LGBTQ+ Mental Wellbeing Declined ‘Significantly’ Under Trump’s Administration, Reveal Studies
October 12, 2021There was a significant decline in the mental wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ+) people while Donald Trump was president, according to two recent independent studies. Depression, anxiety, and stress were just some of the emotions that LGBTQ+ Americans experienced during the Trump administration, which revealed the results of UCLA and the Economics and Human Biology Journal studies, published in NBC News.
One of the studies, to be published in the December issue of the Economics and Human Biology Journal found that “extreme mental distress”, increased among LGBTQ+ people during Trump’s rise and presidency. In fact, the study found that the “extreme mental distress gap” between LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ people rose from 1.8 percentage points during 2014–2015 to 3.8 percentage points after Trump’s presidency became a real possibility in early 2016. The study highlighted “that even seemingly small increases in extreme distress are important because such distress is not common”.
According to the Human Rights Campaign 2021 was “the worst year for anti-LGBTQ legislation in recent history”, particularly given the number of bills aimed at curbing the rights of transgender Americans across the country. The majority of those bills would specifically affect transgender youth.
Between 2015 and 2019, 42 US states introduced more than 200 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation, according to research institute Child Trends. This year alone, the country has seen over 200 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced at the state level. These measures have a negative impact on LGBTQ+ health, affecting mainly transgender youth, said Crisis Text Line. The global non-profit which provides free mental health texting services saw an increase in messages from LGBTQ youth after states proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation. Additionally, a staggering 94% of LGBTQ+ young people said recent politics negatively affected their mental health too, confirmed research from the Trevor Project, the LGBTQ youth crisis intervention and suicide prevention charity. However, these charities hope that LGBTQ+ mental health will improve under the Biden administration, which has made public statements, as well as enacting policies in support of LGBTQ+ rights.
In fact, the Economics Human Biology Journal study concluded that President Biden’s administration “may also have inherited higher rates of mental distress among LGBT people than they would have if Trump had not run and won the 2016 election”. But on a positive note, the study predicted that “the extreme mental distress gap between LGBT people and non-LGBT people to narrow under the Biden presidency”.
Just yesterday, to commemorate National Coming Out Day, President Biden admitted that the US still has work to do to achieve equality for all Americans amid the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. "From defeating discriminatory bills to passing the Equality Act, we have more work to do to ensure that every American can live free of fear, harassment, and discrimination because of who they are or whom they love," Biden said in a statement. "Today and every day, I want every member of the LGBTQ+ community to know that you are loved and accepted just the way you are regardless of whether or not you've come out. Bullying and harassment – particularly of young transgender Americans and LGBTQ+ people of colour – still abound, diminishing our national character. We must continue to stand together against these acts of hate, and stand up to protect the rights, opportunities, physical safety and mental health of LGBTQ+ people everywhere."
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