La Plata County LGBTQ adults, family members and allies have made a plea for support.
In response, the Southwest Rainbow Youth group will launch the first adult-focused community group Tuesday in Ignacio.
The Ignacio area, like many rural areas, has few groups dedicated to providing support for people who identify as LGBTQ, allies and family members. Nationally, those living in rural areas have fewer resources and higher rates of mental health challenges. Southwest Rainbow Youth, an organization that primarily supports LGBTQ youth and allies, aims to provide a safe space for adults to have open conversations and find support.
“I would like them to walk away with knowing that there’s support within this small rural community,” said Precious Collins, co-founder of Rainbow Youth and a facilitator for the event. “They don’t have to go to Durango.”
On the second Tuesday of each month, community members, ages 18 and older, can gather at the ELHI Community Center, room 18, from 6 to 7 p.m.
The meetings are for anyone who identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning and their parents, allies and family members.
The facilitators don’t have a set agenda. Instead, community members will guide the conversation. Topics might include family issues, coming out as LGBTQ, supporting a LGBTQ family member and acting as a role model.
The facilitators are trained in trauma-informed care and are certified in youth mental health first-aid. They can connect attendees with outside resources, like behavioral health service referrals or assistance for parents who need help supporting LGBTQ youth.
“In our native community, we have a lot of families that have queer individuals that are part of those families,” said Collins, a Ute Mountain Ute tribal member. “Some of them are looking for ways to better support their family members or their friends.”
The idea began when Ignacio and Southern Ute Indian Tribe community members kept asking Rainbow Youth organizers about resources for adults.
Like many rural communities around the country, Ignacio has fewer support structures than more urban communities.
Between 2.9 million and 3.8 million LGBT people live in rural areas around the country, or about 15% to 20% of the total U.S. LGBT population, according to a 2019 Movement Advancement Project report. The report did not say whether or not it included queer or questioning individuals in its data.
But nationally, rural areas have fewer support structures available because of greater social and geographic isolation.
For example, 11% of LGBT adults, ages 45 and older living in rural communities, had access to an LGBT health center. That is compared to 57% of those living in urban areas, according to the MAP report, citing a 2018 AARP survey.
Isolation also makes health care more difficult for LGBT individuals.
Nationally, LGBT community members experience depression more often than their straight peers, according to a MentalHelp.net report, based on 2015 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Not only that, but the LGBT community’s rates of depression are higher in rural areas than urban areas, the data show.
Trennie Collins, a co-founder, event facilitator and Collins’ wife, said she wanted people to know they’re not alone.
“There (are) other queer people in our community,” she said. “We all go through things in our lives, and really just trying to be there for each other.”
smullane@durangoherald.com
