Is Hamilton an LGBTQ friendly space? Why the community says 'no'

In the wake of a Pride month that saw 49 people gunned down in a homophobic hate crime in Orlando, a new report shows that Hamilton isn't as LGBTQ friendly as some might believe.

The report from Hamilton's Social Planning and Research Council (SPRC) gatherslocal queer and trans experiences with public services like healthcare and education, and with businesses and charities. The resultsdescribe a community with good intentions that it fails to deliver.

There are friendly healthcare providers who lack resources, the report says. Skilled educators arebound by inadequate policy. Well-meaning organizations have outdated regulations and work cultures.

• New report calls for LGBTQ+ community centre, better institutional practices

Hamilton's renowned, robust healthcare industry, the report says, lacks mental health services that cater toqueer and transgender youth.

Victor Uribe, a registered social worker with the Hamilton Family Health Team, says healthcare in Hamilton is generally very good. But"there are no guidelines for dealing with LGBTQ-specific issues" like coming out orconflicting religious or cultural expectations.

When it comes to those questions, social workers fall back on their training for other issues. Uribe, who has worked with several queer and transgender patients, says colleagues sometimes send their patients with LGBTQ-related questions to him. But Uribe believes these referrals mostly happen because his colleagues don't feel comfortable dealing with these issues themselves.

And it's no wonder, since the only real training for queer and trans issues seems to be learn as you go.

Is the outlook all that bad?

Sois HamiltonmoreLGBTQfriendly than a smaller town where services are harder to find?

"The longer you look, the more narrow and shallow you realize these things are."

Maybe not. Violetta Nikolskaya, 25, is a masterssocial work student at McMasterUniversityand a lesbian who moved here from Thornhill, Ont.

"It was a big deal," she said, to come from a relatively small town to find things like McMaster'sQueer Students' Community Centre. "But the longer you look, the more narrow and shallow you realize these things are."

With the Queer Students' Community Centre, it turns out, limited funds led to limited programming. And The Well, a now-defunct organization downtown, was also operating at low capacity. Outside the core and the university, Nikolskaya said,resources were even more scarce.

The mental healthcare game plan

LisaJeffs, program director for St. Joseph'sHospital'sYouth Wellness Centre, agrees with the report's conclusions.

"Generally? Sure, I agree," she said."But I think it misses that there are pockets of excellence we've achieved in this area."

Jeffs mentionsthe position of LGBTQclinician that St. Joseph's and Good Shepherd Hamilton established jointly currently held by a trans man. Jeffssays it "speaks volumes" about public healthcare's commitment to supporting the queer and trans communities.

Our students want to get out there and really overturn this world.- Christina Sinding, director of social work, McMaster University

Jeffssaysit's symbolically important that she herself is out as queer, and she echoed the report's points about the importance of safe and inclusive environments.

And what about the next generation of mental healthcare professionals?

Christina Sinding, director of social work at McMaster, spoke at the SPRC's "Speak Out!" event about her program's commitment to improving the status quo. "Our students want to get out there and really overturn this world."

"Many of our students," she told the CBC in an email, "are already active in equity-focused community and university projects." Their local field placements have given them invaluable insight about the queer and trans communities' current, ever-evolving needs.

Nikolskaya, one of Sinding's students, says that's true, but there's a catch:

"You could count the Hamilton jobs with 'LGBTQ' in the title on one hand."

Certainly, she says, there are other relevant jobs with less specific titles, but they aren't easy to come by. So regardless of her cohort's desire to stay and make a difference to Hamilton's queer and trans communities, they may have to relocate for work.

dave.beatty@cbc.ca | @dbeatty