Calls

I normally don’t post Saturday afternoon, but this message had to get out there.

When I first went into social work after I retired I didn’t major in the micro track into individual or group therapy because I am not a people person, I am too empathic, I knew that I couldn’t distance myself from the client, their problems would become my problems so instead I went into macro and community organizing.

Right after Trump election I started receiving calls on the Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition phone line with trans people crying and saying they are afraid of what Trump might do to us. It was very hard to talk to them and be positive, and it has taken a toll on me. Well I am not the only one, a person who I know in the community wrote this article,

Trumphobia: Crisis hotline flooded with calls from scared young queers
LGBTQ Nation
By Dawn Ennis
December 23, 2016

The phones have been ringing off the hook at the Trevor Project offices in West Hollywood, Calif. ever since Election Day, and those working in the crisis hotline call center say there is mounting fear among LGBTQ youth.

“A lot of fear,” said Jean to KPCC-FM, a Southern California Public Radio station. “Jean” is not her real name; the station provided pseudonyms to those who spoke with them to shield their identities.

In the 18 years since its founding, the Trevor Project has responded to all kinds of fear, from coming out to peer pressure and parental rejection to suicide.

But this is different, said another one of the counselors.

“I don’t think I heard politics mentioned that much before the election,” said Sadie. “But when you have 12- and 13-year-olds who are calling and freaking out, that has struck me.”

They’ve never seen anxiety like this before, the counselors told the station.
[…]
In fact, the number of calls in the week post-election set a new record in the organization’s history.

At the Transgender Day of Remembrance, November 20, after the service I saw a person sitting down crying so I sat next to them (the person identifies as genderfluid) and I asked them if they are okay. And over tears they explained that they had just come out to their parents and they was worried about what will happen to us. There was another trans person who told me that she was scared and she didn’t know what is going to happen to all of us.

The talk that we have survived before and we will again does allay the fears and now with the holiday season upon the loneliness that many trans people have around the holiday days are compounded by the fears of the coming Trump presidency.

So I ask you all if you can, open your doors to LGBT people this holiday season for many of us are without families and are scared about the future.

And here are some important phone numbers…

Trans Lifeline 1-877-565-8860
Note at this time this is not a 24 hour hotline.
The Trevor Project: Suicide Hotline for LGBTQ Youth: 1-866-488-7386
The Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800-273-8255
National Suicide Hotlines USA: 1-800-784-2433 & 1-800-273-8255 Deaf Hotline: 1-800-799-4TTY (4889)
CT Sexual Assault Crisis Services Hotline: 1-888-999-5545 English & 1-888-568-8332 Español
Or call 991.