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(LifeSiteNews) — New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a concerning increase in mental health issues among American teenagers, but the mainstream media seems to be ignoring the group with the most disturbing figures: the gender-confused.

The CDC’s report was released earlier this week and was covered by numerous mainstream media outlets. However, while every article reports primarily on the alarmingly high rates of depression and suicidality among high school girls, hardly any have prominently highlighted the data which shows even higher percentages of the same struggles faced by gender-confused kids. 

As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, the CDC’s “Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report” examined surveillance data and trends among American high school students between 2011 and 2021. Although the findings revealed that the country’s teenagers are all experiencing a generally worsening trend with respect to mental health, the report emphasized that girls and kids who identify and live in a way that does not align with their biological sex are more likely to suffer from depression and suicidality when compared to other children.  

According to the data, a whopping 69% of students identifying as “LGBQ+” experienced “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” in 2021, which is 12% more than the number of girls who faced the same emotions. 78% of students who were sexually active with members of the same sex also fell into this category.  

45% of gender-confused kids seriously considered taking their own lives compared to 30% of girls. Those who had same sex “sexual contacts” faced the same temptation at a rate of 58%. Of these students, 13% of girls actually attempted suicide while 22% of gender-confused teenagers and 33% of those who were sexually active with members of the same sex tried to take their own lives. 

Despite the data clearly showing that the highest rates of “persistent hopelessness” and suicidality are present among kids who are confused about their gender and are engaging in sexual acts with members of the same sex, mainstream media coverage of this data has curiously chosen to focus on the struggles faced by teenage girls. 

Although all reports from the mainstream outlets mention the mental health crisis of gender-confused students, hardly any include this issue in headlines, nor do they spend more than two short paragraphs—strategically placed in the middle of the reports—outlining the concerning data.  

The New York Times published an article titled “Teen Girls Report Record Levels of Sadness, C.D.C. Finds.” However, readers will only find that gender-confused teenagers experience the same issues by opening the article. Aside from a general statement in the subheading, the piece only makes three mentions of LGBT-identifying youth who faced depression and suicidal tendencies. The single percentage included was related to the number of kids who “reported feeling sadness every day for at least two weeks.” 

Similarly, an NBC News headline states that the “CDC says teen girls are caught in an extreme wave of sadness and violence,” and merely commented that over 50% of gender confused teenagers “struggled with mental health.” The article also claims that “stigma and violence toward LGBTQ teenagers largely contributed” to the struggles. 

CNN included the same statistic and noted that there is “ongoing and extreme distress” among these kids. The headline and majority of the article are focused on the decreasing mental health of high school girls. CBS News likewise geared its coverage on the rise in suicidality among girls, including only a single paragraph on the statistics of LGBT-identifying youth’s poor mental health and attempted suicide. 

Contrary to the hidden mentions of gender-confused youth experiencing serious depression and suicidality, two notable platforms emphasized both groups of kids in their reports on this data. An NPR interview titled “The mental health of teen girls and LGBTQ+ teens has worsened since 2011” is one of few mainstream reports to include the gender-confused students in its headline, although the interview is more generalized on reasons behind increased teen mental health issues. 

A data summary on the CDC website is the only mainstream article which details the serious crisis of depression and suicidality among both gender-confused teenagers and girls in both the headline and throughout the report. 

Sadly, this is not the first time that mainstream media has underrepresented data showing the negative impact of so-called “gender transitions.” Last month, a study examining the impact of cross-sex hormones on the mental health of adolescents was misrepresented by mainstream media to highlight cases of improved mental health and belittle those who had increased suicidality after taking the drugs. 

 Although researchers determined that using the life-altering drugs “were associated with concurrent increases in positive affect” and “decreases in depression,” media outlets failed to emphasize that results also showed that “the most common adverse event was suicidal ideation.” Two out of 11 participants who experienced suicidality took their own lives. 

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