New Survey, 'First of Its Kind,' Indicates Over 3% of High School Students Identify as Transgender

A new survey that's being described as the "first of its kind" has yielded results that suggest more than 3% of high school students identify as transgender, ABC News reported.

The results roughly mirror a 2022 Pew Research Center survey that suggested just over 3% of adults under the age of 25 identified as transgender. When that survey widened the scope by age by five years, it indicated that 2% of adults under the age of 30 identify as trans, with 3% saying they were nonbinary.

The results also seem to fall in line with recent surveys that show younger generational cohorts as being more comfortable with identifying themselves as LGBTQ+. As previously reported, a survey from earlier this year reflected how nearly a third of Gen Z people described themselves as something other than cisgender and heterosexual. That survey, like others have, showed the numbers falling with each successively older generational cohort; only 16% of Millennials self-identified as LGTBQ+, while the percentage among Generation X was 7% and only 4% among Baby Boomers.

The new survey, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "also highlights the multiple health disparities faced by transgender students who may experience gender dysphoria, stigma, discrimination, social marginalization or violence because they do not conform to social expectations of gender," ABC News detailed – results that may perhaps not seem surprising, given that transgender people, and especially transgender youth, have been the targets of hostile legislation from GOP-led state governments in recent years.

That trend could possibly engulf the federal government after this year's election; the GOP and Donal Trump have made trans Americans the object of fear messaging in recent attack ads.

Such disparities risk mental health consequences, the CDC warned.

"These stressors increase the likelihood transgender youth and those who are questioning may experience mental health challenges, leading to disparities in health and well-being, according to the health agency," ABC News reported, going on to detail how "More than a quarter (26%) of transgender and questioning students attempted suicide in the past year, compared to 5% of cisgender male and 11% of cisgender female students.

Schools are a focal point for such stressors, the writeup noted.

"About a quarter of transgender students (25.3%) and more than a quarter of questioning students (26.4%) skipped school because they felt unsafe, compared with 8.5% of cisgender male students," ABC News relayed.

"The CDC urged schools to 'create safer and more supportive environments for transgender and questioning students' to address these disparities," ABC News added, "including inclusive activities, mental health and other health service referrals, and implementing policies that are LGBTQ-inclusive."

But many trans youths also face rejection from their own families, which contributes to a crisis of youth homelessness.

Trans youth are especially hard hit. The CDC's survey noted that "transgender students might experience discrimination, harassment, and assault among foster, shelter, and other social service providers that make this population less likely to be sheltered when experiencing unstable housing, compounding their vulnerability to experiences of violence, poor mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors."

Healthline noted that, according to "[s]ome research... around 5% of young adults identify as transgender."

Added Healthline: "As societal support grows and discrimination decreases, it's likely we'll see the reported number of transgender people rise until its natural level is revealed. Far from being a sign of indoctrination, this is a sign of a healthy society that we've seen in other areas before," such a left-handedness, a natural human variation that was once stigmatized. As that stigma faded, however, more southpaws felt free to use their dominant hands and the naturally occurring prevalence of left-handed people was eventually revealed to be 10% of the general population.