ACCEPTANCE IS THE KEY –
Oct. 20, 2025 – As political rhetoric in the last couple of years has boiled over on issues such as teaching about LGBTQ+ identity in schools, transgender students playing on sports teams and whether to allow gender-affirming care, the share of youth who said they’d experienced symptoms of depression rose from 48% to 54%. Those reporting having suicidal thoughts went from 41% to 47%.
Transgender and nonbinary youth were nearly twice as likely to say they’d struggled with anxiety and suicidal thoughts than their cisgender peers — a pattern that held steady throughout the first year of data collection on participants in this group.
