CANADIAN transgender woman and YouTube sensation Gigi Lazzarato, better known as Gigi Gorgeous, had a ball on her first trip to Australia recently.

But the 25-year-old says she was also deeply saddened by the acrimonious same-sex marriage debate, and the scrutiny it has placed on the trans community.

“It made me really sad personally because I feel like we have come really, really far as a people and the visibility is great,” she says from Los Angeles, referring to the growing number of high profile transgender celebrities.

“So to hear that that’s going on in Australia was heartbreaking. I know that things will work out if everyone stays positive.”

The recently released Trans Pathways survey from the Telethon Kids Institute revealed the alarming state of mental health in Australian transgender youth — those whose gender identity is different to the gender they were assigned at birth.

The survey of trans youth aged 14 to 25 found that four out of five have self-harmed, three in four have been diagnosed with depression, and one in two have attempted suicide.

US studies have shown that legalising SSM has substantially reduced suicide attempts in same-sex attracted youth. Gigi firmly believes that LGBTIQ lives will be saved if the Marriage Act is amended in Australia. Knowing that the voting deadline was coming up, Gigi was adament in her message.

“It’s very, very heartbreaking and depressing to know that so many people are going through a hard time,” she says. “I myself can relate in many ways and having really dark periods of your life where you just feel so helpless. So anything that can give our community hope, I’m confident in saying I know that it will reduce that number [of suicides].

She advocates allowing those that identify as transgender to begin their transition at an early age — a concept she describes as “extremely controversial” for some — to improve their wellbeing.

“I believe that when you know, you know,” Gigi says of gender identity. “[We need to] start getting people in the mindset that people are trans and they don’t have to wait until they’re really, really old or have gone through puberty to get hormones and start their transition because it affects their happiness.”

Born Gregory Lazzarato, Gigi came out as transgender in a YouTube video posted in 2013. It was the death of her mother Judy Lazzarato, 50, of leukaemia and brain cancer the previous year when Gigi was 19 that was a major catalyst in her decision to transition.

“When I decided to transition it was just a huge lesson that life is too short and you can’t take any single day for granted because I wasn’t able to tell my mum that I was transgender because I was too shy at the time,” says Gigi.

“Then when she passed away it kind of made me feel like I need to do this, I need to do this for me because that’s what she would want, she would want me to be happy.”

Gigi transitioned on camera in a series of previously unseen home videos that feature in the YouTube Red Original documentary This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous helmed by duel Oscar winning director Barbara Kopple. The camera, described by Gigi in the film as her “therapist”, stripped the glamorous beauty expert back to show her bandaged and bruised, and being cared for by her father David Lazzarato after painful cosmetic procedures.

“It was definitely hard at times,” she says. “Marking things in time with my transition kind of held me accountable in a way to speak on it and know that it was out there and know that it was public.”

After almost a decade on YouTube, Gigi’s bubbly-brash persona and blistering honesty has garnered her 2.7 million subscribers, celebrity pals in Kylie Jenner and Katy Perry, a healthy bank balance (at just 23 she was earning a seven-figure income), and a contract as Revlon’s first trans celebrity ambassador.

She’s also smashed gender boundaries first coming out as gay, then transgender, and last year, as a lesbian (Gigi has been with Getty oil heiress, entrepreneur, and model Nats Getty for almost two years). On the negative reaction to her coming out as a lesbian she remains defiant. “It’s my life, I’m living it for me so how are you going to tell me what I am and what I’m not?”

The transgender celebrity says that her visibility sharing her life online has meant that young fans coming to terms with being transgender readily share their story with her, as they did at her VidCon Australia appearances during her visit.

“Some people have actually told me that they’re trans first, and they’re about to start their transition,” says Gigi. “I always get the most intimate details and it means a lot to me. It means that we share a bond and that we’re almost kind of friends. Maybe not even friends — family. We’re kind of transgender sisters and brothers.”

This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeousis available now on YouTube Red.

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