Acceptance.
It’s an easy word to spell, even easier to say. Its a simple concept to understand, at least simple enough. Finding belonging. Finding understanding. Finding your people. Its so simple, yet so important to the human psyche. We have a natural need to belong, to fear rejection, shunning, mockery. We have a need to be understood, not just at a surface level, but on a deeper level. We have a predilection to seek connection with other human beings. In a way, it is the foundation upon which our entire society is built. We seek to understand one another, to belong to one another, to form friendships, kinships, families with one another. We are, at our core, social animals. We roam in packs that become villages that become towns that become cities, states, provinces and nations, built upon the concept of a shared understanding and commitment to one another.
But what happens when one is excluded from these structures of acceptance and understanding? What happens to a person traditionally outcast, misunderstood, rejected, and shunned? It has grave effects on psychology, mental health, physical health, and life chances. We, as progressives, should have a deep understanding of this concept. It is power, privilege and oppression 101: an outgroup becomes shunned by society, struggles to find fair employment, housing, becomes homeless, struggles with SPMI, spirals even further, and becomes forgotten. A problem. An issue for society. A statistic. And then we forget.
For some reason, bigotry against a person who is trans is STILL acceptable in not only society at large, but even in our vaunted progressive “safe” spaces. Recently, there was a diary published about transkids in sports, and the hidden comment list is FILLED with asinine sentiments that are just absolute transphobic bullshit, and there are even more comments that were not hidden, but still sort of...microaggression-y? So I want to examine what happens to people when they are NOT safe in society, when they feel as if they are not accepted, when its OKAY to mock or deride or even HATE a person for who they are. Lets take a look at some horrifying statistics shall we?
Background:
Suicide rate and suicidal tendencies among transgender persons are considerably high compared to general population. Hence, this review is an attempt to understand the issues around the suicide and suicidal behavior among transgender persons.
Methodology:
The literature search conducted using three sources, i.e., electronic databases (PubMed, ProQuest, Google Scholar, PsycInfo), manual search (library catalog), and gray literature (consultation with experts).
Results:
The suicide attempt rate among transgender persons ranges from 32% to 50% across the countries. Gender-based victimization, discrimination, bullying, violence, being rejected by the family, friends, and community; harassment by intimate partner, family members, police and public; discrimination and ill treatment at health-care system are the major risk factors that influence the suicidal behavior among transgender persons.
Conclusion:
In spite of facing a number of hardships in their day-to-day life, the transgender community holds a number of resiliency factors. Further, this community needs to be supported to strengthen their resiliency factors and draw culturally sensitive and transgender-inclusive suicide prevention strategies and increase protective factors to tackle this high rate of suicidality.
(emphasis mine, clearly)
Read that again Dkos. Those things that transgender people face are MAJOR RISK FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR AMONG TRANSPERSONS. This is why we have safe spaces. This is why we are better than transphobia, because if we aren’t we are actively contributing to suicidality.
Two-thirds of transgender teens have depression, and many also have suicidal thoughts and self-injuring behavior, according to research accepted for presentation at ENDO 2020, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting, and publication in a special supplemental section of the Journal of the Endocrine Society. Researchers also found transgender teens had significant improvement in gender dysphoria—the feeling of being uncomfortable with the gender they were assigned—after starting hormone therapy.
Transpeople and negative mental health outcomes
In this study, the researchers analyzed medical outcomes between 2005 and 2015 for 2,679 individuals in the Swedish population who had received a diagnosis of gender incongruence.
The study found that transgender individuals who had received a diagnosis of gender incongruence were:
- six times more likely to have a mood or anxiety disorder than the general population.
- three times as likely to be prescribed antidepressants and antianxiety medications.
- more than six times as likely to attempt suicide resulting in hospitalization.
One in three transgender people in the United States have experienced homelessness. The 2019 PIT Count revealed some terrible disparities in gender identity and housing. 63% of transgender people and 80% of nonbinary people experiencing homelessness were unsheltered. These numbers are high for a lot of reasons, and all of them are related to discrimination.
Discrimination can happen at any stage in the renting or sheltering process so it can be hard to identify and stop in the moment. For example, transgender and nonbinary folx may be forced by landlords to sign a lease in their deadnames, which is deeply harmful and can feel like the erasure of their identity. Or they may sign in their name and through running background checks their deadname could come up, causing some landlords to be suspicious and hesitant to rent to them. Trans/nonbinary people may have applications denied for housing opportunities and given no explanations why. One study from the Urban Institute found that transgender people who disclosed their gender were less likely to be told about available rental options. This compounds with other factors such as transgender and nonbinary people are often being stuck in lower-paying jobs because there is a deficit in affirming and trans-inclusive employment options. Being paid less means being more limited in budgeting when it comes to housing. Cost-burdened housing can lead to homelessness. These sources of oppression compound from all angles.
[binge drinking]
There are a number of studies which have investigated the prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) among TGD adults. Many of these studies, which analyze TGD participants as a single, non-stratified group, suggest that this population is at a markedly elevated risk of binge drinking, which is considered a proxy for the future development of an AUD [12]. In fact, a study of 452 transgender adults concluded that 47% of participants reported an episode of binge drinking within the previous 3 months [13]. For comparison, the prevalence of binge drinking among the general U.S. population has been estimated at 17.1% [14]. Another study, which analyzed the prevalence of past month binge drinking among 406 GMs, concluded that transgender participants were nearly 50% more likely to report past month binge drinking compared to their cisgender counterparts [15]. This disparity is further evidenced by an investigation of drinking patterns among 335 transgender young adults [16]. This particular study determined that 26.96% of transgender participants reported past-month heavy episodic drinking (HED) compared to only 8.57% of cisgender participants, suggesting that transgender individuals in this age group may be over three times more likely than their cisgender counterparts to engage in higher-risk alcohol consumption.
Trans people have it fucking hard dude. Higher prevalence of homelessness, addiction, parental alienation, mental health issues including SPMI (severe persistent mental illness), negative health outcomes, lower life chances, and way higher rates of not only suicidal ideation but suicide attempts and completions. These are the people we are kicking? These are the people we are suggesting don’t belong? Worried about bathroom stuff? Fucking for real? I’m worried about people killing themselves because WE AS A FUCKING SOCIETY REFUSE TO ACCEPT THEM. And that has REAL effects, unlike some hypothetical, anti-academic worry about locker and bathrooms. Wake the fuck up people. WAKE UP! Acceptance starts HERE!
Ill leave you with this:
A not insignificant percentage of transpeople DETRANSITION due to external factors
A new study published in LGBT Health found that 13.1% of currently identified transgender people have detransitioned at some point in their lives, but that 82.5% of those who have detransitioned attribute their decision to at least one external factor such as pressure from family, non-affirming school environments, and increased vulnerability to violence, including sexual assault. The study was authored by researchers at The Fenway Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard Medical School) and is believed to be the first rigorous study of the factors that drive transgender and gender diverse people to detransition.
Lets not force people back into the closet, yes? This should be the safest space possible for trans, non-binary, questioning, gender-queer, peeps. Its not. Not yet.
I believe in us.