Members of the LGBTQ+ community suffer from a number of health problems, many of them dealing with mental health, such as suicide and homelessness.

Although the University could do better with how it handles LGBTQ+ health, said Tobias Spears, senior coordinator for LGBT Programs and Services, it does better than other schools.

“BGSU is light years ahead when it comes to being inclusive,” Tobias said. “The students are light years ahead. They are social justice oriented, they are reflective, they’re compassionate, they’re thinking about each other.”

A good place for LGBTQ+ students to go to is the LGBTQ+ Resource Center, said Faith Yingling, director of the Wellness Connection, which gives those student a safe place to go and talk.

She said there should also be more data collected on what the exact population is at the University so their needs can be addressed more easily.

According to the Center for Disease Control, LGBTQ+ youth are twice as likely to attempt suicide than their peers.

There are a lot of factors that can harm LGBTQ+ youth and drive them to suicidal thoughts, said Luke Grabski, former Vision president and a facilitator of the Trans* Awareness Group. Things like pronouns can make a big difference, he said.

“My first doctor didn’t use very inclusive language,” Grabski said. “I didn’t feel very comfortable there. You might have to go to a couple different doctors to find one that respects you.”

Spears said he’s worked with the Falcon Health Center to give staff Safe Zone training because students have told him they’re concerned about practitioners there being more LGBTQ+ friendly.

Falcon Health Center forms sometimes ask students to identify by sex and don’t have nuanced ways of identifying by sex, Spears said, which can be a problem for LGBTQ+ students. He also said there have been problems of misgendering.

“If someone identifies as trans* and their pronouns are he, him, his, and someone were to call them she or it … it can be a problem,” he said.

These labeling problems can make students afraid to go to the doctor, he said.

Homelessness is another problem that effects LGBTQ+ youth. About 20-40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ+, according to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.

This can happen when someone comes out to their family but are kicked out because of their sexual orientation, Grabski said.

If LGBTQ+ youth try to live on their own, in some places they can legally be fired for their orientation, he said, which would cut off their source of income.

Transitional hormones and surgery for transgender people can be expensive, adding to the pressures of paying for a home, Grabski said.

“If a trans* person chooses to transition, that’s a very, very expensive, lengthy process,” he said. “Say that they choose their hormones that they feel they need rather than a house.”

People who can’t afford it can still suffer from mental health problems.

“Some people might choose not to go down that route because it’s so expensive which I think could cause a lot of mental health issues because for some people, that’s a step they feel they need to take to align with themselves.”

If these problems within the LGBTQ+ community are to improve, Grabski said policies need to change.

“Policies won’t change attitudes, necessarily, but as policies change, attitudes will eventually change with them,” he said.