A safe place to talk openly about mental health & illness
For Pride Month, I wanted to talk about an important mental health issue facing LGBTQ+ youth. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among North American youth, and the level of risk is even higher in LGBTQ+ youth. That's not good. Stats Here are a few stats for LGBT youth: LGB youth attempt suicide five… Continue reading Suicide Risk Among LGBTQ+ Youth – A Pride Month Post
The Anxiety Book for Trans People by Freiya Benson aims to support trans and other non-cis identities in dealing with anxiety. Benson has previously published Trans Love, an anthology of trans and non-binary voices. The book focuses on experiences of anxiety, and in particular anxiety related to having non-cis identities, rather specifically on anxiety disorders.… Continue reading Book Review: The Anxiety Book for Trans People
I saw an article the other day on CBC News about the government of Arkansas putting the kibosh on gender-affirming treatment for anyone under the age of 18. This is a major problem for transgender people in Arkansas specifically, as well as justice in general, so let's talk about why. The new law in Arkansas… Continue reading It’s a Bad Time to Be Transgender in Arkansas
Recently, I read a story in the local news that made me angry (not that that's unusual lately). A mother had gone to court to try to block her 17-year-old from getting a gender-affirming double mastectomy. A BC Supreme Court judge issued an injunction to stop the surgery that was scheduled to happen the next… Continue reading Gender Identity and Parental Obstruction
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week we'll look at sex vs. gender, as they're not the same thing. While the terms sex and gender are often used interchangeably, they actually have distinct meanings. The distinction between the two was first proposed by a sexologist in the… Continue reading What Is… Sex vs. Gender?
Last week, I heard in the news that the Vatican released a statement essentially saying that transgender identities simply doesn't exist. It seems unlikely to be a coincidence that this was done during Pride Month. Dismissing transgender identities brings to mind a similar question to what's raised by the abortion debate bubbling away in the… Continue reading Who Gets to Decide Others’ Gender Identities?
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week's term is conversion "therapy". I've forgotten the details, but recently I heard/read something that mentioned conversion therapy, so I decided to look a little closer at this pseudo-therapy that aims to force people's sexuality to fit with heteronormative expectations.… Continue reading What Is… Conversion “Therapy”