LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla. — The rising rate of mental illness and suicide is concerning many in the psychology community. Many transgender people in our state cite the recent spotlight shined on them by targeted legislation out of Tallahassee.
“Essentially, my hair journey started with wigs.” For Karina Shaw, her happy place is wherever and whenever she can style one of her many wigs.
“Something about wigs just screamed fabulous to me,” said Shaw as she used a curling iron on her green-colored wig.
Shaw is a proud transgender woman, but she said she notices more discrimination against the trans community in Florida.
“It used to be a little bit easier to exist just as a person. Now that people are learning the label of trans, they’re starting to put us in our own category,” said Shaw. A category, Shaw said, that puts an unwanted spotlight on her community. “They might look at me a weird way, or they might say something."
There has been a slew of legislation out of Tallahassee aimed at the transgender community. “All of those send a very clear message,” said Brandon Wolf with Equality Florida.
Legislation like SB 1320 prohibits school employees from using gender pronouns that don’t match students’ sex at birth, even if the student requests it.
“When you send a message from powerful people in our state that LGBTQ people are something to be ashamed of, that there’s something wrong with them, and that ultimately, we have to take government action to silence or censor that community out of society, you send that message very clearly to young people,” said Wolf.
“Hello, good afternoon. So, how have you been over the past couple of weeks,” is how Courtney Bedford starts her therapy sessions with her clients. Bedford has been an LGBTQ-affirming therapist for 20 years and owns Zen Counseling & Consulting Services.
“I’ve unfortunately heard some very horrific stories,” said Bedford. She said a lot of her transgender clients have trauma associated with how people treat them. “People have been spat on. They had bathroom stalls kicked in as they were using the restroom. People demanding to see their genitals."
“That’s part of the reason why we see such a high amount of things like anxiety, depression, suicide attempts in the LGBTQ community as a whole, but especially in the transgender population,” said Dr. David Berger, owner of Wholistic Pediatrics & Family Care in Tampa.
Dr. Berger has a YouTube channel where he combats medical disinformation. He said providing gender-affirming care is more difficult now because of SB 254, which restricts that care for both transgender minors and adults. For adults, the law doesn’t allow Medicaid to pay for gender-affirming care; for minors, gender-affirming care is banned straight out.
Governor Ron DeSantis said it’s all in an effort to stop the “mutilation of children.” However, it’s important to note that puberty blockers for minors don’t involve surgery, and the effects are reversible upon stopping treatment.
In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization support gender-affirming care for adults and youth that are experiencing gender dysphoria.
“When a person looks into the mirror, and the person that’s staring back at them is not who they feel that they are, that can be very dissettling,” explained Dr. Berger.
