Dive Brief:
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An overwhelming majority of LGBTQ+ students say their mental health is impacted by anti-LGBTQ+ policies, according to an annual survey released by The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that provides crisis support services for LGTBQ+ people.
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In 2024, 90% of LGBTQ+ youth said their well-being was negatively impacted due to recent politics, compared to 66% last year who said that hearing about potential local or state laws banning LGTBQ+ issues at school worsened their mental health.
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The percentage of youth who considered attempting suicide is slightly down, however, at 39% this year compared to 41% last year. Mental health access remains a barrier, as approximately 50% of LGBTQ+ students said they wanted mental health care but were not able to get it.
Dive Insight:
Among all LGBTQ+ youth, 84% wanted mental health care. However, they cited the top barriers to mental health access were fear of speaking about mental health concerns with someone else, lack of affordability, and students' unwillingness to get parent or caregiver permission.
In recent years, mostly conservative states have passed legislation that LGBTQ+ advocates warned would worsen LGBTQ+ mental health while also making it more difficult for them to seek support in school.
For example, some states have passed laws making it difficult for psychologists or other confidential employees to protect the LGBTQ+ identity of students from parents or guardians who may not be accepting. Other schools are requiring that parents be informed of students' requests to change pronouns prior to using their preferred pronouns.
"Much of our efforts to address the public health crisis of suicide among LGBTQ+ young people are made that much harder by the ongoing wave of anti-LGBTQ+ policies pushed by extremist lawmakers across the country," said Janson Wu, senior director of state advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project, in a Tuesday statement.
Wu added that nearly half of transgender and nonbinary youth had reported considering moving to a different state due to local policies. "With such striking numbers and families literally wanting to uproot their homes to seek safety, lawmakers must seriously reconsider the real and damaging impact that their anti-LGBTQ+ policies and rhetoric create."
Because LGBTQ+ protections vary so widely by state and even presidential administrations, LGBTQ+ advocates have pushed that protections be cemented in regulations for Title IX, the federal anti-sex discrimination law.
This month, the U.S. Department of Education did just that. And even prior to the rule's release, the department was enforcing the rule to protect LGBTQ+ students from bullying, including misgendering.
However, the final rule that added protections for LGBTQ+ students under Title IX for the first time was challenged in two separate lawsuits on Monday, the same day the regulations were officially published in the Federal Register.
At least five states so far — Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina — are taking the Biden administration to court over the rule. Other states have warned their local school districts to disregard Title IX policy changes required by federal law and circumvent the inclusion of LGBTQ+ protections, anticipating a long court battle and conflict with local state policies.
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