Anti-Trans Laws Harm Trans People. They Hurt Kids Even Worse.
'Water still wet,' scientists add.
Newly published research in Nature Human Behaviour dropped last week, and it is making news for the most heartbreaking of reasons: it shows suicide attempts among trans and non-binary minors increasing by about 72 percent in states that pass anti-trans laws, and by 44 percent among people from 13 to 24. The research used data from The Trevor Project’s recurring surveys of LGBTQ youth.
The five separate waves of the questionnaire (the first in spring and summer 2018, the last in fall 2022) allowed researchers to retrospectively split the state-by-state data into time periods before and after legislators passed statewide anti-trans laws, with predictable results.
If you are experiencing thoughts of depression or suicide, please ask for help. Calling or texting 988 — or visiting the website https://988lifeline.org — is an option for everyone. So is talking with friends or family.
The TP questionnaire (consistent with the organization’s mission to prevent suicide among queer and trans young people) is only given to youth, and therefore the data can’t be used to estimate effects on older people, but the increase found, even if all effects magically stopped at ages 25 years old and up, is already brutal to contemplate.
The survey data includes 61,217 responses from trans and non-binary individuals (some of these will come from a single individual repeating the questionnaire at different ages), including 35,196 responses in the 13-17 year age group. As a tracking study, some people will have responded to more than one of the five waves, but at least 16,000 unique individuals answered at least one.
In other words, this is not a small study. However, while it’s able to show a strong correlation between these laws and an increase in suicide attempts, the exact amount of the increase is far more difficult to quantify. For example, children and young adults who die after a suicide attempt are by definition not around to take the next Trevor Project survey.
Statistically, then, we only know that these laws are correlated with more trans and non-binary deaths among young people, but not how many. Kansas State University researchers say that suicide is “the third leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 24.” Moreover that “over half of all youth who suffer from depression will attempt suicide at least once, and more than seven percent of these will die as a result.”
Combining base rates of suicide attempts for trans and non-binary youth from other research on the topic (also from The Trevor Project) with the increases suggested by the new study, plus the Kansas State numbers on how many youth who attempt suicide end up dying, the increase in deaths from passing such laws could be horrifying.
As significant as this research is, it’s far from our first indication that government fuckery is killing trans people. The Cass Review in the UK knew at the time that the government’s hold on moving new patients from their waitlist into treatment was strongly associated with an increase in suicide deaths. Of course they hid that information rather than declare it in their report.
Anti-trans sports bans are harmful, too. Not only do we know that sports participation reduces suicide risks, but those who played organized sports and stopped are at higher risk than those who never played. This is exactly the situation that state legislatures seek to impose on trans kids.
While many studies can be criticized for uncertain effect sizes, all the best research we have consistently shows that effects are positive for the types of healthcare and sports involvement that state governments want to ban. The conclusion is inevitable: cissexism harms, and in a large enough population, cissexism kills.
The legislators passing these laws are not innocently inflicting accidental harm either. These laws decrease access to medical care and increase isolation on purpose, while loneliness and social isolation are among the largest of identified risk factors for suicide attempts. And the information here is available with the simplest of internet searches.
There was, of course, never a time when attacking trans children was justified by any reasonable concern for children. But the more the research piles up, the less justifiable, the more callous, and the more evil anti-trans politicians’ legislative actions become.
In the words of my favorite activists of 2024, trans kids deserve better.
PREVIOUSLY!
Your friendly neighborhood Crip Dyke also writes other perverted stuff!
"Not only do we know that sports participation reduces suicide risks, but those who played organized sports and stopped are at higher risk than those who never played. This is exactly the situation that state legislatures seek to impose on trans kids."
Sports bring a sense of camaraderie and belonging. I hate that kids have to be alienated because of the fragile Riley Gaines of the world.
Thank you CD, for your reporting, even though it's heartbreaking.