A Tough Topic

It is something that the opposition uses against us, the high suicide rate in the trans community. But in reality it is them who are causing it.

The Truth About Transgender Suicide
Huffington Post Gay Voices
By Brynn Tannehill
Posted: 11/14/2015

Why transgender people are at risk is something that has actually been studied in great detail by psychologists and sociologists. They have found many of the same factors increase risk across multiple peer reviewed studies.

Rejection by friends and family increases suicide risk
Transgender people who are rejected by their families or lack social support are much more likely to both consider suicide, and to attempt it. Conversely, those with strong support were 82% less likely to attempt suicide than those without support, according to one recent study. Another study showed that transgender youth whose parents reject their gender identity are 13 times more likely to attempt suicide than transgender youth who are supported by their parents.

Discrimination increases suicide risk
Transgender people in states without LGBT legal protections are at higher risk of suicide. Other studies have found that transgender people who have been discriminated against are at a higher risk of suicide. What makes this worse is that discrimination against transgender people in health care, employment, accommodations, and housing is very common. Even in places with legal protections for transgender people, like Washington D.C., cultural bias and discrimination remains.

The article goes on to list, Physical abuse increases suicide risk, Physical abuse increases suicide risk and one of the biggies, Being seen as transgender or gender non-conforming increases suicide risk being unable to integrate into society is one of the biggest risk factors for self-harm or violence against us.

Also another factor is oursleves,

Internalized transphobia increases suicide risk
Internalized transphobia is when a transgender individual applies negative messages about transgender people in general to themselves. It's not hard to find such messages in our culture, especially since a multi-million dollar smear campaign in Houston successfully convinced an uninformed populace that transgender people should be treated like rapists and pedophiles. When transgender people start applying such messages to themselves, the suicide attempt rate skyrockets.

And if you are a minority Intersecting minority identities increases suicide risk, it doesn't just increase the risk additionally but rather exponentially. If you are a minority and do not integrate into society that good then you risk factor for self-harm is extremely high.

The author goes on to sum up the article,

Notice a pattern here? None of these risks for suicide are about being transgender. They're about what is being done to transgender people. And therein lies the rub.

There's nothing inherently wrong with being transgender.

There is something horribly, horribly wrong with the way we as a culture treat transgender people.
[…]
In other words, any attempt to suggest that the solution to the problem of suicide in the transgender community is to stop being transgender is nothing more than chaff. These individuals are more interested in enforcing their brand of Biblical morality on society than the actual well-being of transgender people.

Do you want to end the high suicide rates of trans people? Then help work to change the way society looks at trans people.