Anti-transgender legislation may be harming the mental health of transgender and gender-diverse Americans even when those laws never take effect where they live, according to new research from Virginia Commonwealth University.
The peer-reviewed study, published in American Psychologist, examined how the continuing wave of legislation targeting transgender people affects psychological well-being. Researchers found that anxiety surrounding anti-trans legislation had a stronger relationship with psychological distress than participants’ everyday experiences of discrimination.
That distinction matters.
The political debate surrounding transgender people is often treated as something happening inside statehouses, courtrooms, and cable-news studios. The research suggests those debates do not stay there.
The legislation itself becomes a stressor
Researchers surveyed 346 transgender and gender-diverse adults across the United States in early 2024. Participants were asked about experiences with discrimination, anxiety surrounding anti-trans legislation, exposure to news, community connections, and social support.
Lead author Catherine Wall, an assistant professor of psychology at VCU, said anxiety about anti-trans legislation remained strongly connected to psychological distress even after researchers accounted for participants’ direct experiences with discrimination.
Perhaps more strikingly, living in a state with stronger protections for transgender people did not eliminate that distress.
Participants described concerns about losing access to gender-affirming healthcare, becoming unable to live openly, experiencing violence or discrimination, traveling to states with restrictive policies, or watching similar legislation eventually reach their own state. Some reported leaving or considering leaving their states because of anti-trans policies.
Researchers described anti-trans legislation as a “structural stressor” layered on top of interpersonal discrimination transgender people may already encounter. Their qualitative analysis identified themes including mobility and agency, experiences of privilege, and profound psychological distress.
The Bottom Line
The study also found something encouraging: social support matters.
Participants with stronger family and community connections generally experienced less psychological distress. Researchers found community support had a relationship with well-being comparable to familial support, underscoring the importance of friendships and chosen family for transgender people who may lack support from relatives.
But researchers cautioned against treating resilience as the solution to a structural problem.
Individual coping skills and supportive communities can help people navigate hostile environments, but they cannot erase the source of that stress.
For transgender Americans watching their lives repeatedly become subjects of legislation and political debate, the findings put data behind an experience many already recognize: a law does not have to carry your state’s name on it to make you wonder whether yours could be next.
