We need to expand and improve access to transgender healthcare in Victoria, as Coroner Ingrid Giles recommended in last year’s investigation into the tragic suicide of five Victorian trans women.
The youngest was 19 years old, and the oldest was only 33.
Last year Giles identified several failings in Victoria’s social services, healthcare system and police response.
Her report revealed what many trans and gender diverse people already know to be true: That trans and gender diverse people experience discrimination in the healthcare system and face greater barriers in accessing support.
These barriers profoundly affect the physical and mental health of young trans people and results in the rates of suicide and self harm in the trans community being many times higher than that of the general population.
In the report, the coroner said:
“Nobody should feel profound dread or be afraid to access healthcare”
– Coroner Ingrid Giles
The Victorian Labor Government needs to do more to address these barriers and deficiencies in our systems, and create better systems that are inclusive and accessible to trans and gender diverse youth in Victoria.
If we can’t improve our systems we’re going to hear more tragic stories like this one.
We need to listen to the recommendations and findings from harrowing reports like this
But last week, ignoring the general consensus of Australia’s medical community, the Queensland Liberal National Government made the disgraceful decision to halt transgender healthcare for people under the age of 18.
The Queensland State Government made this decision not based on the facts, but based on a tired ideological viewpoint that the far-right have been desperate to import into this country for years.
The Australian Medical Association has implored us all to listen to doctors ahead of our own “ideological views”.
There need to be fewer barriers to gender affirming healthcare; more clinics and more support for these services to make trans healthcare more safe and accessible for trans and gender diverse people of all ages.
If you oppose transgender healthcare, you oppose science, you oppose human rights and you oppose protecting young people.
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