Laws restricting transgender rights linked to uptick in suicide attempts among trans youth

State-level laws restricting or threatening transgender rights can have significant adverse effects on trans and nonbinary young people’s mental health, according to new research from The Trevor Project, a leading LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization. 

In a study published Thursday in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Human Behaviour, researchers at The Trevor Project explored the causal relationship between anti-transgender laws and suicide risk between 2018 and 2022, concluding such laws significantly increased past-year suicide attempts reported by transgender and nonbinary youth. 

Nineteen states during the five years studied by researchers enacted 48 anti-transgender laws, encompassing issues that range from limitations on gender-affirming health care, restrooms and the ability of trans student-athletes to compete on sports teams that align with their gender identity. 

Suicide attempts increased among all participants whose home state had enacted at least one anti-transgender law, according to the study’s findings, with participants aged 13 to 17 reporting the highest increase in suicide attempt rates, ranging from 7 percent to 72 percent. That’s likely because most policies target minors, researchers said. 

Across the entire sample of more than 61,000 transgender and nonbinary 13- to 24-year-olds, researchers observed an increase of 38 percent to 44 percent. 

Legislation targeting trans rights is likely to exacerbate existing challenges and create new stressors detrimental to transgender and nonbinary youths’ mental health, researchers said. “Anti-transgender laws may signal a broader societal rejection of their identities, communicating that their identities and bodies are neither valid nor worthy of protection,” they wrote in Thursday’s study. 

“From a scientific perspective, studying the phenomenon of how these policies impact LGBTQ+ young people’s mental health is relatively new,” said Dr. Ronita Nath, The Trevor Project’s vice president of research. “This study critically confirms — for the first time — a causal relationship between anti-transgender laws and heightened suicide risk among transgender and nonbinary young people.” 

This year, state legislators introduced at least 530 anti-LGBTQ bills, according to the ACLU, though most of them — 343 bills — failed to become law. Most of the proposed legislation targeted transgender youth: Nearly 80 bills sought to restrict or ban gender-affirming health care for minors; 59 bills would have required school staff to out trans students to their parents without their consent; 49 bills aimed to bar transgender athletes from participating in school sports and 38 bills sought to ban trans students from using facilities that match their gender identity. 

Of the 44 bills that became law this year, a majority directly impact transgender young people. 

In Congress, House and Senate Republicans this session filed dozens of bills seeking to ban gender-affirming care, bar transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams and rigidly define “sex” to exclude transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. 

In July, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican nominee for vice president, introduced the Senate version of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which would ban gender-affirming medical care for minors nationwide. Health care providers who violate the law could be charged with a Class C felony, punishable by more than a decade in prison. 

At the same time, language about transgender people — and LGBTQ people more broadly — has grown increasingly hostile, and hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity bias in the U.S. rose again last year, the FBI said Monday. 

Past research from The Trevor Project points toward an existing connection between anti-LGBTQ legislation and youth mental health. In a 2022 survey, two-thirds of LGBTQ young people said their mental health had worsened because of legislation targeting trans rights. 

Ninety percent of LGBTQ young people in a survey released by The Trevor Project in May said politics had negatively affected their well-being. 

“It is without question that anti-transgender policies, and the dangerous rhetoric surrounding them, take a measurable toll on the health and safety of transgender and nonbinary young people all across the country,” said Jaymes Black, who took over as The Trevor Project’s chief executive in July. 

“As we get closer to critical elections this November, these young people will continue to be reduced to political talking points,” Black said. “I urge every adult — no matter your political beliefs — to remember that transgender and nonbinary young people are our family, our friends, and our neighbors. It’s not necessary to fully understand their experience to acknowledge that they — like all young people — deserve dignity, respect, and the ability to lead healthy and full lives.”