the Centers for Disease Control and prevention released a new report that's the first of its kind to examine transgender identity and the social outcomes of those who identify as trans or are questioning their gender the report revealed that only a very small percentage of young people are either trans or questioning but those that are face significantly higher rates of violence in schools poor mental health and Suicidal Thoughts I'm joined Now by Sam Holovacs a former Sparta High School student who's transgender and is here to offer his perspective on the study and the concerns among the transgender Community Sam it's so great to have you with us thanks for joining us you know this CDC report the the youth risk uh Behavior survey really highlights some of the concerns that we've heard from folks in the transgender community in particular in schools we see that there are higher rates of bullying and that correlates with higher rates of mental health concerns and absenteeism I just want to get a sense from you does any of that ring true for you in your own life I would say yes I think uh surrounding a lot of stigma with trans students and especially with a lot more coming out where people are trying to take away protections from us a lot more people find themselves increasingly isolated in it's time where we are so connected to one another there is so little sense of privacy and so little protection already so to take away something else from kids and to create even more stigma it just further isolates us from our communities when you talk about taking away uh from transgender students what do you mean in terms of taking away autonomy and protections you know schools are often a places where uh kids will find more out about themselves and create a separate live from their home life or their parents or some things that they just want to keep private or with their friends so to take away trans students abilities or in general students abilities to keep that privacy is something that will affect any student but especially those who are at risk like trans students you're touching on uh a proposed policy guidelines that some school districts have considered 5756 is what it's uh known as that would essentially inform parents if and when a student uh came out to someone within the school district as transgender I'm curious one your thoughts about that policy and then we're going to get into what you think schools maybe should be doing yeah for sure um that policy I think it's important to have protections for kids for students and to take away those protections to take away things like that it again it puts more students at risk and again it relieves kids of that autonomy it takes away a lot of their rights to grow as a human being and to find themselves on their own terms the report highlighted that about 3.3% of students are trans 2.2% are question questioning this is really a small percentage of students that we're talking about but do you believe that school districts need to develop policies specifically for this population of students to help them feel safer in school yes absolutely because it isn't just about the trans students themselves feeling safer it's about all students being able to learn about the different types of people that exist in the world the more you are Expos to the diversity of humanity the more easy it is to talk to people to relate to people to have empathy towards people and that's one of the main things I feel that schools are lacking as of late the teaching of empathy so to be able to protect more trans students can allow for the population to come out more and to be more parent and also teach kids in general more empathy towards one another this is a small population of students as we just said and yet it's an issue that was so hotly debated in our last election cycle um it's been kind of driving the new cycle around around this issue for quite a while and I wonder your thoughts on whether or not there's just maybe an inherent fear that people feel because uh the transgender Community is often maybe misunderstood or just not there's not a whole lot that they know about folks in that Community what are your thoughts there I feel that there is a lot of fear because you know fear is born of ignorance and born of not being educated on certain topics and of course it becomes this vicious uh cycle of constantly not wanting to know things because you fear things and fearing things because you don't know things it's a vicious cycle as you say Sam Holovacs thank you so much for sharing your perspective we appreciate it thank you support for the medical report is provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey an independent lensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association [Music]