About 3.3% of high school students identify as transgender and another 2.2% have questioned their gender identity, according to new federal data, and they experience high rates of bullying and depression in an increasingly hostile national landscape.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data provides the first nationally representative estimates of transgender identity among high schoolers. These adolescents have faced animosity and scrutiny — and state legislation — around joining sports teams, using bathrooms and getting gender-affirming care.

About 25% of transgender and gender-questioning students had skipped school because they felt unsafe, teens reported on the CDC’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System surveys.

About 72% of transgender students and 69% of questioning students said they had experienced “persistent sadness or hopelessness” in the past year. About half of transgender students and 45% of questioning students said they had seriously considered suicide in the past year; 25% said they had attempted suicide.

The figures “are harrowing and indicate that much remains to be done to support transgender young people’s health and safety in the U.S.,” said Ronita Nath of the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ youth suicide-prevention group.

Education Week, Oct. 9