We’ve curated a collection of resources that have proven vital to supporting our community. Please reach out to the following organisations if you are in need of help.
Jump to:
Urgent 24 hour support
Non 24 hour support
Trans Support
Faith Support
International Support
Homelessness
Housing Support (UK)
Domestic Abuse/Hate Crimes
Disability
Additional Support
Urgent 24 hour support
If you need to talk to someone — please use these 24 hour helplines:
Samaritans
Tel: 116 123 or text SHOUT to 85258
National Suicide Helpline UK
Tel: 0800 689 5652
NHS Advice
If you have seriously harmed yourself—for example, by taking a drug overdose—or you feel that you may be about to harm yourself, call 999 for an ambulance or go straight to A&E. Or ask someone else to call 999 or take you to A&E.
Non-24 hour support
If you feel you need specialist support please refer to the following organisations:
Mind
Mind provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.
Web: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/helplines/
Tel. 0300 123 3393
Available: 09:00 – 18:00, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays).
Switchboard LGBT+ Helpline
Switchboard LGBT+ Helpline is a confidential helpline open to the LGBTQ+ communities and beyond, for anyone who wants to talk about gender identity, sexuality, sexual health and emotional wellbeing. We operate a telephone line, instant messaging and email service from 10am to 10pm, 365 days a year. Switchboard LGBT+ Helpline aspires to a society where all LGBT+ people are informed and empowered.
Tel. 0300 330 0630
Available: 10:00 - 22:00, Every day
Email: chris@switchboard.lgbt
Emails are typically replied to within 72 hours
MindOut
MindOut LGBTQ Mental Health Service is run by and for lesbians, gay men, bisexual, transgender and queer people with lived experience of mental health issues. Based in Brighton and Hove, we provide local services as well as a number of national initiatives.
We provide advice, information, advocacy, peer support group work, peer mentoring, wellbeing workshops and course, on-line support and counselling. Please do contact us with any enquiries about any aspect of mental health, we can help you find the support you need
We provide bespoke training in LGBTQ Affirmative Practice for mental health and substance misuse service providers. Mental Health Promotion events and anti-stigma campaigns are important parts of our work to improve the mental health of our communities. People with lived experience of mental health issues are involved at all levels of our organisation: in planning, designing, developing, promoting and running our services.
Get in touch and let us know if you would like to be involved in any way.
Tel. 01273 234839
Available: Tuesday 12:00 – 13:30 (Themed session, "Ask me anything" with a MindOut Counsellor)
Wednesday 12:00 – 13:30 (People of Colour specific session)
Friday 12:00 – 13:30 (Trans and Non-binary specific session)
NAZ
NAZ is the sexual health charity dedicated to people experiencing better sexual health. We do this because there’s a big gap in the sexual health outcomes of Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities compared to the general population.
For many people, receiving a positive HIV diagnosis can be life changing. The NAZ HIV Care and Support Service is dedicated to enable people to accept their diagnosis and live life to its fullest. Our role is to help newly diagnosed people understand and manage their condition with confidence.
For a counselling referral:
Tel. 07472 822 275
Available: 09:00 – 18:00, Monday – Wednesday
Email: elaine@naz.org.uk
Karma Nirvana
Karma Nirvana is a national charity supporting, through their helpline, victims and survivors of forced marriage and honour based abuse.
Karma Nirvana receive calls from people who tell them that they cannot have a boyfriend/girlfriend, that they have to marry who their parents choose, cannot choose their path of study or work in their chosen career and who cannot open up to their families about their sexuality for fear of not being accepted and the repercussions.
At the helpline, Karma Nirvana provide practical and emotional support in a confidential, non-judgemental setting and will not speak with your families.
