Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Being transgender in a transphobic society leads to moments of sheer desperation

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/02/being-transgender-in-a-transphobic-society-leads-to-moments-of-sheer-desperation

Meredith Talusan
Thursday 2 April 2015

While crisis interventions are important for saving individual lives, mental health care needs to be easier to access and mental health professionals should be less transphobic, chances are that none of those on their own will dramatically lower the suicide attempt rate in the trans community. Instead of listening exclusively to the mental health experts who focus on the average person, we should listen to trans people's experience with suicide ... and work to fix the transphobia that threatens so many of our lives.

Part of transphobia is the belief by some that it is sexually oriented and not gender oriented. (This is not to say that sexual orientation should face discrimination either, but I'm just talking about gender orientation here). Society seems to get freaked out about anything they think is connected to "sexual deviance".  The other problem is the two camps of thought as far as what we are. Do we have a mental illness or are we just neuro anomalies?

When the medical community can't even agree as to whether we should be "fixed" by psychotherapy or treated surgically, there is no way the public is going to commit one way either.

What makes a man a man, or a woman a woman? If a man does not have a penis, does that make him a woman? If a woman has a mastectomy, is she a man? Obviously not, so why can't Dr.s and the public look beyond the physical boundries and accept us as male or female based on a deeper reason? If we don't fit the picture of a man or woman, than why can we pass?

The problem is not with transgenders, its with the way the public and the medical community deal with it.

sam1234

Good article on the difficulties we face just being us. I may show this to my dad when I come out.

QuoteTrans people need fewer memorial services. We need more support while we're alive.

Yep.

I'm not sure if this fits in here, but anyway, the recent uproar about the laws as far as being able to bar LGBT makes absolutely no sense and reflects just how nonsensical things can get when people panic. One view, that those things are mental disorders, then makes the argument that anyone with any mental disorder including depression, ED, BP to name a few, should then also be banned from businesses. If on the other hand, those things (I use things because I don't want to call them disorders), are physical, then anyone with a cane, crutches, injury etc. should also be barred. That leaves only one conclusion and that is that people with LGB orT's have chosen that lifestyle.

Who would CHOOSE to put themselves in the position of being ridiculed, have their families turn their backs on them, lose their friends..........? It seems to me that we should be the ones that are paranoid of society, not the other way around.

sam1234

Quote from: sam1234 on April 03, 2015, 10:35:23 AM
It seems to me that we should be the ones that are paranoid of society, not the other way around.

Yes, Sam.

Here's what I think is going on.

The religious and political demagogues who get their power from scaring people have run out of culprits. It's no longer socially acceptable to bash people of color, Muslims, Catholics, Jews, or any of the folks they usually prey on. The LGBT community up until now was too small to be a threat, so was the natural choice.

I wish I could whisk all of you out of the horrid living conditions you face and bring you to where I live. Conditions here are actually quite pleasant for transgender people.

Hugs, Devlyn

That was a good article. I think a lot of people should read it.