The 2024 RI LBGTQIA+ Needs and Experiences Assessment paints a mixed picture
The next question is how to use the data to create a safer Rhode Island.
Over 100 people attended a breakfast at Rhode Island College Monday morning to learn about the data collected as part of the 2024 RI LBGTQIA+ Needs and Experiences Assessment. Quinten Foster, MS, Director of Transgender Whole Healthcare at the East Bay Community Action Program (EBCAP), a health and human services agency in the East Bay, led the creation of the Assessment, which seeks to understand the lives of the LGBTQIA+ community across the State. Foster presented the data at the breakfast and moderated the lively discussion afterward.
“You are not alone. It gets so much better, and the world is better with you in it. Surviving is a radical act.”
Though more data remains to be explored in future deep-dive reports, Foster’s initial Insights Assessment showed “widespread negative experiences with and concern over the lack of access to culturally appropriate health and human services, changing political landscapes, the housing and food crises facing our nation, and interpersonal discrimination. Initial insights show patterns suggesting that those with multiple marginalized identities report higher rates of these negative experiences.”
Like all such surveys, there are caveats due to issues such as access to a broad base of respondents and the constraints of when the data was collected. “When we were collecting the data this summer, we had seen the most anti-trans bills submitted in one legislative session ever,” said Foster. “This has a huge impact on the folks that we were surveying. However, the survey was completed before we saw the election results. There is a possibility that some of the data we’ve collected is outdated and does not represent how folks are feeling now.”
“People [don’t ask] my pronouns but [do ask] my friends because I don’t “look queer enough” to ask…”
As to broadening the base of respondents, the survey notes that “In future survey and data-collecting projects relating to the LGBTQIA+ community … the collectors would hope to connect more deeply with queer communities who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Our survey data, while representative of Rhode Island’s racial census, has an underrepresentation of BIPOC voices.”
“Many colleagues and associates are resistant to using the correct pronouns and do not seem to respect or understand that this is important.”
A selection of takeaways from the Assessment:
Pronoun Use:
“Oftentimes, in straight CIS spaces, the assumption may be made that gender identity and pronouns are the same thing, or there is a one-to-one correlation,” said Foster. “We wanted specific data to show that that is not the case. The data shows which pronouns folks use depending on which gender identity they report. You can see at the top, for example, that 100% of the folks who reported they are cisgender men use he/him pronouns. 3% of them also use they/them pronouns. When we think about cisgender women, about 99% of them use she/her pronouns, but 2% of them also use he/him, and 8% of them also use they/them. Pronouns and gender identity are not the same, although there are really important patterns that we can find according to gender identity when we think about the pronouns that folks are using.”
Housing
The responses about housing were unsettling. The Assessment notes, “In most housing surveys, participants are asked to select ‘own,’ ‘rent,’ or ‘lacking housing.’ LGBTQIA+ communities often experience ‘partial homelessness’ where they are denied access to their biological families and cannot afford to rent or buy their own homes, but also cannot access unsafe, often hyper-gendered emergency housing placements. This community is resilient and finds safe spaces in shared living, couch hopping, or other creative solutions. For this reason, we expanded response options to reflect that ingenuity. In this sample, 41.3% of participants rent, 33.9% own their home, about 1% are traditionally and critically unhoused, and 23.5% fall into the middle category of “staying with someone else.”
Creative solutions to being unhoused aside, 25% of LGBTQIA+ Rhode Islanders reported that they are functionally experiencing homelessness, an astounding number.
Stress:
“Stress is when someone feels tense, nervous, anxious, or can’t sleep at night because their mind is troubled,” states the Assessment. “When participants’ stress levels are graphed based on gender identity, a pattern appears: those identities at the margins of power and privilege (gender diverse) show higher levels of stress on average versus those identities that are viewed as the default (cisgender).”
“Folks are real stressed,” said Foster. “22% of folks said they were very stressed, about 25% said they were quite a bit stressed, and 32% said they were somewhat stressed. When we add all of those together, that’s a majority of our respondents.”
