A new study of transgender people in Virginia has found that experiencing physical or sexual violence significantly contributes to individuals’ suicidal thinking and substance abuse. The study, conducted by the Center for LGBTQ Evidence-based Applied Research, found that over 70 percent of respondents had a history of suicidal ideation, with about 28 percent having reported a past suicidal attempt. (The National Transgender Discrimination Survey, which had a sample of over 6,000, found that as many as 41 percent of trans people had attempted suicide, whereas only 1.6 percent of the general population has ever done so.) The likelihood and frequency of those attempts significantly related to whether or not they had experienced physical or sexual violence:

Among trans people in our sample, both physical and sexual violence were related to having a history of suicidal ideation, history of suicide attempts, higher number of attempts, and to substance abuse. This is consistent with distress and negative coping responses seen in the general population as a result of physical and sexual violence. [...]

Factors specific to trans victims of violence were identified, including high reported prevalence of violence related to gender identity or expression, varied sources of this violence, and low rate of reporting these incidents to police. As increased attention is devoted to the trans community in popular culture and research, psychologists have a clear opportunity to act by increasing understanding of the impact of violence on trans individuals’ mental health, and by responding with appropriate prevention and treatment efforts.

The levels of violence against trans people is problematic enough, but the clear consequence of that victimization is particularly troubling. More research like this is necessary to emphasize how much more must be done to protect trans people in society. Stigma against individuals who do not conform to gender norms needs to be interrupted at the youngest of ages to prevent such animus from further developing. Families must also be educated about trans identities to help prevent the high rates of abuse that occur in the home.

The Covenant Christian Academy in Harrisburg, PA believes that “the practice of same-sex relations is a sin and that promotion of such a lifestyle is a sin,” and they’re now using that belief to justify the firing of a teacher.

When Sharon Wright’s son announced on Facebook during his senior year (2009) at the school that he was gay, he was indefinitely suspended and not allowed to return to the school. This created an interesting dilemma for Wright, who was a teacher at the school. She continued to teach there despite her support for her son, but endured comments from school administrators like, “your son is broken, and it’s your job to fix him” and that this was a “battle for his soul.” The ongoing stress of the situation exacerbated her mental health diagnoses of “adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood” and impaired her “thinking, concentrating, interacting with others, and sleeping.”

Wright requested a medical leave of absence in January 2010 for her disability, which was granted. She insisted that she could resume the duties of full-time teaching for the following school year provided future medical leave be accommodated, if needed. The school, however, tried to impose an involuntary sabbatical because she “needed a year to heal.” Rejecting Wright’s request for intermittent medical leave, Covenant was not rehired for a full-time position for the following year. Now, she has filed suit in federal court claiming that she was discriminated against in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The school argues that they did not rehire Wright because of a letter she ultimately wrote in May 2010 criticizing its anti-gay policy, calling her suit a “personal vendetta” that attacks the school’s “constitutionally protected religious doctrine.” Of course, her suit does not address the school’s anti-gay policy whatsoever, but it does point out that the recommendation to not hire her preceded the letter she wrote. Covenant denies almost every claim Wright makes in the suit.

No doubt, the academy’s anti-gay policy and its treatment of Wright’s son are odious. But now it seems the school is using that policy to justify discriminating against one of its teachers. Though the school did not accuse her of violating its tenants in her capacity as a teacher, she endured an environment so hostile that it impacted her mental well-being. Ultimately, the school used that as justification for her termination. If the anti-gay policy was directly to blame, there is little explanation for the school’s unsatisfactory offers of part-time work or a year-long sabbatical. It seems more likely that Covenant simply didn’t want a teacher who loved her gay son.

Read Wright’s full complaint and the school’s laconic response.

Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver

The Liberty Counsel, an anti-gay legal group affiliated with Liberty University, is concerned about the recently passed California bill that would prohibit licensed therapists from offering ex-gay therapy to minors. Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel’s founder and chairman, explained that the group believes the government should not do anything to protect the health of its citizens:

STAVER: If the bill is signed into law, Liberty Counsel will sue on behalf of counselors, parents, and minors who provide, refer, or who receive and have found change therapy to be beneficial.

If the governor signs this law, mental health professionals will find themselves in a catch-22. Therapists have an ethical obligation to help clients deal with conflict. If a counselee is experiencing conflict between religious beliefs and same-sex attractions and wants to prioritize these beliefs over such attractions, the counselor is ethically obligated to directly help the client or refer for help. Under this bill, the counselor will be forced to disregard the client’s religious beliefs or change them. This bill will harm minors, undermine parental rights, and interfere with the rights of counselors. This bill and the ethical codes of all of the licensing boards in California are on an inevitable collision course.

