At this point, I don't know if we can honestly call what's happening to vulnerable trans kids "suicide." It's not as if these thoughts, or these attempts, are happening in a vacuum; they're not choosing to die of their own volition. They're being driven to it. Their own hands may be the weapons that end their lives, but someone else's hands- a whole fucking lot of someone else's hands- are the ones doing the aiming.
These kids are being 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥.
The Republican party deserves to burn to the fucking ground for what it's done.
Would that it there were even the slightest possibility... but in a world where Shrub Jr. is still enjoying a comfy retirement dabbling in art when he should be rotting in a cell for starting a whole-ass unjustified war, the chances of any of these monsters facing the music for their genocide against trans people are... basically nil. The best we can hope for- and what we must strive for- is to pry their slimy tentacles off of our government(s), once and for all, and to push their extremism to the margins where it will become a footnote to history, rather than defining it.
"The best we can hope for- and what we must strive for- is to pry their slimy tentacles off of our government(s), once and for all, and to push their extremism to the margins where it will become a footnote to history, rather than defining it."
I honestly do not expect this Supreme Court to make the right decision regarding transgender protections and I am girding my loins for the kind of ruling that we in the trans community are expecting. Their ruling on Dobbs proved themselves to be totally antithetical towards human rights not specifically elucidated in the Constitution when it was written hundreds of years ago.
UK is also gearing to rule that anti-trans discrimination is perfectly legal, and that trans people are by definition their assigned gender AND sex. It’s a very very dark hour
Hi there. I’m in UK too - which legislation are you referring to please? I campaign for FFLAG - a charity supporting families/friends - so I’m aware about healthcare/ schools/proposed EHRC changes. Not sure what this means though 🙏🏻
The disingenuousness of the anti trans apparatchik , it’s feigned ignorance , willful misinterpretation of the clinical evidence has always been a hallmark of their fear and loathing concerning our existence , human rights and our personal agency over our bodies and lives
Make sure you are registered to vote . Know the location of your polling place and make a plan to vote in person . Encourage family friends to vote ❤️
"The study also found that 3.3% of high school students identify as transgender."
If this statistic is correct, there are many, many more trans people in society. How many suicides due to "unknown causes" are attributable to people feeling forced to be in the closet? I get that this is like the rising number of left handed people since we have stopped trying to "correct" left handedness. The 3.3% statistic is much higher than I was expecting.
It's always been reasonable to suspect that there were far more trans people than everyone else believed. The same has proven true of every other marginalized demographic whose members were able to exist invisibly by simply not declaring themselves- as societal acceptance rose, so too did their apparent percentage of the population. Left-handed and ambidextrous people experienced this; so, too, have gay and bisexual people been experiencing it. Now we're seeing it happen with trans people.
I suspect we're actually somewhere north of 5% of the whole population, but... that's just a feeling; I don't have any data to back that up. It's higher than any of the present estimates, though- that much is all but a certainty. Eventually, when the right wing loses this battle in their unending war against reality, we'll find out how many of us there actually are. Until then, those of us who can afford to speak up- in any capacity, to any degree- will just have to keep the lights on for everyone else who can't yet.
Please reach out to someone if you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, take it from someone who spent the better part of 20 years closeted and suicidal more often than not, you ARE deserving of love, support, and help. There are so many resources available and people who genuinely care about you, all you have to do is ask.
Keep hope alive ❤️ We will find a way ❤️. Stay positive ❤️. Anyone who has worked overnight shifts knows it’s darkest before dawn ❤️ Being positive takes hard work and organization . Countering the SCOTUS ( Supreme Court of the United States ) will take a super majority in the US House of Representatives, and the US Senate (so that our legislation gets passed and not filibustered to death )and a Democrat ally in the White House . We’re going to have organize every state and territory ! Oh and while we’re busy doing that we’ll live our authentic lives :)
The anti-trans people KNEW that this would happen. This is deliberate, and part of the plan. Hold these kids close. Protect them. They must fight to outlive these idiots, who represent the worst of humanity
Thank you Erin. Having data and good analysis helps us to stand up and challenge all the misinformation put out. I’m trying to meet with my supposedly supportive MP (who I gave her a few times) so any data is great. We’re in a dark place in UK too and in trying to deal with ministers in my role with a charity we’re getting the distinct impression they’re ignoring us, too scared to have the conversation. It’s all going very wrong for them right now and it feels like trans issues are one problem too far. They’re simply allowing everything to continue that the Conservatives started 😢
I just learned of this book called "Unhumans" by Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec. The forward was written by Steve Bannon, and the book was endorsed by JD Vance. It's a fascist manifesto that praises dictators like Augusto Pinochet and Francisco Franco. And of course, anyone that is against this brand of fascism is labeled as 'unhuman'. People need to know the stakes of this election.
