[BKKMAN]

Originally Posted by mugwump

I don't see this as elective. Something has to be done...the suicide rate among the transgendered is 41%. I believe that gender identity and sexual orientation are hard-wired, genetically and/or epigenetically.

If you are going to mindlessly throw out statistics, you might want to get it correct.

A “staggering” 41 percent of the more than 6,400 respondents said they had attempted suicide, compared to a rate of 1.6 percent for the general population, according to the survey (PDF) by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality.

ABA Journal Article



Additionally, I take the statistics of this survey with a grain of salt, considering the nexus of the survey [National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality] and the biases of the researchers involved with an axe to grind...YMMV...



The mission statements for both organizations:

The National Center for Transgender Equality is a national social justice organization devoted to ending discrimination and violence against transgender people through education and advocacy on national issues of importance to transgender people. By empowering transgender people and our allies to educate and influence policymakers and others, NCTE facilitates a strong and clear voice for transgender equality in our nation’s capital and around the country.

The mission of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is to build the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. We do this by training activists, equipping state and local organizations with the skills needed to organize broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, and building the organizational capacity of our movement. Our Policy Institute, the movement’s premier think tank, provides research and policy analysis to support the struggle for complete equality and to counter right-wing lies. As part of a broader social justice movement, we work to create a nation that respects the diversity of human expression and identity and creates opportunity for all.

The entire survey and executive summary are available through the article in the link posted above...

ETA: The one generic question on the test regarding suicide:

54. Have you ever attempted suicide? �� Yes �� No

And the explanation for its inclusion:

Some of the most devastating and most important results from the survey came from this question, which was almost not included because we knew we could not delve deeply enough into the topic and because it made the institutional review process more difficult because the question conceivably could trigger or retrigger thoughts of suicide among respondents. Thus, we included, at the beginning of the survey, a suicide resource, The Trevor Project, which agreed to serve both adult and youth callers. And, in fact, we did receive two calls from respondents who were distressed from filling out the survey and were able to appropriately refer them; we are not sure how many may have called The Trevor Project.

We are incredibly grateful that we included this question. We recommend that future researchers carefully consider how to construct a more complex set of questions about suicidality by looking at federal and other surveys. We recommend that future questions differentiate between attempts at different stages of a respondent’s life. Additionally future studies might differentiate between attempts in the last year as opposed to over a person’s life span to compare to the many studies that only ask about the last year. Furthermore, it would be helpful to ask about ideation and connection with depressive episodes or other mental health conditions.

The question itself is quite generic and there are no follow-on questions or categories to differentiate either the 'level' of suicide attempt or the reason for attempting it (transgender bullying, cat died, tired of living in Mom's basement, etc.)