The Suicide Epidemic Among Transgender Americans
For Conservatives, It’s Taxes; for Queer People, Existence.
As the results came in, it quickly became apparent who would win. Whenever I continued late into the next morning, I became far less concerned about the election numbers and far more concerned about my readers and transgender people who were thinking about ending their lives.
On November 6, following the results of the 2024 election, The Trevor Project reported a 700% increase in their LGBTQ+ crisis services, implying that a countless number of a queer Americans felt hopeless enough to contact a crisis line due to the election, and the number who acted upon this hopelessness is immeasurable. Even with so many Americans in a collective time of crisis, there has been impressively little coverage of this widespread suffering in the media.
Transgender Americans are committing suicide en masse and both the American people and the American government have done an excellent job at not only abandoning their fellow Americans, but also at concealing this reality from those who would actually care. For many Americans (both citizens and members of federal and state governments), seeing such high suicide rates among trans people is an answer to their prayers. There is an epidemic in our country: trans people have convinced themselves that this world is simply not meant for them and that they will never be welcome within it. For that reason, it is impossible for a trans person to commit suicide when conservatives and cisgender people are the ones responsible.
A study from the UCLA Williams Institute found that “81% of transgender adults in the U.S. have thought about suicide, 42% of transgender adults have attempted it, and 56% have engaged in non-suicidal self-injury over their lifetimes.” This implies that every trans person you have met has more than likely engaged in self harm. Combine that with a study done by the National Library of Medicine, where they found that 56% of suicide victims die at their first attempt. It is safe to assume that a quarter of transgender adults in America die by suicide regularly, and that that percentage increased proportionally after the election was called.
Compare the United States’ trans suicidality rates with other countries with similar Human Development Index scores. Egale Canada reported that 36% of transgender Canadians considered suicide while 10% attempted it. In Spain, the Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gais, Trans y Bisexuales reported that 61.11% of transgender Spaniards have experienced suicidal ideation, 50% engaged in self-harm, and 16.67% attempted suicide. In Denmark, the JAMA Network reported that “23% to 24%” of transgender Danes have attempted suicide. By looking at international data among well-developed countries, about a quarter of trans people attempt suicide but do not die from it, whereas in American, about a quarter of trans people die from suicide.
I, and likely most other trans and non-binary Americans, did not sleep the night of November 5 because we were watching live coverage of the election, watching the worst-case scenario unfold in front of our eyes with the impossible prospect of the GOP winning the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives. Combine this with six of the nine Supreme Court justices being conservative, the GOP will effectively control the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches in January.
As someone who follows hundreds of queer content creators on TikTok, as we approached election day, my feed gradually filled with more and more posts about how we should prepare for an upset just in case, and what a Harris loss could mean for us. However, this prospect was usually accompanied by the safety net of how unlikely it is for a party to win both the White House and Congress, and that if we lost one, the other would make strides to keep whatever branch went red in check. Still, it seemed unanimous that a full red sweep would be catastrophic for queer Americans.
And, from late in the night of November 5 and for approximately the rest of the week, my TikTok feed flooded with queer content creators expressing their fears, offering survival tips to their followers, and begging them to not kill themselves. Here are thirteen with noteworthy quotes, some from prominent queer content creators and others from small accounts:
“As bad as it sounds, I feel like we’re kind of at that point where we have to lay low. … But all I can say is live, live, live. Because people do not want us to.” @colliebean
“Fair warning to anyone who dresses like me, looks like me, as a guy who wears makeup: I would recommend toning it down tomorrow.” @zachwillmore
“To all my gay and trans people out there, I love you all so much. You are all so incredibly strong. Your existence is [resistance].” @gooch_online
“I want to speak just to trans women: I feel like our best times are already behind us. And I think we should just be realistic about that. I don’t think anyone is looking out for us. I don’t think anybody ever really was.” @ladymisskay_
“None of my trans students showed up in class today. That’s our fault.” @booktalkben
“Young trans, non-binary, or gender nonconforming person out there, please let me be your mother for one minute. … You are not alone today. It’s not hopeless. We’ve been through worse. And we have trans elders who have been fighting this fight long before any of us were even born. We are an incredibly resilient people.” @themotherbirdie
“With the way that this election went, it is very clear that a majority of this country and the people in this country do not care about you. They would not care if they saw you on the side of the street dying.” @bottleneck_loser
“…Notice how when Trump lost, there was violence, and when Kamala lost, there was fear.” @.nymphei
“I’m thinking that I need to get an orchiectomy so that they can’t force-detransition me.” @thefloorismarlava
“Hey, trans youth. One in four of you are attempting suicide—stop it.” @realcatthatlearnedai
“I want all of my fellow trans girls out there who are terrified about how this election has turned out—because I am as well—I want you to feel scared and feel sad and feel terrified because it’s good to feel that emotion. And then I want you to wake up tomorrow and remember the girls who have come before us.” @missjadenoel
“No matter what happens, live. The poll results aren’t the end of all our hope, even if it feels like it, even if it hurts. You did your part, and everyone is so proud of you. I see you. We will get through this. You still have a future, I still have a future. … Step away for a moment and breathe; your future isn’t decided yet.” @soupeiss
Page from a “Declassified Self Care Survival Guide”:
If a quarter of the population of any other group of people were committing suicide as frequently as trans people are right now—and always have—it would be considered a genocidal crisis. The government would be doing everything in its power to save them. We would see people posting meaningless infographics about how to support trans people on their Instagram stories every day. Every out trans person would be under the constant surveillance of their loved ones.
