Over 71 percent of LGBTQ youth say restrictive state laws have negatively impacted their mental health
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More than 80 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth say recent debates over state bills to restrict gender-affirming health care, ban transgender athletes from sport and limit how LGBTQ identities may be talked about in schools have negatively impacted their mental health, according to a poll published Thursday by The Trevor Project, a national LGBTQ youth suicide prevention group, and Morning Consult.
In 2022 alone, more than 200 bills considered by state and federal lawmakers sought to restrict the rights of LGBTQ Americans – particularly those of young transgender people. Roughly 86 percent of transgender 13- to 24-year-olds in the Trevor Project survey said those efforts had harmed their mental well-being, with 55 percent reporting their mental health had been impacted “very negatively.”
Overall, 71 percent of LGBTQ youth said their mental health had taken a hit because of state laws that restrict the rights of LGBTQ young people.
“We must consider the negative toll of these ugly public debates on youth mental health and well-being,” Kasey Suffredini, the Trevor Project’s vice president of advocacy and government affairs, said Thursday in a statement. “LGBTQ young people are watching, and internalizing the anti-LGBTQ messages they see in the media and from their elected officials. And so are those that would do our community harm.”
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Online and in-person attacks on LGBTQ people in the U.S. surged in 2022, prompting a House investigation into the connection between inflammatory anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and real-world violence in December, just shy of a month after a 22-year-old gunman killed five people and injured more than a dozen others at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Seventy-five percent of LGBTQ youth – including 82 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth – surveyed by The Trevor Project said threats of violence against LGBTQ spaces including community centers, Pride events, drag shows and hospitals or doctor’s offices that provide gender-affirming health care often give them stress or anxiety.
Nearly half – 48 percent – of LGBTQ youth surveyed said they experienced stress or anxiety “very often” as a result of threats targeting the community.
Transgender and nonbinary young people also reported other harmful experiences tied to anti-LGBTQ policies and debates, according to The Trevor Project, including cyberbullying or online harassment, isolation from family members or friends and physical assault.
Nearly a third said they avoided going to a doctor’s office or hospital when they were sick or injured, and a similar percentage said they were bullied in-person at school. Roughly 15 percent said Pride flags or other LGBTQ-friendly symbols had been removed from their schools because of new laws or policy debates centered around LGBTQ identities.
A new Florida education law, for instance, heavily restricts the ability of public school teachers through high school to address topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom, resulting in arguments over whether certain books or decorations violate the measure, which proponents have claimed was passed to protect children from being exposed to inappropriate content.
Other states have pursued policies that require school districts to tell a student’s parent or guardian if the student identifies as LGBTQ or requests to use a different name or pronouns at school.
Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) in September introduced federal legislation to that effect, threatening to withhold government funding from schools with transgender support policies that do not require faculty or staff to obtain parental consent before changing a student’s name or pronouns on school records.
Roughly 67 percent of transgender youth surveyed by The Trevor Project said they were angered by the introduction – and in some cases, implementation – of such policies, and more than 50 percent said they felt stressed or scared.
Nearly 60 percent of LGBTQ youth – including 71 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth – said they felt angry about new laws and policies that limit how LGBTQ topics can be talked about in school. Among transgender youth, 59 percent reported feeling sad and 41 percent said they were stressed.
More than 70 percent of transgender and nonbinary young people also reported feeling angry about proposed state laws to ban doctors from providing gender-affirming health care to transgender youth.
Dozens of bills seeking to bar health care providers from caring for transgender minors have already been introduced this year, and at least three states are aiming to ban gender-affirming care for adults into their mid 20s in 2023.
State legislatures are also gearing up to pass another round of transgender athlete bans, which nearly a third of transgender youth said made them feel hopeless. At least 18 states have passed laws that bar transgender women and girls from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
The Trevor Project’s Suffredini said the group is ready to beat back what is expected to be another tidal wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation this year.
“We are prepared for the fight ahead,” he said, “and will not stop advocating for a safer, more accepting world for all.”
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