Laws like Ohio’s trans healthcare ban linked to rise in youth suicide attempts, study says

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org . You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.

COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) — State laws targeting transgender people, like Ohio’s ban on gender-affirming care , have caused up to a 72% increase in suicide attempts among trans and nonbinary youth, a new study shows.

The Trevor Project, a nonprofit suicide prevention organization, surveyed more than 60,000 trans and nonbinary young people ages 13 to 24 from 2018 to 2022, a period in which 19 state governments enacted 48 laws targeting the trans community. The research is the first to establish that anti-trans laws, like restrictions on healthcare and measures barring trans girls from taking part in women’s sports, can directly cause an increase in suicide attempts.

“As a result of states enacting anti-transgender laws, trans and nonbinary young people aged 13 to 17 reported a seven to 72% increase in the number of past-year suicide attempts,” the study states, published in the journal Nature Human Behavior. “For trans and nonbinary young people, anti-transgender laws may signal a broad societal rejection of their identities, communicating that their identities and bodies are neither valid nor worthy of protection.”

A risk for youth suicide is why Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a bill in December that would bar healthcare professionals from providing gender-affirming care to trans children in the state. At the time, DeWine said he made his decision about House Bill 68 after visiting five children’s hospitals and speaking with families whose children were undergoing that treatment.

“They told me their child is alive only because they received care,” DeWine said. “These are gut-wrenching decisions that should be made by parents and should be informed by teams of doctors who are advising them. These are parents who have watched their children suffer for years.”

Still, the Statehouse voted to override DeWine’s veto , also rejecting pleas from the leaders of Ohio’s children’s hospitals. During a Dec. 6 hearing for the bill , CEO Steve Davis of Cincinnati’s Children’s argued H.B. 68 would hinder doctors and parents from collaboratively deciding the best treatment for their children, leading to untreated mental health issues and preventable deaths.

After a legal challenge this past summer that included a five-day trial in July , a Franklin County judge ruled that H.B. 68 would go into effect immediately . The decision was celebrated by many of Ohio’s top Republican lawmakers, who have long argued Ohioans under age 18 are incapable of providing the informed consent necessary to make the decisions to receive this care.

“This case has always been about the legislature’s authority to enact a law to protect our children from making irreversible medical and surgical decisions about their bodies,” said Attorney General Dave Yost in a statement at the time. “The law doesn’t say ‘no’ forever; it simply says ‘not now’ while the child is still growing.”

Beyond gender-affirming care, The Trevor Project’s study said trans youth face mental health obstacles over laws prohibiting them from participating in school sports or using a bathroom that best matches their gender identity. H.B. 68 includes a measure banning trans female athletes’ participation in women’s sports , which was a separate bill before Ohio House legislators combined the two in June last year.

“Restricting access to sports, school activities and public facilities threatens the health and well-being of trans and non-binary young people, while also creating an unsafe school environment,” the study states. “Research has also consistently documented the impact of an unsafe school environment on LGBTQ+ youth, linking it to missing more days at school, performing worse in courses and experiencing declines in mental health.”

House Bill 183 is also advancing through the Ohio Statehouse, which would prohibit schools from allowing trans students to use a bathroom that doesn’t correspond with the gender assigned to them at birth. The bill states institutions are required to set separate facilities based on a student’s “biological sex,” meaning “the sex listed on a person’s official birth record.”

Other anti-LGBTQ+ bills proposed in Ohio include House Bill 245 to ban “adult cabaret performances,” defined as a show “harmful to juveniles” that features “entertainers who exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performers’ or entertainers’ gender assigned at birth.” House Bill 8 would require teachers to notify parents before teaching “sexuality content” and of any change in a student’s mental, emotional or physical health.

“Statewide and national discrimination could lead trans and nonbinary you people to seriously consider suicide through feeling unimportant and disconnected,” The Trevor Project’s study said. “It could also lead trans and non-binary young people who were already seriously considering suicide due to other stressors to acquire the capability for suicide and attempt through repetitive exposure to pain and fear.”

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