It’s not just trans people either. It’s about the intolerance & hate that’s allowed to spread based on someone’s innate characteristics, and general population turning a blind eye. Both my kids have been physically assaulted for being ‘different’ (youngest is trans, oldest has CP & epilepsy). Police didn’t file my youngest daughter’s case as a hate crime; oldest had a restraining order & school system STILL put the bully on the bus with her. My husband & I have worked in public safety for 20+ years; there’s no real ‘sensitivity’ training or requirement for such. It needs to be said that change won’t happen here without proper motivation (job loss, punitive charges) for people who demonstrate habitual offense (including law makers, educators, employers). Good deeds go unnoticed, bad deeds get publicity, so make a memorable example of the latter.
Of course Lola Sheldon-Galloway, Benjamin Ryan and Leor Sapir doubt this is happening. They don't care, secretly wish they would, and none of them want to be accountable for what these harmful bans do to the psyche of youngsters. Heaven forbid they do the right thing and stop messing around with the lives of our children. Growing up is hard enough without looking around thinking society hates you. Most of us went through that phase of wanting to be liked or even loved. Did those people miss the boat or what? No, they're hypocrites and don't care about trans children, let alone trans adults.
They're all going to hell and don't care about that either. SMFH
A slight correction, just for accuracy. Erin, you start by saying "one in four transgender youth attempted suicide in the past year. Of those, 10% required medical treatment." That says that 10% of that one-quarter, that is, 2.5%, required medical treatment for a suicide attempt.
Rather, and as you correctly say later and the survey makes clear, it was 10% of all transgender youth, not just 10% of those who attempted suicide, who required such treatment.
I expect some will say I'm nit-picking, but I initially read it the wrong way and I do like precision in language.
At this point, I don't know if we can honestly call what's happening to vulnerable trans kids "suicide." It's not as if these thoughts, or these attempts, are happening in a vacuum; they're not choosing to die of their own volition. They're being driven to it. Their own hands may be the weapons that end their lives, but someone else's hands- a whole fucking lot of someone else's hands- are the ones doing the aiming.
These kids are being 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥.
The Republican party deserves to burn to the fucking ground for what it's done.
These politicians should be brought to justice for their crimes. They are murdering OUR kids.
Would that it there were even the slightest possibility... but in a world where Shrub Jr. is still enjoying a comfy retirement dabbling in art when he should be rotting in a cell for starting a whole-ass unjustified war, the chances of any of these monsters facing the music for their genocide against trans people are... basically nil. The best we can hope for- and what we must strive for- is to pry their slimy tentacles off of our government(s), once and for all, and to push their extremism to the margins where it will become a footnote to history, rather than defining it.
"The best we can hope for- and what we must strive for- is to pry their slimy tentacles off of our government(s), once and for all, and to push their extremism to the margins where it will become a footnote to history, rather than defining it."
That is going to happen, I am so sure.
I honestly do not expect this Supreme Court to make the right decision regarding transgender protections and I am girding my loins for the kind of ruling that we in the trans community are expecting. Their ruling on Dobbs proved themselves to be totally antithetical towards human rights not specifically elucidated in the Constitution when it was written hundreds of years ago.
UK is also gearing to rule that anti-trans discrimination is perfectly legal, and that trans people are by definition their assigned gender AND sex. It’s a very very dark hour
Hi there. I’m in UK too - which legislation are you referring to please? I campaign for FFLAG - a charity supporting families/friends - so I’m aware about healthcare/ schools/proposed EHRC changes. Not sure what this means though 🙏🏻
https://whatthetrans.com/trans-people-are-excluded-from-contributing-to-a-legal-case-directly-affecting-them/
Ok - yes I was aware of that. Thank you. 🙏🏻
The disingenuousness of the anti trans apparatchik , it’s feigned ignorance , willful misinterpretation of the clinical evidence has always been a hallmark of their fear and loathing concerning our existence , human rights and our personal agency over our bodies and lives
Make sure you are registered to vote . Know the location of your polling place and make a plan to vote in person . Encourage family friends to vote ❤️
"The study also found that 3.3% of high school students identify as transgender."
If this statistic is correct, there are many, many more trans people in society. How many suicides due to "unknown causes" are attributable to people feeling forced to be in the closet? I get that this is like the rising number of left handed people since we have stopped trying to "correct" left handedness. The 3.3% statistic is much higher than I was expecting.
