NEW YORK – This year’s U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People from The Trevor Project found that 41% of respondents seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.
That percentage includs half of transgender and nonbinary young people and nearly 3 in 10 cisgender young people (29%). A large majority of LGBTQ young people also reported recent symptoms of anxiety (67%) and depression (54%), yet 56% of young people who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to get it. The top four barriers to care reported by young people were the same as last year: fear about discussing mental health, concerns with parental permission, fear of not being taken seriously, and lack of affordability.
“The CDC’s latest data emphasized that queer students face disproportionate rates of poor mental health and suicide risk — and our research takes it a step further by illuminating disparities among LGBTQ young people across age, gender identity, race/ethnicity, region, and expansive sexual orientations,” said Dr. Ronita Nath, vice president of research for The Trevor Project. “As the existence of LGBTQ young people continues to be unfairly put up for debate, it’s critical to consistently underscore that these challenges are not inherent to LGBTQ identity, but rather stem from stigma, discrimination, and violence.”
The survey found that LGBTQ young people who experienced victimization on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity reported higher rates of attempting suicide. For example, 24% of LGBTQ young people reported that they were physically threatened or harmed in the past year due to either their sexual orientation or gender identity, and those who were reported triple the rate of attempting suicide. Also, 60% of LGBTQ young people reported that they felt discriminated against in the past year and 15% reported being threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy. In both cases, LGBTQ young people who experienced this type of victimization attempted suicide at more than double the rate of those who have not.
Other findings include:
- Nearly 1 in 3 LGBTQ young people said their mental health was poor most of the time or always due to anti-LGBTQ policies and legislation.
- Nearly 2 in 3 LGBTQ young people said that hearing about potential state or local laws banning people from discussing LGBTQ people at school made their mental health a lot worse.
- 79% of LGBTQ young people said hearing about potential state and local laws trying to ban conversion therapy made them feel a little or a lot better.
The survey represents the experiences of more than 28,000 LGBTQ young people ages 13 to 24 across the country.
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