Last year, a gay journalist and playwright called Matthew Todd published a book entitled Straight Jacket: How To Be Gay and Happy. As you can probably guess from the title, the book was about mental health issues particular to the LGBT community, leading into a sort of autobiographical self-help guide on how to overcome them. “More and more statistics reveal that LGBT people have higher levels of depression, anxiety, addiction and suicidal thoughts,” he wrote. “Though increasing numbers of young people spring out of the closet with confidence, many of us still live with the emotional scars of growing up hated.” Straight Jacket was a poignant reminder that, no matter how far LGBT rights have come in the 50 years since homosexuality was first decriminalised in the UK, when it comes to the inner wellbeing of LGBT people, there’s still a lot of catching up to do. Yesterday morning, a new report released by the London Assembly confirmed as much, its research finding that 40% of LGBT people in the capital experience mental health problems, compared to 25% of the wider population. LGBT people have specific mental health needs that are not being met by their GPs and other doctors, it said, while leaders of the report called on London Mayor Sadiq Khan for better provision of services to the community, as well as specialist training for healthcare professionals. In a statement, London Assembly health committee chairman Dr. Onkar Sahota told the press: “At the start of LGBT History Month we want this call heard loud and clear by the mayor. Action is needed now to tackle the urgent mental health needs of LGBT+ people.” For some, the notion that LGBT are suffering these issues disproportionately might come as a surprise. In a time when LGBT people have the right to marry, adopt and join the military, and are better represented across the media, it can feel like equality has been won, and that gay people are no longer just tolerated but accepted. While this might be true for certain gay people – particularly those who are white, moneyed and born male, or who live in cities – for a lot of LGBT people, it’s sadly not a reality. According to the LGBT rights organisation Stonewall, for example, 48% of trans people under 26 say they have attempted suicide . Sami Cee, a trans woman living in London, is one of these people. The first time she experienced severe mental health issues, she was 17 and living in Bournemouth. “In hindsight, I should have accessed counselling because I was thinking about killing myself, but at my worst I never accessed services because I didn’t see what was going on as something I could seek help for – I didn’t have the language for that. In the end, I got myself through it with self–help books, Buddhism and thinking about how suicide would affect other people around me – I was lucky.” Sami puts her mental health issues back then down to the shame of living as a gay man, explaining that she thinks a lot of LGBT mental health issues are related to stigma: “Even when you’re brought up in a nice, accepting home, you can feel like a second-class citizen – you subordinate yourself.”