Summary and Recommendations
- First and foremost, the concept of chosen family, something not new in the realities of LGBTI+ life, must be properly understood. This means fostering an understanding outwith the LGBTI+ community that biological family may not be a source of support, and that kinship may thus look different and have another structure. This is an idea that will help not just LGBTI+ people, but a wide range of people who, for many reasons, may not have access to, or may be alienated from, biological and/or traditional family support.
- Secondly, there is a need to recognise the importance of intersectional LGBTI+ specific support, particularly in mental health provision. Mainstream mental health services are not currently delivering for LGBTI+ people.
- Thirdly, but of equal importance, is the need for informal spaces, which are either explicitly, or even implicitly, LGBTI+ With many spaces being closed, or losing funding, this requires immediate attention. It is important that community led social spaces and initiatives that are LGBTI+ friendly and/or LGBTI+ run are resourced. This could be done through grant funding from Scottish Government and / or business enterprise support.
As well as these three key recommendations, we encourage:
- Embedding LGBTI+ understanding into services and public spaces – this is not just basic ‘training,’ but a genuine and comprehensive understanding, and a culture of acceptance and safety for LGBTI+ people. This has been said continuously by us, and others, for many years, yet it is still missing from most public service development.We require more than ‘EDI’ training for this to be meaningful. Equalities, human rights, and intersectionality must be part of the core of all developing policy, service improvement, and legislative decisions.
- Consideration of the variability of experiences and importance of thinking about different population levels within services and public life. People are not a homogenous group. Intersectionality must be more than a buzzword used by decision makers and policy developers.