Web: https://karmanirvana.org.uk
Tel. 0800 5999 247
Available: 09:00 – 17:00, Monday – Friday
Aashna
The word “Aashna” is an Indian word meaning ‘devoted to love.’ Pretish Raja-Helm and Shammi Kohli set up Aashna in recognising the struggle diverse groups face in finding therapy that meets their needs, as well as the challenge practitioners from diverse backgrounds, face in trying to reach and support their communities.
As second-generation British Asians, we are very much aware of the need to nurture and facilitate inclusion within the therapeutic field. Our aim is for Aashna to reflect the rich cultural and global society in which we live in, a unique therapeutic space, offering individuals from often marginalised, oppressed and stigmatised backgrounds the opportunity to come together, nurture our voices and support each other to facilitate change.
Aashna’s ethos is “embracing difference and diversity in all it’s forms”
Our hope is by building a community that supports the counselling and psychotherapy field in proactively understanding and recognising the needs of diverse groups and working with intersectionality.
Email: info@aashna.uk
Trans Support
Mermaids
Mermaids has been supporting transgender, nonbinary and gender-diverse children, young people, and their families since 1995.
Web: https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/
Tel. 08088010400
Available: 09:00 – 21:00, Monday to Friday
Gendered Intelligence
Gendered Intelligence, established in 2008, is a registered charity that exists to increase understandings of gender diversity and improve trans people's quality of life.
We are a trans-led and trans-involving grassroots organisation with a wealth of lived experience, community connections of many kinds, and a depth and breadth of trans community knowledge that is second to none. We believe everyone can be intelligent about gender!
Web: https://genderedintelligence.co.uk/
Support line: 0330 355 9678
Mon, Tues, Thurs 2-7pm and Weds, Fri 10am to 3pm
Faith Support
Hidayah
At Hidayah, we believe in diversity and the desperate need the world has to build bridges.
As a Muslim LGBT+ organisation we also represent a minority within a minority, and therefore we champion the liminality such a position offers as a vantage point to critique power structures that oppress individuals and individual communities. These structures vary (from families to religion and cultural traditions; from privileges of race to the collusion of heteronormativity and patriarchy) and together they form an interdependent web that ensnares many silent victims.
Hidayah seeks to give voice to those affected by these structures. We wish to open a space from where we can reach out and empower those who need support or help and join forces with those working for a better, more progressive thinking world. We are fed up with conflict: personal, familial, cultural, religious. Hidayah is about guidance in the 21st century.
Email UK: hello@hidayahlgbt.co.uk
Email USA: info@hidayahlgbt.com
Sarbat Sikhs
Sarbat’s vision is to create awareness, tackle homophobia/biphobia/transphobia and build bridges within and beyond our communities.
Open Table
We reach out in welcome to LGBTQIA+ people who need us and who are looking for us. We know that organised religion so often turns away from us. Faith groups can often be cold or hostile towards us, and this can leave us truly isolated; just at the very times when we need affirmation of love, worth and belonging.
OTN is run by, and for, LGBTQIA+ people, their friends and families. We welcome people of any faith, colour or background. We welcome people of every gender identity and sexual orientation. We meet, in person and online, hosted by inclusive churches. We find God and each other in our gatherings, and that gives us time and peace to grow together.
Diverse Church
Diverse Church’s objectives are the advancement of the Christian religion amongst lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, asexual, and intersex (LGBT+) Christians, in particular but not exclusively amongst those without access to Christian support for their sexuality and/or gender. They also aim to promote equality and diversity for the public benefit by advancing education, raising awareness and promoting understanding and inclusion in respect of LGBT+ Christians within the Christian church.
International Support
India
Humsafar Trust
The Humsafar Trust was founded to reach out to LGBTQ communities in Mumbai Metro and surrounding areas. HST Collaborations with Public health delivery systems of Mumbai like LTMG, Nair, KEM and JJ Hospitals. In house clinics remain open five days a week with three qualified Doctors and two Lab Technicians attending to clients. A clinical psychologist works full time along with a team of 4 community counsellors and 2 health facilitators and a nutritionist working on the program providing nutritional counselling assistance.
