JOHN YANG: This past week, the Texas Attorney General sued a pediatrician for violating the state's ban on gender affirming care.

It's the first time that law has been enforced.

In all, more than half the states have laws that target transgender people one way or another, including bathroom bans and school sports bans.

Now, as Ali Rogin reports, there's a new study that looks at how these laws affect young people's mental health.

ALI ROGIN: Suicide attempts increased between seven and 72 percent for transgender and non-binary young people living in states that enacted anti-trans legislation.

That's according to a new study by The Trevor Project, which works to end suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.

The study relied on national survey data from 61,000 transgender and non-binary youth, and the results were published in the peer reviewed journal nature, human behavior.

Trevor Project, CEO, Jaymes Black joins us now.

Jaymes, thank you so much for being here.

Tell us about the study.

How significant are the findings?

JAYMES BLACK, The Trevor Project: Very significant.

And the study is not only significant, it's groundbreaking, and is because it is the first time to our knowledge that a causal relationship has been shown between the states that are enacting anti-trans legislation and the rate of suicide attempts.

So that causal relationship, which is the highest level of research, is really important because it shows strong evidence that the enactment of these laws are causing increase in suicide amongst non-binary and transgender youth in these states.

ALI ROGIN: During the studies period from 2018 to 2022 there were 48 pieces of legislation against transgender young people enacted in 19 states.

What types of laws were they?

JAYMES BLACK: They run the gamut.

So laws like access to bathrooms, access to gender affirming care, pronoun usage, discussing LGBTQ, plus issues at school that right run the gamut.

ALI ROGIN: And how do these laws affect young people?

And we know that there are direct and indirect impacts?

JAYMES BLACK: Well, let's think about this.

You remember how it felt when you were 13 years old, right?

And when you were 13, you were going through probably an awkward time trying to figure your life out, socially, at school, et cetera.

And then to think about on top of that, you now have your existence questioned.

You now have to sometimes testify and justify who you are that is a direct hit on your mental health.

So in the ways in which it's affecting our youth is not only is it causing extreme mental health impact to these youth with stress, and again, attempts of increase in suicide.

It's also causing some youth and their families have to move out of their state, so to find a safe state, moving out of a state that's unfriendly, and to go find another home that is friendly to them.

An entirely new place that they actually have to live and sometimes it even splits the family up.

It's impacting our youth, but it's also impacting our families as well.

ALI ROGIN: And I know that this affected you and your family personally.

You moved states.

Can you tell us a bit about your family's experience?

If you could?

JAYMES BLACK: Yes.

So I'm a native Texan, and in 2022 my wife and I decided to move our family from Texas to the DMV area for multitude of reasons, all connected to the way that the state was heading in terms of anti-LGBTQ, plus legislation, the threat of legislation, the words and the rhetoric that we were hearing from the politicians, and what my boys were hearing.

We didn't feel safe as an LGBTQ plus family.

As two women raising boys in Texas, we didn't feel safe anymore, and our boys were hearing things at school that's that just weren't right, that weren't okay.

And as we continue to hear the rhetoric from politicians that trickles down to the community, and it trickles down into the schools, and you start to hear that type of rhetoric from kids' mouths, and that's passed on to kids like mine.

So we decided to move.

ALI ROGIN: And also kids in schools, is one thing that's hard enough for young people, but then to include instruments of the state also taking legislative action in ways that influence their identity, I just can't imagine what that is like for these kids.

JAYMES BLACK: Exactly and we need politicians understand that their jobs are to not use our children as political pawns.

That's not a way to get political points.

They are responsible for protecting and supporting and serving, being of service to all constituents, and that also means the trans and non-binary youth.

That also means the LGBTQ plus families.

That means everybody.

You can't siphon off a section of your constituency because you don't understand them.

ALI ROGIN: There are lots of families who can't move to a different state, so what sort of things can people who want to support them do to make them feel more welcome, and what sort of resources are available to those people who are being directly impacted by these laws?

JAYMES BLACK: First, in order to support our youth, we know that one supportive adult can significantly decrease the attempts of suicide.

So we need adults to be supportive adults.

We have research at Trevor and resources on how to be a great ally, so please go look that up on our website.

We also know that you have to build community around our LGBTQ plus youth, so they need people who can understand them, support them, use the appropriate pronouns that significantly decreases the attempts of suicide.

And we also know that gender neutral restrooms, they need access to the basics bathrooms, gender neutral bathrooms also significantly decrease the stress that they are actually going through right now.

ALI ROGIN: And this problem is not going anywhere this year past the studies term, hundreds more anti-LGBTQ plus bills have been proposed.

44 so far have passed into law, according to the ACLU.

They include bathroom bans, healthcare restrictions, ID laws, sports restrictions, curriculum censorship.

Do you think the pace of the passage and the considerations of these laws is going to be affected, one way or the other, by whoever wins the presidential election next month?

JAYMES BLACK: I think that there's a chance that whoever wins the presidential election that we are going to continue to see an increase in the states, that we're going to continue to see, and maybe perhaps out on the federal level, but in the states, and that's because we have the same politicians who are continuing to be divisive, who are continuing to pass misinformation.

So really, the way that we fix that there's an education gap, people do not understand or know who trans people are, what it means to be non-binary, they don't understand.

So what we need to do is to reduce the stigma attached to it, and we need to educate people if we don't educate people, if we don't fill that knowledge gap where people don't know and so they're being fear mongered, is what I'll say.

There's lots of fear amongst people when it comes to trans and non-binary people.

So, regardless of who wins the election, I believe that we're still going to see that type of rhetoric, and the pace could increase even right.

I believe that we have to fill that education gap and show people who people are.

They are afraid of people like me.

They're afraid of people who look like me, of youth who look like me.

And the bottom line is we're all human.

ALI ROGIN: That is the Trevor Projects' Jaymes Black, thank you so much for joining us.

JAYMES BLACK: Thanks so much for having me.