Kate Sosin, The 19th

Anti-trans laws fueled a spike in suicide attempts among trans and nonbinary youth

The number of suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth in states that passed anti-transgender laws increased by as much as 72% over five years, according to a study released on Thursday.

“It’s hard to digest,” said Dr. Ronita Nath, vice president of research at The Trevor Project, the LGBTQ+ suicide prevention organization that conducted the study. “We know from previous research that transgender/nonbinary people, they’re not inherently prone to increased suicide risk of their identities, but rather, they’re placed at higher risk because of how they’re mistreated and stigmatized by others, including by the implementation of discriminatory policies like the ones examined in this study.”

This report was originally published by The 19th. The Illuminator is a founding member of The 19th News Network.

The report, released Thursday in the journal Nature Human Behavior, surveyed 61,000 trans and nonbinary people aged 13 to 24 between 2018 and 2022. While other studies had already found that access to gender-affirming care alleviates depression and risk of suicide in transgender and nonbinary youth, this is believed to be the first one to draw a connection between suicide attempts and anti-transgender legislation, which has flooded state houses and become a major talking point in this year’s presidential campaign.

Researchers compared rates of suicide attempts among young people in states that passed anti-transgender laws with those that didn’t. They found that states that had passed at least one anti-trans law saw increases in suicide attempts ranging from 7% to 72% over the course of a single year. Across the full sample of surveyed youth, researchers saw a rise in suicide attempts between 38-44%.

“It is without question that anti-transgender policies, and the dangerous rhetoric surrounding them, take a measurable toll on the health and safety of transgender and nonbinary young people all across the country,” Jaymes Black, CEO at the Trevor Project, said in a statement.

Those most at risk were the youngest in the study. Kids ages 13-17 reported 33-49% higher rates of at least one suicide attempt over the course of a year, compared to young people over 18. According to the researchers, this is most likely because those young people have been denied gender-affirming medical care due to bans targeting minors. Young people over the age of 18 are also more likely to have access to LGBTQ+ community and resources, Nath said.

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Youth of color also reported higher rates of suicide attempts, which Nath attributes to grappling with the stress of transphobia and racism, with laws targeting their gender identity and race-based bullying.

From 2018 to 2022, states passed 48 anti-transgender bills, limiting access for trans and nonbinary people to gender-affirming health care, restrooms, equal participation in sports, accurate identity documents and anti-discrimination protections.

Researchers noted that they found minimal evidence suggesting that COVID-19 increased suicide attempts among the youth surveyed, even though two of the years surveyed happened during the height of the pandemic.

But in the two years following the research, anti-trans policies only flourished, leading researchers to believe that trans youth mental health has further degraded. In 2023 and 2024, statehouses weighed 1,197 anti-transgender bills. Of those, 129 became law.

The study found that the mere introduction of anti-trans legislation did not have a noticeable impact on suicide attempts in states, though. It was the passage of those bills into laws that fueled attempts.

“For [transgender and nonbinary] young people, anti-transgender laws may signal a broader societal rejection of their identities, communicating that their identities and bodies are neither valid nor worthy of protection,” the report states.

‘People are energized’: LGBTQ+ rights groups and voters are lining up behind Harris

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The moment that President Joe Biden offered his endorsement to Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic run for the White House, LGBTQ+ organizations and voters hit the ground on her behalf.

Kim Hunt, a veteran LGBTQ+ rights advocate from Chicago, was at brunch when the news broke that Biden was ending his reelection campaign and throwing his support behind Harris. Hours later, Hunt was on a Zoom call with 40,000 other Black women mobilizing support for Harris.

“The mood is completely different in LGBTQ communities, in people of color communities, for women's rights organizations,” Hunt said. “It's different now. People are energized.”

Harris’ candidacy has electrified many Black LGBTQ+ voters — and queer voters in general — who see fresh hope as the community faces unprecedented legislative attacks, particularly against transgender Americans. Others are grappling with Harris' complicated history on transgender issues, both as a member of the Biden administration and previously as a California prosecutor. But, they say, she’s shown growth over time.

Like Hunt, David Johns, executive director of the Black queer advocacy organization National Black Justice Coalition, also sprang into action. Within hours, he was on a call with more than 53,000 other Black men. They raised more than $1 million for Harris in four hours.

“There are clear indications of a new kind of interest and energy,” Johns said of the Harris campaign.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ rights organization, pivoted its endorsement from Biden to Harris.

“Vice President Kamala Harris is a trailblazer and has been a champion for LGBTQ+ equality for decades: from leading the fight in San Francisco against hate crimes and her work in California to end the so-called gay and transgender ‘panic defense’ to her early support for marriage equality and her leadership serving as our Vice President,” said HRC President Kelley Robinson in a statement.

“Her leadership promises to fortify and enhance the efforts to address and meet the needs of transgender people, ensuring continued progress in our nation's history of civil rights,” said the nation’s largest trans organization, Advocates for Transgender Equality, in a statement.

