Utah’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has deleted critical data on the state’s transgender youth, claiming it did so due to “privacy concerns.”
The Salt Lake Tribune discovered the scrubbed data in early March. The publication recently released a report detailing how information on suicidality rates among trans youth disappeared sometime between February 2 and March 4.
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The data had come from the state’s Student Health and Risk Prevention (SHARP) survey, which is conducted every other year. In the 2023 report, 1.4% of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade respondents said they identified as transgender, and about 25% of that group said they had attempted suicide at some point in the prior year.
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The survey also reportedly found that trans youth in the state were 3.5 times more likely than their cisgender peers to consider suicide and almost 4.5 times more likely to experience severe depression.
But links to that data can no longer be found on the DHHS website, despite the fact that links to reports on other demographics, including lesbian, gay, and bisexual students, remain. Archived links show that the trans student report was once available.
DHHS originally told the Tribune that it did not know why the report was removed, with a spokesperson saying that it “should never have been off of the website.” But then the department changed its tune, releasing a new statement saying it was “removed due to privacy concerns arising from small participant numbers for these questions, despite anonymization efforts.”
“This decision, made out of caution by DHHS staff, prioritizes the confidentiality and well-being of the young participants while the report is being reviewed to address these privacy and reliability issues,” the spokesperson continued. “The department had no ill intent or political motivation to remove the report.”
The move comes as the White House continues to threaten to pull federal funding from states and institutions that support trans people or acknowledge their existence at all.
“[The government tries] to defend this by saying they don’t want to advance certain ideologies,” Ilan Meter of the William Institute told the Tribune, “but the fact is that this is really not about ideology. It’s just about understanding population health.”
Meyer said the state appears to be intentionally keeping itself in the dark on the trans mental health emergency. “Whatever it is that LGBT youth are going through is continuing, and just not knowing something doesn’t really address the underlying problem. By not knowing, you’re not going to be able to address it at all. And maybe that’s the point.”
The conservative state of Utah has long been hostile to queer and trans, with the Movement Advancement Project scoring it at a 2.25 out of 26 for gender identity policies and 7.75 out of 23 for sexual orientation policies.
Most recently, it banned Pride flags from all government buildings, including schools. Gov. Spencer Cox (R) let the law take effect without his signature, saying he had concerns about the legislation but knew the legislature had the numbers to override a veto, the Associated Press reported.
The law does not explicitly ban Pride flags but rather states that no flags can fly at government buildings other than the state flag, military flags, the American flag, tribal flags, and a few others. State and local government buildings will be fined $500 a day for violating the law.
In defiance, Salt Lake City approved a version of the Pride flag as an official city flag to circumvent the law.
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
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