Publications - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Religious faith linked to suicidal behavior in LGBQ adults, by Anne Harding, Reuters, Apr 13 2018.

“Although religiosity is generally tied to reduced suicide risk, the opposite may be true for some young lesbian, gay and questioning adults, researchers say. Based on data from more than 21,000 U.S. college students, researchers found that greater religious feeling and engagement was tied to increased risk of suicidal thoughts and actions for participants who identified as LGBQ...Questioning youth had the highest rate of recent thoughts about suicide, at 16.4 percent, compared with 3.7 percent of heterosexuals, 6.5 percent of lesbian/gay individuals and 11.4 percent of bisexuals. ”

Using transgender youths' chosen names may lower suicide risk, by Rachel Gurevich , Reuters, Apr 10 2018.

“When a transgender youth chooses a new name, it’s important for friends, relatives and acquaintances to use that chosen name, a new study suggests.  For those who selected a different name from the one given at birth, being called by the chosen name reduced depressive symptoms and overall suicidal risk, researchers found.  The reduction in mental health risks was strongest when the chosen name was used in multiple contexts, like at home, at school, at work, and among friends. ”

Impossible Perfection, by Daniel Summers, Slate, Mar 30 2018.

“Earlier this year, a survey conducted jointly by the Trevor Project, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), and Reasons Eating Disorder Center reported a shockingly high rate of eating disorders among LGBTQ youth. Of the 1,034 respondents to the survey, all LGBTQ-identifying people between 13–24 years old, 54 percent had been diagnosed with an eating disorder, and an additional 21 percent suspected they may have one despite lacking a formal diagnosis. While these results aren’t perfectly representative, they call much-needed attention to a serious problem within our community.  ”

Sexual orientation top risk for suicidal thoughts in college freshmen, by Cheryl Platzman Weinstock, Reuters, Mar 15 2018.

“ Nearly one third of first-year college students have thought about suicide, according to a study across eight countries, and non-heterosexual identity or feelings were the biggest risks for this kind of thinking or behavior. Having a religion other than Christianity, being female, having unmarried parents or at least one deceased parent and being age 20 or older were also important risk factors, though being a sexual minority also carried the highest risk of transitioning from suicidal thoughts to plans to attempts, the researchers found. ”

Trans teens may not get care they need, by Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, Feb 5 2018.

“Transgender teens may be more likely to miss preventive health checkups and have untreated medical problems than their non-transgender peers, a U.S. study suggests...Overall, transgender adolescents were almost twice as likely as other teens to report their health as “poor, fair or good” as opposed to “very good or excellent,” the study found...“When youth present differently than what society would expect for their birth-assigned sex, they often receive messages in society that they are behaving in a way that is ‘wrong’ or that they are ‘wrong’ in some way," said lead study author Nic Rider, a human sexuality researcher at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. ”

Teen sexual identity, childhood trauma linked to suicidal behaviors, by Shereen Lehman, Reuters, Dec 18 2017.

“Both LGBQ sexual identity and traumatic experiences in childhood are linked to a heightened risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, U.S. researchers say. Teens who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or are questioning their sexual identity are also more likely than their heterosexual peers to have had adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in childhood, the study team reports in Journal of Adolescent Health...'Furthermore, cumulative exposure to ACEs greatly increased suicide risk behaviors among sexual minority adolescents. For example, compared with heterosexual students with no exposure to ACEs, LGB/not sure students with two or more ACEs had approximately 13 times higher odds of attempting suicide in the past year,' Clements-Nolle said. ”

Health Care System Fails Many Transgender Americans, by Neda Ulaby, NPR, Nov 21 2017.