But the reality is that most cisgender people do not view transgender lives as more valuable than higher stocks or lower gas prices. We see this in every person who voted for a Republican and a large number of Democrats, including Kamala Harris, who decided that the concept of transness was just too far-fetched for their liberal ideologies. Of all the TikToks I cite throughout this article, only one of the fifteen is by a cisgender person. This is because trans people are nearly the only ones supporting themselves.
In the days following the election, I couldn’t help but feel that even our own spaces had already collapsed. The gay bar that my apartment shares an alleyway with hosted two of the most depressing drag shows I’ve ever seen, performed to a near-empty room on Friday and Saturday night. Both nights, before the shows started, we joined in a moment of silence for those we had already lost since Wednesday—some of whom were regulars at the bar, many of whom were our friends and chosen family.
Resources such as the National Suicide Lifeline and The Trevor Project crisis line, the leading crisis line for queer youth, are notorious for their lack of responsiveness. This is perhaps due to the fact that the 988 Lifeline and Trevor Project often rely on volunteers to answer the lines. Among many queer people, these services are seen as a joke—or even a game—where a group might all text the line at the same time to see how many hours or days it takes to get a response, if they get one at all.
Among the countless posts and discussions I’ve seen on social media of people begging trans people to stay alive, there is just as much anti-trans rhetoric. One of the most common phrases I’ve encountered is that people are being dramatic and that another Trump presidency won’t be “that bad” for queer people. Why should queer people have to worry at all? Saying it won’t be “that bad” implies it will still be bad. A loss for Republicans means the prospect of higher gas or grocery prices (even though Trump’s tariffs will cause that anyway). A loss for queer people means their identity being in jeopardy for at least the next four years. From the $215 million spent on anti-trans ads, it has been made very clear that Trump was playing it safe in 2016 and 2020 and that he will not be holding back in his final term.
A concept cisgender people cannot seem to comprehend is the feeling of someone looking at you and debating whether you are a real person who exists, standing right in front of them. Let me emphasize: The sight and physical presence of a trans person is not enough evidence to convince a cis person that they are really there, as a real person, actually existing. This isn’t some complex metaphor or absurdist joke; it’s as literal as it gets.
Whether or not a Republican is president is not the determining factor in whether a trans person commits suicide—it’s the societally accepted mistreatment of trans people. From his campaign rhetoric to his Agenda 47 (the sugar-coated version of his Project 2025, which he is totally not at all affiliated with), Trump has made it far more socially acceptable to dehumanize trans people. He is going to affirm whatever hate is spewed toward them by signing into law any and every anti-trans legislation he can, with the full support of Congress and the Supreme Court. Then he’ll find a way to misconstrue his actions as being in support of queer Americans so his supporters can claim they won’t be the villains in history books.
Keep in mind that The Trevor Project has reported a 700% increase in their crisis line traffic, and Trump hasn’t even been inaugurated yet. It’s going to get far worse over the next four years, and it is every cis person’s responsibility to reach out to the trans people in their lives at every opportunity, combat bigotry, and start treating trans people like humans. Trans suicides are homicides caused by flagrant societal mistreatment—because, at least for now, trans people really, actually, biologically, literally exist.
“I keep seeing posts today of people being like, ‘Queer and trans people, all you need to do is live,’ ‘Trans people don’t stop breathing challenge,’ ‘If you’re trans, please don’t end your life, you’re way too sexy.’ … What if the standard was queer and trans people, please thrive, because you have just as much of a right to as anyone else”
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