Imagining livable futures—Exploring identity and belonging with 2SLGBTQIA+ youth

From: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Date published: 6/12/2025 3:30:00 PM | Date modified: 6/12/2025 3:30:00 PM

The 2SLGBTQIA+ community is dynamic, vibrant and resilient. But youth who are part of that community are not always accepted by society, which puts them at higher-than-average risk of physical harm, homelessness, mental health challenges and suicidal ideation. While addressing these issues is vitally important, Erin Fredericks, associate professor of sociology at St. Thomas University, says it’s just as necessary to ensure research, public health messaging and school programs show queer and trans youth that there is more to their community identity than challenges.

“When we’re concerned about a community, we form these ideas about them that help raise the alarm,” says Fredericks. “But we forget that queer and trans kids are hearing those ideas, too, and it’s shaping how they see themselves.”

New generation, new challenges

There is sometimes a perception that 2SLGBTQIA+ youth today have it easier than previous generations, because the internet and social media make it possible to quickly find and connect with other members of their community. But that same connection also gives them greater awareness of the challenges faced by the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, which can affect their perception of what their own experience “should” look like, and leave them feeling like their own experiences are less valid if they don’t match up with what they’re seeing online.

One of the ways older generations of 2SLGBTQIA+ people have tried to help youth through difficult times is by serving as role models, showcasing what their future could look like. When Fredericks looked into the effectiveness of this type of initiative, however, she found the lives these role models were living did not necessarily appeal to 2SLGBTQIA+ youth. So, Fredericks set out to find a way to use research to engage directly with youth to enable them to conceive of futures they did want.

“Queer and trans youth need us to support them in imagining what their future could be like, rather than giving them our story and telling them that’s what their future will be,” she says.

Erin Fredericks

Creating their own paths

Supported by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant and funding from Mental Health Research Canada, Fredericks’ Imagining Futures project first involved conducting video interviews with elder 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals about their experiences living through the 1980s AIDS pandemic. The team then engaged with youth to determine which parts of the elders’ stories resonated with them.

Based on what they heard, Fredericks and her team developed the Belonging program, a five-week curriculum that teachers or others running social groups for queer and trans youth can download and follow. Each week focuses on a goal pulled from the study responses, and uses arts-based activities to encourage participants to reflect on and express their ideas about their identities and what they would want their ideal futures to look like.

For example, in the first week, participants create puzzle pieces of their identities, highlighting the many possible ways to be part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and the unique characteristics each person brings to the table. Another week looks at the concept of safer spaces. Participants imagine their own personal safe spaces—which can be as realistic or as fantastical as they wish—and then explore the elements that make these spaces feel safe, and how to find those elements in the real world.

“This is not just a mental health program,” says Fredericks. “Everyone struggles with mental health sometimes, but we didn’t want to feed into the idea that this community just needs specialized mental health support. Instead, this program is underscoring what I know to be true about the community: that it’s vibrant, engaged and hopeful.”

Belonging to a community

By helping youth understand themselves as part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, the Belonging program helps combat the loneliness they may feel when what they see on social media doesn’t align with their own experiences. It also provides another layer of support by being a resource for teachers and for leaders of gay-straight alliances and similar organizations. These leaders are often allies, rather than members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and are often trying to create safe spaces with little support—or even against pushback from their institutions.

The Belonging program is currently still in a pilot stage, but has already been used by youth, classrooms, gay-straight alliances and other organizations. Fredericks and the project team also created an accompanying zine featuring tips from elder 2SLGBTQIA+ people on surviving difficult times. It has been downloaded across Canada and internationally.

The team is now working on developing a fuller curriculum that they will make available through the Imagining Futures website. There are also plans for a book, as well as a digital and travelling exhibition, to highlight some of the creative and inspiring works of poetry, visual art and other expressions participants have developed through the program.

“I’m really happy to be a part of a turn toward research on desire and imagination, rather than always focusing on damage and challenges,” says Fredericks. “I want all kids to understand that, even if they feel alone, they are a part of a larger community, and they do belong.”