Duncan Matthews Rainbow Youth says some progress is being made, as a report has been released showing just how tough life can be for transgender teenagers in New Zealand. Auckland University’s Adolescent Health Research Group has collated data from the Youth ’12 report, which shows transgender high school students experience compromised mental health and personal safety, and have difficulty accessing health care. They were less likely to report believing that a parent cared about them and that school was okay, but were more likely to report having significant depressive symptoms. Nearly 20 per cent had attempted suicide in the previous 12 months and nearly half of the had been hit or physically harmed by another person on purpose. "At Rainbow Youth, we see the front line of the lack of access to information, lack of access to medical and mental health care, lack of visibility, fear and stress of living in a cis-normative world on our trans young people,” says General Manager Duncan Matthews. “What has been positive in the last few months and years is seeing the government and ADHB slowly starting to listen and recognise the needs of trans individuals. There is still a long way to go, but there are a number of dedicated volunteers pushing things forwards.” Matthews says he is also encouraged by the number of people he runs into in everyday life who, while still lacking some basic information and understanding, fully support and advocate for trans people in their lives, work places and so on.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 24th January 2014 - 11:11am