In a revelation that’s as shocking as finding out water is wet, a study published yesterday in Nature has confirmed that state-level anti-transgender laws are causing significant harm to transgender and nonbinary, or TGNB, young people. The study, titled “State-level anti-transgender laws increase past-year suicide attempts among transgender and non-binary young people in the USA,” provides empirical evidence that these laws are not just political statements—they’re life-threatening policies.
Between 2018 and 2022, 48 anti-transgender laws were enacted across 19 states in the U.S. These laws range from restricting access to gender-affirming health care to banning trans and nonbinary youth from participating in sports aligned with their gender identity. The researchers utilized a difference-in-differences research design—a method often used in economics to determine the impact of policy changes—to estimate the causal effect of these laws on suicide attempts among TGNB young people aged 13–24.
The findings are nothing short of alarming. For trans and nonbinary youth aged 13–17, there was a 7–72 percent increase in past-year suicide attempts in states that enacted anti-transgender laws relative to states that did not. For the broader age group of 13–24, the increase was 38–44 percent. These aren’t just statistics; they’re real lives being affected by legislation that targets some of the most vulnerable members of our society.
The study found “minimal evidence of an anticipatory effect in the time periods leading up to the enactment of the laws.” In plain English, this means that........