LGBTQ+ young people #DeserveBetter — 365 days a year

Every LGBTQ+ young person deserves to grow up feeling safe, accepted, understood, and free to be themselves. It’s a simple idea. For far too many young people, it still isn’t their reality.

Today, The Proud Trust launches #DeserveBetter — a campaign shining a light on what LGBTQ+ young people are actually facing, and calling for greater understanding, safer spaces and better support. It’s part of their Pride 365 campaign, built on a belief we share wholeheartedly at Capital Pride London: that support for LGBTQ+ young people can’t be something that arrives with the summer and leaves when the flags come down.

The need has never been clearer

Demand for support has risen sharply. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers — which addressed how “sex” is defined under the Equality Act 2010 — The Proud Trust saw referrals to its services increase by 171%, as significantly more LGBTQ+ young people reached out for help.

Whatever your view of the legal questions involved, the human effect is not in dispute: more young people are frightened, uncertain about their place in the world, and looking for somewhere safe to turn.

The picture behind the statistics

National research continues to make for hard reading. Nearly half of LGBTQ+ pupils experience bullying because of who they are. Almost six in ten have seriously considered suicide. And almost a quarter are at risk of never completing secondary school.

Sit with those numbers for a moment, because they aren’t really numbers. Each one is a young person hoping to find somewhere they feel safe, someone who understands them, and the simple reassurance that they are not alone. No young person should have to earn that. They deserve better — hence the name.

More than 30 years of standing alongside young people

This is the work The Proud Trust has been doing for over three decades — alongside LGBTQ+ young people, their families, their schools and their communities. Thousands of young people have found friendship, confidence, belonging and hope through their youth groups, one-to-one support, inclusive education, training, community spaces and advocacy.

That work happens quietly, every single day, and it changes lives. But it only continues if it’s funded.

Pride isn’t just for summer

That’s the heart of Pride 365, and of #DeserveBetter. Pride is wonderful, but LGBTQ+ young people need support in November and February just as much as they do in June. So the campaign is aiming to raise £36,500 — the equivalent of £100 for every day of the year The Proud Trust provides support.

How you can help

Stand alongside LGBTQ+ young people. Share #DeserveBetter so more people understand what’s at stake. If you’re able to, donate to The Proud Trust’s Pride 365 campaign — every contribution helps keep youth groups, one-to-one support and safe spaces running all year round. And if you work in a school, a workplace or a community, ask yourself the campaign’s underlying question: what would it take for the young people around you to feel genuinely safe?

Because every LGBTQ+ young person deserves to grow up feeling safe, accepted and understood. Not just during Pride season. Every day of the year.

---

If you’re a young person who’s struggling, or you’re worried about someone, you don’t have to face it alone — The Proud Trust and other LGBTQ+ youth services are there to help, all year round. In an emergency, or if you’re in crisis, please contact the emergency services or a crisis line in your area.

— Capital Pride value: Solidarity.