Since I started volunteering at Inside Out Youth Services and then later worked there, I have connected with so many youth who don’t identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. So many defeated youth whose identities are inadvertently or even directly disrespected on a daily basis. I sat with so many youth at the Crisis Stabilization Center for hours who were fighting a society that doesn’t accept or even want them. So many youth who deeply yearned for support from their families and gender affirming hormones to which they did not have access. And because of all this disrespect, hate, intolerance LGBTIQA+ youth, especially transgender youth, experience a much higher rate of self harming and suicidal ideation. Trans youth experience suicide ideation and attemps at 8x the rate that a cisgender (someone who identifies with the sex they were assigned at birth) person experiences.

I hear so many cisgender people who are not educated about the trans culture say that they don’t understand why trans youth are so full of anger and hate. It’s easy to blame the youth or person without digging a bit deeper to see the root of the issue. When a flower or a plant doesn’t survive, we don’t blame the plant, we right blame the conditions; the soil, the amount of water, the nutrients.

I could go on and on and ON, but I will leave it here. One of my favorite songs of all time was written about a youth named Cameron who feels more comfortable in lipstick who is also physically assaulted because of his identity. It’s a soulful yet sweet melody that often makes me cry in my car or while I’m listening to music doing the dishes though I’ve listened to it since 2013. Here’s a link to the video, which is even more heart wrenching than just the song itself.

Did you watch the video? What did you think?

Maegan