It's always been reasonable to suspect that there were far more trans people than everyone else believed. The same has proven true of every other marginalized demographic whose members were able to exist invisibly by simply not declaring themselves- as societal acceptance rose, so too did their apparent percentage of the population. Left-handed and ambidextrous people experienced this; so, too, have gay and bisexual people been experiencing it. Now we're seeing it happen with trans people.
I suspect we're actually somewhere north of 5% of the whole population, but... that's just a feeling; I don't have any data to back that up. It's higher than any of the present estimates, though- that much is all but a certainty. Eventually, when the right wing loses this battle in their unending war against reality, we'll find out how many of us there actually are. Until then, those of us who can afford to speak up- in any capacity, to any degree- will just have to keep the lights on for everyone else who can't yet.
Please reach out to someone if you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, take it from someone who spent the better part of 20 years closeted and suicidal more often than not, you ARE deserving of love, support, and help. There are so many resources available and people who genuinely care about you, all you have to do is ask.
Erin thank you keeping all of us current on the state of our affairs which the establishment media couldn’t care less about except as clickbait
Keep hope alive ❤️ We will find a way ❤️. Stay positive ❤️. Anyone who has worked overnight shifts knows it’s darkest before dawn ❤️ Being positive takes hard work and organization . Countering the SCOTUS ( Supreme Court of the United States ) will take a super majority in the US House of Representatives, and the US Senate (so that our legislation gets passed and not filibustered to death )and a Democrat ally in the White House . We’re going to have organize every state and territory ! Oh and while we’re busy doing that we’ll live our authentic lives :)
The anti-trans people KNEW that this would happen. This is deliberate, and part of the plan. Hold these kids close. Protect them. They must fight to outlive these idiots, who represent the worst of humanity
When I say what the Republicans are doing is transgender genocide, I mean this. Gender-affirming care saves lives. Every trans suicide is a murder.
Thank you Erin. Having data and good analysis helps us to stand up and challenge all the misinformation put out. I’m trying to meet with my supposedly supportive MP (who I gave her a few times) so any data is great. We’re in a dark place in UK too and in trying to deal with ministers in my role with a charity we’re getting the distinct impression they’re ignoring us, too scared to have the conversation. It’s all going very wrong for them right now and it feels like trans issues are one problem too far. They’re simply allowing everything to continue that the Conservatives started 😢
I just learned of this book called "Unhumans" by Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec. The forward was written by Steve Bannon, and the book was endorsed by JD Vance. It's a fascist manifesto that praises dictators like Augusto Pinochet and Francisco Franco. And of course, anyone that is against this brand of fascism is labeled as 'unhuman'. People need to know the stakes of this election.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-horrifying-fascist-manifesto-endorsed-by-j.d.-vance
It’s not just trans people either. It’s about the intolerance & hate that’s allowed to spread based on someone’s innate characteristics, and general population turning a blind eye. Both my kids have been physically assaulted for being ‘different’ (youngest is trans, oldest has CP & epilepsy). Police didn’t file my youngest daughter’s case as a hate crime; oldest had a restraining order & school system STILL put the bully on the bus with her. My husband & I have worked in public safety for 20+ years; there’s no real ‘sensitivity’ training or requirement for such. It needs to be said that change won’t happen here without proper motivation (job loss, punitive charges) for people who demonstrate habitual offense (including law makers, educators, employers). Good deeds go unnoticed, bad deeds get publicity, so make a memorable example of the latter.
Of course Lola Sheldon-Galloway, Benjamin Ryan and Leor Sapir doubt this is happening. They don't care, secretly wish they would, and none of them want to be accountable for what these harmful bans do to the psyche of youngsters. Heaven forbid they do the right thing and stop messing around with the lives of our children. Growing up is hard enough without looking around thinking society hates you. Most of us went through that phase of wanting to be liked or even loved. Did those people miss the boat or what? No, they're hypocrites and don't care about trans children, let alone trans adults.
They're all going to hell and don't care about that either. SMFH
A slight correction, just for accuracy. Erin, you start by saying "one in four transgender youth attempted suicide in the past year. Of those, 10% required medical treatment." That says that 10% of that one-quarter, that is, 2.5%, required medical treatment for a suicide attempt.
Rather, and as you correctly say later and the survey makes clear, it was 10% of all transgender youth, not just 10% of those who attempted suicide, who required such treatment.
I expect some will say I'm nit-picking, but I initially read it the wrong way and I do like precision in language.
This is also entirely leaving out the same sort of statistics on trans ADULTS. But, ya know...who cares? Right?
"Stop! I can only get so hard!" - republicans