Funding for transgender youth’s mental health is about saving lives, not ‘waking up’

When did it become okay to demonize a group of children that some perceive as “different”? Imagine if a group of children with a specific physical or developmental disability were publicly ridiculed, including over $100 million in political ads, telling them that they were unworthy and that they were somehow less than human. Then imagine that this caused a huge increase in suicide attempts among this group last year and that suicide reports have skyrocketed since this ad.

I hope everyone will say that this is a crisis and that we need to help these children urgently. Well, the exact same thing is happening to transgender youth. Used by politicians to maintain and expand their power, the number of suicide attempts among young transgender people increased by 72% last year. Since the election, calls to suicide prevention hotlines have increased by 48%.

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This issue isn’t about “wokeness,” pronouns, sports, or “identity politics.” This is about our humanity. It is about our urgent call to help children, many of whom have found that they are not wanted in this world and are, as a result, trying to take their own lives. We have a mental health crisis among our youth in general, but it is especially urgent for transgender children. It is no exaggeration to say that lives are at stake.

To address this urgent need, last week I introduced a motion to prioritize funding for the mental health needs of these children. This is not an “inclusion order” or a statement that every agency must provide such services, as recently reported. This means we need to fill the gaps in mental health care for these children so that every child has access to it.

What amount are we talking about? About 0.01% of the city’s total budget – 0.01% to help prevent child suicide among us, whether ours or our neighbors.

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As a parent of an adult transgender child, I have realized the pain and fear that lofty political rhetoric has caused in this community over the past few months. In the few years since my child was born, it has been a personal journey of empathy and understanding for me.

While we cannot control when politicians use transgender children as political pawns, we can say that in our Queen City we will embrace and accept every child for who they are. As a political leader, my job is to imagine the world I want to see in Cincinnati and bring as much of that world into ours as possible. I imagine a city where everyone feels safe, has a chance for a good education and a well-paid job, where everyone can build wealth and live a healthy, fulfilled and high-quality life. Cincinnati, where I want to live, is also a city where we recognize everyone who lives among us as a worthy human being.

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Regardless of political affiliation, I hope that we can come together as a city and say that when a group of our children are demonized to the point that they attempt to take their own lives, we will support them and that we will make sure they have mental health care that they need. This Cincinnati reflects the decent people we are as a city.

Cincinnati Councilman Mark Jeffreys is chairman of the Equity Growth and Housing Committee and vice-chair of the Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Committee.

This article originally appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati must provide transgender youth with mental health care | Opinion