Tel. +91-22-26673800
Email: info@humsafar.org
Pakistan
Naz Foundation
NAZ Foundation is a non-government organization (NGO), established in 1996. However, after a few years of putting a lot of ideas into actions, NAZ Foundation was registered under Society Act 1860 in 2003. Foundation originally developed a continuum of care to provide free education and emergency medical services for underprivileged men, women and children living in Pakistan.
Web: https://nazfoundation.org.pk
Click here for a list of LGBTQ+ organisations in Pakistan: https://transnational-queer-underground.net/lgbt-organizations-pakistan/
Homelessness
NightStop
(Emergency Accommodation)
Nightstop volunteer hosts open their homes to young homeless people facing a night on the streets or sleeping in an unsafe place. Volunteer drivers and chaperones ensure these young people get to a place of safety.
It is a unique project which relies on community hosting to provide a safe, welcoming place for young homeless people in crisis.
Communities and charities run Nightstop services in more than 30 locations around the UK, led and supported by the Nightstop team at Depaul UK, a national charity for homeless people.
In 2019, volunteers provided 9,103 safe nights of accommodation to 937 people across the Nightstop network.
Web: https://www.depaul.org.uk/nightstop
Tel. 0207 939 1254
London: 0207 939 1220
Manchester: 0161 507 3414
North East & Cumbria: 0191 253 6161
South Yorkshire: 0114 278 7152
Available: 9:00 – 17:00
Email: nightstopuk@depaulcharity.org.uk
Housing Support (UK)
akt
akt (formerly The Albert Kennedy Trust) supports LGBTQ+ young people aged 16-25 in the UK who are facing or experiencing homelessness or living in a hostile environment. We help young people stay safe in a crisis, find emergency accommodation, access specialist support and develop skills and achieve life goals. Founded in 1989, we now have offices in Bristol, London, Manchester and Newcastle, and support LGBTQ+ young people across the whole of the UK.
Support provided by akt includes: access to advice from our housing specialists; one-to-one support through our digital mentoring programme; access to an emergency support pack or tenancy starter pack; accommodation with an akt host; a place to stay in akt’s Purple Door safe house; a safe place to stay with one of our many housing providers; and access to life skills training, events and peer support networks.
Tel.
London: 020 7831 6562
Manchester: 0161 228 3308
Newcastle: 0191 281 0099
Bristol: 07761246386
Available: 10:00 – 16:30pm, Monday – Friday
For housing support self referral, please visit:
https://www.tfaforms.com/4680950
Stonewall Housing
Stonewall Housing works to ensure lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people live in safer homes, free from fear, and where we can celebrate our identity and support each other to achieve our full potential.
Web: https://stonewallhousing.org
Tel. 020 7359 5767
Available: 10:00 – 13:00, Monday – Friday
For housing support self referral, please visit: https://stonewallhousing.org/services/referral-form
Standalone
We're here to help people of all ages that become estranged or disowned from their family or key family member. We offer innovative advice and support services for all people experiencing estrangement. We help people of all ages who feel they have been cut off as well as those who have walked away.
We run support groups, a range of therapeutic workshops and a programme to connect people for ongoing emotional support. Our direct support services are currently focussed in London, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Brighton, Bristol and Manchester.
Web: https://www.standalone.org.uk/students
Domestic Abuse / Hate Crimes
Galop
Our team has decades of experience in supporting LGBT+ people who are victims of domestic abuse, sexual violence, hate crime, so-called conversion therapies, honour-based abuse, forced marriage, and other forms of abuse. Call our helplines, get support and join our online community.
Tel. 0800 999 5428
Available: 10:00 – 17:00, Monday to Friday
10:00 – 20:00, Wednesday & Thursday
Email: help@galop.org.uk
LGBT+ Hate Crime Helpline
Tel. 0207 7042040
Available: 10:00 – 16:00, Monday – Friday
Email: HateCrime@galop.org.uk
Conversion Therapy helpline
Tel. 0800 1303335
Available: 10:00 – 16:00, Monday – Friday.