“Preventable problems, including HIV infection and some cancers, kill many people in this community. It's harder for transgender people to find health care coverage, because it's harder for them to find jobs. Social stigmas aside, consider the difficulty of getting hired if your gender does not appear to match the one on your legal ID. According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Study, transgender people face an unemployment rate three times as high as the national average — 15 percent versus 5 percent...'Right now, it's very hard for a lot of people to even find a primary care provider who's willing to work with them,' said Kellan Baker, a doctoral candidate at Johns Hopkins University who studies how health policies affect gay, lesbian, queer and transgender Americans. He said even if you regularly see a physician, a number of insurance companies will not cover care related to gender transition, such as hormones or surgery. 'Which, as you can imagine, is a huge barrier for transgender people in terms of mental health,' he said. 'So you're looking at yourself in the mirror, you're not able to get health insurance coverage [and] you can't get health care that you need to make sure that how you look aligns with who you are.' ”

Increased Risk for Suicidal Thoughts Among Transgender Students, by Rick Nauert, PhD, Psych Central, Sep 6 2017.

“Emerging evidence suggests school-based mental health services are urgently needed to protect against suicidal thoughts among transgender students...Nearly 35 percent of transgender youth in California reported suicidal thoughts in the past year, compared to 19 percent among non-transgender youth...The study also reports that higher rates of depression and victimization among transgender youth compared to non-transgender youth partly explain higher risk of suicidal thoughts among transgender students...Study authors explain that this research is only a beginning as the results may represent an underestimate of the gender identity-related disparity in suicidal thoughts.  ”

Born this way? Researchers explore the science of gender identity, by Daniel Trotta, Reuters, Aug 3 2017.

“A consortium of five research institutions in Europe and the United States, including Vanderbilt University Medical Center, George Washington University and Boston Children's Hospital, is looking to the genome, a person's complete set of DNA, for clues about whether transgender people are born that way. Two decades of brain research have provided hints of a biological origin to being transgender, but no irrefutable conclusions.  Now scientists in the consortium have embarked on what they call the largest-ever study of its kind, searching for a genetic component to explain why people assigned one gender at birth so persistently identify as the other, often from very early childhood. ”

Experts Answer Reddit Questions About Transgender People, by Brittney McNamara, Teen Vogue , Jul 28 2017.

“Transgender people have fought a long and hard battle to be recognized as exactly what they are: human beings. While some strides were made in recent years, this fight was shoved back into the spotlight after President Trump took office, reversing certain civil rights for transgender people, particularly young people in schools. Again, that battle has been spotlighted this week, after Trump seemingly reversed a right won just a year ago for transgender people to serve openly in the military. ”

Experts Answer Reddit Questions About Transgender People, by Brittney McNamara, Jun 26 2017.

LGBTQ People With Developmental Disabilities Need Respect, Privacy, and Access to Community, by Jennifer Smith, Jun 22 2017.

“Forging healthy relationships often depends on the availability and willingness of supportive staff to facilitate such interactions. But the direct support profession is in peril, facing high turnover, low wages, limited training, and ineffective supervision, according to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. The AAIDD has called for more professional development opportunities so direct support professionals can handle their increasing responsibilities. As direct support professionals are thrown into more autonomous roles without proper supervision or training, they may be unwilling to tackle touchy subjects like sexuality and gender identity ”

Emergency doc training important to improving transgender care, by Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, Mar 1 2017.

“The negative experiences of transgender and gender nonconforming patients in U.S. emergency departments could be avoided with better training for doctors, suggests a new study.  Based on survey responses from 240 transgender and gender nonconforming people, researchers say negative experiences were often attributable to doctors' lack of knowledge. ”

The Tale Of Two Princes, by Joshua Desjardins (Author) and Michael Hetrick (Illustrator) , 2017.

2016 deadliest year on record for U.S. transgender people, campaigners say, by Sebastien Malo, Reuters, Nov 10 2016.

“Murders of transgender people hit an all-time high in the United States this year, campaigners said on Thursday, amid fears of a backlash against the transgender community following the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president.  GLAAD, a U.S. advocacy group that tracks transgender murders said 24 transgender people were murdered, exceeding last year's tally of 22. Most of this year's victims were women of colour, GLAAD said. ”