[...]According to the national non-profit Community-Based Research Centre’s Sex Now survey, the largest health survey of queer and trans people in Canada, more than three quarters of 2024 respondents say they’ve engaged with substances in the past six months.
But to get a real sense of the prevalence of substances in the queer and trans community, only hold it up against their straight cis peers. Comparing Sex Now to 2023 Statistics Canada data from a 12-month period, LGBTQ2S+ people are more than twice as likely to binge drink, four times as likely to use cocaine, six times for ecstasy use and 12 times for meth use. These figures may be even higher, as Stats Canada tracks a full year vs. six months.
This overlap between queerness and substance use is a Western phenomenon more than a Canadian one. Three in five gay, lesbian and bi Americans struggle with illicit drugs and two-thirds struggle with alcohol use, notes 2020 data from the U.S. government’s agency for substance use and mental health. That’s compared to only five percent and 12 percent of the general U.S. population for drugs and alcohol, respectively. Likewise, a 2023 U.K. study found that queer and bi adults were four times more likely to take drugs than straight people.
Beyond the statistics, this excessive use is felt in the community. Invitations to socialize often come with questions about “pres” and “afters”—places to drink and take drugs before and after the actual night out. Lines for bathroom stalls grow as keys and bags change hands. Dealers are as likely to make drop-offs as Uber drivers.
It’s part of why there’s a concerted effort to create more sober spaces for queer and trans people—whether you’re in addiction recovery, struggling with cutting down or one of the growing number of “sober-curious” people interested in saving money, getting better sleep and being healthier. But finding LGBTQ2S+ sober events can be tricky. For Dave Becker, a Boston-based gay man in his fifth year of sobriety, fostering sober connections can feel like hitting a reset button on how you form relationships.