Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for inviting us today.
My name is Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah. I use she/her as pronouns. I'm the executive director of the CCGSD. Our organization is a national, youth-focused 2SLGBTQ+ organization headquartered here in Ottawa. We promote gender and sexual diversity in all its forms through the services of education and advocacy.
Our vision is a world without discrimination, especially for 2SLGBTQ+ youth, and to create a world where the human rights of 2SLGBTQ+ people would truly be respected. By recognizing the complexity of lives and experiences, our resources and our programming serve to empower marginalized queer, trans and indigenous youth and to provide the wider public with tools for building allyship with 2SLGBTQ+ communities.
As a leader in anti-oppression work, our goal is to promote healthy relationships and respect and dignity within and towards the 2SLGBTQ+ community. We specifically recognize that youth in our community have become disproportionately affected by bullying, violence and hate crimes in comparison with their cis heterosexual peers. We also recognize the effects that racism and colonialism have on queer Black, indigenous, and people of colour.
Our organization works specifically with queer and trans youth from urban and rural areas across Canada between the ages of 12 and 29. We mostly work within the middle school and high school context, as well as with young people who are marginalized due to many other forms of their identity.
From our evaluation work, we can safely say that a lot of the folks we work with also reflect a variety of different ages, gender identities, sexualities, abilities, races and ethnicities. I think what's key to mention is that about 60% of our participants happen to self-identify as female or as women or girls. Approximately 25% of the folks we work with are also racialized, Black or indigenous. We also work with folks—around 5% to 10% of our clients—who identify as trans or have trans lived experience. As well, about a fifth of the folks we work with note that they are living with a disability of some sort.
I mention all of this just to say that our work inherently addresses the mental health of diverse 2SLGBTQ+ young people, including young women and girls. It's important for us to look at the nuances of the experiences of young women and girls from the perspective of gender and sexual diversity.
In terms of what we do know, recently there was a study launched by Statistics Canada on bullying and victimization among young sexually and gender-diverse people in Canada. It shows that there are high levels of bullying against sexually and gender-diverse youth in Canada. That is having adverse effects on their mental health. These youth, who are more likely to be bullied, are also reporting high levels of suicidal ideation. They have a desire to skip school as a result. As to the levels of bullying they are dealing with, they are wide-ranging. They include being made fun of; name-calling; cyber-bullying, which speaks to the online hate that 2SLGBTQ+ people experience; being excluded from events; and rumours.
We know that the barriers and discrimination rooted in misogyny are only further compounded by that intersection of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. It's also important to note that the bullying tactics we see among young people are highly gendered.
I want to note the report from our colleagues at Egale Canada entitled “Still in Every Class in Every School”. They look specifically at the context within school communities. Of the youth who were studied in the report, 11% of the cisgender and heterosexual respondents reported languishing mental health, as compared with 20% of those who are gay boys, bisexual boys or queer boys; 25% of the lesbian, gay and bisexual girls; and then 40% of the trans respondents. Conversely, cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer girls were more likely to experience some form of personal victimization through social media in comparison with their cisgender gay, bisexual and queer boy counterparts. This is happening of course online and in washrooms, change rooms and hallways. It's impacting their desire to participate in physical education, etc.
What's clear, and what I want to conclude with before we go to questions, is that there's a need for disaggregated data for this study.
We want to look at the specific impacts on the mental health challenges of young queer and trans girls and transfeminine people. There is a strong desire for Canadian context, especially with the increased amount of information coming from the States. We need to look at diversifying the data that speaks to transgender experiences and speaks to trans girls and transfeminine folks.
Lastly, we need to really focus on that knowledge mobilization piece so that educators and other adults know how best to address the needs of young queer and trans girls.