And in honour of this day, I’d like to make some depressing states a little bit more visible.
An study based out of Ontario (Canada) found that 20% of trans people had experienced physical or sexual assault due to their gender identity. It also found that 34% were subjected to verbal threats or harassment.
That same study also found that half of trans people were living on less than $15,000 a year. To put this into context, I made $15,000 a year working part time at $12 and hour. To rent a cheap apartment, it would cost between $6000-$9600 a year. Where I live, you’d be lucky to pay the $9600. A years worth of groceries costs about $2400. That’s $12,000 just for food and shelter. Cheap utilities cost another $2400 a year where I live, which brings that total up to $14,400. The rest of that would likely go into transportation costs. This is just barely enough to live on.
That study went on to state that 77% of trans respondents in Ontario had seriously considered suicide, and 45% had actually attempted suicide.
A different study that I looked at focused on how LGBTQ students feel in Canadian schools. It found that 74% of trans students had been verbally harassed about their gender expression.
It also fund that 37% of trans students had been verbally harassed daily or weekly about their sexual orientation.
It found that 68% of trans students had been verbally harassed about their perceived gender or sexual orientation. It also stated that “Trans youth may report experiencing particularly high levels of harassment on the basis of perceived sexual orientation because often trans individuals are perceived as lesbian, gay, or bisexual when they are not.”
Finally, it found that 49% of trans students had experienced sexual harassment in school in one year (either 2007 or 2009).
None of this is okay. Everybody should feel safe and welcome in their country and their school. And everybody should have the same opportunities when it comes to economic security. That’s why today is so important.
http://ontario.cmha.ca/mental-health/lesbian-gay-bisexual-trans-people-and-mental-health/
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/peter-goffin/transgender-hate-crimes_b_3818530.html?
http://mygsa.ca/setting-gsa/homophobia-transphobia-statistics
http://www.straight.com/news/600-reasons-why-canada-needs-pass-transgender-rights-laws
hessianwithteeth 