This terrible development shouldn't surprise anyone. Nor, unfortunately, should the fact that in spite of all of their constant refrains of wanting to protect children, those pushing these bills really don't give a damn about the children they are truly hurting.
From The Hill:
More than two-thirds of LGBTQ+ youth say recent efforts by states to limit the rights of transgender and nonbinary people have negatively impacted their mental health, according to a poll released Monday by the Trevor Project. States in 2021 enacted a “record-shattering” number of anti-LGBTQ+ policies, making it the worst year in recent history for LGBTQ+ state legislative attacks, according to the Human Rights Campaign.. . . In the Trevor Project’s survey of 820 LGBTQ+ youth aged 13 to 24 years old, 70 percent said they were closely following recent news about issues impacting the transgender community, and two-thirds of LGBTQ+ youth said debates about state laws restricting the rights of transgender people have negatively impacted their mental health. That impact has been more dramatic among transgender and nonbinary youth, with more than 85 percent of that group reporting that their mental health has taken a hit, according to the survey."These results underscore how recent politics and ongoing crises facing the globe can have a real, negative impact on LGBTQ young people, a group consistently found to be at significantly increased risk for depression, anxiety and attempting suicide because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society," Amit Paley, CEO of The Trevor Project, said in a statement.
. . . "I see multiple patients daily that are suffering with depression and suicide ideation and suicide attempt and anxiety, and my fear is that if we deny them this evidence-based treatment, we’re only going to see massive more patients come to the emergency room," Jesse Martinez Jr., a doctor of psychiatry at Children’s of Alabama, told Axios in May.
