Samaritans: ready with a listening ear

Back in October I had the pleasure, along with friend Paula Howard, of visiting The Samaritans here in Massachusetts to provide a introduction on who transgender people are.  It seems they get ALOT of call from trans-folk; which in one respect is very unsettling given what The Samaritans are known for:

Suicide Prevention!

Of course, our community is a little at risk for this.  As we quoted in our earlier shocking news about Christine Daniels, suicide planning and actually execution are 7x-10x higher in our little transgender community than in normal groups!  My aren’t we special!!

On a personal note, I’ve lost two friends to this sad decision to take ones own life.  To be frank, it makes me cry every time I think of these two women since their deaths were so needless.  I think at some point we’ll have to delve into what would make someone  become so hopeless that suicide becomes a “rational” choice.  It never, ever is of course as the successful suicidist never gets to write the end of their own personal life story with anything but a sad ending.  We can’t let this go on folks.  Really, we just can’t.

Besides, who else is going to keep MAC in business if we aren’t around?

The people at The Samaritans were wonderful.  Paula and I discussed about who trans-people are, what makes us trans and what pressures we face as transgender men and women.  Things like jobs, family and societal acceptance and one of the biggest things of all, self-acceptance of ourselves as people with dreams, ambitions, and lives fully worth living.  They listened with attentive ears and great follow on questions.

Interestingly, the good folk at Samaritans shared that many times when transgender people call them the key thing the caller is needing is….acceptance.   Just someone who can listen to them and who will take them seriously.

Towards the end of our session we all came to the conclusion that transgender people (no matter where on their journey they are) aren’t really that different from anyone else.  We just want to be accepted, to be taken seriously, and then to go on with our lives.   It was nice to know The Samaritans were there, with a listening ear, just to take that call.