Your support helps us tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to big tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the finances of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word,’ which shines a light on American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know the importance of analyzing the facts of messaging. .
At such a critical moment in American history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to continue sending journalists to tell both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to block Americans from our reporting and analysis with a paywall. We believe that quality journalism should be available to everyone, and paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes a difference.
Carolyn Fisher will never forget the moment her son told her he wanted to die.
It was on November 3, two days before the presidential elections. Fisher’s 16-year-old non-binary son, who uses he/they pronouns, was part of an online suicide pact with three others transgender person and non-binary teenagers in Florida, Alabama and Tennessee. Friends who met on Discord agreed to die by suicide as the former president Donald Trump won the 2024 election.
The plan was set since September. The teenagers hoped their deaths would send a message to conservative lawmakers and stop them enacting restrictive policies targeting trans youth.
But as the election neared, her son called a hotline for help. He told the case manager on the other line about the plan, and the case manager helped them tell his parents.
Gathered around their kitchen table, Fisher asked her child what was going on.
“He started crying and said, ‘Mom, I want to die,'” Fisher said The Independent. Her son took out a notebook and listed all the reasons he had written down explaining why his life would be miserable under another Trump presidency.
“I lost it,” Fisher said. “I couldn’t believe that my child was planning to take his own life with other children online.”
Fisher and her husband did not understand how Trump’s victory can greatly affect their child’s life.
The couple were ardent Trump supporters. They had a Trump/Vance sign on their lawn, a Trump bumper sticker on their car, and attended most of the GOP meetings in Hoover, Alabama, where they live. They tried to take their son with them, but they didn’t want to.
As Trump moved from campaign rally to campaign rally, he painted trans Americans as a threat. Trump has promised to ban trans minors from access to gender-affirming care and bar them from playing on their gender-appropriate sports teams. Republican groups spent millions on anti-trans TV ads during the election cycle.
The rhetoric became too much for their child, who came out to his parents less than two years ago.
Once news outlets called the election for Trump in the early hours of November 6, panic gripped the LGBTQIA+ community. The Trevor Project saw a total of 700 percent increase in crisis calls, chats and texts compared to previous weeks. The Rainbow Youth Project, a hotline called by Carolyn’s son, fielded 5,462 calls in the first 11 days of November. Their monthly average is usually around 3,700.
Advocates have begun encouraging trans people to get passports, update government IDs, stock up on medication and, if able, prepare to relocate.
Looking back, Fisher could see that her child was unhappy. When her son began his social transition, the kids at his school bullied him. A peer said to him: “You want to be a boy? He fights like a boy,” Fisher said. The school system itself did not affirm.
Her child’s public high school has a policy that prohibits trans-teens from using the bathroom that corresponds to their gender. The school made accommodations, but Carolyn’s son said using the staff bathroom only drew more attention to them. Instead, he would track his water intake and retain it, causing kidney problems, his mother said.
Shortly after the start of the school year, he stopped participating in school activities such as theater, weightlifting, and track. They told their parents that they were uncomfortable going because of the conservative area they live in.
“It’s all Trump here,” Fisher noted.
About a month and a half ago, her son asked his parents if he had a life insurance policy. Fisher didn’t think much of it at the time.
When she and her husband learned of the pact, they immediately helped contact the other parents involved, removed all firearms from their home, pulled their son out of his school and enrolled him in online classes. Fisher began going into her son’s room every 30 to 45 minutes to make sure he was still breathing.
She and her husband ended up voting for Vice President Kamala Harris in solidarity with their son.
“My son said, ‘You can’t tell me you love me and support someone who’s going to hurt me,'” Fisher recalled.
When he learned Trump was reelected, her son told her, “Most of this country just agreed with him that I shouldn’t exist.”
In Tucson, Arizona, about 2,500 miles away from Alabama, Daniel Trujillo, 17, wrestled with his feelings about the presidential election. He was nine years old when Trump won his first term, and a year before he came out to his parents as a trans boy.
In this election, the stakes were higher for him and his family because of the “heightened” and “dangerous” rhetoric, said Daniel and his mother, Lizette. The Independent.
After Trump won, Daniel and his friends became scared of what their future would look like. Daniel was also bullied at school. Earlier in his life, his mom transferred him to another school district 45 minutes away with a gender affirming policy. Even under Trump’s first term, he could use the bathroom that matched his gender identity.
But since the election, Daniel has seen an increase in children who are transphobic, homophobic and racist.
“Now people are just much more vocal about their hate,” he said.
For years, he and his mom organized against an attack on anti-transgender legislation in the Arizona Capitol. As of 2019, 1,730 anti-trance bills have been introduced across the country, according to Trans Legislation Tracker. During this time, Lizette was constantly receiving leaflets with misinformation about gender-affirming care.
“This has been an active, multi-year effort to attack trans people, and I wish more people understood that,” she said. “As a mother, I feel outnumbered.”
“That’s so crazy,” Daniel added. “There are things that affect communities and actively hurt people … trans people are not one of those things.”
Daniel has about two years of high school left. He dreams of attending Berklee College of Music to study guitar. He and his mom talked about moving out of state so Arizona would introduce regressive policies before he graduated. But Lizette objects to the idea that her family should move because she has a transgender child.
“The idea that we have to migrate from our countries to live in other places is disgusting and should make everyone question what our country stands for and whether this is really a democracy,” she said. “Having a transgender son should not allow this country to discriminate against us and force us to leave the place we call home.”
Carolyn and her family in Alabama can’t move, but she’s not sure where would be safest. In October, a 16-year-old trans boy in Washington state was beaten by three other teenagers in an attack caught on camera. The child suffered a concussion and possible traumatic brain injury, his mother told NBC affiliate KING-TV.
Carolyn’s child wants to move out of Alabama after high school and work with animals. Meanwhile, Carolyn and her family work to process what almost happened. Her child wants to attend a nearby charter school with an LGBTQIA+ affirming learning environment. His parents are learning how to best support their son.
A few weeks ago, Carolyn’s husband bought a trans flag and put it on their family’s front porch.
She said she was surprised no one had torn it up yet.
If you are in the US and you or someone you know needs mental health help right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline available to anyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Rainbow Youth Project’s crisis hotline can be reached at (317) 643-4888. The Trevor Project hotline is at (866) 488-7386.
If you’re feeling distressed or struggling to cope, you can talk to Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.orgor visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
If you are in another country, you can leave www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.