How online community saves transgender youth from isolation: 'I just want to be accepted by others'
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A new report suggests that online spaces play an important role in the emotional well-being and safety of LGBTQ+ young people, while also showing that most are aware of their queerness prior to seeking support online.
The study, titled “‘I Just Want to be Accepted by Others’: How Transgender Young People Seek Online Support,” surveyed over 1,000 LGBTQ+ young people, ages 15-24, between August and September 2024. The majority of the sample group, 63.6%, were transgender.
Dr. Amy Green, head of research for Hopelab, led the study’s research team. Her prior associations include UC San Diego Psychiatry, the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, and vice president of research at The Trevor Project.
“[The report] is a collaboration between Hopelab and the Born This Way Foundation, focused on the topic of online communities, online support among LGBTQ+ young people, looking specifically at the narratives that it might be a helpful place, it might be a harmful place, and go directly to the young people themselves to learn more about their experiences,” she said.
According to the report, LGBTQ+ young people helped researchers develop the survey’s questions. Seven transgender people, ages 20-24, assisted the research team with contextualizing the team’s findings, Green noted.
What the report found
“These online spaces provide a lot more safety and support for trans young people than their in-person spaces … online communities, online support, really serve as a place where trans young people can be themselves and not just receive support,” Green said.
The report’s key findings include:
- Trans youth describe online communities as important for understanding themselves;
- Only 7% of trans youth felt safe expressing their identity in in-person spaces;
- Trans youth who are proud to be themselves report more flourishing;
- Those who don’t feel pride in themselves report more depressive symptoms;
- Transgender respondents were more likely to report being comfortable in their identity than the other respondents;
- Nearly 75% of transgender respondents said they help support others in their online communities; and,
- The majority of respondents said they’re concerned about anti-LGBTQ+ censorship.
The survey also included open-ended questions, and the report included a few quotes from respondents.
“Without access to trans elders, neurodiverse folks, resources, and safe communities online, I would not be here,” wrote a young transgender man, according to the report.
“A lot of [transgender] people, they have this feeling that they push down for most of their lives … when they’re finally able to be themselves or they start to recognize who they are in the mirror, that’s very exciting and rewarding. You go through all these things, and eventually, you’re just proud to finally be who you are,” another wrote.
Mental health, social media safety, and transgender kids have been the subject of recent discourse and legislation in Texas and at the national level. This report sits at an intersection of those issues.
In Texas, Angelo State University banned faculty from mentioning the existence of transgender people. In September, the University of Texas at Austin announced it would stop providing transition-related medicine to students.
But Green noted that respondents “wanted to be really clear” the internet didn’t make them transgender, gay and/or bisexual. She added that many of the youth said they were upset at the idea that others’ influence turned them transgender.
Rather, they sought out online support because they were already aware of their transness:
“What we’ve heard from trans young people … was that these online spaces are really one of the only places where they feel like they can connect to others,” Green said. “These were places where they were turning for support, for questions, for community, because they didn’t have it in their physical environment.”
Support lifts up young people
According to the Pew Research Center, 16% of Americans report feelings of loneliness or isolation (16% of men and 15% of women). People, youth in particular, who feel unsupported or isolated generally tend to have worse mental health outcomes, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
This research shows what isolation looks like for young LGBTQ+ people, Green explained. While non-LGBTQ+ young people may feel fine in the offline world, very few of the respondents could say the same.
“For LGBTQ+ and trans young people, their physical spaces … can feel scary and hostile,” Green said. “That’s going to lead to isolation. For them, it might be the case that online communities are the place where they can get that connection, but it’s not enough.”
She stressed that there’s a need for the public to provide support for young people, whether in school, in the community, from family, and in church.
What does support do for a young transgender person? According to the report, they feel confident, hopeful and are less likely to be depressed.
“I was lucky enough to find [online] communities of people who supported me, and I know that their unconditional support and love is part of why I am so confident with my identity and so unapologetically myself today. I wish everyone like me could have that because it’s so freeing,” said one nonbinary teen, per the report.
