- The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that works to prevent suicide among LGBTQ youth, interviewed more than 28,000 people for its annual survey.
- More than 40% of LGBTQ youth say they considered suicide in the last year, the survey revealed.
A disturbingly high percentage of respondents to an annual survey of LGBTQ youth in the United States said they have seriously considered attempting suicide in the last year.
And they blame anti-LGBTQ laws and policies for their worsening mental health.
The Trevor Project, a nonprofit founded in 1998 that works to prevent suicide, surveyed more than 28,000 LGBTQ Americans between the ages of 13 and 24. It found that "41% of respondents seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including half of transgender and nonbinary young people, and nearly 3 in 10 cisgender young people."
About 1 in 5 transgender and nonbinary young people surveyed said they attempted suicide in the past year, as did about 1 in 10 cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and questioning young people, The Trevor Project found.
"This is a public health crisis — and it's preventable," Kasey Suffredini, a vice president at The Trevor Project, said in a press release.
Respondents said that their mental health — and risk of suicide — was made worse by "experiences of anti-LGBTQ stigma and victimization." Almost a quarter of the LGBTQ youth surveyed said they had been physically threatened or hurt because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The data comes at a time when some segments of the Republican Party are working transphobic policies into their platforms, both on a state and national level. While those efforts started on a smaller scale — by targeting trans rights in schools — nearly half of US states have now enacted anti-trans legislation that reaches far beyond that initial scope, The New York Times reported.
"Our government must work from the top down to curb risk factors like violence and discrimination and increase access to essential health care, safe schools, and support systems," Suffredini said in the press release. "Yet, far too many lawmakers at the state level are working overtime to push a dangerous political agenda that will jeopardize young lives. "
He added: "We understand that some of these issues can seem complicated for people who've never met a transgender person, but the impact of victimization on our young people is clear and dire."