What's the difference between an ally & an accomplice?
How do health risks intersect with sexual orientation?
What can we do to support those who are at greater risk?
Why are discussions of interracial and mixed orientation relationships essential to DEI + justice work?

Dr. Antony Chum of York University joins Jess and Brandon to discuss his recent research, which explores the link between sexual orientation and self-harm -- including the finding that bisexual women are three times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual women and gay men and lesbians are twice as likely as straight folks to engage in suicide-related behaviours. They discuss both causes and solutions -- on both personal and policy levels. Sexual expression and freedom for all are essential to pleasure for each of us, so this is an essential conversation for folks of all gender identities and sexual orientations.

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Rough Transcript:


This is a computer-generated rough transcript, so please excuse any typos. This podcast is an informational conversation and is not a substitute for medical, health, or other professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the services of an appropriate professional should you have individual questions or concerns.

How to Be An Ally & Accomplice

Episode 323

[00:00:00] You're listening to the Sex with Dr. Jess podcast, sex and Relationship Advice You Can Use Tonight.

[00:00:15] Jess O'Reilly: Hello. Hello. Good day to you. Today we are talking about a number of topics, including what it really means to be an ally, and we're gonna look at the distinction between allies and accomplices. You know, this week I just hosted a, a session.

[00:00:28] Jess O'Reilly: That I, I loved working with this group on healthy relationships as a key component of d e I and justice work, and it was with Com community and government reps in Southern Ontario. Uh, and I think that, you know, a big part that of d e I or justice work that's left out is just the relationship piece around interracial relationships, mixed orientation relationships, and.

[00:00:47] Jess O'Reilly: Brandon and I of course have talked about our personal experience, but the leaving out of these topics, their absence, I think is at a huge cost. So we're gonna get into that shortly. Quick reminder, since we're on the topic, we have an old podcast on our interracial and our mixed orientation relationship where we talk a little bit, well, really I talk about my needs and Brandon Ways in.

[00:01:08] Jess O'Reilly: So if you can go back, uh, and have a listen to that one and please share. It's a few years old, but, uh, but still relevant. So we're gonna dive into that. But we're all. Also going to be talking about a really important study out of York University, Brandon's alma mater. But yeah, back in the day. But as Canadians, we don't really say that.

[00:01:25] Jess O'Reilly: I don't think that we have the same attachments to our schools, do we?

[00:01:27] Brandon Ware: No, I don't. I had a good time there, but not like it is in the us.

[00:01:31] Jess O'Reilly: Yeah, it's not the same. Really quickly before we dive in, I, I just wanna offer an option for people to. Opt out in terms of, we wanna give you a content warning. So we will be talking about self-harm and suicide data, just the data.

[00:01:44] Jess O'Reilly: But if this topic maybe isn't aligned with your comfort right now, take a moment to maybe save this for later or opt outta this one altogether. And, uh, we're going be talking now with Anthony Chum, the Canadian Research Chair in Population Health Data Science at York University. [00:02:00] His research approach combines population health, data science, so, Big data analysis and the application of social theories,