There’s been an increase in calls from transgender youth to the United States’ largest LGBTQ youth crisis and suicide prevention organisation following President Trump’s tweets calling for transgender troops to be banned from the military.
According to the , there has been a “dramatic spike” in calls, texts and online messages from young trans people after the president posted the anti-transgender tweets— and after the Texas ‘bathroom bill’ was by a Senate committee.
The Trevor Project normally receives—on average—178 contacts per day from LGBT+ youth, of which 7.3 per cent identify as transgender. However, following recent events, this number has jumped to 17.5 per cent.
“This data makes clear that our elected officials can no longer ignore that their anti-transgender rhetoric is putting lives at risk,” said Trevor Project CEO and Executive Director Amit Paley.
“Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and legislation directly leads to crisis among our community’s young people.
“While The Trevor Project will continue to be there for them around the clock, our elected officials must stop throwing young people into crisis for political gain.
“Discrimination is un-American, and we will hold to account those legislators who attack the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ community.”
President Trump’s proposal to ban transgender people from serving in the US armed forces has been widely condemned by military leaders, politicians, celebrities and LGBT+ activists.
Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin of the move that Trump has “put a target on the backs of more than 15,000 transgender troops proudly serving in our military”.
“This heinous and disgusting action endangers the lives of American service members, undermines military readiness and makes our country less safe. It is also the latest effort by Trump and Mike Pence to undo our progress and drag LGBTQ people back into the closet by using our lives as political pawns,” added Griffin.
The majority of Americans believe transgender people should be able to serve in the military with a by Quinnipiac University finding that 68 per cent of US voters were in favour of trans people serving—27 per cent disagreed and the remainder were unsure or didn’t answer.
For support, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
