Carolyn Fisher will never forget the moment her son told her he wanted to die.

It was November 3, two days before the presidential election. Fisher’s 16-year-old nonbinary son, who uses he/they pronouns, was part of an online suicide pact with three others transgender and non-binary adolescents in Florida, Alabama and Tennessee. Friends met on Discord agreed to commit suicide if the former president Donald Trump won the 2024 elections.

The plan had been set since September. The teens hoped their deaths would send a message to conservative lawmakers and stop them from adopt restrictive policies targeting trans youth.

But as the election approached, his son called an emergency line for help. He told the case manager on the other line about the plan, and the case manager helped them talk to his parents about it.

Gathered around the kitchen table, Fisher asked his child what was going on.

“He started crying and he said, ‘Mom, I want to die,'” Fisher said. The Independent. His son pulled out a notebook and listed all the reasons he had written down as to why his life would be miserable under a second Trump presidency.

“I lost it,” Fisher said. “I couldn’t believe my child was online and planning to commit suicide with other children.”

Fisher and her husband did not realize how Trump’s victory could have a huge impact on 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 wouldn’t go.

As Trump moved from one campaign rally to the next, he described trans-Americans as a threat. Trump has pledged to bar trans minors from accessing gender-affirming care and ban them from playing on sports teams corresponding to their gender. Republican groups had spent millions on anti-trans television 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 the media announced Trump’s election in the early hours of November 6, panic has invaded the LGBTQIA+ community. The Trevor Project has seen an overall 700% increase in crisis calls, chats and texts compared to previous weeks. The Rainbow Youth Project, the hotline staffed by Carolyn’s son, fielded 5,462 calls in the first 11 days of November. Their monthly average is generally around 3,700.

Advocates have begun encouraging trans people to obtain passports, update their ID cards, have medications and, if they are able, prepare to move.

Looking back, Fisher could see that his child was unhappy. When her son began his social transition, kids at his school bullied him. A peer said to him, “Do you want to be a boy?” Fight like a boy,” Fisher said. The school system itself did not affirm this either.

Her child’s public high school has a policy prohibiting trans teens from using the bathroom corresponding to their gender. The school has made accommodations, but Carolyn’s son said using staff toilets only brought more attention to them. Instead, he monitored his water intake and held it back, which caused kidney problems, his mother said.

Shortly after the school year began, he stopped participating in school activities like drama, weightlifting, and track and field. They told their parents they felt uncomfortable because of the conservative neighborhood they lived in.

“Everything here is Trump,” 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 discovered the pact, they immediately helped contact the other parents involved, removed all guns from their home, removed their son from his school and enrolled him in online courses. Fisher began going to her son’s room every 30 to 45 minutes to make sure he was still breathing.

She and her husband ultimately voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in solidarity with their son.

“My son told me, ‘You can’t tell me you love me and support someone who’s going to hurt me,'” Fisher recalled.

Upon hearing that Trump had been re-elected, his son told him, “The majority of this country just agreed with him that I shouldn’t exist.” »

In Tucson, Arizona, about 1,500 miles from Alabama, 17-year-old Daniel Trujillo was grappling with his own feelings about the presidential election. He was nine years old when Trump won his first term and had come out as transgender to his parents a year before.

This election, the stakes seemed higher for him and his family because of the “heightened” and “dangerous” rhetoric, Daniel and his mother, Lizette, said. The Independent.

After Trump’s victory, Daniel and his friends became afraid of what their future would look like. Daniel had also been bullied at school. Earlier in her life, her mother had her transferred to another school district 45 minutes away, with a gender-affirming policy. Even under Trump’s first term, he was able to use a bathroom that matched his gender identity.

But since the election, Daniel has seen an increase in the number of transphobic, homophobic and racist children.

“Now people are expressing their hatred a lot more,” he said.

For years, he and his mother organized against an anti-trans legislative attack at the Arizona Capitol. Since 2019, 1,730 anti-trans bills have been introduced across the country, according to Monitoring trans legislation. During this time, Lizette continued to receive leaflets with misinformation about gender-affirming care.

“This is an active, multi-year effort to attack trans people and I wish more people understood that,” she said. “As a mother, I feel outnumbered. »

“It’s so crazy,” Daniel added. “There are things that affect communities and actively harm 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 mother discussed leaving the state if Arizona implemented regressive policies before he graduated. But Lizette disputes the idea that her family has to move because she has a transgender child.

“The idea that we have to emigrate out of our states to live elsewhere is disgusting and should make everyone question what our country stands for and whether it is truly a democracy,” he said. she declared. “Having a transgender son should not allow this country to discriminate against us and force us to leave the place we call home. »

Moving isn’t out of the question for Carolyn and her family to Alabama, but she’s not sure where would be safest. In October in Washington state, a 16-year-old trans boy was beaten by three other teenagers in an attack caught on video. The child suffered a concussion and possible head trauma, his mother told NBC affiliate KING-TV.

Carolyn’s child wants to leave Alabama after graduating high school and work with animals. Meanwhile, Carolyn and her family struggle to understand what almost happened. Her child wants to attend a nearby charter school with an LGBTQIA+ affirming learning environment. His parents learn to better support their son.

A few weeks ago, Carolyn’s husband purchased a trans flag and placed it on their family’s porch.

She said she was surprised no one had taken it down yet.

If you live in the United States and you or someone you know is currently in need of mental health help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential helpline available to anyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Rainbow Youth Project Crisis Hotline can be reached at (317) 643-4888. The Trevor Project hotline is at (866) 488-7386.

If you are experiencing feelings of distress or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), by email. [email protected]or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

If you are in another country, you can go www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.