Suicidality and LGBTQIA2S+
LGBTQIA2S+ youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society.
Statistics
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 24 (Hedegaard, Curtin, & Warner, 2018) — and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth are at significantly increased risk.
LGBTQ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers (Johns et al., 2019; Johns et al., 2020).
The Trevor Project estimates that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ youth (13-24) seriously consider suicide each year in the U.S. — and at least one attempts suicide every 45 seconds.
The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth.
The Importance of Intersectionality
Intersectionality is a framework for understanding how interdependent and multidimensional social identities at the individual level, such as race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, are shaped by interlocking systems of privilege and oppression at the societal level, such as heterosexism, cisgenderism, and racism (Crenshaw, 1991).
This intersection of identities may, in turn, present distinct stressors for some LGBTQ youth compared to others, and minority stress may be most persistent and problematic for youth who occupy multiple marginalized social positions (Cyrus, 2017).
That said, largely due to sample size limitations, researchers often fail to examine within-group differences among LGBTQ youth, limiting our understanding of within-group disparities in suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
However, existing research points to increased disparities for bisexual youth, transgender and nonbinary youth, and LGBTQ youth of color.
Rejection and a Lack of Social Support & Affirming Spaces
Research suggests that among LGBTQ youth, only one-third experience parental acceptance, with an additional one-third experiencing parental rejection, and the final one-third not disclosing their LGBTQ identity until they are adults (Katz-Wise et al., 2015). Another study found that LGB young adults who report high levels of parental rejection are eight times more likely to report attempting suicide and six times more likely to report high levels of depression (Ryan et al., 2009).
Many LGBTQ youth lack access to affirming spaces, with only 55% of LGBTQ youth reporting that their school is LGBTQ-affirming and only 37% saying that their home is LGBTQ-affirming. Fewer than 1 in 3 transgender and nonbinary youth found their home to be gender-affirming and a little more than half (51%) found their school to be affirming. The Trevor Project’s research consistently finds that LGBTQ young people report lower rates of attempting suicide when they have access to LGBTQ-affirming spaces.
Physical Harm & Bullying
36% of LGBTQ youth reported that they have been physically threatened or harmed, and those who did attempted suicide at nearly triple the rate of those who did not in the past year.
The Trevor Project’s research has also found that 52% of LGBTQ youth who were enrolled in middle or high school reported being bullied either in person or electronically in the past year, and those who did had three times greater odds of attempting suicide in the past year.
Discrimination
73% of LGBTQ youth report that they had experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity at least once in their lifetime, and those who did attempted suicide at more than twice the rate of those who did not in the past year.
A 2020 peer-reviewed study by The Trevor Project’s researchers, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that transgender and nonbinary youth who report experiencing discrimination based on their gender identity had more than double the odds of attempting suicide in the past year compared to those who did not experience discrimination based on their gender identity.