*UPDATE: We sold out of all pins on December 17th and made a donation of $310 to The Trevor Project on December 18th, 2019!

100% of the profits the this new pin will be donated to The Trevor Project on a monthly basis. A limited run of 100 pins were created for the project.

My latest project was inspired by getting to know more people in the film photography community who live different lifestyles and face different challenges than I do, which lead to some conversations about the high rate of depression likeliness of suicide in LGBTQ youth. Through some research I found many unsettling statistics, especially troublesome during this time of year when an emphasis on family and togetherness is highly stressed.

I came to be familiar with a non-profit organization called The Trevor Project, a leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) youth.

Breakdown of the costs associated in producing this pin and the expected donation amount:

Republished from The Trevor Project:

• Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24.(1)
• LGB youth seriously contemplate suicide at almost three times the rate of heterosexual youth.(2)
• LGB youth are almost five times as likely to have attempted suicide compared to heterosexual youth.(2)
• Of all the suicide attempts made by youth, LGB youth suicide attempts were almost five times as likely to require medical treatment than those of heterosexual youth.(2)
• Suicide attempts by LGB youth and questioning youth are 4 to 6 times more likely to result in injury, poisoning, or overdose that requires treatment from a doctor or nurse, compared to their straight peers.(2)
• In a national study, 40% of transgender adults reported having made a suicide attempt. 92% of these individuals reported having attempted suicide before the age of 25.(3)
• LGB youth who come from highly rejecting families are 8.4 times as likely to have attempted suicide as LGB peers who reported no or low levels of family rejection.(4)
• 1 out of 6 students nationwide (grades 9–12) seriously considered suicide in the past year. (5)
• Each episode of LGBT victimization, such as physical or verbal harassment or abuse, increases the likelihood of self-harming behavior by 2.5 times on average.(6)

SOURCES:
[1] CDC, NCIPC. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) [online]. (2010) {2013 Aug. 1}. Available from:www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars.

[2] CDC. (2016). Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health-Risk Behaviors Among Students in Grades 9-12: Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

[3] James, S. E., Herman, J. L., Rankin, S., Keisling, M., Mottet, L., & Anafi, M. (2016). The Report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. Washington, DC: National Center for Transgender Equality.

[4] Family Acceptance Project™. (2009). Family rejection as a predictor of negative health outcomes in white and Latino lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults. Pediatrics. 123(1), 346-52.

[5] CDC. (2016). Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health-Risk Behaviors Among Students in Grades 9-12: Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

[6] IMPACT. (2010). Mental health disorders, psychological distress, and suicidality in a diverse sample of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youths. American Journal of Public Health. 100(12), 2426-32.