What Has The Most Effect On Transition?

Here is a question for you; what has the most effect on transition for a positive outcome?

Is it how well you can pass? Is it your clothes? Is it your voice?

Wrong it is your family support. No matter what your age, if you have the support of your family your odds of transitioning successfully is greatly increased. I saw this article in the Times of India, it is a short article but it says it all…

Transgender ends life as mother refuses to accept him
PTI
May 20, 2013,

COIMBATORE: Dejected over non-acceptance by his mother after he underwent a sex change surgery, a 27-year-old committed suicide at Anamalai in the district.

Kalimuthu was in Mumbai and had underwent the surgery and became a transgender a couple of years ago, police said.

After becoming Aparna, he returned to his native in Uppili, some two months ago. However, his mother, averse to his behaviour, refused to accept Kalimuthu as Aparna and asked him to get out of the house. Depressed over this, he committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling of the house today, they said.

Having support of your family is vital, it can be done successfully without your family support but it is a lot harder. Having a support system is also vital, you can go it alone but the odds are stacked against you.

In the survey “Injustice At Every Turn” they found that…

In the face of extensive institutional discrimination, family acceptance had a protective affect against many threats to well-being including health risks such as HIV infection and suicide.

According to the survey,

• Twenty-six percent (26%) of those who experienced family rejection also reported having experienced homelessness, nearly three times higher than those whose families were accepting (9%).
• Family rejection dramatically increased the likelihood of suicide attempts. Fifty-one percent (51%) of those who experienced family rejection reported having attempted suicide, compared to 32% of those whose families were accepting.
• Thirty-two percent (32%) of those who experienced family rejection also reported having used drugs or alcohol to deal with the mistreatment they faced as a transgender or gender non-conforming person. This compared with 19% of those whose families were accepting.

And they concluded that

While family rejection was shown to be related to a number of negative outcomes including homelessness, HIV and suicide attempts, those respondents whose families accepted them had better health outcomes and enjoyed higher levels of social and economic security that the full sample. It appears that family support and safety nets can have a major positive impact on the lives of transgender and gender non-conforming people even in the face of pervasive mistreatment and discrimination outside of the home.

In a survey by GLSEN’s "2011 National School Climate Survey" found that,

Students with a greater number of supportive staff also had higher educational aspirations — students with many supportive staff were about a third as likely to say they were not planning on attending college compared to students with no supportive educators (5.1% vs. 14.9%).

Clearly have someone who you can turn to for support whether it is a family member, a teacher or a close friend can make all the difference in the world.