On 42%

June 27, 2022

I explained this on my story, but my friend Alex implored me to post it to main because it clearly articulated an important point about the present moment.

I added the number 42% to this tweet and received a lot of questions about it.

42% of transgender people in America attempt suicide.

42% often gets posted on my photos or videos by bots and trolls reminding me that nearly half of my community has tried to end their own lives.

I am a survivor of this statistic.

Anti-trans media has tried to spin this number to make it seem like being transgender inevitably leads to suicide. This could not be further from the truth.

Suicidality in our community is caused by transphobia, transmisogyny, rejection, and gatekeeping of our right to bodily autonomy. It is the threat of losing access to a future of happiness and authenticity. The threat of loss of control over our bodily destiny.

The second half of this tweet speaks to the epidemic of violence against women and people with uteruses at the hands of cis male partners, who feel immense shame and fear at the prospect of the life-altering consequences of carrying an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy to term.

There is a persistent and ongoing epidemic of under investigated murders of predominantly Black and brown trans women in this country.

57 transgender people were murdered here in 2021. These murders are overwhelmingly committed by cis male sexual or romantic partners who feel shame for their attraction to trans people, usually women, and fear of the consequences to their lives if other people find out.

The life expectancy of Black trans women in America is 35 years old.

Liberation of all marginalized bodies is a goal that will only be achieved through intersectional solidarity. The loss of Roe is not the beginning of this war, it is merely the first milestone that you are registering in your mind because you do not register that transphobia is also oppression.

I was raised and educated in the Catholic church. It has taken me years to reprogram that indoctrination.

I’m begging you to do the same and finally include trans people in this fight.