Personal Safety
“Luckily, a vast majority of our community reports feeling safe at home either all the time or most of the time,” noted Foster. “Additionally, we asked about the fear of partners, either current or ex-partners, and luckily, again, a majority of our community responded that they are not or have not been afraid of current or ex-partners within the last year.”
However, despite these assurances of feeling safe, towards the end of the Assessment, on a page titled “Emerging Trends,” it was reported that “57% reported being unlikely or very unlikely to feel safe seeking help from police.”
Socio-Economic Experiences
“15% of our participants responded that they had lost a job or significant income, 14% experienced food insecurity, 5% were evicted or lost their housing stability, 3% experienced traditional homelessness, and 1% experienced challenges to their immigration status,” said Foster, with the caveat that 65% of respondents did not face these issues. “All of these socioeconomic experiences are extremely jarring, whether you experience one, whether you experience five or more on this list, all of these things throw a wrench in your everyday ability to simply function, and I think that is important to point out when we’re looking again at these relatively small numbers and percentages, this has an extremely high impact on those folks who are experiencing it.”
Discrimination
“Both sexual and gender minorities in the United States experience considerable discrimination in most aspects of life,” notes the Assessment. “Whether it be systemic exclusion, erasure, invalidation of one’s identity, harassment, verbal or physical or sexual assault, or even murder, the rates in LGBTQIA+ communities are overrepresentative. Our identities are constantly politicized and debated despite enormous progress, such as the legalization of same-sex marriage and the recent appearance of transgender civil servants in the federal government. Unfortunately, this progress has been met with enormous pushback, especially from conservative lawmakers.”
“It is very common that folks are experiencing invalidation in healthcare, education, and human services spaces, and in places like on bus or in public generally,” noted Foster. “It’s also pretty common to be invalidated by a loved one or to experience verbal abuse or online harassment.”
“When this data was being collected over the summer and autumn of 2024, the United States had just seen the greatest number of anti-trans bills ever submitted to state legislatures,” continues the Assessment. “At the writing of this report, 26 states had outlawed best practice medical care for transgender youth, at least 17 states had laws negatively impacting or ending entirely the ability of transgender people to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity, and only 20 states had banned the use of ‘gay panic’ or ‘trans panic’ as a valid legal defense (Movement Advancement Project, 2024). Considering that transgender Americans have been targeted not only in state and local government but also in federal planning and policy, it is understood that by the time this report is circulated, things may have changed considerably for the LGBTQIA+ community at large."
Here’s the list the report calls “Emerging Trends.” I already detailed one or two of these, but many of the items below bear consideration.
27% worried about losing housing last year
14% experienced food insecurity last year
30% went without needed healthcare or medicine last year
21% experienced transportation insecurity last year
15% lost a job or income last year
53% report drinking alcohol monthly or less, including 27% who never drink
80% report no recreational substance use (excluding cannabis and alcohol)
94% report interest in seeing more LGBTQIA+ Adult Support Groups offered in RI
93% report interest in seeing more public education sessions offered on LGBTQIA+ topics
90% report interest in seeing more Peer Navigation Services offered to LGBTQIA+ people
57% reported being unlikely or very unlikely to feel safe seeking help from police
44% reported knowing where to seek safe and affirming support to combat social isolation
72% reported anti-transgender political discourse has worsened or significantly worsened their mental health over the last year
74% reported being concerned or significantly concerned about the possibility of losing access to adult gender-affirming care in Rhode Island, while over 80% reported that same level of concern over gender-affirming care for RI youth
68% reported being concerned or significantly concerned about the possibility of a transgender bathroom ban in Rhode Island, and nearly 80% reported the same level of concern about transgender sports exclusion
86% would describe themselves politically as “liberal” or “very liberal.”
Almost 11% of those surveyed had moved to Rhode Island to escape discrimination in the last year. Of those, 76% were from states in the USA and 24% from another country.
When asked, 45% chose to share a message of hope with a local LGBTQIA+ person just starting their coming out journey, and 40% chose to share a message of hope for gender-diverse youth.
When asked to list their favorite LGBTQIA+ affirming organizations, more than one in four mentioned Youth Pride Inc. by name, and nearly one in five mentioned Thundermist by name.
Read the full 2024 RI LBGTQIA+ Needs and Experiences Assessment here.
