The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is using “Suicide Prevention Awareness Month” this September to push the lie that transgender medical interventions stop children from committing suicide.
The Daily Signal obtained a newsletter the HHS sent on Friday sharing resources on suicide prevention for “LGBTQIA2S+ Youth.” The resources promote the idea that LGBTQ+ children are likely to commit suicide if they don’t receive irreversible gender transition procedures, like surgeries and hormone replacement regimens.
“Lack of access to gender affirming care may have negative effects on LGBTQIA2S+ youth, including exacerbating gender dysphoria, creating feelings of social isolation and depression, and contributing to suicidal thoughts and behaviors,” one of the linked resources reads. “Access to culturally responsive, sensitive, and affirming services for LGBTQIA2S+ youth, particularly healthcare services, has the power to improve health outcomes for this population.”
But an April study revealed that transgender surgeries actually increase the risk of suicide. The study concluded: “Individuals who underwent gender-affirming surgery had a 12.12-fold higher suicide attempt risk than those who did not.”
The significant majority of children with gender dysphoria children grow out of it by the time they reach adulthood, a 15-year study from the Netherlands of 2,700 children reveals.
“Despite growing evidence that so-called gender-affirming care is harmful, HHS continues to spread the dangerous lie that children will kill themselves if their self-proclaimed identity is not ‘affirmed,’” Rachel Morrison, who directs the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s HHS Accountability Project, told The Daily Signal.
HHS refers newsletter subscribers to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center’s “Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention for LGBTQIA2S+ Youth” guide, which cites a Columbia University Department of Psychology study titled “Gender-affirming care saves lives.”
The so-called suicide prevention guide references several groups that push radical gender ideology on children, like Gender Spectrum, The Trevor Project, the Human Rights Campaign, and GLSEN. It cites a Trevor Project survey of LGBTQ+ youth showing 41% have considered suicide and 14% have attempted.
The guide promotes the Fenway Health Center, which offers transgender medical interventions to minors, as a resource for suicide prevention because the center “ensures services for LGBTQIA2S+ youth are racially, ethnically, and culturally responsive.”
Fenway Health Center “provides and advocates for equitable and accessible health care,” according to the guide.
The Suicide Prevention guide refers to transgender “medical procedures, therapy, and housing” as “lifesaving.”
“Respectful families/guardians = Lower suicide rates among transgender and nonbinary youth,” the guide claims, adding that LGBTQ+ affirming schools also allegedly reduce suicide rates.
Another guide in the HHS email instructs religious Americans to affirm LGBTQ+ children in order to prevent them from committing suicide.
“Faith leaders need to be clear that they will support all youth regardless of suicidal thoughts, sexual orientation, or gender identity,” according to the “Guide for Faith Leaders to Help Prevent Youth Suicide.”
HHS did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
HHS is taking the wrong route to “suicide prevention,” Morrison said.
“Children deserve love and support, not gender ideology under the guise of ‘suicide prevention,’” she said.