CDC: One In Four Trans Kids Have Attempted Suicide In The Past Year
The CDC report also indicates that 10% of transgender youth required medical treatment for their suicide attempt.
According to a new study released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in four transgender youth attempted suicide in the past year. Of those, 10% required medical treatment following the attempt. The study also found that 3.3% of high school students identify as transgender, while an additional 2.2% report questioning or feeling uncertain about their gender. The survey, which included a large, nationally representative sample of 20,103 students, has significant implications for the wave of anti-trans laws that have passed—and continue to go into effect—in red states across the United States.
Extrapolating from the CDC study, the number of transgender and gender-questioning high school students in the United States is likely as high as 875,000. Of trans students, 26% reported attempting suicide in the past year, with 10% requiring medical treatment. This amounts to tens of thousands of suicide attempts by transgender youth that required medical care in 2023.
You can see the chart from the CDC survey here:
The numbers align with reports from doctors in emergency rooms who treat suicide attempts. These doctors testified in several states throughout 2022 and 2023, sharing their experiences treating suicide victims. In Montana, for instance, Dr. Eric Lowe testified on behalf of the state’s ER practitioners against the gender affirming care ban there, stating that Montana’s gender-affirming care ban would cost lives. Representative Lola Sheldon-Galloway, who voted for the ban, challenged his testimony by questioning his experience with transgender care, noting that she “[did] not see any emergency room procedures” banned by the bill, casting doubt on his expertise.
Dr. Lowe responded, “We do see youth in crisis on a daily basis. Often that crisis may be precipitated, as we have heard many times today, that the stressors that lead to that crisis are related to gender.”
Lowe would later submit testimony with the permission of a suicidal teen that he treated, stating, “Every yes vote on a discriminatory bill targeting transgender Montanans contributed to this child being driven to the point of wanting to kill themselves.”
The CDC report follows a recent study published in the prestigious journal Nature Human Behavior, which found that anti-transgender bans led to an increase of up to 72% in suicide attempts by transgender youth in states that passed anti-trans legislation. Using a natural experiment design and multiple waves of surveys, the study found that laws such as bathroom bans, sports bans, and gender-affirming care bans were significantly and causally associated with a rise in suicides. The survey reached 61,000 transgender youth in the United States across several waves, making it one of the most impactful studies ever conducted on the effects of anti-trans legislation.
Some critics of studies showing high suicide attempt rates, such as anti-trans bloggers Benjamin Ryan and Leor Sapir, often downplay the severity or frequency of suicide attempts among transgender youth. For instance, Leor Sapir has claimed that studies on transgender suicidality may reflect “non-lethal self-harm and cries for help,” rather than “serious efforts to die.” Similarly, Ryan has dismissed suicide attempts as a meaningful metric, stating that a “reduction in suicidal ideation and attempts” does not prove that gender-affirming care is life-saving. Many of Ryan’s posts on the topic have since been deleted.
The flaws in these dismissive claims are obvious, both through research and common sense. A systematic review of 177 studies found that non-fatal self-harm sharply raises the risk of suicide death within five years. But beyond statistics, the human toll is clear: suicide attempts, even when not fatal, leave lasting damage. For transgender youth, these attempts can result in chronic pain, permanent injury, and deepened mental health struggles. To suggest these are merely “cries for help” is to ignore the reality that harm doesn’t need to be lethal to be devastating. The idea that suicide attempts don’t matter unless they result in death not only defies simple logic, but it also overlooks the immense suffering these youth endure.
Together, the CDC survey and the Nature Human Behavior study reveal a stark reality: in much of the country, transgender youth are being subjected to harmful restrictions on their care, driving a sharp rise in suicide attempts. As these young people are forced to navigate a landscape of hostility and withdrawal of support, their mental and physical well-being hangs in the balance. The Supreme Court will soon decide whether transgender youth will be granted the equal protection they deserve under the law—or if they will be left to bear the devastating consequences of aggressive, discriminatory legislation.
At this point, I don't know if we can honestly call what's happening to vulnerable trans kids "suicide." It's not as if these thoughts, or these attempts, are happening in a vacuum; they're not choosing to die of their own volition. They're being driven to it. Their own hands may be the weapons that end their lives, but someone else's hands- a whole fucking lot of someone else's hands- are the ones doing the aiming.
These kids are being 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥.
The Republican party deserves to burn to the fucking ground for what it's done.
I honestly do not expect this Supreme Court to make the right decision regarding transgender protections and I am girding my loins for the kind of ruling that we in the trans community are expecting. Their ruling on Dobbs proved themselves to be totally antithetical towards human rights not specifically elucidated in the Constitution when it was written hundreds of years ago.