Anti-Trans Bills Are Directly Harming LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health

Even when it doesn’t pass, discriminatory legislation still impacts trans youth.
AntiTrans Bills Are Directly Harming LGBTQ Youth Mental Health
Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

 

In news that will surprise no one, an unprecedented onslaught of anti-trans bills has taken a toll on the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth, a recent poll found.

According to a new report from the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ mental health advocacy organization, 85% of trans and nonbinary youth — and 66% of LGBTQ+ youth — say that their mental health has suffered due to recent state-level attacks on trans rights.

The worrisome figures come from polling conducted on the Trevor Project’s behalf last fall by data company Morning Consult, which asked a national sample of 820 LGBTQ+ youth between ages 13 and 24 how closely they have been following news surrounding anti-trans legislation, and about how various anti-LGBTQ+ policies made them feel. 

“These results underscore how recent politics and ongoing crises facing the globe can have a real, negative impact on LGBTQ young people, a group consistently found to be at significantly increased risk for depression, anxiety, and attempting suicide because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society,” Trevor Project Executive Director Amit Paley said in a statement.

On a legislative level, 2021 was perhaps the worst year in recent history for the trans population in the United States. Hundreds of anti-trans bills targeting gender-affirming care and youth athletic participation flooded the legislatures of 37 states, marking a historic high. Last year also saw the violent deaths of at least 51 trans Americans, surpassing 2020’s record of 44 recorded fatal incidents with trans victims.

Queer youth have been paying understandably close attention to these developments. According to the Trevor Project’s survey, 73% of all respondents said they were following news on trans issues, and 85% of trans youth reporting the same. 

The poll also surveyed specific emotional responses, asking LGBTQ+ youth to describe their response to anti-trans sports bans, among other issues, by selecting different emotions from a list. A majority (62%) of all respondents said that bans on trans participation in school sports made them feel angry, with sad (48%) and stressed (30%) as the next most common emotional responses.  (Perhaps unsurprisingly, trans and nonbinary youth were most likely to respond negatively, with 74% feeling angry, 57% feeling sad, and 43% feeling stressed.)

Respondents felt similarly about bans on the prescription of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for youth, with 65% of all respondents reporting feeling angry, 49% feeling sad, and 34% feeling stressed.

Queer youth felt similarly negative about LGBTQ+ “mandated reporter” policies, which would require schools to tell students’ parents or guardians if they request to use a different name or pronoun at school or identify as LGBTQ+, potentially outing them to unsupportive members of their household.

These unique stressors come on top of more general concerns that LGBTQ+ youth have about American politics, and about the future writ large. When asked an open-ended question about which social issue mattered the most to them, most queer youth across all demographics said racism, with Black LGBTQ+ youth significantly more likely to report it as their most important issue

Half of all LGBTQ+ youth also reported feeling stressed about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and a clear majority said that issues like police brutality, gun violence, climate change, and anti-abortion efforts “often give them stress and anxiety,” per the report.

Overall, the Trevor Project’s new poll offers unique insight into the mental state of LGBTQ+ youth. Often, discourse around anti-LGBTQ+ bills focuses on their material impacts, leaving their emotional impact unknown.

Kid's hand catching a rainbow made with a prism.
A new survey show that LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to experience suicidal ideation and engage in self-harm than their straight, cisgender peers.

“LGBTQ youth are struggling not only with a barrage of crises that have affected many of us during a challenging year, but also with ongoing and direct legislative attacks on their basic right to exist,” Sam Ames, Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs at The Trevor Project, told them. via email. “We need lawmakers to wake up and realize that playing politics with young people's identities has real, damaging impacts on their mental health and well-being.”

Paley agreed, noting that state legislators need to stop spending valuable time and energy hurting some of the most vulnerable members of their community.   

“It’s clear that lawmakers should be taking an intersectional approach to public policy, not working overtime to target the most marginalized young people, particularly those who are transgender or nonbinary, for partisan political points,” Paley said in a statement. “We all must play a role in promoting LGBTQ acceptance and creating a more supportive world for all young people.”

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