Thirty-two percent of respondents to The Trevor Project’s 2025 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People reported experiencing verbal harassment in the past year while at school because people believed they were LGBTQ+.
In its seventh year, the survey, released just prior to Pride Month, drew responses from 16,000 LGBTQ+ individuals ages 13 to 24 from across the country.
While at school, 17 percent of those surveyed said they weren’t allowed to dress in a way that fit their gender identity or expression, 10 percent were disciplined for fighting back against bullies, and 8 percent felt they were disciplined more harshly because teachers/staff believed them to be LGBTQ+. Additionally, in the last year at school, 7 percent of the youth said they experienced unwanted sexual contact because people thought they were LGBTQ+, 5 percent left a school due to mistreatment and 3 percent were physically attacked because people thought they were LGBTQ+.
Among 13- to 17-year-olds, 48 percent reported being bullied in-person in the last year and 36 percent said they were bullied online. Overall, “LGBTQ+ young people who experienced bullying of any kind reported more than three times the rate of attempting suicide in the past year compared to those who were not bullied,” according to The Trevor Project.
Access to supportive spaces and communities are factors that can contribute to lower rates of attempting suicide. Having people in their lives who accept and support their identities and advocate for them is also important for LGBTQ+ young people.
The top supportive spaces identified by LGBTQ+ youth included online communities (77 percent), school (57 percent) and home (52 percent).
“Most LGBTQ+ young people who attend school (85 percent) reported having at least one adult at school who is supportive and affirming of their LGBTQ+ identity,” according to The Trevor Project. “Transgender and nonbinary young people who had access to clothing that supported their gender, gender-neutral bathrooms at school, and had their pronouns respected by the people they live with had lower rates of attempting suicide compared to those who did not.”
The top three ways for allies to show support and acceptance for LGBTQ+ youth as identified in the survey included trusting that they know who they are (88 percent), not supporting politicians who advocate for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation (85 percent) and standing up for them (80 percent).
Among other key findings from the survey:
- In the past year, 36 percent of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide, including 40 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth
- LGBTQ+ youth of color attempted suicide at higher rates than their white peers; and 32 percent said they experienced ethnic or racial discrimination
- Transgender and nonbinary youth who couldn’t access the hormones they wanted were almost twice as likely to attempt suicide than those with access
- Ten percent of LGBTQ+ youth did attempt suicide in the past year
- Forty-four percent of participants who wanted mental health care in the last year could not get it
- 90 percent of LGBTQ+ youth expressed that recent anti-LGBTQ+ law, policies and debates caused stress or anxiety for them
Read the full report for more information on survey results related to mental health and suicide risk, access to care, laws and policies, victimization, ways to support LGBTQ+ youth, and to view a sampling of insights in respondents’ words.
