Tough love or tough luck
T-Notes
by Robbi Cohn April 3, 2010
http://goqnotes.com/6184/tough-love-or-tough-luck/It seems that people who post trans blogs and commentaries — me included — are always writing about discrimination, hate crimes, health care and bathrooms. Granted, each is critically important and potentially life altering. Only after the tragedy of someone taking their own life, however, do we usually write about suicide and what drives trans people to take their own lives. Many of us have contemplated this drastic act. More than a few of us have attempted it. Generally, a person must reach the depths of despair to want to escape from a life which has become so burdensome, so unbearable, that to live simply becomes unacceptable. And, it usually takes a trigger.
So, imagine you lost your job for no specific reason other than discrimination and there is no legal remedy. There are still no federal ENDA protections. And, for a myriad of reasons, no one wants to hire you. You've been scrounging to make ends meet, but you're running out of options. If you were fortunate to have collected unemployment, it doesn't last forever — the same thing goes for food stamps. Maybe you own your own home, maybe you're renting. Either way, the day finally comes when all options have been depleted and you are staring down homelessness. You still have a car, maybe, and you're living in it. Or, you're living on friends' couches (if there are any friends left). Your only access to the internet is the library and support groups are sadly the only, albeit tenuous, lifeline you have left.
