The mental health of one population, LGBTQ, has gotten worse due to the number of bills that were introduced last year discrediting this minority. The Williams Institute, U.S.C’s think tank that studies LGBTQ policy, reported 655 bills aimed at discrimination were introduced last year. Many regard these bills as taking our country backward. Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C. have state laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
Some of the cutbacks this year include:
- A $56 million annual grant program that distributes doses of Narcan (Naloxone), an opioid reversal drug that has been responsible for a lower death rate of addicts. The program also trains emergency responders in the U.S. to administer the drug.
- In Iowa, House lawmakers, in February, advanced a bill removing civil rights protections for transgender people from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. It would require birth certificates to reflect an Iowan’s sex at BIRTH. The bill would make Iowa the first U.S. state to remove a protected group from its state civil rights act.
- In his first day back in office, President Trump signed the new passport policy that asserts that the government must end “gender ideology,” which the President described as “an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as another sex and thus become women and vice versa.”
- The Trump Administration has barred hospitals from providing certain kinds of care for transgender youth. It covers minors but extends to 18-year-olds. If hospitals don’t comply, they lose federal research funding.
- Health studies, research for the LGBTQ population has been cut by $800 million. This downgrade will affect the research done to eliminate sexually transmitted diseases, cancers that disproportionally afflict the L.G.B.T.Q people who make up nearly ten percent of U.S. adults. Funds for grants examining mental illness in transgender people who report higher rates of suicide attempts will also be cut.
- The Trevor Project’s 2023 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ ages 13 to 24 or 28,000 LGBTQ youth found that for the fifth consecutive year, these data underscore that anti-LGBTQ victimization contributes to higher rates of suicide.
- On June 17th, the Administration instructed the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to end its specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth. Nearly 1.3 million LGBTQ+ people sought support from its hotline via call, text or online chat.
- The statistics for homeless LGBTQ+ youth is still as high as 40% because of family rejection and juvenile justice systems.
- Nearly half of transgender boys and men express concern that accessing care would result in someone calling the police or being involuntarily hospitalized. Black transgender report the highest indicators of poor mental health, according to The Trevor Project’s 2024 U.S. National Survey on Mental Health of LGBTQ+ & Young People.
The present Administration is obviously not an ally to the LGBTQ population. Six hundred and sixty-six grants intended for medical research into HIV, PrEP, a pre-exposure prophylaxis, have been cancelled in whole or in part as of this month, according to The New York Times, “L.G.B.T.Q. Ties Cited in Ending Health Studies,” May 5, 2025. It’s as if “gender identity” is being wiped out. Without research, HIV & AIDS will not be eradicated.
When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need To Know
For more detailed advice, see book, co-authored with a mother of a gay son and a psychiatrist, Jonathan L. Tobkes, M.D.
