Six states have laws requiring schools to out transgender youth to their families, according to the Movement Advancement Project. These laws run contrary to research showing transgender youth are at risk of extreme and harmful consequences of outing students to nonaffirming families, contributing to overrepresentation of trans youth in foster care, homeless shelters, and juvenile detention centers. President Trump, in his 2026 State of the Union, advocated for forced outing policies without noting their proven harm.

Reporters are urged to consult with LGBTQ people and advocates about the dangers of forced outings in all coverage about the policies. Equality Virginia has years of background on the family spotlighted by Pres. Trump and their ties to longtime anti-LGBTQ groups. Additional information from the GLAAD Media Reference Guide/Guia de GLAAD:

• Coming out is a lifelong process of self-acceptance. People come to understand their own sexual orientation and gender identity before choosing to share their private information with others.
• Proposals to require schools and educators to out students to parents (“forced outings”) are discriminatory and endanger student safety.Safety is a school’s number one responsibility to every student in their care for hours every day.
  • Fewer than 1 in 3 transgender and nonbinary youth found their home to be gender-affirming: Trevor Project
  • 28% of LGBTQ youth experience being homeless or housing insecurity, many of whom are kicked out or leave after they come out to parents who are not affirming. 
  • LGBTQ youth are 120% more likely to experience homelessness:True Colors United
  • New Jersey’s Attorney General noted in 2023 that forced outing policies violate the state’s law against discrimination because they expressly target transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary students by singling them out for differential treatment: “Parental notification policies also have disparate impacts on transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary youth, and by imposing a requirement that school staff must “out” these students to their parents, the policies expose these students to the potential for severe harms to their safety and mental health.”
  • Transgender and gender-nonbinary teens face greater risk of sexual assault, including in schools that prevent them from using facilities consistent with their gender identity. One in four trans youth reported being sexually assaulted at school, according to Harvard researchers.
  • 40% of transgender and questioning students were bullied at school, according to 2024 CDC research.
  • LGBTQ youth who reported having at least one LGBTQ-affirming space had 35% reduced odds of a suicide attempt in the past year: Trevor Project
  • School connectedness and activities to promote safe and supportive environments are associated with decreased odds of experiencing violence, poor mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Activities that include LGBTQ students are associated with decreases in the odds of these experiences among all students. (CDC)
  • Forced outings are often described as “parents’ rights” but the policies do not consider the rights of LGBTQ parents, or parents who support their LGBTQ children and their peers, who understand that coming out is an intensely personal act that should only happen when the person feels safe, and with someone they feel safe with.
  • Many groups and policies that describe themselves as “parents’ rights” are backed by longtime national groups that advocate against LGBTQ people.
  • It is inaccurate to describe groups and policies as “parents’ rights” when they do not include the views of LGBTQ parents and students.
  • Reporters must research and report “parents’ rights” groups’ connections to longtime anti-LGBTQ groups that fund and provide legal support to them. Their focus and efforts that endanger and restrict the visibility of LGBTQ people and all people of color can accurately be described as anti-LGBTQ and/or anti-equality.

Additional Background

• In his State of the Union address on February 24th, President Trump introduced a college student and their grandmother, describing the student’s horrific sexual assault and kidnapping. Pres. Trump attempted to link the crimes to efforts by the school to support the student when they told peers and administrators they were transgender.
• Pres. Trump did not mention seeking justice for the suspects accused of sexual assault, trafficking, and kidnapping the student. Pres. Trump instead prioritized targeting affirming schools and policies that support transgender youth. 
• The grandmother has testified at the Virginia legislature to support forced outings. A forced outing bill has been introduced and defeated in Virginia annually since 2023, drafted in part by the Virginia Family Foundation’s Founding Freedoms Law Center with anti-LGBTQ activists from The Federalist and Heritage Foundation, who have spread pseudoscience and harmful rhetoric against transgender people and promoted similar bills in other states. An extreme bill in Ohio was introduced in January 2026 that would roll back local protections banning the discredited and harmful practice of “conversion therapy” and criminalize schools for being too supportive of trans youth.
• The bill seeks to ban Virginia educators from best practices to create safe and inclusive classrooms, and encourages increased risks for child abuse and homelessness for some of Virginia’s most vulnerable youth.
• The bill seeks to force educators to violate professional ethical codes. There is no legal basis to make schools police students’ genders and bodies.
• This is the second year in a row that Pres. Trump has spotlighted a teenager and their traumatic experiences in service of targeting transgender people. 
• GLAAD’s ALERT Desk (Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker) documented more than 250 anti-LGBTQ incidents targeting students, teachers, and places of learning in 2025. These included multiple bomb threats, violent assaults, and arson attempts. Student safety should focus on the documented facts – that perpetuating harmful disinformation against the LGBTQ community puts all students at increased risk of violence and hate. 
• Sexual assault and kidnapping are crimes committed against youth of any gender identity, including the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, at least a dozenalso in attendance at the State of the Union address, who were not acknowledged by Pres. Trump.