Denmark: Forum established to help more LGBT people from ethnic minority groups come out
A new national forum will be launched in Denmark, in order to help LGBT people come out to their friends and family.
The forum, to be launched in August, particularly takes into account an increasing number of Danish LGBT people from ethnic minorities in recent years.
The Copenhagen based Sabaah, was established to help LGBT from ethnic minorities, and reports that it had been contacted by 75 people this year already.
The organisation was established in 2006, and had been contacted by an average of 40-50 people a year.
“We have noticed that we are getting more attention,” Sabaah spokesperson Fahad Saeed said, speaking to Politiken.
“It is difficult enough coming out at gay, bisexual or transsexual. But if you also add the perspective of ethnic minorities, where culture and religion also play a role, it can be even harder.”
LGBT Denmark also reported the same, as spokesperson Vivi Jelstrup said: “It is happening more and more often that someone with a non-Danish background contacts us.”
The organisation Sabaah is being supported by City Council, and in an op-ed for Politiken, Copenhagen’s deputy mayor for integration, Anna Mee Alleslev, and the organisation, stressed the importance of helping those.
“Homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people with backgrounds as ethnic minorities often suffer twice as much,” it read.
“Firstly, they are often subject to hate for something as simple as their sexual orientation, their skin colour or other factors. On top of that, they are offered no understanding from their closest family. This double impact can be so violent that suicide can seem like the only way out.”
