Pride and Pandemic
Health experience and coping strategies among LGBTQ+ people during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
2022
Pride and Pandemic explores experiences of LGBTQ+ adults aged 18 and over in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on mental health outcomes and the coping strategies used to mitigate these. The study comprised a large online survey followed by focus group discussions with young people, trans and gender diverse people, LGBTQ+ people from culturally diverse communities, and those who are part of rainbow families, defined as LGBTQ+ people who are parents or care for young children.
The Pride and Pandemic report highlights ongoing challenges faced by the LGBTQ community in Australia including poor mental health outcomes, systemic discrimination, and barriers to equitable and affirming healthcare. For the LGBTQ community, the data collected through Pride and Pandemic would suggest that the pandemic made an already challenging situation worse. The report details several recommendations calling for immediate action to reduce health disparities and ensure that the wellbeing of LGBTQ communities does not deteriorate further.
Pride and Pandemic
Health experiences and coping strategies among LGBTQ+ people during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.
Additional analyses and outputs
LGBTQA+ mental health and suicidality briefing papers 
Drawing from Private Lives 3, Writing Themselves In 4 and Pride and Pandemic, these reports document the rates and associations of mental health and suicidality for LGBTQA+ community members at the State and Territory level in Australia. Across eight individual reports, analyses focus on State- and Territory-level rates of suicidality, mental ill-health, healthcare service access and modalities, risk factors such as discrimination and harassment experiences, and protective factors such as community- and school-based belonging. Each report also documents the association between these factors and levels of suicidality within each State and Territory in Australia.
To establish a broader context for these results, each report also provides comparative estimates between (a) the State or Territory results with general population estimates in Australia from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and (b) a comparison between States and Territories (broadly) from the available data. Lastly, these reports also provide an assessment of each State or Territory's current policy and programming context (along with an assessment at the Primary Health Network level) to establish ways of furthering policy and health reform at the State and Territory level.
Browse the LGBTQA+ mental health and suicidality briefing papers
Rainbow Realities 
The Rainbow Realities report was commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care to inform development of the 10-year LGBTIQA+ Health and Wellbeing Action Plan. Rainbow Realities provides a synthesis of pre-existing findings as well as more than 50 new analyses derived from the data of six surveys of LGBTQA+ populations in Australia, including Private Lives 3, Writing Themselves In 4, SWASH, Trans Pathways , Walkern Katatdjin (Rainbow Knowledge) and Pride and Pandemic.
The report has been thematically organised into 10 chapters relating to either a key determinant or contributing factor to LGBTQA+ health outcomes, or a topic of particular interest: Mental health and suicidality; income inequality; housing and experiences of homelessness; discrimination and abuse; family violence and sexual assault; alcohol and other drugs; relationships; parenting and sexual and reproductive health; gender affirmation and trans affirming practices; general healthcare; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and intersectional identities.
Download the Rainbow Realities report Read more about Rainbow Realities
Associated publications
Researchers at ARCSHS are working on more academic publications from Pride and Pandemic. They will feature here as they are published.
- COVID-19, lockdowns, and the mental wellbeing of LGBTQ people in Australia
Findings from the Pride and Pandemic study show the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the mental wellbeing of LGBTQ populations, particularly among those who experienced extensive lockdowns, and highlight the need for increased efforts to enable access to mental health supports during times of crisis. - Experiences of intimate-partner violence and violence from a family member during COVID-19 among LGBTQ adults in Australia
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique challenges and concerns regarding the potential exacerbation of violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse and queer people from intimate partners and family members. The impacts of the pandemic may have been disproportionately felt by LGBTQ communities who already experienced high rates of intimate-partner violence and violence from family members entering the pandemic.
Researchers
Natalie Amos, P.G. Macioti, Adam Hill, Adam Bourne
Partners and funding
Pride and Pandemic was produced as part of a research partnership between the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) at La Trobe University and LGBTIQ+ Health Australia (LHA), with funding from the National Mental Health Commission.
