Transgender Suicide Rate 40+% And Other False Assertions!

Ever since the Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law and The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention put out their Suicide Attempts among Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Adults FINDINGS OF THE NATIONAL TRANSGENDER DISCRIMINATION SURVEY. It as been used as a club against the Transgender/Gender Non-Conforming community by Conservative, Right Wing, Religious groups and podcasters & commentators to attempt to invalidate, discriminate and further marginalize the trans community! We see this very vividly in the online, social media debate over the Trump-Pence transgender military ban.

The purpose of the study was to highlight the DIRE need for resources to help the trans community and change societal attitudes that ARE exacerbating the high suicide attempt rates. These anti-trans groups and opponents use it to ratchet up the level of verbal harassment and abuse of trans individuals. And then have the audacity to deny there is a connection between the high suicide attempt rate and their anti-trans hate, harassment and abuse!

"Overall, the most striking finding of our analysis was the exceptionally high prevalence of lifetime suicide attempts reported by NTDS respondents across all demographics and experiences. Based on prior research and the findings of this report, we find that mental health factors and experiences of harassment, discrimination, violence and rejection may interact to produce a marked vulnerability to suicidal behavior in transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. More research on suicidal behavior among transgender and gender non-conforming people is needed."

The fact of the matter is that the study/survey does NOT state that the transgender Suicide Rate IS 40+%. It states that the respondents reported that they had attempted suicide or had suicidal thoughts at SOME POINT in their lives with NO reference to when: before, during or after they had transitioned. The truth is most suicidal behavior occurs BEFORE transition as the trans/gender non-conforming person struggles with their gender dysphoria or disconnect with their assigned gender based on birth sex. Those who can find the support and information they need realize there is away out of the depression, anxiety, and hopelessness of being trapped in a gender imposed on them that doesn't fit their innate heart, mind and soul gender. That way out is TRANSITION!

Another important note in the survey regarding methodology is that the main focus of the study was the levels of discrimination the trans/gender non-conforming community experiences. Seventy questions and only ONE on the question of "Have you ever attempted or contemplated suicide in your life?" Again with no reference to when this occurred in their life. Focused suicide studies would have individual follow up interviews and questions to determine what the respondent meant by saying "Yes" to the question. In other suicide studies these follow up interviews resulted in cutting the initial stated attempted suicide rate in half. This would bring the actual attempted suicide rate to 20-25%. Still ten times higher than the National average!

"While the NTDS provides a wealth of information about the experiences of transgender and gender non-conforming people, the survey instrument and methodology posed some limitations for this study. First, the NTDS questionnaire included only a single item about suicidal behavior that asked, “Have you ever attempted suicide?” with dichotomized responses of Yes/No. Researchers have found that using this question alone in surveys can inflate the percentage of affirmative responses, since some respondents may use it to communicate self-harm behavior that is not a “suicide attempt,” such as seriously considering suicide, planning for suicide, or engaging in self-harm behavior without the intent to die (Bongiovi-Garcia et al., 2009). The National Comorbity Survey, a nationally representative survey, found that probing for intent to die through in-person interviews reduced the prevalence of lifetime suicide attempts from 4.6 percent to 2.7 percent of the adult sample (Kessler et al., 1999; Nock & Kessler, 2006). Without such probes, we were unable to determine the extent to which the 41 percent of NTDS participants who reported ever attempting suicide may overestimate the actual prevalence of attempts in the sample. In addition, the analysis was limited due to a lack of follow-up questions asked of respondents who reported having attempted suicide about such things as age and transgender/gender non-conforming status at the time of the attempt"

SO NO THE TRANSGENDER SUICIDE RATE IS NOT 40+%!

The survey is specifically focused on REDUCING discrimination, harassment and marginalization and the resulting exacerbating of suicidal attempts, thoughts and behavior among trans/gender non-conforming individuals!