The implications of the government determining what counseling treatments are acceptable should concern every counselor and citizen. That decision should be left to the patient, the parents, and the doctors. The government has no place in that conversation.

The government has every responsibility to ensure that people are protected from harmful, unscientific medical practices. Just as the FDA regulates prescription drugs so that individuals’ health is not compromised, so too does it make perfect sense to regulate therapeutic treatments. A religious belief does not entitle an individual to controlled substances that would be harmful, and so neither should it entitle parents to force their children to endure the harmful junk therapy of trying to change their sexual orientation. It would be no different if a patient demanded a doctor treat her with bloodletting or leeches — the patient’s belief does not determine the effectiveness of the treatment.

As Box Turtle Bulletin has noted, the California bill only applies to licensed therapists. Religious ex-gay ministries, unlicensed pastors, counselors, or “life coaches” could reinforce the stigma and self-hatred Liberty Counsel believes in as much they wanted.

An Ohio appeals court ruled that a lesbian mom who had previously been granted access to the daughter she and her former partner had are now void. Their reasoning: her former partner who was the biological mom is now married to a man who has adopted the child and, due to a 2004 state constitutional amendment, the non-biological parents is legally a “non-relative.”

Pink News reports that a lower court ruled previously that Maggie Gross was entitled to access the seven-year-old biological daughter of her former partner, Jennifer Herrick. But the Franklin County Court of Appeals overturned that ruling, determining that because Herrick’s new husband adopted the child, all previous relationships are now null and void. The court said, according to the report, “because the adoption is meant to provide a new family for the child, it in effect severs: ‘legal relationships with non-relatives, such as [Ms Gross], who attempt to base their claims on relationships in existence prior to the adoption.’”

Gross told the Columbus Dispatch that this ruling essentially erases half of her daughter’s life.

“They’re saying that half of all this never happened, that half of her life didn’t exist,” Gross said of the 7-year-old girl, who was almost 3 when Gross and Herrick ended their relationship in 2008. “That defies logic.”

While this ruling may be a correct application of Ohio law, it illustrates the harm the state’s anti-LGBT constitutional amendment does to same-sex families. An opposite sex-couple would never be in this situation. Because the state treated Gross and Herrick as legally unrelated, this seven year old will no longer be able to regularly see one of her parents, who is now legally a “non-relative” because of Ohio’s discriminatory law.

A repeal effort may be on the ballot in Ohio as soon as November 2013.

Dynasty Young, his mother Chelisa Grimes, and his twin brother Darell. (Photo vis Michelle Pemberton, IndyStar.)

Dynasty Young’s story is tragic: When he arrived at his new Indianapolis school, he was constantly bullied for his perceived sexual orientation and gender non-conforming dress. Rather than interrupt the harassment, school officials at Arsenal Technical High School blamed Dynasty’s dress, holding him accountable for ending his own harassment by dressing more masculine. Bullies regularly referred to him as “fag,” spit on him, and on at least one occasion, threw rocks and empty glass bottles at him, leading him into a severe depression with poor academic performance. In April, when six students prepared to attack him, Dynasty activated the alarm on the self-protection flashlight his mother had given him, which successfully dispersed his would-be assailants, but caused the school to expel him. Now, he’s suing the district, which won’t readmit him except at an alternative school for troubled youth.

Dynasty’s mother, Chelisa Grimes, repeatedly called on school administrators to protect her son, but they never held his bullies to account, refusing his repeated offers to show them who his bullies were, even if he couldn’t identify them by name. She hopes the suit will protect other students from future harassment:

GRIMES: It’s important to get justice for Dynasty for the damage that IPS did to him, but it’s even more important that IPS make some real changes in the way it deals with bullying and harassment. We hope IPS will be willing to sit down and talk with us soon about ways they can improve their policies and training so that kids like Dynasty can feel safe in IPS schools.  My son is a wonderful, sweet, talented young man.  He deserves a chance to attend school and learn without being terrorized by other students and told that the school will not protect him unless he changes who he is.

The case illuminates the importance of specific protections for students who may identify as LGBT. Dynasty’s freedom of expression, which did not even violate the school’s dress code, should not justify the treatment he experienced. Conservatives are seemingly too focused on protecting the rights of bullies to appreciate how much damage is done when young people like Dynasty are disregarded, ignored, or even punished for trying to protect themselves. Read the full complaint for more details of his experiences, via the National Center for Lesbian Rights.