Toussaint, D, Lin, A (2017). Trans Pathways: The Mental Health Experiences and Care Pathways of Trans Young People: Summary of Results. Telethon Kids Institute: Perth, Australia.Google Scholar
The Healing Foundation (2015). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander SuicidePrevention Evaluation Project (ATSISPEP): Sexuality and Gender Diverse Populations (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer and Intersex – LGBTQI): Roundtable Report. The Healing Foundation: Canberra, Australia.Google Scholar
Tobin, M, Lambert, S, McCarthy, J (2018). Grief, tragic death, and multiple loss in the lives of Irish Traveller Community Health Workers. OMEGA-Journal of Death and Dying 0, 1–25. doi: 10.1177/0030222818762969 Google Scholar
Travellers Times (2020). Campaign launched for LGBT Irish Travellers and Gypsies who have ‘nowhere to turn’ (https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/news/2017/10/campaign-launched-lgbt-irish-travellers-and-gypsies-who-have-nowhere-to-run) Accessed 04 March 2020.Google Scholar
Trudgett, M, Page, S, Bodkin-Andrews, G, Sullivan, C, Whittaker, A (2017). Another Brick in the Wall? Parent Perceptions of School Educational Experiences of Indigenous Australian Children, Indigenous Children Growing up Strong: A Longitudinal Study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Families. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke.Google Scholar
Veracini, L (2010). Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview (Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Kindle Edition.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walters, K (1997). Urban Lesbian and Gay American Indian edentity. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services 6, 43–65. doi: 10.1300/J041v06n02_05 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walters, K, Simoni, J, Evans-Campbell, T (2001). Substance use among American Indians and Alaska Natives: incorporating culture in an ‘Indigenist’ stress coping paradigm. Public Health Reports 117, 104–117.Google Scholar
Walter, M (2016). Social exclusion/inclusion for urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Social Inclusion 4, 68–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willging, C, Salvador, M, Kano, M (2006). Pragmatic help seeking: how sexual and gender minority groups access mental health care in a rural state. Psychiatric Services 6, 871–874.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, A (1996). How we find ourselves: identity development and Two-Spirit people. Harvard Educational Review 66, 303–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuan, N, Duran, B, Walters, K, Pearson, C, Evans-Campbell, T (2014). Alcohol misuse and associations with childhood maltreatment and out-of-home placement among urban two spirit American Indian and Alaska native people. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 11, 10461–10479.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed