01/13/2022
What Many LGBTQ+ Students Worry About Most During the Pandemic
By Arianna Prothero — January 10, 2022 4 min read
Photo illustration of a stressed person.
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National political fights over transgender youth rights combined with the pandemic have taken a toll on the mental health of many LGBTQ+ teenagers and young adults, a new poll shows.
Two thirds of LGBTQ+ teens and young adults say that recent high-profile debates and state legislation on restricting transgender youth participation in school sports, among other related issues, have been hard on their mental health, according to the poll conducted by Morning Consult for the Trevor Project, a national su***de prevention organization for LGBTQ youth.
The impact of these political debates is even more keenly felt among transgender and nonbinary youth, 85 percent of whom say these types of discussions and legislative activity have negatively affected their mental health.
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Transgender and nonbinary youth are also more likely to say they have trouble getting mental health care, compared with their cisgender le***an, gay, bisexual, and q***r peers.
“These results underscore how recent politics and ongoing crises facing the globe can have a real, negative impact on LGBTQ young people, a group consistently found to be at significantly increased risk for depression, anxiety, and attempting su***de because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society,” said Amit Paley, the CEO and Executive Director of The Trevor Project, in a statement.
The survey asked LGBTQ+ teens and young adults how they felt—angry, nervous, stressed, scared, sad, excited, or happy—about three policies in particular: banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams and transgender boys from playing on boys’ teams; prohibitions on doctors prescribing gender-affirming medical care to transgender youth; and policies requiring schools to tell parents if their children are using different names or pronouns at school, or are identifying as LGBTQ+ at school.
Anger, stress, sadness, and nervousness were the most commonly-reported emotions. Policies requiring schools to inform parents about their children’s gender and sexual identities made LGBTQ+ students particularly stressed and nervous.
Several states have recently passed bills limiting transgender students from participating in school sports based on the gender they identify with, following the lead of Idaho, which passed the first such bill in 2020.
“It’s clear that lawmakers should be taking an intersectional approach to public policy, not working overtime to target the most marginalized young people, particularly those who are transgender or nonbinary, for partisan political points,” said Paley. “We all must play a role in promoting LGBTQ acceptance and creating a more supportive world for all young people.”
