Trans people and families in Alberta are reporting worsening mental health, fear and isolation amid rising online hate and three provincial laws targeting transgender youth, advocates say. Calgary advocate Anna Murphy, who recently survived a mental health crisis, is sharing her experience and calling for more targeted support for people in crisis.

Murphy has spent the past two weeks focused on care and recovery while coming to terms with surviving. “I have been navigating what it is to have survived,” she said. “What it is to now have to live a life I was at peace ending.”

She has devoted her life to making the world more inclusive. Murphy grew up in rural Alberta, affirmed her identity as a trans woman and eventually returned to Calgary. She said she did not seek public attention, but spoke up for what she believes is right. Her work made her a hero to many and also drew online trolls.

“It doesn’t matter how strong or resilient you are,” Murphy said. “When you wake up every day to an unrelenting message that your existence is wrong, your existence is a problem, that has an impact.” She has faced mental health challenges for much of her life and said that in January she had made peace with leaving the world.

Murphy said she is speaking about what happened in the hope of weakening depression’s hold, because the condition thrives in isolation. She urged people who may be in a similar position to ask for help and stay alive. “My hope is that someone else who may be in the same position that I am and was, they will realize the strongest thing they can do is say the words, ‘I need help.’ One of the strongest things they will do today is stay.”

Advocates say a rise in online hate directed at the LGBTQ2 community, alongside three Alberta laws targeting transgender youth, is contributing to more mental health crises. Murphy said her recent experience with the health-care system reinforced the need for focused support. “Many in our communities are in crisis, our health-care system is in crisis, and if we don’t do something, it’s only going to get worse.”

Psychologists say more trans youth are coming to their offices with mental health challenges connected to living in Alberta. Joel Roos, clinical director at Cultivate Psychology, said messages that a group does not belong can undermine people’s sense of worth. “Saying that one particular pocket doesn’t fit the human experience is obviously not going to have much positive to contribute to anybody,” he said. “It’s not just mentally draining for them, but damaging for them, making them question their value and worth.”

Roos said adolescence is a period for discovering identity, taking risks and forming friendships. Those experiences contribute to brain development, and questions of gender and sexual orientation are part of that process. He said he could not recall people in his career saying that being told they did not fit, or that their understanding of themselves was wrong, had helped them become who they wanted to be.

The Skipping Stone Foundation and Egale Canada are again asking the courts to overturn the laws. They presented a new legal argument in court on Monday. Skipping Stone co-executive director Amelia Newbert said the organization is already seeing legislation-related effects, including greater hesitation to come out and increased anxiety about being accepted by people and communities around them.

Newbert said the consequences reach beyond young people. “The impact of this legislation is to stop trans kids from becoming trans adults,” she said. She added that the laws send a message to trans adults that they are not wanted in Alberta and that the province does not want more people to come out and be themselves.

Newbert also linked people’s growing sense of exclusion to online hate. She said online bullying, previously associated mainly with people in the public eye, is now affecting others in places where they once felt able to be themselves. “Now people who are just trying to live their lives are being the target of really malicious and intentional attacks, and I think that fundamentally changes the dynamic,” she said. “That space where I was safe is no longer safe, and it doesn’t matter if I’m engaging with people, just my presence here is objectionable.”

At Mount Royal University, researchers Leah Hamilton and Corinne Mason are studying how the legislation affects parents and caregivers of trans youth. They have spoken with families across Alberta and said they heard about mental health and identity effects beginning almost immediately. “They’re feeling very immediate impacts on mental health and on sense of identity,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton said sports can be central to young people whose parents have children who play. “For those parents who have kids who play sports, their sports are everything to their kids. So, to have that taken away, it’s absolutely devastating.”

Hamilton said a lack of visible signs of support in schools, health-care facilities and other institutions is contributing to families’ worsening day-to-day experiences. Youth have reported being dead-named, addressed with incorrect pronouns and having their bodies scrutinized. “They no longer know who is safe, and who is not,” Hamilton said. “We’re seeing a lot of fear. Some families are talking about leaving the province.”

Based on reporting by Global News.