Youth's Lives Every Day
December 18, 2024 – Today, the United States Senate passed the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, an annual defense policy bill that included a new provision banning members of the military from providing their transgender dependents with essential health care through TRICARE, the required health care program for active-duty service members. Jaymes Black (they/she/he), CEO at The Trevor Project, released the following statement in response:
“It is wholly disappointing to see Congress use a must-pass annual defense spending bill as a vehicle to deny health care to transgender young people with parents in the military. This provision is straightforward discrimination that denies essential health care for military families with transgender children, while allowing access to the very same care for all other military families. Personal medical decisions ought to be made between families, young people, and their medical providers – not by the government.
“Preventing the families of service members from obtaining medically necessary care is a betrayal of our nation’s promise to our military, denying service members the very freedoms they risk their lives to protect – including the freedom to decide what is best for the health and well-being of their children. It is understandable for people who do not personally know a transgender person to have questions about what it means to be trans, or how health care for trans youth works. But it violates American values of fairness and service for a small group of lawmakers to force a flat-out ban on essential health care for thousands of military families into, what is typically, bipartisan must-pass legislation.
“We urge lawmakers to listen to the military families who will be harmed by this bill, and oppose any further restrictions on this necessary care. For any transgender young person who is feeling overwhelmed by this news, please know that you are not alone. The Trevor Project’s crisis counselors are here to support you 24/7 – and we will never stop fighting for your right to be safe, accepted, and seen exactly as you are.”
Related Research:
- The Trevor Project’s research has found that transgender and nonbinary young people face significantly higher rates of suicide than their peers, not because of who they are, but because of how they are mistreated, stigmatized, and discriminated against by others.
- An estimated seven percent of LGBTQ+ youth under 18 reported having a parent in the military.
- LGBTQ+ youth with a parent in the military report a staggering 40% higher odds of attempting suicide in the past year, compared to those who did not have a parent in the military.
- A 2024 peer-reviewed study in Nature Human Behaviour from researchers at The Trevor Project found that anti-transgender state laws directly caused an increase in suicide attempts among transgender youth by up to 72%.
- A 2022 peer-reviewed study in The Journal of Adolescent Health from researchers at The Trevor Project found gender-affirming hormone therapy was significantly related to lower rates of depression, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary young people.
If you or someone you know needs help or support, The Trevor Project’s trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at TheTrevorProject.org/Get-Help, or by texting START to 678678.
