“LGBTQ+ youth are in crisis,” LGBTQ Nation reports. “Anti-LGBTQ+ laws lead to ‘public health crisis’ with higher suicide rates among queer youth,” declares The Advocate. Time announces, “Anti-LGBTQ+ policies have an alarming effect on youth mental health, survey finds.”
Every year, queer media report a crisis in LGBT mental health, sourced to The Trevor Project. But what these alarming numbers really show is a media-driven manufactured story that far too many young people believe.
In 2024, the highest concerns included suicide, mental health, and bullying in schools. The report states 90 percent of LGBT youth respondents said recent politics “negatively impacted” their mental health. Nearly 50 percent reported bullying in school, and nearly 40 percent had “seriously considered” suicide in the last year.
These alarming numbers have, once again, fueled the narrative that Republican “anti-LGBT” legislation and rhetoric are escalating mental health concerns in LGBT-identifying young people. The Advocate argues, “More than 550 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced across the U.S. in 2023, and 80 were passed into law. In 2024, 487 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced and 21 have passed into law.”
The Trevor Project determined from their survey, “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. No ‘political victory’ should be worth risking the lives of young people.”
However, is this really what the survey is demonstrating? More to the point, are the survey and
