More than one in ten young people who identify as LGBTQ will have attempted suicide in 2023. a study by the suicide prevention organization Trevor Project has found.
The questionnairewhich focuses on the mental health of LGBTQ youth, was distributed to 18,000 people ages 13 to 24.
Nearly 40 percent of LGBTQ youth have seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, while 46 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth ages 13 to 17 had similar ideas.
Transgender men were at the highest risk, with more than 50 percent of them reporting considering suicide and 18 percent of them attempting it.
Among LGBTQ teens ages 13 to 17, a total of 16 percent have attempted suicide. This is higher than the average among all LGBTQ youth, which is 12 percent.
Nearly 40 percent of LGBTQ youth have seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year
Nearly half of transgender and non-binary youth had considered attempting suicide by 2023
Even more disturbing, half of those surveyed reported not being able to get mental health care when they needed it.
When broken down further, suicidal ideation varies greatly among different groups in the LGBTQ community.
Those who identified as pansexual had the highest rates of both suicide attempts and suicide attempts, with gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer people reporting relatively similar rates of suicide attempts.
The research shows that Native American LGBTQ youth are by far the most likely to consider or attempt suicide.
The Trevor Project said “anti-LGBTQ+ victimization” was the main factor in the increased risk of suicide among young people, something the organization has found in previous studies.
“This year’s research once again shows that considering or attempting suicide is not uncommon among LGBTQ+ youth,” said Dr. Ronita Nath, vice president of research at the Trevor Project. “However, many of the risk factors for suicide are preventable and often rooted in the victim behavior of others.”
The Trevor Project during the 2023 LA Pride Parade on June 11, 2023 in Hollywood, California
LGBTQ activists and their supporters gather in support of transgender people on the steps of New York City Hall, October 24, 2018 in New York City
From left to right: Antoni Porowski, CEO of The Trevor Project Amit Paley and Jonathan Van Ness attend TrevorLIVE NY 2019 at Cipriani Wall Street on June 17, 2019 in New York City
Victimization includes bullying, which is more common among respondents aged 13 to 17 because they are still in school.
Forty-nine percent of youth in that age group experienced bullying because of their identity, and those who were bullied were more likely to report suicidal thoughts.
The social climate in the US is something that LGBTQ youth also feel victimized by, with 90 percent saying that “their well-being has been negatively affected by recent politics.”
The study did not go into details about the political developments these youth might be referred to, but according to the ACLU: There are 489 anti-LGBTQ bills circulating in state legislatures.
The vast majority of bills the ACLU follows involve banning trans women from female college sports. Other bills require those who want to undergo gender reassignment surgery to reach the age of majority before they can do so.
These types of legislative priorities are widespread in Southern and Midwestern states, which is likely why 45 percent of transgender and non-binary youth said they would consider moving to another state.
A girl waves a rainbow flag during a rally after the same-sex marriage bill was approved by the Chilean Senate on December 7, 2021 in Santiago, Chile. Chile, which legalized same-sex civil unions in 2015, has been discussing same-sex marriage since 2017
In October 2019, a giant trans flag was unfurled outside the Supreme Court
The Trevor Project said greater acceptance is the recipe for the increased mental health issues faced by LGBTQ youth.
The study found that LGBTQ people who said they lived in an accepting environment made “less than half as many suicide attempts” as those living in a non-accepting community.
Additionally, transgender and non-binary people who used their preferred pronouns and had access to gender-affirming clothing and school bathrooms “had lower suicide attempts compared to those who did not.”
Amit Paley, the CEO and executive director of the Trevor Project, told CBS News three years ago that LGBTQ youth are proud of who they are, despite the challenges they face, and need role models to reinforce that pride.
“We see that 85 percent of LGBTQ youth are proud to be LGBTQ,” Paley said in 2021.
“We know that when you see images of people who are successful, when there is less discrimination and stigma in society, it helps young people feel proud of themselves and that they can succeed and prosper.”