More than 30 percent of LGBTQ youth attribute poor mental health to anti-LGBTQ laws

Close to a third of LGBTQ youth say laws and policies that target LGBTQ people have had a substantial and negative impact on their mental health over the past year, according to an annual report published Monday by The Trevor Project, a national LGBTQ youth suicide prevention group.

Nearly 1 in 3 LGBTQ young people said their mental health is poor either “most of the time” or “always” because of policies and legislation that takes aim at their sexual orientation or gender identity, according to Monday’s report, which analyzed survey responses from more than 28,000 LGBTQ young people ages 13 to 24 across the U.S.

2023 has been a record-shattering year for anti-LGBTQ legislation, with close to 470 bills targeting LGBTQ rights introduced by state lawmakers nationwide. At least 40 of those bills have become law, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

More than 60 percent of LGBTQ young people in Monday’s report said learning about efforts to ban or heavily restrict talk of sexual orientation and gender identity in public school classrooms made their mental health “a lot worse.”

More than 80 state bills introduced this year would limit the ability of public school educators to talk about LGBTQ issues or identities with their students. In Florida last month, the state Board of Education approved a proposal by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to expand a controversial state education law restricting classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The law, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by its critics for its disproportionate impact on LGBTQ students and families, now extends through high school. 

Education officials and members of the LGBTQ community have voiced concerns that similar laws and policies will worsen social stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ people, particularly youth. According to Monday’s Trevor Project report, 53 percent of LGBTQ students said they had been verbally harassed at school because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Another 20 percent of LGBTQ students reported unwanted sexual contact at school because they were perceived as being LGBTQ, according to the report. Twelve percent of students said they left school “because the mistreatment was so bad,” and 9 percent reported being physically attacked because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

At the same time, however, 54 percent of LGBTQ youth said they found their school to be affirming, including half of transgender and nonbinary respondents, and those who felt that way reported lower rates of attempting suicide.

LGBTQ young people are also encouraged by positive state laws, and 79 percent of respondents said hearing about proposed state law and local laws to ban conversion therapy made them feel “a little” or “a lot” better.