‘Really difficult to plan my future:’ Election takes a mental toll on trans Ohioans

By Des Torres/Kent State NewsLab

Sitting on her couch in her two-bedroom apartment and scrolling through her phone is Magenta Aziza. Her foot taps nervously, her bottom lip is between her teeth as she reads out loud some of President Donald Trump’s Agenda47 proposals, his core promises for the upcoming election.

Aziza, 22, is transgender. She said she is terrified for her future and the future of her community. 

“Since the Republican Party is using trans people as a scapegoat to rile up their base and are spreading so much information and hate speech about us, it’s causing a lot of harm to the community and a lot of anxiety and paranoia,” Aziza said. 

Aziza said that the election, along with Ohio legislation that could limit access to hormone therapy and bathroom use, is causing a decline in her mental health.

Emmett Drugan, a therapist in Westlake who specializes in LGBTQ+ care, said spending less time online is an important way to cope with that kind of stress.

“One of those things that I find a lot of folks are doing is they’re doomscrolling on Reddit, TiktTok, Instagram, Facebook and they’re saturating themselves with it,” Drugan said. “And one of the biggest things I do is I check in and say, ‘how much news and information do you actually need? How much of this is actually the same stuff over and over again?’”

But Aziza said it’s not that easy. 

“There’s not really any stepping away from it because I feel like I have to keep up with it,” Aziza said. “When are the people I’m close to, the people in my community, when are we actually going to be safe? Because you can’t feel safe when the world around you is falling apart, when half of the people in the United States want you dead, or at least want you to not exist in public life.”

Trans Ohioans are facing limits on their rights already

Aziza’s fears are not unfounded. A new poll, commissioned by Ideastream Public Media, WKYC and Signal Ohio and conducted by Baldwin Wallace, shows that 67% of Northeast Ohio voters,  including nearly half of Democrats, oppose transgender people using the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

House Bill 183 — a “bathroom bill” that would require anyone using a bathroom or locker room in any school or university that receives public funding to use the facility that matches their gender assigned at birth — is currently awaiting a vote in the Ohio House of Representatives.

That bill “would put people that look like me in the men’s bathroom, where I wouldn’t be safe,” Aziza said.

In 2023, the Ohio legislature passed House Bill 68, which restricted trans women from playing women’s sports and limited gender-affirming care for trans youth. Governor Mike DeWine vetoed that bill, but said in his veto message that he would direct state agencies to ban gender confirmation surgery for Ohioans under 18. 

The House of Representatives overrode that veto, and after a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties was rejected, the bill took effect in August. 

The Northeast Ohio poll showed that 67% of voters disagree with allowing gender affirming care for minors, and Aziza worries that Ohio leaders will limit all access to gender-affirming care. 

Such measures are “threatening my access to hormones, my access to education,” Aziza said. “I really do want to go back to college, but with that being under threat, it makes it really difficult to plan for the future.”

Sam Thompson, 19, has been taking estrogen since she was 17. She feels the same way.

“It sucks. It’s really stressful,” Thompson said. “Access to healthcare that is life-saving is really important, and that just being talked about so much in this election cycle, and possibly losing it, is just scary.”

Thompson said she has seen less public acceptance of those in the trans community, and she thinks elected officials have a big part to play in that.

“I feel like there’s a lot of fear-mongering that goes on,” Thompson said. “I have experience with [taking hormones] and it’s not as easy as people are making it out to be. It’s not just trans people trying to transgender your kids. It’s just people trying to become more comfortable and being more true to themselves.”

How trans people can care for themselves

Legislation targeting trans people has a measurable impact on mental health. According to a study by The Trevor Project, states that passed anti-trans legislation between 2018 and 2022 saw suicide attempts by trans and nonbinary people ages 13 to 24 increase by anywhere from 7% to 72% the following year.

Drugan, the therapist, said that when he asks people about how the overconsumption of news is making them feel, usually they say it makes them anxious or scared.

“How do we make that change?” Drugan said. “We focus on you in the present moment here and now. What can you control? Because you can’t control that nonsense. You can control your voting, you can control who you talk to and spread the word.”

Drugan asks his clients to seek out people to talk to during such hard times.

“A lot of people are isolating,” Drugan said. “They’re in their house, and because they’re seeing all of these terrible people and things and stuff, it’s in their brains that everybody is bad, and the fact of the matter is most people are good. So one of the things I encourage everybody to do is seek out a community.”

Thompson said that if people want to help her community, they should vote.

“Just make sure you get out to vote,” either in person or by mail, Thompson said. “Your vote still counts. Just really think about the humanity of it.”

This story was originally published by the Kent State NewsLab, a collaborative news outlet publishing journalism by Kent State students.