Dear friend,
Happy Pride Month! I’m the Centre’s Digital & Communications Lead, taking the reins this month to tell you what we’ve been up to in June (and May!) In May, we were at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, where we connected with thousands of people around the need to widen access to the mental health boosting benefits of nature. Check out some of our highlights in this video.
We also published new research with Kidney Research UK on the mental health challenges of life with kidney disease. The report includes moving testimony from people living with the disease and really builds the case for improving the support they can access.
This Pride Month, the clamour to limit the rights and freedoms of trans people has been increasingly hard to tune out. We should all be deeply concerned about the impact this is having on many people’s mental health. Our new writer in residence, Andrew K Kauffmann, has written an important new piece unpacking the harm this rhetoric is doing – a must read.
According to Stonewall, bisexual people, like myself, and trans and non-binary people experience some of the highest rates of mental health difficulties. Transphobia and biphobia, within the queer community as well as beyond, undoubtedly contribute to this. As Andrew highlights in his piece, solidarity within the LGBTQ+ community is essential to the fight for equality in mental health.
