Vic Topo is the vice president of the NH Community Behavioral Health Association and the president and CEO of the Center for Life Management. He lives in Londonderry.

The NH Community Behavioral Health Association (CBHA), representing the state’s ten community mental health centers (CMHCs), has very serious concerns about the increased suicide rates and increased reporting of suicidal ideation we have seen in recent years, particularly among LGBTQ+ youth.

As providers of mental health services, we take issue with statements we have heard that suicide rates are not significantly different for transgender persons and the overall LGBTQ+ population as they are in the overall population.

The Council for State Governments, on which many of our NH legislators rely for research and data, last year reported that “individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ experience disproportionate levels of poor mental health and suicidality.” Moreover, the CDC reports that “youth in grades 7-12 are more than twice likely to have suicide attempts as compared to heterosexual youth.”

But let’s be clear that the overarching reason that suicidal ideation and suicide attempts are more prevalent in our LGBTQ+ kids is not because they are LGBTQ: it’s because they are discriminated against, bullied, stigmatized and not accepted for who they are. Using an argument that this is causality, that being an LGBTQ+ kid makes one suicidal, is a poor attempt to divert the discussion from the real facts and blame the victim.

There are several dozen bills being considered in the 2024 NH legislative session that will only exacerbate this tragic situation. These include proposals that would limit gender-affirming health care, require school personnel to “out” students who may not be ready to tell their parents that they are questioning their gender identity, and ban transgender students from participating in school sports on the team aligned with the gender they live every day. The two bills the State Senate is scheduled to act on at its April 4 session are SB 375, relative to biological sex in student athletics; and SB 524, relative to women’s sports.

CBHA believes that Title IX addresses this issue by providing guidance to schools and athletic associations to make their own policy decisions, so a blanket ban as proposed by these bills is not necessary or appropriate. Preventing one segment of our population (LGBTQ+ kids) from playing sports would completely undermine the critical role that physical activity plays in enhancing mental health and building self-esteem. It is also cruel. We have reached out to our state senators and urged them to vote no on SBs 375 and 524.

We are hoping you, their constituents, will follow suit.

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Further, regarding proposals that seek to prevent gender-affirming health care for transgender and LGBTQ+ youth, we believe that the Legislature should not be in the business of practicing medicine by enacting regulations, restrictions, or criminality for health care decisions made between licensed providers and their patients. It is ironic that during the COVID-19 pandemic, many voices took the opposite position and maintained that individuals and medical professionals, not the state, should be making decisions about vaccines and healthcare protocols.

I also want to emphasize that simply the introduction of and the misinformed discussion around these anti-LGBTQ+ bills endangers the lives of some of our most vulnerable young people. Making these proposals part of the public discourse allows some individuals in our community to think that discrimination and harassment, and worse, of LGBTQ+ kids is somehow acceptable.

You may have read about the death of 16-year-old Nex Benedict in Oklahoma last month. Nex died one day after an altercation in a high school bathroom, and while the incident is still being investigated, it is assumed that Nex was attacked for being transgender. CNN reported on March 8 that the Rainbow Youth Project USA, a national organization for LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention, saw a 238% increase in crisis calls after the Feb. 8 tragedy.

The position of CBHA and the community mental health centers is that adults in Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and elsewhere are endangering the lives of children with unnecessary and hateful legislation that targets them for simply being who they are. We urge our legislators to stand on the side of young people, on the side of mental health, and on the side of an inclusive and welcoming New Hampshire, by rejecting these proposals that discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community.