I have received many wonderful and supportive comments on my recent Three Year HRT (hormone replacement therapy) Anniversary/Re-Birthday post from Halloween. One particular message I received on my tumblr account stopped me in my tracks though. If you can’t read the screenshot above, here is the text..
“*suicide tw* Hi! I just wanted to say thank you. Your transition timeline post literally helped save my life today. I had a suicide plan drawn up this morning and I was 50/50 on attempting. I’m trans but closeted and things have been incredibly hard lately. Your honesty about your journey, your struggles, and how you’ve overcome them gave me enough hope to carry on. Sorry for the long Ask, but I just wanted to say thank you again. I hope you’re having a happy Halloween.”
Knowing their message could help others, I asked if I could share their response. They said that I could do so. This is the most important motivation for me to try to keep my blog, website, and story up to date, despite the harassment from trolls and those spreading hate. I have received messages like this before with varying levels of urgency in where the person was at in their struggles. Transgender people of all ages need to see themselves represented positively and see that they are able to be out of the closet and just live their life and find love and acceptance. We will not continue to be erased, made villains or scapegoats, and used for political votes. Those that are able need to continue to stand up and present ourselves to the world. Our narrative should be ours to tell. Our society is so broken regarding its treatment of transgender people. With the understanding modern science provides on the subject with continued findings (see just a snippet of recent article links below) of the validity of transgender existence, there should be no stigma (#NOSTIGMA). Suicide rates for transgender people are the way they are because of continued misunderstanding, the perpetuation of out of date/biased science myths, and hateful bigotry and misogyny. This climate forces far too many to not admit their transgender status and to avoid getting the help they desperately need.
To my fellow transgender sisters and brothers out there, please try to look past your current circumstances and know that you can indeed live a happier life. Proof is out there! Help is out there! Go and seek it!