Why are transgender people more likely to commit suicide?

[Jehanne]

I have known a few trans people - a couple quite well. To the best of my knowledge - all had tried to commit suicide at least once. (Only one succeeded).

While that isn't indicative of the whole of the population - it has always made me wonder.

https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/p...er-adults/

According to UCLA - trans folk are 18 times more likely to have attempted suicide in the past year compared to the general population.

Is a trans person more likely to commit suicide, or is a suicidal person more likely to change gender?

I wonder as one person I know tried committing suicide before transition.....

I am a transgender female.  Growing up in a fundamentalist, evangelical Christian Church, I was taught that LGBTQ people, while they may not be able to control their feelings and emotions, were able to choose their actions; as such, behaviors such as homosexual sex was a choice.  However, the One and Triune God, being immutable and perfect, had no choice but to punish such individuals in Eternal Hell for having chose to violate His natural and divine Law.

As a young child right up until the present, I wore women's skirts & dresses.  In my evangelical Church, I was told that God may punish me in Eternity for my "unnatural" behavior.  Around age 13 through the end of high school, I began having night terrors where I would wake-up (sometimes multiple times) running around my home screaming that was in Hell.  Please let me assure everyone on the board that such behavior on my part was no choice.  Eventually, my night terrors began to transition, over the next decade or so, into nightmares.

In short, I think that some transgender individuals commit suicide because they are made to feel as if they are unnatural, unwanted, etc.  Yesterday, I was walking around Iowa City, IA, the most liberal city in the State of Iowa.  I was wearing jeans, and it was hot; I rolled-up the sides of my tee-shirt, my long hair draping across my shoulders down to my mid-back.  Several individuals yelled at me from their cars, while a few others gawked at me, most of the thousands of other individuals ignoring me entirely.  A few passersby went out of their way to say a polite "Hello" to me, as I walked on the south side of Iowa City waiting for my wife and children to come.

I was amused by all the unsolicited attention, both favorable and otherwise, but, it was hot, and just as I like to wear a full skirt on occasion (where I am almost always completely ignored), so, too, I felt much more comfortable rolling-up my sleeves, and I like the feminine sensation of my long hair against my body.