Transgender Youth Suicide Puts Glaring Spotlight on Urgent Need for Virtual Safe Place

The Trevor Project reports that nearly 50% of young transgender people have seriously thought about taking their own lives, and 25% report having made a suicide attempt. The National Discrimination Survey puts this number at 40%.
In the Transgender Discrimination Survey, a staggering 41% of respondents reported attempting suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population, with rates rising for those who lost a job due to bias (55%), were harassed/bullied in school (51%), had a low household income, or were the victim of physical assault (61%) or sexual assault (64%).

When you consider the difficulties transgender youth go through during puberty and early adulthood these statistics, while gut-wrenching, really aren’t surprising. A recent blog post on Transgender Mental Health addressed both of these crucial developmental stages:

• Puberty: particularly hard age, since the body begins to change and adapt gender specific features (breasts, changes in genitals, menses, etc).
• Transgender individuals reported “I was disgusted by (hair, breasts, etc.)"
• Early Adulthood: with emotional and financial independence some people feel free to begin to address transgender issues at this age and look into transitioning. However, some are not as free to do so, due to family and other obligations, or lack of information and access to services.

Add to this, the many societal challenges summarized by Advocates for Youth: deliberately incorrect and disrespectful use of names and pronoun; lack of access to appropriate restroom facilities; lack of access to appropriate locker room facilities; rigid dress codes that differ for males and female; confidentiality issues; and lack of role models and accurate information.

What is abundantly clear is that the transgender community continually faces problems that gender-conforming individuals can only imagine. Social ostracism, physical assault, and verbal harassment are just the beginning. Further, the education system is not given the proper tools in order to help these individuals feel safe and secure.
Something clearly must be done... Click HERE to read to full article by author Kerry Martin.