REPORT: Bullying, Poverty, Lack of Acceptance Linked to Trans Suicide Rate

[Guest LizMarie]

Article about the report:

http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2014/01/29/report-bullying-poverty-lack-acceptance-linked-trans-suicide-rate

The report itself:

http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/AFSP-Williams-Suicide-Report-Final.pdf

[Guest KimberlyF]

I've been looking at this a bit just because every new report can be snapshot of how things are going.

Going with this, Trans man and Trans woman are Gender IDs-there are 6 in the survey. One may have filled out the survey with an ID of male or female, but NTDS has taken the liberty to 'recode' them according to one of the six.

A sample of their process:

"For instance, those who were assigned male at birth and today identify as female would generally be categorized as trans women/ MTF. However, if they did not at all identify with terms indicating a trans identity (transgender, transsexual, MTF) and strongly identified with another identity, such as cross-dresser, they were categorized according to the identity with which they strongly identified."

So CD is not a trans identity, it's a gender. Assigned male, identified as female would generally put one in the female gender ID column according to how the rules are supposed to work in the TG community. But NTDS has decided that someone who considers themselves a male assigned, female IDed CD is the same as a male assigned, male IDed CD.

In my view, there is a whole lot of self-posturing that goes on in a survey of this kind which would then result in seeming contradictions.

The quality of life question at the end highlights this a bit.

"Because I am Trans/GNC, life in general is..."

Those who say it's not different because of it are the lowest suicide group at 31%. Those who say their life is much improved because of it have a higher rate (39%) than this group and those who say their life is somewhat improved (37%).

This is often the case with people who talk over and over about how great everything is going. It can be an attempt at convincing oneself as much as others.

[Guest LizMarie]

The report does not distinguish between suicide attempts before or during transition versus those afterwards. That's an unfortunate shortcoming so attempting to leap to the conclusion that you just made is not justified from the statistical data.

All that the report attempts to show is that, across the board, suicide is an epidemic among transgender persons. It does this convincingly with sound statistical basis. It does not attempt to correlate treatments (of any kind, including transition) to changes in suicide rates.

[Guest KimberlyF]

The report does not distinguish between suicide attempts before or during transition versus those afterwards. That's an unfortunate shortcoming so attempting to leap to the conclusion that you just made is not justified from the statistical data.

I will agree the survey has shortcomings which could have easily been addressed.

I know there is a lot of tunnel vision that goes on, but the question that I referenced does not mention transitioning at all. There is no before or after transitioning and the quality of life. No mention of life getting better after transitioning. It's the quality of life as a direct result of being Trans/GNC.

The closeted CDs at home with a suicide rate of 21% answered the question as did everyone else under the umbrella.

Because you are Trans/GNC, your quality of life is...

Not

After dealing with the fact that you are Trans/GNC...

Or

Regardless of the fact that you were born Trans/GNC...

[VickySGV]

Even undertaking such a study has an inherent bias, (its stated hypothesis) even in a well disciplined scientific environment. Sure, the darn thing is stacked in favor of some arguments. The big thing to me is that it will present questions that someone with their own inherent bias will try to get the answers to. Even here, I am sensing there are "desired" results or finite answers, but what are those desired results? As an inductive reasoner with a decent background in statistics I can take a conclusion and back track it in a matrix, but numbers in a row do not by themselves present the conclusion.

What are we hoping to prove with these numbers to people who have trouble balancing a checkbook??