Queer youth much likelier to have considered or attempted suicide during pandemic than their peers

Queer high-school students were far more likely to have attempted or seriously considered suicide during the pandemic than their peers, according to recently released data collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nearly half of respondents who identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual said they had seriously thought about suicide, while one in four lesbian, gay or bisexual youth reported attempting it, the agency found. The survey did not collect responses for transgender youth, instead allowing youth to identify as "other or questioning."

The findings were part of an alarming larger picture illustrating the stark mental and emotional health effects that plagued youth nationwide as the pandemic forced schools to close and saddled families with isolation, economic hardship, illness and loss.

“I don’t think we can underestimate this,” said Leslie McMurray, transgender education and advocacy associate for Resource Center, an LGBT community resource based in Dallas. “Kids don’t have the perspective of someone older, who can say to themselves that things will be better down the road. What causes people to harm themselves is losing hope.”

As in other cities across the country, the pandemic forced the Dallas center to indefinitely shut down its in-person LGBTQ youth programs, including a drop-in center for middle and high school kids and a weekly dinner for LGBTQ kids and their families. Both have since resumed, though not at previous levels, she said.

“If students lived with families who were not identity-affirming and had to learn from home, there was no escape from that,” McMurray said. “They may have been stuck with parents who were vehemently opposed to how they identified.”

The CDC said concerns about the pandemic’s economic, social and behavioral effects on youth prompted its one-time “Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences” survey. The agency collected anonymous responses from more than 7,700 public and private high-school students from January to June 2021.

Just over 13% of respondents identified as “lesbian, gay or bisexual” while another 9% identified as “other or questioning.” In addition to emotional and mental health, the 110-item questionnaire also polled youths about other social factors such as substance abuse, issues with parents and perceived racism.

Among all youth, 44% reported experiencing such persistent sadness or hopelessness in the previous year that they stopped doing regular activities. About 20% had seriously considered suicide, while nearly one in 10 said they had attempted it.

For queer students, the figures were even more disquieting: 76% of LGB students, and 69% of those self-described as other or questioning, said they had felt crippling levels of persistent sadness or hopelessness.

Among LGB students, almost half had seriously considered suicide while more than one in four had attempted it, the CDC found. For other or questioning students, the figures were 40% and 17%.

Those rates were several times higher than those of students who identified as heterosexual, 14% of whom reported seriously considering suicide, with just 5% saying they had attempted it.

For LGBTQ youth advocates, findings echo familiar trends

The findings echo what those who work with LGBTQ youth have been seeing for some time, especially among transgender and non-binary youth, who experience higher rates of suicidality and depression. And they come as the Trevor Project, a national organization focused on suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth, prepares to release the results of its 4th annual national survey on LGBTQ mental health.

"While heartbreaking, the findings of this study are not surprising," said Amy Green, research director for the Trevor Project, based in West Hollywood, California. "The Trevor Project’s research has consistently found that LGBTQ youth are at disproportionately greater risk for attempting suicide compared to their straight and cisgender peers."

While a number of factors contribute to the disparity, she said, "it is critical to understand that LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. They are placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society."

McMurray pointed out that the pandemic coincided with a rise in Republican-led, anti-LGBTQ legislation that has seen state legislatures introduce and pass bills limiting the rights of transgender youth, from their participation in sports to their access to gender-affirming care.

McMurray cited a bill passed by Utah lawmakers, originally vetoed by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox, prohibiting transgender students from playing girls' sports despite statistics showing that of the state’s approximately 75,000 high school athletes, only four are transgender – and only one is involved in girls’ athletics. Cox had appealed to lawmakers to “err on the side of kindness, mercy and compassion,” noting high rates of suicidality among the trans youth population.

“The mere debate of that bill was driving kids to suicide hotlines,” McMurray said.

The CDC noted that worries about youth mental health had existed even prior to the pandemic, with rates of depression and suicidality having risen by more than a third among high school students between 2009 and 2019.

Those issues were exacerbated by the effects of COVID-19. For instance, the proportion of mental-health-related emergency room visits in 2020 increased 31% over 2019 for youth aged 12 to 17, according to CDC data.

Among the conundrums posed by the pandemic was the inability to address depression through the benefits of social connections because of public-health restrictions against social gathering in efforts to contain the virus.

Instead, many people had to rely on virtual connections.

The CDC noted that suicidality and depression was less pronounced in youths who felt connected to schoolmates or others during the pandemic, even though those relationships were in many cases cut off by school closures and a switch to virtual learning.

“Efforts to improve connectedness to schools, peers and family are critical to protecting the mental health and well-being of youths, particularly in the context of ongoing pandemic-related stressors,” the CDC wrote, citing the possibility of long-term consequences that may linger as a result of the disruption.

However, queer students were less likely to have those connections than their peers as well: Just 37% of LGB students and 34% of “other or questioning” students reported feeling close to classmates, compared to 50% of heterosexual students, the survey found.

“Especially in 2020, when some of the stay-at-home orders went into effect and schools went virtual, students were being pulled away from their support groups or supportive educators,” said Rebby Kern, education policy director for Equality NC, an LGBTQ advocacy organization in North Carolina.

'We do not need to be widening this gap'

A more concerning effect of the pandemic, Kern said, especially for transgender and non-binary youth in North Carolina, were student information systems that “inadvertently outed” many students by displaying their legal names in virtual learning situations instead of their chosen ones.

“There are many practices and procedures in place in schools that honor gender support, where students can have their chosen name shared on yearbooks and in lunch lines and so on, but there wasn’t a consideration for virtual learning,” Kern said. “Early on in the pandemic, there wasn’t an opportunity to change those names, and in some cases, students weren’t given that autonomy at all.”

That's where schools have to step in, Kern said, ensuring that systems are in place to honor students' chosen pronouns and dress. Additionally, many LGBTQ youth don’t realize that they’re a protected class when they get bullied or face harm in school settings.

“We have to consider the ways that our school counselors and psychiatrists are trained in the needs of LGBT folks, knowing how to respond to a young person who comes out,” they said. “A lot of youth share that they have to train their providers, that there’s a lot of bias of them not believing them when they come out.”

Moves by several states to remove literature and bar teaching highlighting the LGBTQ experience, as well as Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s call to criminalize gender-affirming youth care, have in themselves had chilling mental health effects for young individuals struggling with their identities.

“They must see themselves reflected,” Kern said. “When they do, they do better. We do not need to be widening this gap.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LGBTQ youth more prone to suicidality during pandemic, CDC finds