If you scroll through social media, you may see people talking about the importance of good mental health. We are no stranger here to why that is important, but have you ever thought about what factors make up good or bad mental health? I will start off here by saying that the factors are many, and are often complex.

If you are someone who identifies as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, religion can be a tricky beast as queerness is not usually celebrated in most church communities. For some people, religion can feel protective, risky, or a combination of the two. What’s worse: many Christian faith traditions believe that you cannot identify as LGBTQIA+ and be a Christian.

Have you ever felt shame, guilt, or negative feelings about your LGBTQIA+ identity? If so, you may have experienced internalized homophobia and/or transphobia. If you aren’t familiar with these the terms internalized homophobia and internalized transphobia, let’s start off by defining them before we jump into learning how to overcome them.

It can be very lonely to feel as if you are the only person going through an experience and that no one else can relate to you. This is something that LGBTQIA+ individuals experience often.

Many people with marginalized identities face hate, discrimination, and bullying related to those identities. Some of this hate is external, but there can also be internalized hate against these identities that have been learned from other people or society. One common way people may cope in response to hate, discrimination, and bullying, is by compartmentalizing their marginalized identities.