in brief: almost 1 in 2 trans* young people have attempted suicide
November 20 is the 15th annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance, set up to emphasise the impact of prejudiced violence on the global trans community.
Australian TDOR vigils will be particularly elegiac following the brutal murder of Indonesian-born trans woman Mayang Prasetyo by her Australian husband in October.
But the day has also been used to highlight a number of troubling statistics regarding the younger members of the trans*community.
Figures released by British LGBT mental health charity Pace show almost one in two trans people under the age of 26 have attempted suicide in the past.
Scarily, 30% of these say they have attempted in the past year, with 59% overall having considered taking their own life at some stage.
Comparatively, 6% of those Brits aged 14-24 have attempted suicide.
‘While society’s attitudes towards transgender people are changing, it is still not fast enough and the negative impacts on trans people’s mental health every day are huge,’ Pace chief executive Margaret Unwin told the Guardian.
In the past, New South Wales LGBT and HIV/AIDS advocacy body ACON has also brought to light the high rate of negative mental health outcomes experience by Australian trans people.
In 2010, trans Australians were 14 times more likely than the rest of the population to take their own life.
Australian organisation Lifeline says there’s about 200 attempts per day across the whole population.
It sends a chilling reminder that Australian society has a long way to go toembraceits trans community.
If you are living in Australia and need to talk to someone, you can call Lifeline on their crisis support line: phone 13 11 14 at any time. People living outside Australia can find an appropriate suicide prevention hotline or web service on this database.
