Identity-based harm

Being harmed or targeted because of your gender identity

Being targeted, excluded, misgendered, or harmed because of your gender identity. Violence, discrimination, family rejection, medical gatekeeping, being erased or denied. The particular harm of living in a world that frequently refuses to acknowledge who you are.

Living in a world that argues with your existence is a chronic harm punctuated by acute ones. Being denied, misnamed, gatekept, or endangered for being who you are exacts a daily tax that others rarely see. Here you are who you say you are, on the first try, without an audition. That should be unremarkable everywhere. Until it is, it is the rule here.

What can follow an experience like this

No two people carry the same experience the same way. These are some of the effects that people with this experience often describe. Having some of them, all of them, or none of them says nothing about how real what happened to you was.

Hypervigilance The nervous system that learned to scan for danger all the time. Trust issues Trust that was broken, repeatedly, by people who were supposed to be safe. Depression Not just sadness. Shame Not guilt about something you did. Identity disturbance Not being able to answer simple questions about yourself. Anxiety The background hum of dread that is always there. Suicidal thoughts Thoughts about not existing anymore. Social withdrawal A retreat inward that can feel like protection, and often is.

Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and nothing here decides what is wrong with you, because nothing is wrong with you. Something happened to you. This page exists so that when you are ready, you can find people who understand it from the inside.

You do not have to carry this alone.

Bridge of Hope Recovery is a free, anonymous, peer-led fellowship for trauma survivors. Meetings run throughout the week by phone, by video, and in person. No cost, no waitlist, no one asking for your real name.

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