February 22nd, 2011
Almost Half of Transgender People Have Attempted Suicide
In a truly distressing new report, National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force claimed that not only are transgender people harassed, discriminated against, denied medical care and mistreated by the police, they have a suicide rate that is 26 times higher than the average American. It’s even higher than people with chronic depression or members of the military.
41 percent of the more than 6,400 respondents reported having attempted suicide, and 90 percent said that they had been harassed or discriminated against. They also had double the rate of unemployment and compared to the general population, were four times more likely to live in extreme poverty, with a household income of less than $10,000 a year. 47 percent said that they had experienced discriminary workplace treatment, like being fired or denied a promotion, because of their gender identification.
Writing for the American Prospect, Nancy Goldstein highlights one of the many shocking stories of trans abuse:
“In 1995, D.C. resident Tyra Hunter died from entirely treatable injuries incurred in a car accident. First, the firefighters who arrived at the scene stopped emergency medical treatment once they cut away her clothes to discover male genitalia…Once they stopped joking around and got her to the emergency room, the doctor refused to treat her. She died there of blunt force trauma and medical negligence. Fifteen years after Hunter’s death, the survey’s numbers still stink: 19 percent of respondents reported being refused care because of their gender identity or expression, with even higher figures for respondents of color. Nearly 3 percent reported being attacked in emergency rooms.”
Even in Washington D.C., which leads the country in transgender rights, the Department of Corrections was slow to act against this kind of horrific discrimination, and during initial steps, trans rights activists reported that officials were “openly mocking our requests and literally taking naps during meetings.”
The report has suggestions for beginning to end injustice against trans people, starting with federal, state and local laws against discrimination and individual company policies. Family acceptance was also crucial, though, for the study respondents, a stunning 57 percent of whom had experienced family rejection.
The executive summary concludes, “This report is a call to action for all of us, especially for those who pass laws and set policies and practices…And everyone else, from those who drive buses or teach our children to those who sit on the judicial bench or write prescriptions, must also take up the call for human rights for transgender and gender non-conforming people, and confront this pattern of abuse and injustice.”
From this perspective, we could all be doing more to end discrimination against people who don’t conform to the male/female gender binary. So although legislation is a crucial part of the equation, much of the obligation for changing the facts in this horrifying report rests with us.Read more: transgender, discrimination, human rights, transphobia, lgbt rights, trans rights, gender nonconforming, harassment denial of medial care
November 23rd, 2010
Trans suicide attempts
Source: PinkNews.co.uk
41 per cent of US trans people have attempted suicide
The research, carried out by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, also found than 19 per cent had been refused medical care because of their trans status.
Twenty-eight per cent said they had experience harassment in hospitals or doctors’ surgeries, while two per cent said they had been violently assaulted in medical settings.
Half of those surveyed said they had to educate their doctors about being transgender and a quarter said they had misused drugs or alcohol because of the stress of coping with being trans.
Forty-one per cent said they had tried to kill themselves, compared to the national average of 1.6 per cent of the population.
Trans people also reported higher levels of HIV infection. The survey found that 2.64 per cent were HIV-positive – four times the national average.
Respondents who were ethnic minorities, unemployed or involved in activities such as prostitution were the most likely to have been abused, refused care or suffer health problems.
Although only a minority of trans respondents said they had had genital surgery, the majority said they hoped to have surgical treatment one day. This, the report’s authors said, was why legal rights for trans people should not be dependent on whether they had undergone surgical transition.
The report said that trans people “bear the brunt of social and economic marginalisation due to their gender identity” and their needs are often dismissed or discounted.
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said: “From our experience working with transgender people, we had prepared ourselves for high rates of suicide attempts, but we didn’t expect anything like this.
“Our study participants reported attempting suicide at a rate more than 25 times the national average.”
Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said: “These shocking and disheartening numbers speak to the urgency of ending bullying in our nation’s schools and ending discrimination in our nation’s workplaces.
“We know from the recent rash of suicides among young people who have been bullied just how critical it is that we act now and act decisively to save lives.”
October 11th, 2010
Tributes to a Young Suicide Victim at a Hometown Forum
Source: NYTimes.com
RIDGEWOOD, N.J. - After all the anti-bullying pleas, the celebrity testimonials and the huge gatherings at Rutgers, an event to honor Tyler Clementi‘s life and reflect on the meaning of his death was held in his hometown on Thursday night in an old stone church.
The gathering was billed as a town hall meeting, not a religious service (his family had kept his funeral strictly private). And though the speakers included victims of bullying who had not known Mr. Clementi, as well as local and state politicians, former classmates of his from Ridgewood High School were also scattered across the pews, and one spoke movingly of her grief. It was thus the most intimate, personal tribute to be held since Mr. Clementi’s suicide on Sept. 22 drew national attention.
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