Two new surveys about the lives of trans people in the United States have been released in the past few months:
- The 2022 U.S. Trans Survey – Early Insights
- The 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People (The Trevor Project)
Last week, we looked at some of the highlights of the U.S. Trans Survey. While some of the people taking that survey are under 18, most of the respondents are over 18, and the results are largely about how adult transgender people report their experiences.
Content Note: The Trevor Project U.S. National Survey asks about and reports on youth suicide attempts.
The Trevor Project asks LGBTQ+ youth about their experiences every year. The 2024 survey is the sixth one, and we can gain some great insight into how transgender youth in the United States are doing. This year, there are some positive trends, and some negative ones. The overall story, as we’ve seen in prior years, and in so many other publications, is that affirmation and support saves lives and improves quality of life, especially for youth.
Read highlights and download the full report.
We mentioned earlier Trevor Project’s National Survey results in our 2021 article Affirming Care and Supportive Actions Benefit LGBTQ+ Youth:
- 24% of transgender youth whose pronouns were not respected attempted suicide compared to 11% of those whose pronouns were respected (2021 report)
- a single affirming adult in an LGBTQ+youth’s life can reduce their rate of suicide attempts by 40% (2019 report)
This year’s survey continues to look closely at suicide attempt rates according to youth experiences of different types of positive and negative experiences.
Much of the language in this article comes directly from the survey report. Here’s your citation!
In the 2024 Trevor survey,
- 39% of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the last year, including
- 46% of transgender and nonbinary youth
- LGBTQ+ youth of color reported higher rates than their White peers
- 12% of LGBTQ+ youth attempted suicide in the last year
- 14% of transgender and nonbinary youth attempted
- Rates of both thinking about and attempting suicide were higher in younger youth.
- 14% of transgender and nonbinary youth attempted
Rates of suicide attempts were lower among youth who have access to affirming spaces.
Support at home, at school, in community events, online, and at work protects LGBTQ+ youth. Support is beneficial for both LGBQ youth and transgender youth, but the impact is greater for transgender youth.
Youth who reported suicide attempts in the last year also reported living in far less accepting communities compared to youth without suicide attempts: overall, 48% of LGBTQ+ youth reported living in a “somewhat accepting” community, and 16% reported living in a “very accepting” community. Among youth with suicide attempts, only 10% and 8% reported a somewhat accepting or very accepting community.
“LGBTQ+ young people who reported living in very accepting communities attempted suicide at less than half the rate of those who reported living in very unaccepting communities.”
What Are Specific Things We Can Do To Support Transgender and Nonbinary Youth?
Youth who had access to:
- Gender Affirming Clothing
- Gender Neutral Bathrooms at School
- Respect for Their Pronouns
were less likely to attempt suicide.
The Youth Speak
LGBTQ+ youth reported specific things people in their lives can do to show support:
- trust them to know who they are
- stand up for them
- do not support anti-LGBTQ+ politicians and policies
- do your own research!
- respect pronouns
- support how they express their gender
- ask questions about LGBTQ+ identities
- accept their partner(s)
- show support on social media
- have or display pride flags
We want to take a moment here to recognize that the same states that are restricting youth medical care are also restricting speech and support in schools, and the number of states doing so has grown immensely in the past several years. Being a good ally to transgender and nonbinary youth includes speaking up against pronoun bans, against book bans, against pride flag bans, against restrictions on student groups, and by using the pronouns and names that they ask for.
Access To Care
Mental Health Care
- 84% of youth reported wanting mental health care
- 50% of youth who wanted mental health care were not able to access it
Transgender Medical Care
- 13% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported taking gender affirming hormones
- 2% reported taking puberty blockers
- 61% of youth taking gender affirming medications reported being somewhat or very concerned about losing access to care
Impact of Politics
- 90% of LGBTQ+ youth reported that their well-being was negatively impacted due to politics
- 39% of LGBTQ+ youth reported that they or their families have thought about moving due to state politics and laws
- 45% of transgender and nonbinary youth or their families have considered moving because of local politics and laws
What Else Can You Do?
- Act locally! From your school board, to your city or county council, to your state representatives.
- Donate clothing to clothing swaps, clothing closets, or other trans-led projects.
- Support youth nationally!
- Consider supporting programs that directly support LGBTQ+ youth. Some of the programs that are helping transgender and nonbinary youth access care include:
- Southern Legal Counsel
- Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project
- GMLA Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality
- Trans Resistance Network
- Elevated Access
- Point of Pride
- TransFamily Support Services
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