NEW YORK, Sept 25 — Almost one third of transgender New Zealanders have been raped, according to the nation’s first study of the community’s health care, but many avoid seeing a doctor for fear of being mistreated.

The "Counting Ourselves” survey of 1,178 people, published yesterday in New Zealand, found trans and non-binary people — who do not identify as male or female — that reported rape were twice as likely to have attempted suicide in the last year.

The data, described as the first of its kind in the Pacific nation but backs up studies from other countries, showed trans people were almost three times more likely to experience sexual violence than female New Zealanders in general.

"Sexual violence is about power and control,” Jack Byrne, one of the ‘Counting Ourselves’ researchers and a trans man, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"If the world tells you that nobody loves and cares for you that puts huge levels of pressure on you and (increases your) vulnerability to be preyed upon.”

There are no accurate estimates of New Zealand’s trans and non-binary populations. But in the United States, about 0.6 per cent of adults identify as trans, according to the Williams Institute, a think-tank within the UCLA School of Law.

Almost two-fifths of trans and non-binary New Zealanders had attempted suicide at some point, the survey found, while more than half had thought about trying to kill themselves in the previous year.

Only four per cent sought help from the police after being raped, the survey found.

More than a third of the survey’s respondents said they had avoided seeing a doctor at some point in their lives because they thought they would be mistreated or not respected.

An anxiety and depression questionnaire found 71 per cent of respondents, almost half of whom were non-binary, suffered from psychological distress, compared to 8 per cent of all New Zealanders.

"Compared to the general population it’s really, really not acceptable,” said Ahi Wi-Hongi, the national coordinator of Gender Minorities Aotearoa, a trans advocacy group.

So-called "gay conversion therapy” remains legal in New Zealand, with 17 per cent saying a psychiatrist or counsellor had tried to stop them being trans or non-binary.

The report’s authors criticised the availability of medical treatment like cross-sex hormones and sex reassignment surgery.

"The public health system provides very few forms of gender affirming care,” said Byrne, adding that a 50-year wait for state-funded genital, sex reassignment surgeries had recently been reduced to around 25 years.

New Zealand’s health ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. — Thomson Reuters Foundation