Brisbane transgender clinic opens after Biala setbackKim Stephens, October 10, 2013 - 12:01AM
Gina Mather can offer 148 compelling reasons why a specialised transgender clinic is a critical service in Brisbane.
"Personally, I have had to identify 148 suicide victims. We are lucky to get one a year now," she said.
The Australian Transgender Association Queensland president began working with the state's gender dysphoric population in 1994, when the Beattie government offered the organisation a space to establish the specialty service.
"In those days the kids had nothing, the suicide rate was at 42 per cent," she said.
For nearly 20 years, Ms Mather said the "grace and favour" of the Queensland government allowed the gender clinic to care for the members of its marginalised community as they struggled to come to terms with their identities.
Running in conjunction with the Brisbane sexual health clinic, first in Adelaide Street, then at Biala in Roma Street, the service offered specialist medical, pathology and psychiatric support.
