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For LGBTQ youth advocates, findings echo familiar trends
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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 other or questioning students, the figures were 40% and 17%. About 20% had seriously considered suicide, while nearly one in 10 said they had attempted it.įor 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.Īmong LGB students, almost half had seriously considered suicide while more than one in four had attempted it, the CDC found. 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.Īmong all youth, 44% reported experiencing such persistent sadness or hopelessness in the previous year that they stopped doing regular activities. The agency collected anonymous responses from more than 7,700 public and private high-school students from January to June 2021. The CDC said concerns about the pandemic’s economic, social and behavioral effects on youth prompted its one-time “Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences” survey. “They may have been stuck with parents who were vehemently opposed to how they identified.” “If students lived with families who were not identity-affirming and had to learn from home, there was no escape from that,” McMurray said. Both have since resumed, though not at previous levels, she said. What causes people to harm themselves is losing hope.”Īs 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. “Kids don’t have the perspective of someone older, who can say to themselves that things will be better down the road. “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. 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.
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The survey did not collect responses for transgender youth, instead allowing youth to identify as "other or questioning." 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. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 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. Watch Video: 'Don't Say Gay' bills: What similar measures mean for LGBTQ youth