Shelly L. Skeen

Texas is a hard place right now for young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ+), and especially for trans kids. The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ young people, found in its 2021 National Survey that more than half (52 percent) of transgender and nonbinary youth seriously considered suicide in the past year and 1 in 5 attempted suicide. In Texas alone, between January 1 and August 30, 2021, the Trevor Project received more than 10,800 crisis contacts from LGBTQ young people looking for support, an increase of 150 percent from 2020. More than 3,900 of those crisis contacts (36 percent) came from transgender or nonbinary youth, who stated that they are feeling stressed, using self-harm, and considering suicide due to anti-LGBTQ laws being debated in Texas. One of the laws that passed, HB 25 requires student athletes to play on school sports teams that correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth as shown on their original birth certificate.

School principals and administrators do not want to recognize a student’s name or pronouns, or allow a student to start a school club related to LGBTQ+ issues, even though researchers led by a team at the University of Texas at Austin have found that when transgender youth are allowed to use their chosen name at school, home, work, and with friends, their risk of suicide drops, sometimes by as much as 65 percent. More than 647,000 medical and mental health providers state that gender affirming care is medically necessary and saves lives. Yet, the commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services issued a letter this year that states the department views some gender affirming care as child abuse.

Thankfully, LGBTQ+ children and other young Texans have an invaluable advocate in their corner, who is capable of just throwing these important statistics and facts out off the top of her head in rapid succession: Shelly L. Skeen.

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