Caitlyn Jenner is using her platform in a big way. The reality star, 65, penned a new blog on Monday, July 27, and focused the entry on the issue of suicide within the transgender community.
Jenner is working with WhoSay on a series called "The Real Me," about her transition and the LGBTQ community, and shared the latest installment, "A Tremendous Problem Facing the Trans Community" on The Huffington Post.
"One tremendous problem, especially for trans youth, is the suicide rate," the Olympic athlete writes. "A recent study of nearly 100 transgender youth, ages 12 to 24, found that 51 percent reported thinking about suicide, while 30 percent had attempted it at least once in their lives."
"In San Diego alone, over the last several months there have been three transgender kids who've died by suicide," she continued, laying out the tragic numbers. "The latest you might have heard about last night on my show [I Am Cait] — Kyler Prescott, a 14-year-old trans boy who not only dealt with trans issues, but also suffered from severe depression. Sadly, he wasn't able to make it between the combination of the two."
Jenner referenced the late Prescott, who died this past May. She spoke to the young boy's mother, Katharine Prescott, who appeared on the premiere of I Am Cait and vocally supported her son through the early stages of his transition.
"She loved and supported her trans child in so many ways, including getting Kyler's name and gender marker legally changed," Jenner wrote of Katharine and her son, who first presented as female. "Sadly, he died by suicide two months ago…. But this is the reality for far too many in the transgender community. And it's not because trans people are somehow inherently unstable — it's because we live in a world that makes it very, very difficult to be trans. Many people, especially kids, can't see how they can live as their authentic selves and keep their family, their jobs, and their homes."
Katharine picked up the blog from Jenner, writing from her own viewpoint on the issue. She said that her son "had a lot of friends" and faced much harsher criticism from adults who referred "to him as 'she,' even when it had been made very clear that he was a he" and couldn't accept who he was.
The mother went on to offer her advice to other parents of transgender children, writing, "Just keep fighting for them… Never give up. Be firm with people and help educate them. Even something as simple as using the pronoun that the trans kid asks you to use is so important and can make such a big difference in that kid's life… Love and embrace your child."
