Nearly 14% of LGBTQ youth attempted suicide in the past year, according to a 2022 survey by The Trevor Project.
For transgender and nonbinary young people, the rate jumped to nearly 1 in 5. The data, drawn from a survey of 34,000 respondents ages 13 to 24, also showed that LGBTQ youth of color reported higher suicide attempt rates than their white peers. More than 45% of all respondents had seriously considered suicide over the previous year.
Kia Darling-Hammond, Ph.D., who was then director of education programs and research at the National Black Justice Coalition, spoke about the underlying causes and what can be done. She developed The Bridge to Thriving Framework, a model for helping activists and educators understand universal thriving. The interview, conducted by reporters, covered everything from systemic discrimination to the role of family support.
Belonging as a fundamental human need
Darling-Hammond described belonging as a need as basic as air. “Without it, we are susceptible to profound despair,” she said. To be “othered” is to be cut off from community, humanity, and even oneself. She stressed that affirming a person’s inherent dignity, value, and potential is essential for mental health. For adolescents who are both LGBTQIA+ and people of color, those challenges multiply. “Compounded identity can result in compounded hardship,” she noted.
Indigenous, Black, and Latinx LGBTQIA+ people face disproportionate surveillance, harassment, and incarceration. They are also more likely to receive substandard healthcare and to experience housing instability.
Darling-Hammond pointed out that LGBTQIA+ youth make up 40% to 50% of the unhoused youth population, even though they represent only about 10% of all young people. Family rejection and abuse are the top reasons for displacement.
The pandemic made things worse.
Many adolescents lost access to affirming spaces like school and extracurricular activities. Being forced to stay in unsupportive homes took a heavy toll. “They know these statistics, and they are exhausted and scared,” Darling-Hammond said of the Black and Latinx trans and nonbinary youth she works with.
That kind of exhaustion is not new, but the scale of it is. The survey data from 2022 is a snapshot of a crisis that has been building for years.
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While suicide prevention efforts have existed for decades, the specific focus on the intersection of race, gender identity, and sexual orientation is still relatively young as a policy priority. The survey results indicate that generic mental health support is not enough — interventions must be tailored to the compounded realities of adolescents who face multiple forms of marginalization.
What policy and individual action can look like
Darling-Hammond called for “federally enforced wealth redistribution” as a starting point.
Guaranteeing safe, stable, lead-free housing and eliminating food deserts would free up psychological energy for healing.
She pointed to existing legislation like the Equality Act and the Pursuing Equity in Mental Health Act, which authorizes $805 million for research, provider training, and stigma reduction focused on Black youth. “This kind of legislation is essential,” she said.
Darling-Hammond urged people to affirm LGBTQIA+ youth actively.
“Be vocal and unapologetic about your support,” she said.
Using correct pronouns and preferred names is a simple but powerful way to show respect.
Helping adolescents find affinity communities and positive representations of themselves in media and history also matters. Darling-Hammond emphasized that adults need to educate themselves about queer and trans people of color histories and cultures.
The interview ended with a call to dream bigger. Darling-Hammond said the moment of upheaval offers an opportunity to design futures that go beyond survival toward true thriving. “Blueprints exist,” she said. “A better future is possible, but only if they accept that their humanity is closely tied to the humanity of everyone else, and refuse the status quo.”
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