Booklet on Mental Health

As Queer Cyprus Association, we have been working to eliminate discrimination towards individuals of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities including lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and beyond, and ensuring equal access to human rights in the northern part of Cyprus for years. Besides our rights-based struggle, we also work on the topic of mental health which is reflected through the services we provide. Therefore, we provide psychological, legal and social services support to individuals who contact us via the Solidarity Line.
While LGBTI+ existences were questioned as to whether or not they were “diseases” during the recent history of the literature on psychology, recent scientific studies have raised awareness and come to be more inclusive. The booklet, which begins with the historical process, tackles a variety of issues such as mental health of LGBTI+ youth, social stigmatization, coming out to family, romantic relationships, intimate partner violence, discrimination and coping strategies.
Us LGBTI+’s are exposed to different forms of prejudice, discrimination, stigmatization and violence in various stages of our lives which begins before our birth and may even continue after our death. Needless to say, experiencing such situations may have a severe negative influence on our mental health in addition to our physical well being. We are aware that although health may seem individual, it is highly connected to societal structures which means that societal pressures impact mental health. Therefore, this booklet on mental health aims to explore the topic which is frequently ignored and to provide a new resource to the literature on mental health.
Prof. Dr. Şenel Hüsnü Raman, Dr. Seven Kaptan and Psychologist Ziba Sertbay, MSc. worked tirelessly to prepare this booklet. The  combination of Prof. Dr. Şenel Hüsnü Raman’s literature review and Dr. Seven Kaptan’s field experience, Queer Cyprus Association’s first  booklet on LGBTI+ Mental Health, which you are currently holding, was created. We would like to thank our authors for their tireless efforts to fit the extensive topic of mental health in a booklet.

Queer Cyprus Association

For the full pdf version of the book: Mental Health Booklet

Diversity of Colours Project: towards a Cyprus where all colours, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and many more (LGBTI+), can be together!

The Diversity of Colours Project aims to prevent discrimination and make human rights for LGBTI+ more accessible in the northern part of Cyprus. The Diversity of Colours Project, which started in December 2018 and will continue for three years, is funded by the Cypriot Civil Society in Action VI Programme of the European Union and is implemented by Queer Cyprus Association.