‘The volume has been turned up on everything at the moment’: The pandemic has placed alarming pressure on transgender mental health across the world.
Covid19 has been a blow to everyone, it has been a difficult period for LGBTQ people all over the world. If you have lost a loved one you are in my prayers.
I found it difficult being in lockdown for months shielding from the virus hoping a vaccine is made that will work. More and more its looking like covid19 is like a game of “whack a mole” every time we think we have it under control a new strain pops up and we struggle to control it again back down to acceptable levels of infection within the general population. (This is known as the R number) what is this got to do with being transgender you say?
Well, a lot of LGBTQ people are stuck inside with abusive and hateful members of their family who can’t accept a son/daughter of theirs or a brother/sister is transgender, and you can’t go out and just talk like we could do before the lockdowns and shielding, so mental health issues are a problem for all during a pandemic, but the LGBTQ community is especially hard hit. Not being able to express your gender and passing a mirror in the house hating to see your body’s reflection as it’s the wrong body you see. Also just about all non-essential surgeries have been put on hold due to the strain Covid19 has placed on hospitals, this is causing untold damage to people waiting for upper or lower surgeries, this damage to their mental health needs to be considered and consideration be shown to the Transgender community when these surgeries restart start up again, perhaps the gatekeepers of the transgender clinics will understanding for once.
To the trans community stay strong, talk online chat on what’s app, post to twitter anyway you chose to communicate to others, just make sure you are not bottling it up for the sake of your mental health. If you cand dress full in the gender wear items under your “everyday clothes” if you can, we will soon be through this pandemic and the world will once again be open for business, you will get the chance to express yourself, just hang in there.
Let me tell you about my friend "Amy" I’m sure she will not mind.
My friend who I will call Amy (this is not her real name but to keep her privacy safe, we will know her as Amy.)
Amy is transitioning in a large city in Canada, she is having a difficult time with her family understanding Transgender and accepting her, as she wishes to be a female and not a male. The family are religious God-fearing members of their community. It’s a large family with Aunt’s & Uncles and lots of Cousins who all keep close to each other by the sounds of things.
They have said vile things to Amy and excluded her from family events and gatherings and she is not allowed to be who she really is, they appear to be happy she isn't happy!
Which is very sad as Amy, has in the past suffered a terrific accident and was clinically dead several times from the trauma her body had undergone in an accident. The accident happened in Europe and her family were in Canada and in Poland. Amy, recovered but during the periods of near death she had what can only be described as visions and in these visions, she realised she is in the incorrect gender, and is not in fact Male but Female.
These feelings have grown stronger and stronger till she reached out to the internet to enquire more about the feelings and how normal it is to feel like this, by chance I saw a posting from her newly created account in her chosen name, and I decided to make contact for once instead of doing nothing, I felt I had something to give in the way of knowledge and experience of transitioning and if nothing else just a shoulder to cry on. To be able to help and be there for her at difficult times has been a wonderful experience, as helping and giving an honest opinion on things has, I hope been of use to her.
My transition wasn’t easy so let’s be honest nobody’s is really easy, we all have parents, partners, brothers, sisters and so on all are affected by a decision to transition from one gender to another.
Their standings in the family change the eldest daughter is overnight now the eldest son or the bouncing baby boy you had as a brother, is now a girl and is now your sister. or you now have two Dad’s or Two Mum’s I’m sure you get what I’m alluding to here.
It’s difficult, but if the love was there, it should be there once you transition, if it disappears when you come out was it really there? (thats something to think about)
True love is all encompassing, I would defend my children and wife (yes we are still together and madly in love) with my life in a blink of an eye. Yes, they do wrong at times, they can be a idiot and make stupid mistakes, I might not like them at that moment in time for a second or two, but I have never stopped loving them, so I find my friends situation a puzzle.
She loves her family, but they have a very strange way of showing the same to her since she expressed a wish to live as a female. Amy is a private person who doesn’t want her identity known or for it to get out into the public domain, and I respect that 100%. We all must make a living doing something and if being exposed as transgender before you officially come out, is going to ruin a family business or a corporation’s image then its right to control the situation you’re in. As others will loose as well as yourself you may have to let loyal staff go due to a turn down in trade or companies not trading with you any longer because of it. We all know the press loves a good story and think nothing of running a story whether it’s damaging or not to the person their family or their business.
I hope with the threat of covid19 and so many unfortunate people having their lives cut short by the virus, her family realise she is here alive, well and they are lucky to have such a daughter in their lives. I hope and pray everything works out for her and she gets the rest of her life to be happy and living life to the fullest as her true self.
Amy my little sister, you know I'm still here when you need someone to talk to, ask questions of and seek some advice, we maybe miles apart but seconds away on a keyboard.
I decided to put up the Families clans tartan as an image of family and family values.
