Topline
Suicide attempts among youth dropped slightly after states passed hate crime laws protecting LGBTQ people, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association, leading researchers to argue policy changes could reduce the likelihood of suicide in LGBTQ youth.
Demonstrators in favor of LGBT rights rally outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, October … [+]
Key Facts
Researchers looked at survey responses from more than 697,000 high school students between 1991 and 2018 from the CDC’s Youth risk Behavior Survey, and found about 8.6% of all students reported one or more suicide attempts in the year before they answered the survey.
From 2015 to 2018, after the survey started asking students about sexual orientation, researchers found that suicide attempts were significantly higher in students who identified as gay, lesbian or questioning.
Suicide attempts for students of all sexual orientations decreased by 1.2% after states enacted hate crime laws protecting LGBTQ people, the study found.
Aaron Kivisto, an author of the study, called the 1.2% figure “small but reliable” in a press release, and said although the change may appear slight, it has a significant impact because of how prevalent suicide attempts are in adolescents.
Kivisto says this effect is known as “social spillover,” where “just as factors that contribute to health disparities are ultimately disadvantageous for all, factors that remedy health disparities are frequently beneficial for all.”
The study, which used data from 27 states, excluding states who adopted hate crimes laws before 1991, did not find a decrease in suicide attempt rates in states where hate crime laws did not protect their LGBTQ population.
Key Background
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among those between ages 10 and 34 in the U.S., the CDC reported in 2019. The CDC also reported suicide was the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S. overall, and that there were nearly two and a half times as many suicides in the U.S. as there were homicides. Studies suggest that LGBTQ youth are at a higher risk of suicide than their heterosexual peers, and the Trevor Project’s 2022 survey found that 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the last year. Hate crime laws vary by state, but they generally outlaw crimes on the basis of race, sexual orientation, gender identity or other protected categories.
Further Reading:
‘Terrible Time For Trans Youth:’ New Survey Spotlights Suicide Attempts — And Hope (Forbes)Report the details…
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/juliecoleman/2022/06/23/youth-suicide-attempts-dropped-in-states-with-lgbtq-hate-crime-laws-study-finds/