Harris boasts some of the earliest support for LGBTQ+ rights of any of her Washington peers. On Valentine’s Day 2004, she became one of the first elected officials to publicly back marriage equality when she officiated same-sex weddings in California.

As San Francisco’s district attorney in 2008, she refused to defend Proposition 8, which barred marriage equality.

Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang and Nevada’s Silver State Equality State Director André Wade said in a statement that Harris had exemplified what it means to be an ally throughout her career.

“We have seen her commitment to LGBTQ+ equality firsthand,” including her work in the U.S. Senate to enact a federal lynching ban and expand access to HIV prevention medications PrEP and PEP, they said.

Harris, however, has also faced difficult questions in the past from LGBTQ+ leaders. As attorney general in California in 2015, she opposed gender-affirming care for an incarcerated transgender woman. Harris has since apologized, gaining praise from some organizations like HRC who say she is a candidate able to learn and grow.

Others have expressed hesitancy about her history as a prosecutor in a system that disproportionately incarcerates people of color and queer people.

Jennifer Love Williams is the vice chair of the national LGBTQ+ prison advocacy organization Black and Pink. She is also a formerly incarcerated Black trans woman. She acknowledges that Harris’ history may be tough for some.

“I know that she did a job, and what I have to give her is the grace to show me what she would do for us as a country,” Williams said. “What other choice do we have? If we go for [former President Donald] Trump, I know all my rights will be going.”

Life for queer Americans over the last four years has grown increasingly fraught as anti-LGBTQ+ legislation floods state houses and hate crimes on queer Americans have climbed year over year. In the last two years, states have considered 1,197 anti-transgender bills. Of those, 129 have been passed into law.

Before Biden exited the race, some advocates questioned if he was willing to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to truly go to bat for transgender youth, who have faced limits on their access to gender-affirming care and participation in sports, among other attacks.

Biden repeatedly told transgender Americans he has their backs, and his administration has made significant moves in advancing LGBTQ+ equality, including reinstating health care protections for transgender Americans and reversing Trump’s ban on transgender military service. The administration was also the first to issue gender-neutral passports. Biden’s Department of Justice stepped in to support a transgender woman incarcerated with men.

In contrast, LGBTQ+ organizations have condemned Trump as among the most anti-LGBTQ+ presidents in history. Media advocacy organization GLAAD totaled 210 attacks Trump’s administration made against queer Americans during his time in office.

Anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has grown so extreme in recent years that some in the community have expressed fear that a second Trump presidency would usher in the end of marriage equality. Ostensibly to ease those fears, the RNC’s new Trump-backed platform scraps language limiting marriage to “a man and a woman.”

However, a number of RNC speakers used their time at the convention in Milwaukee to verbally attack transgender Americans.

The Biden-Harris administration also found itself ensnared in controversy in early July when the White House stated it opposed gender-affirming surgery for transgender youth. The White House later hedged that stance in comments to the Advocate, acknowledging that surgeries on young people are only offered in extreme cases, a practice the administration said it supports.

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request to comment for this article.

Raquel Willis, a nationally-renowned transgender writer and advocate, still has reservations about Harris.

“I think that we are living in a time where Democratic leaders, including the Biden-Harris administration, have been coasting on toothless platitudes around their beliefs on trans rights,” Willis said. “I will always carry the knowledge that [Harris] wasn't as fierce of an advocate for particularly trans people in and around access to gender-affirming care.”

Willis said this mixed track record sits oddly with transgender Americans. She believes Harris will inherit some of the disappointment and anxiety queer Americans felt about Biden’s response to anti-transgender legislation as well as his handling of the ongoing crisis in Gaza which has alienated many LGBTQ+ voters.

“This is a prime time for accountability, for Harris to be a better candidate that we all desire,” Willis said.

Other leaders agree. So much about Harris, particularly on LGBTQ+ rights, remains unknown. Leaders are curious and eager to hear from her.

“Harris has been a mystery in some ways, but there is lots online showing her support for LGBTQ folks,” said Hunt. “So I feel good about that, certainly feel way better than the alternative.”

The 19th is an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy.

An Oklahoma judge just transferred a lesbian mom’s parental rights to her son’s sperm donor

Originally published by The 19th

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Kris Williams is a lesbian, and that means she won’t be seeing her son anytime soon. That is the official ruling of an Oklahoma court. On Monday, Oklahoma County District Judge Lynne McGuire ruled that Williams had failed to adopt her son and had forfeited her parenting rights to his sperm donor.

Advocates say Williams’ case may test the bounds of equal marriage laws in Oklahoma and beyond. According to Williams, she and her ex-partner Rebekah Wilson planned to have their son and found sperm donor Harlan Vaughn on a paternity website together. The two married while Wilson was pregnant.

In most states, married couples are presumed parents of children born within those unions. Williams said she and Wilson raised W. (whose name has been excluded to protect his identity) for two years. But the couple split bitterly in 2021, and Wilson moved in with Vaughn, taking W. with her. She argued that Williams was not W.’s mom.

