An alarming new report offers a first-hand look at the unique struggles faced by transgender teenagers and young adults living in the Prairies.
The report, released Thursday by the University of British Columbia, raises red flags about suicide-attempt rates, bullying, drug use and self-harm among transgender youth living in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
But the report also suggests the group fares better than the national average for trans youth when it comes to family acceptance and open communication with their doctors.
The research looked at national data collected between 2013 to 2014 of more than 900 transgender individuals between the ages of 14 and 25. Of the sample group, 67 were from the Prairies.
The group was surveyed about their mental and physical health, and the findings were bleak. Half of high school-aged transgender teens (14 to 18) in the Prairie group said they attempted suicide in the last year, compared to 37 per cent of the national group.
Self-harm behaviour was reported by 60 per cent of all Prairie youth, compared with less than one-in-four trans youth nationally. Nearly two in five individuals said they were subjected to sexual assault.
“These rates suggest our trans youth are experiencing high levels of distress,” said Tracy Peter, a University of Manitoba sociology professor and senior investigator of the report, in a statement.
High school life was also surveyed. More than half of the Prairie teens reported being bullied in school, and 74 per cent said they were treated unfairly due to their physical appearance.
It’s a feeling Mason Godwaldt can relate to. He came out as transgender in his senior year of school and says he didn’t feel supported by classmates.
“It feels like you don’t fit in,” Godwaldt told CTV Winnipeg. “Everyone at school was still mis-gendering me, and it was hard for me to be like, ‘Okay guys, this is who I am,’ because I was very new to it and didn’t know much about being trans.”
The new research also offers some reason for optimism. Transgender teens in the Prairies were more likely than transgender teens nation-wide to disclose their transgender identity to their doctor, and they were less likely to feel uncomfortable discussing their trans status or identity with family members or at a walk-in clinic.
“I think one of the things that this report shows is that the services -- as thin as they may be -- are really doing good work,” Peter said.
Economic hardship affected more Prairie youth, with one in four saying they sometimes went to bed hungry because there wasn’t enough money for food at home. On the national scale, that number shrinks to just 3 per cent.
Reece Malone of the Rainbow Resource Centre, an LGBT support group in Winnipeg, said the results of the report are concerning but not surprising.
“There’s a lack of awareness in terms of what the needs are of trans youth,” said Malone, an education program coordinator at the centre.
One in three Prairie participants identified as indigenous. That figure is far higher than the national sample, but it falls in line with the populations of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
To read the full report, click here.
With files from CTV Winnipeg
