#transgender-youth

#transgender-youth

At LGBTQ Nation, we give a lot of space to the people who are tearing trans kids down. It's pivotal, of course, to track the movements and policies of a hostile administration hell-bent on using trans rights as bait in its quest for supremacy and power. But what gets lost in all that noise are the others, the people who are lifting trans kids up, the ones who feed them and clothe them and love them every day for exactly who they are.

According to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, about 724,000 youth ages 13-17 in the United States identify as transgender. This corresponds to approximately 3.3% of that age group, and these numbers are rising (Herman & Flores, 2025). Although a 3.3% prevalence rate among adolescents may not seem like a lot, the issue of youth transitioning has taken on an outsized role in American political discourse.

The Trevor Project is the leading LGBTQ+-centered suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit in the United States. Their new study, Project SPARK (Studying Protective And RisK factors), is their first ever longitudinal study, meaning that it is set to collect data over years. Much of the data that currently exists on LGBTQ+ mental health, the researchers note, is based on data collected at a single point for each individual, rather than being able to track their progress over time.

One marker of the spurious issue play-a form the contemporary American theater features in surplus-is that it tends to be populated with puppets. Their inhabitants can, like the horror that is Tilly Norwood, look real, they can be loud or colorful or quirky, but ultimately they plug into a formula - they do what the playwright needs them to do. That's why it's refreshing to come across a play like Preston Max Allen's Caroline, the assured, affecting three-hander.

The Justice Department is demanding that hospitals turn over a wide range of sensitive information related to medical care for young transgender patients, including billing documents, communication with drug manufacturers and data such as patient dates of birth, Social Security numbers and addresses, according to a copy of a subpoena made public in a court filing this week.

The current approach for transgender youth is to affirm gender identity, but the new report calls that approach 'fundamentally misguided' and claims it harms young patients.