Alarmingly, seven in 10 (68%) young LGBTQ+ people have experienced suicidal thoughts and feelings compared to 29% of young people who don’t identify as part of the community.
The mostly likely queer people to have experienced suicidal thoughts are lesbians at 74% and transgender people at 77%. Black LGBTQ+ youth are also three times more likely to contemplate suicide than non-LGBTQ+ people – 89% of Black LGBTQ+ youth said they’ve experienced suicidal thoughts compared to 67% of white LGBTQ+ youth.
A third (31%) of LGBTQ+ youth have self-harmed, according to the study, a vast comparison to the 9% of non-LGBTQ+ young people.