The LGBTQ movement's chief arguments against state bills to ban minors from undergoing medical gender transitions has been that preventing them from doing so increases their risk of suicide. Such treatments, often described as "gender-affirming health care," they say are "medically necessary" and "life-saving," given that transgender youth are "more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers," according to studies cited by the Trevor Project.
But according to his research, Jay Greene of The Heritage Foundation says "if anything, the opposite appears to be true."
In states where the availability of gender-transition drugs are made more available, suicide rates among gender dysphoric students are increasing, not decreasing. In fact, suicide rates spiked among teens aged 12 to 23 in states where minors may access hormones and puberty blockers without parental consent.
"Our new research finds that … rushing into puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, making those drugs more widely available, actually elevates suicide risks," he summarizes.
The release of these findings has resulted in outraged transgender advocates resorting to character assassinations.
"They have no appropriate response, because frankly, there's virtually no evidence on the other side," Greene asserts. "The claim that the Biden administration is making, that these drugs need to be readily and widely available, is based on three studies that were very poorly done."
Even so, Greene laments that parents are being extorted with the threat that if they do not get on board with what the left claims, then their children will commit suicide.
