The Data Is In. Anti-LGBTQ Laws Are Making Kids Sick.

This is not a mental health awareness post. You do not need to be told that LGBTQ youth are struggling. You need to see what is causing it, because the cause is policy, and policy can change.

What the 2025 National Survey Found

The Trevor Project’s 2025 U.S. National Survey collected responses from more than 16,000 LGBTQ young people ages 13 to 24. The headline numbers are brutal.

36% seriously considered suicide in the past year. Among transgender and nonbinary youth, it was 40%. One in ten actually attempted it.

44% who wanted mental health care could not get it.

And 90% said anti-LGBTQ laws, policies, and political debates caused them stress or anxiety. That is not an opinion survey about feelings. It is 14,400 young people connecting their distress directly to what legislatures are doing.

The Research Connecting Laws to Outcomes

Three peer-reviewed findings make the policy connection impossible to dismiss.

That last number means more than one in three trans teenagers in America lives in a state that has enacted all four types of restrictions at once. Care bans, sports bans, bathroom bans, and pronoun restrictions in schools.

Protective Laws Work. Restrictive Laws Harm.

The Cincinnati Children’s study did something no prior research had done. It measured the gap between states with enumerated LGBTQ protections and states without them, using data from 27,697 LGBTQ youth. The result was clear. Where states named sexual orientation and gender identity in antibullying law, suicide attempts dropped 18% and physical violence dropped 3%.

Meanwhile, the Trevor Project’s research in Nature Human Behaviour established causal, not just correlational, links between anti-trans legislation and suicide attempts. After states passed care bans, the spike followed.

“LGBTQ+ young people are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society.”

The Trevor Project

The American Psychological Association reached the same conclusion. The legislation itself is the variable that changes outcomes.

What Needs to Happen

1. Pass enumerated antibullying protections. States that specifically name sexual orientation and gender identity in antibullying law see measurably lower rates of youth suicide attempts. Generic antibullying language is not enough.
2. Block federal care bans. The CMS proposed rules banning gender-affirming care in any Medicare- or Medicaid-certified hospital would cut off access for hundreds of thousands of young people. Public comment is closed. Litigation and Congressional pressure are the remaining tools.
3. Fund the 988 Lifeline for LGBTQ youth. The Trevor Project’s crisis services connect with hundreds of thousands of young people every year. Protecting and expanding 988 funding is a direct investment in keeping kids alive.
4. Use the data in your advocacy. When a legislator says these bills are about “protecting children,” the numbers say the opposite. Bring receipts to every meeting, every call, every letter.

The Numbers Are the Argument

The policy connection is not a progressive talking point. It is a finding published in Nature Human Behaviour, confirmed by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and backed by UCLA’s Williams Institute. When states pass anti-LGBTQ laws, more kids try to die. When states pass protective laws, fewer do.

That is the entire argument. It does not need decoration.

Read more about what is happening to LGBTQ rights on our LGBTQ and Gender Rights hub.