McGuire agreed and retroactively removed Williams from W.’s birth certificate last May.

“I don't feel like we should have to adopt our own children,” Williams told the 19th. “If I was a man, then nobody could come back and you know, question whether that child was mine or not, after they're the age of two.”

McGuire reinstated Williams on the birth certificate in June, and Williams’ name remains. But the issue of Williams' parental rights was still undecided until February 13, when McGuire ruled that Oklahoma’s parentage act predated marriage equality and therefore didn’t apply to Williams and Wilson.

“[The act] does not take into account same-sex marriage, and there is no presumption that the wife of the mother is automatically presumed the parent of a child born during the marriage,” McGuire wrote.

Williams’ attorney Robyn Hopkins said they will immediately appeal the decision.

“Today, I'm disappointed to be an Oklahoman,” Hopkins said. “I feel like this is our community’s cry for help and we need all hands on deck. I'm comparing it to a natural disaster.”

Legal experts warn that the case could have substantial implications for marriage equality nationwide. Advocates battled a number of cases to enshrine same-sex marriage protections after the Supreme Court granted those rights nationwide in 2015. Among those fights was the right of parentage. The 2015 Supreme Court case Pavan v. Smith found that it was unconstitutional to treat queer couples differently than heterosexual couples when it came to presuming parentage. If married heterosexual couples were presumed to be parents of children born during their marriage, the same must be true for LGBTQ+ couples.

However, laws vary state to state.

Wilson has previously alleged that Williams was abusive toward her and that she is attempting to remove Williams from her son’s life for his safety. During the divorce proceedings, Wilson was granted an emergency victim protective order that barred Williams from contact with her and W. That order was extended in June. Williams denies the abuse accusation and says it is irrelevant to the question of parentage.

The 19th reached out to Stoddard Morris Family Law, the firm representing Wilson and Vaughn, for comment. A representative told the 19th, “it is our policy not to comment on cases,” and then immediately ended the phone call.

In separate written statements provided to The 19th, Vaughn and Wilson wrote: “We remain focused exclusively on our child's protection and well-being. We are grateful for the court's validation.”

Anti-LGBTQ bills are close to becoming law in multiple GOP states

Two anti-LGBTQ+ bills — Mississippi's transgender youth sports ban and South Dakota's Religious Freedom and Restoration Act — are both heading to the states' governors for their signatures.

The two bills are the first in a spate of anti-LGBTQ+ measures to advance out of state legislatures in what advocates say has been an unprecedented campaign against transgender rights in particular.

“Anti-equality forces are attacking our families," Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David said on a call with reporters Thursday. “They're attacking our children. They're attacking our dignity, and they're attacking our existence."

According to the Human Rights Campaign, more than 70 anti-trans bills are pending in state legislatures, with new bills still being introduced. The organization estimates that 2021 will eclipse 2020 as the year with the most anti-LGBTQ+ legislation ever filed.

Mississippi Senate Bill 2536 bars “males" from competing on interscholastic or intramural athletic teams. The bill states that a student's sex is to be determined by their reproductive anatomy, testosterone levels and “analysis of the student's genetic makeup," which a student can establish with a doctor's note. Its aim is to keep transgender girls, many of whom have yet to reach puberty, from playing on sports teams.

Last month, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves criticized President Joe Biden's LGBTQ+ executive order, which enforced the Supreme Court's 2020 ruling that prohibited employment discrimination against queer workers and extended sex protections in law to include LGBTQ+ kids in sports, as a “radical social experiment." Reeves, a Republican, did not immediately respond to a request to comment from The 19th.

Mississippi resident Katy Binstead said she worries about her daughter, after her principal told her she couldn't play basketball with other middle schoolers.

“My daughter isn't comfortable playing with the boys because she's not a boy, and she never has been a boy," Binstead said. “And they're saying she can't play girls' basketball, based on a gender assigned at birth."

But for Binstead, the issues go beyond what team her daughter plays on. “There's so many mental health issues at play here," she said. “A lot of kids that are transgender, if they're not affirmed, the mental health risk of them dying by suicide is quite high."

At least two bills — in Alabama and Minnesota — would criminilaze and even incarcerate transgender children for playing on athletic teams inconsistent with their sex assigned at birth.

However, state legislatures aren't just passing athletic bills. South Dakota has passed a Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA), a type of anti-LGBTQ+ religious exemption law not seen since former Indiana Gov. Mike Pence inked one into law in 2015. The bills mirror a 1993 federal law that has been used to justify discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and women, advocates say. At least 36 states have RFRAs pending in state legislatures.

South Dakota Senate Bill 124 was intended to allow churches to stay open during the pandemic. However, the bill contains four lines that echo RFRA language. South Dakota has been used as the testing ground for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation since federal marriage equality became the law of the land in 2015, in part because its chambers are Republican-controlled.
It's unclear if South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem will sign the bill into law. The Associated Press reported last month that the Republican said she welcomed transgender people in South Dakota but declined to comment on the transgender legislation moving through her state.

Originally published by The 19th