This. I personally know people who have been driven to take their own lives due to incessant, unrelenting harassment. Even those who haven’t gone to that extreme are severely affected by the hate speech pervading current discourse, myself included.
I can only really speak directly for the trans experience, but as a general rule, the mental health of MANY trans folk is in the toilet because we’re being exposed to hate speech and it’s resulting violence (physical and legislative) constantly, and it’s not ok. We just want to live our lives in the way that makes us happy and not bother anyone but because of hate, our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are all being infringed. Hate speech is what’s doing that.
