A Trinity College report indicates that LGBT individuals in Ireland are notably less happy now compared to before the legalization of same-sex marriage and the Gender Recognition Act in 2015.
“The National Study on the Mental Health and Wellbeing of the LGBTQI+ Communities in Ireland” was published in 2024 and was co-funded by the Department of Equality and the HSE.
Authors describe it as “an in-depth exploration of the mental health and wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex (LGBTQI+) people in Ireland today.” It is a successor study to the 2016 LGBT Ireland, which gathered data from 2014-2015.
Notably, it was during this period that Ireland passed the Gender Recognition Act 2015, which allows transgender individuals to be legally recognised in their gender identity, and the 2015 same sex marriage referendum was passed, allowing gay marriages to be recognised by law.
Despite these legislative advances, mental health of LGBT people generally declined between the 2016 study and the 2024 one.
“A comparative analysis revealed statistically significant changes in wellbeing,
mental health and school outcomes after adjusting for differences in the
demographic profile of 2016 and 2024 participant groups,” the latter report reads.
These changes include “an 11% relative decrease in the prevalence of being happy” and “a 26% relative decrease in high self-esteem”.
Respondents also saw a 17% relative increase in “symptoms of severe” or “extremely severe depression”, and a 30% relative increase in “severe” or “extremely severe anxiety.”
The study also found a 33% relative increase in “severe” or “extremely severe stress.”
A 19% relative increase in witnessing LGBT bullying in school was noted, as was a 24% relative increase in leaving or thinking about leaving school early due to “negative treatment.”
This is despite the fact, as the report notes, there have been “significant policy and legal developments” since the first study, including “the LGBTI+ National Youth Strategy 2018-2020 (DCYA, 2018)”, and “the National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy 2019-2021 (DCEDIY, 2019)”.
“Despite these major milestones, findings reveal that inequality persists for LGBTQI+ individuals in Ireland and they continue to face challenges in relation to their health and wellbeing. This study finds that LGBTQI+ people in Ireland continue to face high levels self-harm and suicidality with increased levels of depression, anxiety and stress since the 2016 LGBTIreland report.”
This is despite the fact that there was a “statistically significant positive change since 2014” in attitudes towards LGBT identities.
“A statistically significant positive change since 2014 in attitudes across 30 of the 39 statements examined was found under the themes of education, discrimination, being in the company of LGBT people, transgender identity, and LGB related belief systems,” the report reads.
“Some examples include increases in comfort with children having LGB or transgender teachers (+11% & +12% respectively) and a male couple, or a female couple, kissing in public (+23% & +20% respectively).
It adds: “In the main, positive changes were found across all socio-demographic subgroups explored.”
The report noted that only a small minority of individuals had certain negative views towards LGB individuals, such as LGB identities being not normal (10%), a phase (11%), that people can be convinced to turn LGB (15%), that it is a choice (22%), or that accepting transgender people are normal is difficult (19%).
They highlight that there was “a statistically significant decline” since 2014 in agreement with the view that being transgender is something you are born with (62% down to 53%.
“Since 2014, a worrying upward trend (+9%) in the view that bullying is a normal part of growing up and schooling was found, and a sizeable minority (8%) still believed that making fun of young people in school because of being LGB is not harmful,” the report read.
“There was also an increase in agreement with the statement that ‘Learning about LGBT issues in school might make a young person think they are LGBT or that they want to experiment’ (+8%).”
The authors add: “Whether people who agreed with this statement perceived this as negative, positive, or neutral is open to debate.”
“Over one third of adults (35%) believed that LGB people can’t know their sexual orientation at 12,” the document continued.
“Also found was a small 4% rise (albeit not statistically significant) since 2014 in the belief that equality has been achieved for LGB people (36%), with 18% expressing uncertainty about this issue.”
The authors also blame some of the deterioration in mental health of LGBT people on “hate speech”.