Rainbow suicide epidemic swept under the carpet
LGBT+ youth four times more likely than straight peers to try taking their own lives
Pretending to be someone you’re not or facing exile from society can drive those with fluid sexuality and gender to breaking point. Jay, a genderqueer Wellingtonian, described it as playing a character you don’t want to be. The situation drove the 25-year-old to contemplate suicide two years ago.
Jay doesn’t identify with being male or female and uses the pronouns they/them/their.
They are speaking out for the Herald’s Break the Silence series in the hope of lowering the high suicide rate among the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender & sexual minorities (LGBT+) community.
According to Youth 2012, a national survey of the health and well-being of secondary school students by the University of Auckland in 2012, almost half of queer youth had seriously thought about suicide in the previous year.
One in five had attempted it, compared with one in 20 of their nonqueer peers. Queer youth were three times as likely to be bullied every week and almost half had been hit or hurt at school in the previous year.
At the age of 13 Jay knew they were different, but it wasn’t until they were 23 and supported a friend through transition that Jay realised they were genderqueer. With that realisation came a dark year of depression as Jay wrestled with their socially marginalised identity. Jay contemplated taking their life many times.
“You can’t see how you’re going to get through that sort of thing,” they told the Herald. “Do I live a life that I’m not, or be me but never accepted?
“Things just seem very bleak. It feels like you’re cast in a role. But you can’t relate to the character you’re playing and you don’t want to be that character.”
Jay’s story is not unusual. They believed all their close friends in the rainbow community had contemplated suicide at some point.
It was only by meeting other trans and nonbinary people through the “lifesaving” sexuality support service Evolve Youth that Jay managed to emerge from depression.
“They [support services] are basic- ally the only people you’ve got.”
The Youth 2012 survey of 8500 young people found almost 15 per cent were trans, gay, or unsure.
About 20 organisations, including Rainbow Youth and the Mental Health Foundation, penned a submission on the Government’s draft strategy to prevent suicide. They were disappointed the LGBT+ group was ignored bar one mention that more research was needed.
Youth 2012 is the most recent in a series of similar surveys. Researchers want to do another one next year but the Ministry of Social Development says it is still considering funding options.
Requesting more research but refusing to fund it was a massive contradiction, InsideOUT national co- ordinator Tabby Besley said. University of Auckland surveys provided the only data rainbow services had to prove their unique challenges exist.
“Every funding application asks you to prove the need for your service — how are we meant to do that if we don’t have data that acknowledges our community?”
Rainbow Youth support manager Morgan Butler said that when a youth’s support system such as family, church, school or community rejected them, it could really sting. So feeling isolated was a key factor for suicidal thoughts.
“The silence and prejudice or lack of education in these natural support systems means that queer and gender-diverse young people fall through the cracks.”
Mental Health Foundation spokeswoman Moira Clunie believes it is time for proactive measures.
“This risk comes from their experiences of hatred, discrimination and exclusion. Rainbow mental health needs are not currently recognised in policy at a national level.”
Ministry of Health deputy director of mental health Ian Soosay acknowledged more needed to be done and public feedback was being analysed.
“Since 2008/09 mental health expenditure by the 20 district health boards has increased by over $300 million from $1.1 billion to $1.4b. Budget 2017 included an extra $224m over four years in mental health services including $124m in new innovative approaches.”
While some change is under way, Besley believed the Government’s slowness was costing lives.
“Our people are dying and the Government aren’t taking serious measures to prevent it. They aren’t funding the organisations that are doing the work to support them, they aren’t providing life-saving healthcare for trans people.
“It often feels like nobody else cares so we have to get in there and try to help each other.”
One 76-year-old transwoman believes a 50-year wait for gender confirmation surgery is partly to blame for transpeople’s high suicide rate.
Diane Sparkes is urging the Government to fund more operations. She said the surgery was crucial to transpeople’s mental well-being as it enabled them to be their “authentic self”. She paid $18,000 for her surgery in Thailand.
“For me I could no longer live if I could not have the body my mind had told me I should have . . . This decision truly saved my life.”
Almost 100 people are on the Ministry of Health waiting list, which will take 50 years to get through. One female-to-male and three male-tofemale surgeries are funded every two years.
Seventy-two are waiting for maleto-female surgery costing $16,000 to $40,000, and 21 for female-to-male at up to $180,000.
The Herald estimates it would cost about $5m to clear the waiting list.
Warning: This article is about suicide and may be distressing for some readers.