Colombia's first Black vice president?

I'm currently trying to keep up with the latest podcasts to help with my news fatigue. I kind of love 9/12, a podcast about the day(s) after 9/11. Do you have a favourite slow-paced, going-beyond-the-headline podcast to recommend? Tweet me.

OK, let's dive right in:

• Mental health of LGBTQ+ youth of color in the United States
• Contemporary African art in France
• Colombia might have its first Black vice president
• Hong Kong's democracy or what's left of it
• Plus, some good news (I searched for them for a very long time) from Nepal, Somalia and Guinea.

We need to talk about the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth of color in the United States
Last week, a new survey on mental health came out. The results are super worrying: Nearly half of all LGBTQ youth and 53 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth in the United States seriously contemplated suicide last year. It's particularly bad for LGBTQ+ youth of color.

Why this matters:
LGBTQ+ youth are super vulnerable, LGBTQ+ youth of color even more. Still, all around the world, LGBTQ+ people are being discriminated against because of their sexual orientations or gender identities.

Wait, how bad is it in the U.S.?
Pretty bad.There are so many new anti-LGBTQ+ laws, such as the "Don't Say Gay" bill in Florida, a ban on gender affirming care for people under the age of 19 in Alabama, and since 2021 more than a dozen states have passed laws banning transgender youth from playing on sports teams associated with their gender identity. We can, and should, do better.

Oof. OK, back to survey.
Yes, The Trevor Project did it. The Trevor Project is the world's largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, & questioning young people.

Who participated, and when was this survey taken?
33,993 people (mostly white and Latinx) aged 13 to 24 (by age: 62% 13-17, 38% 18-24) who live in the United States responded to some 140 questions between September 20 and December 31, 2021.

Give me some tweet-ables, so I can raise awareness:
Sure.

• The threat of violence against LGBTQ+ people is real. 36% of LGBTQ+ youth reported that they have been physically threatened or harmed due to either their sexual orientation or gender identity.
• There aren't many 'Safe Spaces' for them. Fewer than 1 in 3 transgender and nonbinary youth found their home to be gender-affirming.
  • But:Social support is super important. LGBTQ+ youth who felt high social support from their family or school reported attempting suicide at less than half the rate of those who felt low or moderate social support. In general, LGBTQ+ youth who live in a community that is accepting of LGBTQ+ people reported significantly lower rates of attempting suicide than those who do not.
• Mental health care is needed. Among all LGBTQ+ youth, 82% wanted mental health care and 18% did not.
  • But:Mental health care is a rare find. 60% of LGBTQ+ youth who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to get it; mostly because they're afraid of discussing mental health concerns, have concerns with caregiver permission or, well, it's just not affordable.
• There's so much we can do better. In general: "The fact that very simple things --- like support from family and friends, seeing LGBTQ+ representation in media, and having your gender expression and pronouns respected --- can have such a positive impact on the mental health of an LGBTQ+ young person is inspiring, and it should command more attention in conversations around suicide prevention and public debates around LGBTQ+ inclusion," said Amit Paley, CEO & Executive Director of The Trevor Project.

You said, the situation is pretty bad for LGBTQ+ youth of color. How so?
Well, look at the numbers. 2% of white youth attempted suicide last year, compared to 21% of Native/Indigenous, 20% "Middle Eastern" (West Asian)/Northern African, 19% of Black, 17% of Multiracial, 16% of Latinx and 12% of Asian American/Pacific Islander youth.

A lot of LGBTQ+ youth of color are experiencing physical violence, compared to white youth.

Plus, a lot of LGBTQ+ youth of color, especially Asian American/Pacific Islander or Black youth, did not feel that mental health care providers would understand their culture.

We are finally paying more attention to contemporary African art in France
This is not my typical news curation but I figured we all need some good and let's-work-toward-a-better-future-y kind of news, so here it goes:

A new gallery opened in Paris, France. It belongs to Somali-French art dealer Mariane Ibrahim. She's one of the few Black gallerists to set up shop in Paris...