State laws targeting transgender people made trans and nonbinary young people more likely to attempt suicide in the past year, according to a first-of-its-kind study. The research , published last week in the journal Nature Human Behavior and conducted by the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, is the first to establish that such laws directly caused an increase in suicide attempts. The Trevor Project surveyed more than 60,000 trans and nonbinary young people (ages 13-24) about their mental health from 2018 to 2022, a period in which 19 state governments enacted 48 laws targeting trans people , particularly youth .
These included restrictions on transition-related care for minors and laws that bar trans student athletes from playing on the school sports teams that align with their gender identities. The study compared suicide-related outcomes for trans and nonbinary young people in those 19 states to the outcomes for trans and nonbinary youth in states that did not enact any such laws. It found that these laws caused an increase in suicide attempts among trans and nonbinary youth by an estimated 7% to 72%.
The range of estimates is large because it includes the percent increase for five time periods from 2018 to 2022, and the estimated percent increase differs depending on time period and the age range of participants. “That causation is the key aspect,” said Ronita Nath, one of the co-authors of the study and vice presi.
