Author(s): The Trevor Project
Published: July 28, 2022
Report Intro/Brief:
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth report significant disparities in suicide risk compared to their straight and cisgender peers. This increased risk is due to poor societal treatment, such as victimization and discrimination, which may be associated with trauma. Individual trauma happens when a physically or emotionally harmful or threatening event, or series of events, is experienced by a person and has lasting effects on their well-being. Therefore, experiences of discrimination or physical threat or harm based on one’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity may be experienced as individual trauma.
Trauma-related symptoms, such as hypervigilance and avoidance, may even be related to perceived covert discrimination and microaggressions. Research has consistently found that LGBTQ youth report increased experiences of trauma-related events compared to their straight, cisgender youth, often because they experience discrimination and victimization based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity that their peers do not. Despite this, the relationship between trauma and suicide among LGBTQ youth has been understudied.
This brief uses data from The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health to examine disparities in trauma symptoms intersectionally by race/ethnicity, age, gender identity, and sexual orientation among LGBTQ youth. Further, we explore the association between trauma and past-year suicide attempts among these youth.”
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