New Year, Same Problems for Queer Families
By Brittany Berger
Starting the Year with a Record-Breaking Wave of Anti-LGBTQ Legislative Attacks
Going into 2025, we need to be vigilant and stand strong to protect our LGBTQ youth. We must face the fact that legislative attacks against LGBTQ rights are increasing at an alarming rate and youth, especially Trans youth are a focal point.
In 2023 we saw 80 anti-Trans bills filed across the United States. Going into 2025 there are nearly 120 bills filed targeting gender affirming care, stripping legal recognition from Transgender people, bathroom bans, book bans, sports bans, drag bans, and of course “don’t say Gay” policies.
According to the ACLU, these types of legislation are directly related to up to a 72% increase in suicide attempts in some states. This comes directly from a recent article published in the journal “Nature Human Behavior” titled State-level anti-transgender laws increase past-year suicide attempts among transgender and non-binary young people in the USA. The Lee et al. article that outlines a survey of over 100,000 young Transgender and Non-Binary young people concludes that we “need to consider the mental health impact of recent anti-transgender laws and to advance protective policies”.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) in October 2024 based on the Youth Risk Behavior Survey done in 2023. This survey found that over 3% of U.S. high school students identify themselves as Transgender and over 2% reported that they are questioning. The survey also found that more than one in four students who identifies as Transgender attempt suicide and 10% need ongoing medical care. This was compared to 5% of cis male and 11% of cis female students who attempt suicide.
Further the MMWR report identified that one in four Transgender high school students skip school for safety concerns, another one in four report experiencing violence at school, and 7 in 10 feel sad or hopeless. Importantly, this survey found that these declining mental health disparities are lessened when schools implemented LGBTQ supportive policies and practices.
We saw school districts in 2023 and 2024, such as Temecula, try to implement policies that obligated teachers to “out” students who identified as a different gender than they were assigned at birth. Fortunately, Governor Newsom passed AB 1955: Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act. This act will prevent schools from requiring teachers to “out” students. “Teachers can still talk to their parents,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a press conference last month. “What they can’t do is fire a teacher for not being a snitch. I don’t think teachers should be gender police.”
While California legislators are more aware of the need for protections, this is not the norm across the country and anti-Trans extremism continues to be a threat. While I want to be hopeful and not fall into conspiracy theories, I must say I am concerned about the possibilities of “Project 2025” and the incoming administration.
According to GLAAD “Project 2025 is a presidential transition plan and a government in waiting, spearheaded and organized by the far-right the Heritage Foundation, and with 100 coalition partner organizations, many of which are well-known for pushing anti-LGBTQ policy, legal efforts, and harmful rhetoric, accompanied by Christian nationalism” and “if implemented Project 2025 would strip away rights and protections, embolden authoritarianism, and weaken institutions that uphold American democracy and the rule of law”.
As parents we need to stay vigilant, and we need not let all the hard work to protect our youth dissolve. It is our duty to ensure our kids are safe and free to be themselves. We need to not let these attacks go unnoticed and we need to continue to shield ourselves with legal protections at a federal level.
There is some hope on the horizon. Three newly elected legislators representing the LGBTQ community will make history Friday when they are sworn in to the 119th Congress, marking several firsts in the House of Representatives. Sarah McBride will be the first opening Trans woman in Congress. She will represent Delaware’s sole congressional district. Julie Johnson is set to be the first LGBTQ member of congress from Texas, and she has a record of fighting anti-LGBTQ legislation at the state level. And Emily Randall from Washington State will be the first LGBTQ Latina in congress.