Medical experts from Duke University Wednesday warned that proposed laws targeting LGBTQ+ youth in North Carolina will have harmful effects on mental health and safety in schools. In a discussion published by Duke Today, three medical experts said that proposed legislation will “drive up suicide rates, restrict health care providers and limit schools’ ability to provide safe havens for students.”

Senate Bill 43 would restrict gender-affirming care across the North Carolina, including hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery. Director of Duke’s Child and Adolescent Gender Care Clinic Dr. Deanna Adkins said that restricting gender-affirming care could expose children to a high risk of suicidality, self-harm and substance abuse. Adkins stated:

This is a group of individuals, a small portion of the population, only about 3 percent of those under 18, and they are a quite vulnerable population. It would limit their access to potentially life-saving treatments that we have excellent evidence within the medical literature that this helps these patients in many ways.

Assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences Sarah Wilson said that a 2022 national survey found that 93 percent of transgender youth worried about being denied access to medical care due to state or local laws. She said that every national medical association supports youth access to gender-affirming care. “There really is a prevailing consensus in the medical community about the benefits of gender-affirming care for youth and the benefits of openness around LGBTQ+ identities in schools,” Wilson said.

Senate Bill 49, which prescribes a “Parents Bill of Rights,” would require schools to notify parents if their child requests to change their name or pronouns and would ban curriculum pertaining to gender identity, sexual activity and sexuality until fourth grade. Clinical health psychologist Dane Whicker said that there is no evidence that current practices and care are linked to youth adopting LGBTQ+ identities. Whicker believes that Bill 49 would result in “people hiding really important parts of their identity and depriving them of the support they need to navigate those really critical pieces that affect their health and trajectory in life.”

There is evidence that the proposed laws would have detrimental effects on mental health in LGBTQ+ youth and preclude schools from being a place of safety for vulnerable children. A report from Public School Forum of North Carolina found that youth suicides has doubled in recent years, with a 46 percent increase in youth with one or more major depressive episodes since the COVID pandemic.

“We know from past legislation and national studies of legislation across states, that those who live in states with anti-LGBTQ+ legislation have worse mental health,” Wilson states. Following the states’ 2016 “Bathroom Bill,” Wilson said that there was an increase in gender identity-motivated hate crimes, and “there are downstream effects of that increased exposure to stigma, violence and hate crimes where North Carolinians who are LGBTQ+ reported feeling increased depression and anxiety.”

North Carolina’s legislation laws follow a series of state laws restricting LGBTQ+ care and education, known as “Don’t Say Gay” laws.