Senior researcher Dr Ashleigh Lin said the almost one-in-every-two attempting suicide statistic was "sobering" and demonstrated an "urgent need" for better-equipped services.



"These are vastly different figures to the general young population," she said. "The 2015 Young Minds Matter survey indicated that one in 40 young people aged 12 to 17 had attempted suicide, and one in 12 had self-harmed."

Lin stressed that there is evidence to show the poor mental health of transgender people is not caused by their gender identity, but by how gender diversity is viewed by society.

The drivers of poor mental health among transgender youth include peer rejection, issues at school, university and TAFE, and a lack of family support, the survey found. High rates of homelessness and problems with employment were also reported in the survey.

The report publishes numerous submissions about experiences of being trans.

"When I didn’t 'know' [I was trans], I was in a place of anger and confusion," one 20-year-old man wrote. "I dropped out of school after admitting that rather than go back I’d end my own life. It took a solid year of self reflection and pain to come back from that edge, but I knew who I am and could face the world again."



"I moved out of home at 16 because my family couldn’t handle the fact that I’m trans," a 19-year-old non-binary trans boy wrote. "I stayed at a youth refuge for a year."



"I feel like my entire life has been a story of discrimination," said a 24-year-old woman.