A new mental health study conducted in the UK by Stonewall, Britain’s leading LGBTQ advocacy and charity group, reveals some horrific, though not totally unsurprising conclusions. Of the 5,000 LGBTQ people surveyed, between the ages of 18 and 24, approximately 52 percent have experienced depression and 61 percent had anxiety in the last year alone. Additionally, 46 percent of transgender people have thought about taking their own life and one in eight people in the LGBTQ community at large have attempted suicide.
The research also shows that widespread discrimination in healthcare deters individuals from seeking help, and that those who do often face unfair treatment. “I got sectioned after a suicide attempt and the nurse said that my mental health problems were due to allowing Satan in my soul. If I just accepted my true gender then God could forgive me,” Elijah, a 19-year-old from South East England said in a testimonial.
While the study took place in the UK, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, mental health statistics in the US are actually quite similar. Nearly seven percent of the US population has experienced depression and approximately 18 percent deal with some iteration of an anxiety disorder. However, a 2016-2017 Human Rights Campaign survey revealed 28 percent of LGBTQ youth reported feeling depressed most or all of the time during the previous 30 days alone. Over 41 percent of trans men and women are estimated to have attempted suicide. Psychology Today reports that this rate is almost nine times as high as that of cisgender Americans.
Trump’s repeated attacks on LGBTQ rights in recent months, should make these results even more pressing.