The State Of Transgender Health Care In California

From The Transgender Law Center.

When We Get What We Need

One of the more depressing things to write about is the poor state of mental health and high rates of suicide among trans people, especially our young.

We don't go crazy or kill ourselves because we're trans, any more than people become unwell or off themselves because they're Black, Latina, women, physically disabled or anything else.  Rather, it's the stress of living in an inhospitable world that drives us to, or over, the edge.  

And, as with any other group of people, we do just as well as anybody else when we have what we need--including medical and mental health care.

As this graphic from Anti-Media shows, our suicide rates plummet--and or overall mental health improves--when we get the care we need.  And it even saves Medicaid money!:


 
 

Something That Hasn't Changed (Unfortunately)

Last night, I stopped by the LGBT Community Center.  I hadn't been there in a while, but early in my transition, I sometimes felt as if I were living there.

Anyway, I bumped into a few people I haven't seen in some time. One of them is someone I'll call Lorna.  She participated in two of the support groups I attended early in my transition.  Back then, she was still living as male but was exploring her gender identity and sexuality.  After a few other life-changing events which I won't reveal, so as not to run the risk of outing her, she recently began her transition.

I was reminded that more than a decade has passed since we attended those support groups.   A lot has changed since then, but something--disturbingly--hasn't:  Apparently, desperate trans women are still buying "German hormones" on the streets.  Someone offered them to Lorna; she refused.

 When I started my transition, it was undoubtedly easier to get hormones through legitimate means--and get the other care I needed--than it was for people who made the transition a decade before me, or the ones who transitioned a decade before them.  Still, then--as now--some trans people, especially the young, cannot access mainstream healthcare for all sorts of reasons, the most common being a lack of documentation.  Very often, young trans people are kicked out of, or run away from , their families or are bullied out of their schools and communities.  Or they are fleeing countries where they are likely to be incarcerated or murdered, sometimes by the very people who have the power to imprison them.

As long as such conditions prevail, we're still going to have lots of trans teenagers who won't make it to the third decade of their lives.  I don't think any society would stand for such a mortality rate in any other group of people.  But, as long as there are barriers to access of the improved health care, young (and sometimes not-so-young) people will continue to buy (or trade sex for) "German" hormones or other black- and gray- market substances and treatments.

The Current State Of Transgender Health Care

The folks at Fenway Health have given us a useful infographic that provides disturbing--though, sadly, not surprising--information about the state of transgender health care.

One of the most startling facts it presents is that a transgender person is more than four times as likely as anyone else to be HIV-infected, while a black trans person is more than six times as likely.

One of the facts that most resonated with me is this : 62 percent of trans people have experienced depression.  And, among the 41 percent who have attempted suicide are several trans people I know, including two who took their lives over their gender identity issues.

Finally, I am among the 25 percent who have been harassed by the police and 29 percent who have received disrespectful treatment in health care settings.

And I'm one of the lucky ones.