The Trevor Project’s National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health — the largest survey of LGBTQ youth mental health ever conducted with over 34,000 respondents ages 13 to 24 from across the United States — showed there’s a mental health epidemic among LGBTQ youth with politics playing a huge role.
Among the survey’s results from suicidal respondents, 76% said recent politics impacted their mental health or sense of self and only 47% had received psychological or emotional counseling from a mental health professional. The survey also found that nearly 30% of young trans people had attempted suicide and 54% had considered suicide in the last year.
Related: LGBTQ youth are flooding the child welfare system, but they’re treated the worst
Approximately 36% of queer youth who experienced physical violence attempted suicide in the past year, and 22% of those who experienced some form of discrimination attempted suicide.
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About 78% of trans and non-binary youth reported being the subject of discrimination due to their gender identity and 70% of LGBTQ youth reported discrimination due to their sexual orientation.
![A bar graph from the Trevor Project showing who trans and non-binary teens disclose their gender identity to.](https://lgbtqnation-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-20-at-10.04.50-AM.png)
Shockingly, around 67% of all respondents said that someone had encouraged them to try and change their sexual orientation or gender identity through some sort of so-called conversion effort. The high percentage suggests a larger societal misconception about queer identity: while LGBTQ identity can be fluid, nearly every American professional psychological and youth organization says that one can’t and shouldn’t try to change their sexual or gender identity.
While only 5% of respondents actually attended a conversion program, 57% of transgender and non-binary youth who had undergone conversion efforts also reported a suicide attempt in the last year. Hopefully both percentages will drop as more states ban such programs for minors.
![Pie charts from the Trevor Project's National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health shows the racial ethnicity and sexual orientation](https://lgbtqnation-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-20-at-10.13.20-AM.png)
The survey also found that large majorities of respondents weren’t out to their parents, teachers or doctors. A majority also stressed the need for LGBTQ-supportive online environments and crisis hotlines like one offered by The Trevor Project.
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