Important info about Trans Lifeline, from a trans woman who will be starting to work as a volunteer operator for them soon:
– We do not do active rescue: What does this mean? This means that no matter what you might tell us about your situation, we will never call the cops to intervene and try to hospitalize you. You can be as honest as possible because under no circumstances will you be reported to police or medical authorities. Being an organization led and operated by trans people, we understand the immense violence and discrimination our community faces from cops and doctors, and that their actions often only make things worse. Which leads to my second point…
– When you call, you will be speaking with another trans person: All of Trans Lifeline’s operators are themselves trans or nonbinary. While other organizations seek to exclude us from providing this sort of assistance, Trans Lifeline recognizes that having operators who themselves have struggled with the same problems, up to and including dysphoria, mental illness, self-harm, and thoughts of suicide, are in fact better qualified to lend a hand than folks who are ignorant to these issues. This is trans people helping trans people.
Our hotline numbers are
US:
(877) 565-8860
Canada:
(877) 330-6366
If you are interested in donating to us (we run on donations and are not as well-funded as most crisis lines, despite having become the #1 mental health resource for trans people in the country) or volunteering your time to help us out, our website is http://www.translifeline.org/
Reblogging again after about a month of working for them. This is a really great service and believe me, if you’re considering volunteering it would really help and it gives you the chance to assist so many needy trans people (mostly trans women tbh, bc life for us is really hard a lot of times) and engage with the folks calling in and their amazing diversity of experiences.
I’m wondering. Are nonbinary people allowed to utilize this tool?
Yes!!! Sorry I should have clarified. Nonbinary folks are more than welcome to both call the lifeline and serve as volunteers.
Bringing this back because I see a lot of “what can I do to help pther trans folks if I don’t have money/good pro-trans orgs in my area.” Volunteering with us is a great way to help, we provide training, you just have to go to our website to get started.
Trans Lifeline Info
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