The Forty-One Percent Solution

The scorecard, 45 days into the 2023 legislative session:

The ACLU is tracking over 300 anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S. Here are a few of the broader categories:

• 108 Restricting gender-affirming care

• 41 Trans sports bans

• 54 Don’t Say Gay/Forced outing

• 31 Drag bans

• 16 Trans bathroom bans

• 23 Codifying non-recognition of trans identity on legal/official documents (changing gender markers)

• 13 Forced misgendering

The overwhelming majority of these bills target trans youth - and this list is not exhaustive. So far, 3 have been signed into law, 4 have bicameral approval and another 29 have already passed one chamber.

In a previous article, I had mentioned the alarming increase in, and correlation between, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and hate crimes; a quick glance at the above-listed legislation should be enough to put to rest any notion that drawing such a parallel is just alarmism. As stated before, these bills especially impact LGBTQ youth, as according to a recent study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, more than 60% of attempted suicides among LGBTQ people occur within five years of realizing they are LGBTQ. At least 108 of the bills listed above deal specifically with denying gender-affirming care, ignoring the fact that many studies have demonstrated the improved mental-health outcomes that result from gender-affirming care including significantly lower occurrences of substance abuse, anxiety, depression and suicidality.

So what is this “Forty-One Percent” about?

Naming this article “The Forty-One Percent Solution” was more than merely an attempt at an interesting title. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), a US study conducted from 2008 to 2009, found that a shocking 41% of the 6450 transgender and gender-diverse respondents reported having attempted suicide at some point in their lives.

What all these laws have in common is that they are both the implement and the result of misinformation – willful or otherwise, outright lies – and almost invariably delivered in such a way as to instill maximum fear in their audience; they are specifically worded and designed to demonize, dehumanize and legislate LGBTQ people back into the closet – and stay there… or maybe, these signatories and those who support them believe that 41% just isn’t nearly enough?