today marks the midpoint of transgender awareness week it's observed every year to highlight the challenges faced by transgender and lgbtq Plus members of the community as advocates warn transgender rights are increasingly under attack pointing to roll backs on student protections and the culture wars around gender identity in politics and schools activists are fighting fiercely for the community and a senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports this week is also a time to recog ize transgender achievements and resilience about 44% of transgender and N non-binary youth in New Jersey so that's specific to our state seriously considered suicide in the past year those alarming numbers are a stark reminder that during this year's transgender awareness week non-binary and transgender individuals in New Jersey face significantly higher mental health challenges than the general population 63% of them have reported experiencing depression over the past year those stats come from annual reports put out by the Trevor Project and glisten the gay lesbian and straight education Network attorney and transgender Advocate Jamie Zog says it doesn't have to be this way being transgender on nonbinary in it of itself is not a predicator for suicidal ideation there's no need for transgender and non-binary folks to have higher rates of suicidal ideation than the general population but the lack of acceptance and understanding for transgender and nonbinary people is so pervasive that it makes it very difficult um for for Trans people uh to come out here in New Jersey the very public discourse around the role of schools in outing their trans students has had a big impact on those students says Damen Lopez they're saying you know we're not ready to come out to my parents and now schools are outing me or can out me to my parents without them without knowing that they don't support me like that's something that I'm scared to do every day now and I'm worried that I'm not going into safe spaces into schools either way and it's going to be just more bullying and more harassment or more um a lot more stressers on top of the things that they're already dealing with they're on social media they are very aware of the races that took place on November 7th they're very aware of Board of Ed folks that may have been running and they're very aware of what policy changes May mean for them if they're in a place where they don't feel safe that's going to directly impact their levels of anxiety depression and those sort of things can lead to in extreme cases suicidal ideation suicide isn't the only harm facing transgender and non-binary individuals this week of awareness ends with the transgender day of remembrance on Friday which is the day when we take a moment to remember the many transgender lives that have been lost over the past year inevitably it's always trans women of color that lead when it comes to violence against people in in the community um a lot of transgender and non-binary people experience violence in one way or another and some of them do lose their lives to violence specifically for transgender and non-binary folks who also identify as bipo folks this is a particularly dangerous place um for folks that identify as such the human rights uh camp or HRC found that in 2022 at least 41 transgender and gender non-conforming people were fatally shot yet so many fatal interactions go unreported says care Plus's Jen Velton the call for those who want to be allies this week and every week very small things like affirming who they are supporting them when they come out to you reminding them that they're loved and that they that they can authentically be themselves here Lopez says that type of allyship needs action not just words I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight news [Music] [Music]