Calls will last 40mins.
Email: CThelp@galop.org.uk
Disability
Regard
Regard is a national organisation of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender and queer people (LGBTQ) who self-identify as disabled. We follow the Social Model of Disability. This is a way of thinking about disability that says it is society that needs to change by removing the barriers that deny us inclusion and equal rights.
Web: http://regard.org.uk
Email: secretary@regard.org.uk
Deaf Rainbow Network
We aim to provide information and resources for Deaf LGBTIQA+ people, along with everyone else! As we all know, the LGBTIQA+ community have endured oppression and harassment for years, and still do. Deaf LGBTIQA+ people are an even smaller minority with an added layer of audism; this lead to the Deaf LGBTIQA+ UK Facebook group, which is still running. A whole bunch of Deaf LGBTIQA+ people got together, and created a website, and now here we are!
Web: http://deafrainbowuk.org.uk/
Email: hello@deafrainbow.org.uk
ParaPride
ParaPride is a new charity that focuses on the intersection between the disabled and the LGBTQ+ communities.
ParaPride exists to ensure the experience of all members of the LGBTQ+ community is fun, welcoming and equal. We intend to execute this ambition through:
Increasing visibility and volume of inclusive spaces for LGBTQ+ disabled people, (this includes physical or non-visible disabilities, sensory impairments, deaf and hard of hearing, neurodiverse, mental health, etc.)
Producing inclusive events that cater for different types of diversities, and working with venues and other social spaces to produce events that include LGBTQ disabled community.
Promoting information and resources and awareness training for better consideration of the obstacles faced by these communities
The disabled community is particularly vulnerable to the effects of homophobia and transphobia and are frequently the victims of harassment, abuse and violence. This is an incredibly isolating experience and existence. All members of our community need to be enabled to participate in order to help to combat these effects, as well as to combat the social exclusion that surrounds having a disability more generally. ParaPride believes that everyone is entitled to engage with the communities they wish to, to build relationships, have fun and feel included in the activities presented to them. Disabled people have traditionally been unintentionally excluded from the common experience. This needs to change and we are the ones who intend to change it.
LGBTQ Disabled Queer and Hear
Welcome to LGBTQ Disabled Queer and Hear! Founded in June 2019, we provide a platform for people with disabilities who wouldn’t normally get an opportunity to show off their skills and talents in the public arena, giving them a chance to work alongside others and be a part of the community.
We work with all disabilities and able-bodied people to ensure that our inclusive events happen in a safe space across the UK.
All our shows have a BSL translator and audio description.
Tel. 01732 384329
Available 09:00 – 17:00, Monday – Friday,
Email: lgbtdisabledqueerandhear@gmail.com
Additional Support (not 24h)
SOS Silence of Suicide
Our phone lines help support vulnerable children and adults. Our number is a standard rate charge. However it’s touched your life, if you need mental health and/or suicide support, we are here.
Tel. 0300 1020 505
Available 8AM until midnight, Monday – Sunday,
Papyrus
PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide is the UK charity dedicated to the prevention of suicide and the promotion of positive mental health and emotional wellbeing in young people — for people under 35.
Web: https://www.papyrus-uk.org
Tel. 0800 068 41 41
Available: 9AM – midnight, Every day
Text. 07860 039967
Email: pat@papyrus-uk.org
Calm
Support for young men aged 15-35 on issues which include depression and suicide.
Web: https://www.thecalmzone.net
Tel. 0800 585858
Available 5pm – midnight, 365 days a year
YoungMinds Crisis Messenger
YoungMinds Textline offers you free, 24/7 text messaging support wherever you are in the UK. If you need someone to talk to about how you’re feeling, text YM to 85258.
Web: https://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-person/youngminds-textline
Text: "YM" to 85258
