Placer County grieves trans lives lost too soon: ‘We warned this would happen’ | Opinion
Content warning: This piece contains mentions of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health or in crisis, dial 988 to reach the 24/7 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
For nearly eight years, Placer County’s LGBTQ+ community and their friends, family members and allies have gathered on Transgender Day of Remembrance, an international event that takes place on Nov. 20. The local gathering will grieve the 28 trans Americans killed in 2024.
This year, however, the event is more important than ever: In the past year, a Placer County faith leader said he has talked with Placer County families who have lost transgender young people to suicide.
“We spent years and years without losing any of our youth to suicide,” said Pastor Casey Tinnin of the Loomis Basin Congregational United Church of Christ.
Tinnin, who is gay, received news from family members, friends and professors of the deceased individuals. (Notably, trans deaths are notoriously underreported).
According to health experts, there is no one reason why young people are lost to suicide. A 2020 study from the National Institutes of Health cited data showing that 82% of transgender individuals have considered suicide, and 40% have attempted it. The NIH study examined risk factors such as environmental micro-aggressions, internalized self-stigma and adverse childhood experiences.
We don’t know the identities or the circumstances that led some Placer County trans youth to take their own lives. But Tinnin and other advocates have said for years that the politics of Placer County have played a role in making trans youth feel unwanted and unsafe.
We know that in the past year, transphobia was weaponized in the presidential election. It has shaped legislation at the national, state and local level. In Placer County, the flash point for laws and policies that wind up targeting trans and non-binary youth have been framed as battles to preserve parental rights.
One such battle was over Assembly Bill 1955 — ultimately signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom — which protects the privacy of young trans and queer individuals. The legislation prevents California school boards from implementing rules forcing school staff to inform a student’s parents if they request to use a name or pronoun that does not align with their biological sex.
Placer County legislators, including Rocklin Asm. Joe Patterson, and school board members fought AB 1955 because they feel parents should be notified in such circumstances. Reasonable people can disagree, but — as the NIH study and others demonstrate — some trans youth are rejected or demonized in their own homes. That means that, in certain instances, alerting a parent is the swiftest way to put a trans youth child in danger.
Despite this, the Rocklin Unified and Roseville Joint Union High School District both passed versions of a parents’ rights policy (RJUHSD’s policy alerts parents if their child misses class to attend a counseling session or visit a campus wellness center, or when a change has occurred in a student’s records, such as a name change.
Taking away students’ support systems strips trans youth of their sense of safety at school and sends the message that they are unwanted and unwelcome.
Election results
Local election results also proved disheartening for the LGBTQ+ community: Placer County voters re-elected school board members in Rocklin and Roseville who passed harmful parental notification policies. Two incumbents who were re-elected, Roseville City School Board’s Jonathan Zachreson and Roseville Joint Union High School Board’s Heidi Hall, both campaigned last year in support of three statewide initiatives that would require schools to notify parents if their child is transgender; prevent trans girls from competing in girls’ sports; and prevent trans minors from receiving gender-affirming surgeries or hormone treatments.
“Many of the school boards did not change, which means that the same sorts of policies will continue to be uplifted at a time when we are seeing a spike in queer youth suicide in our community,” Tinnin said.
Following the election, local LGBTQ+ advocate Daniella Zimmerman noted a dramatic increase in attendance at a meeting of PFLAG Greater Placer County (though it’s no longer an acronym, PFLAG formerly stood for Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), with more than 50 people showing up to seek out support or offer it to their community.
Zimmerman is the current president of the board for the Placer LGBTQ+ Center, which is collaborating with PFLAG of Placer County, Tinnin’s church, Loomis Basin UCC, Roseville’s First United Methodist Church and The Landing Spot, a local support group for queer and trans teens, to put on Trans Day of Remembrance.
Currently, the Placer LGBTQ+ Center does not exist in a physical space, but there is an ongoing fundraising effort to build one.
At nearby Sierra College, creating physical spaces of support for queer and trans students has been one of the main goals of the advocacy work done by Psychology Professor Stephanie Coday. She is the longest-standing faculty member on Spectrum, a campus committee that oversees policies supporting LGBTQ+ students (including administrative name change policies and gender-inclusive bathrooms).
“Our campus provides one of the only safe spaces we can offer for students,” Coday said. “Oftentimes, students won’t fully express themselves until they come to our campus. I’ve had students who change their clothes from the trunk of their car and then change back before they go home.”
Coday has taught at Sierra for 21 years. In that time, she has watched the campus Pride Center transform from a tiny closet to a very visible physical space at the center of campus. Coday also co-developed a three-part faculty training that teaches staff how to be active allies and create safer spaces for students in their classrooms. Out of the current 775 faculty actively teaching at Sierra, roughly 112 individuals have taken the training.
Trans Day of Remembrance
Tinnin said he personally knew three transgender youths lost to suicide. All three, he said, “had great parents — parents who loved them and supported them.”
“The truth is that sometimes even the love of a family and friends aren’t enough to keep young people alive,” Tinnin said. “Being a person in general is a struggle. We all struggle with mental health and with issues. When it is compounded by a society that is seeking to eradicate your care and seeking to invalidate your identity, it just compounds the mental health issues that these young people are struggling with.”
We are doing a disservice to our youngest and most vulnerable neighbors by continuing to uplift and support policies that directly target them. Our queer and trans neighbors know who they are. They need more love and support — not less.
On Wednesday, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies are invited to attend Placer County’s Trans Day of Remembrance, taking place at 6 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church Roseville.
“With all of the threats of removing LGBTQ+ rights and gender-affirming care — not just here in this community, but throughout the country — it’s a really important time for queer people and their allies to be together,” Tinnin said. “There are very few spaces left for queer people to meet and to support one another. Anytime we can gather — even when it’s in spaces like a memorial to honor queer lives that have been lost — it gives us the space to see who is here, who is left standing and who is willing to fight alongside us.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2024 at 11:00 AM.