Hate Is Harming The Mental Health Of Trans People

While there has been plenty of attention on the dead, it is the living who must carry the burden of trauma and grief — what, Lowery wondered, was being done for them?When people talk about trans mental health, the emphasis is often placed on gender dysphoria or the challenges of transitioning — less is said about the toll that a climate of intolerance, violence, and political hostility can take on transgender people. Rarely do we actually hear about how these events impact the mental health of trans people.“I hate to say it makes you live in fear, but it does,” Lowery said. And it seems to apply whether you’re a trans teen watching a state legislature debate your own right to participate in sports at school, or whether you’re on the other side of the country following updates over social media in solidarity.A Quality Inn and Suites in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Jaida Peterson was killed on April 4, 2021.For Cody, a first-year college student in Florida who came out as a trans man last year and requested partial anonymity to protect his privacy, seeing the endless stream of hate-filled news stories in his social media feeds has left him feeling anxious, worried, and sad for his community.“I’m afraid for myself and my friends and even people I don’t know,” he said.When Cody came out to his mother, Lorayne, she devoured everything she could find about the trans experience, from articles to the Netflix documentary Disclosure, which critiques representations of trans people in entertainment. That week, Trans Lifeline calls came in at four times their normal volume.“Because trans people are a marginalized community, particularly Black and brown trans people, we're going to see an uptick in calls because people are afraid for their lives,” Staklo said.Callers are sometimes just looking for someone to talk to about the secondhand trauma of these events. “Pride as a whole is that time of year where we can actually be out, and feel semi-safe, because you're around other people like you that embrace you.”This year’s events, which will be held outdoors, include a town hall on trans justice where attendees will pay tribute to Peterson and Fennell.“We can’t afford to allow the murders of Jaida and Remy to go under the rug,” he said.