Parents say Idaho’s Republican-led anti-trans laws isolated their daughter before her death

An Idaho transgender teenager who challenged the state’s school bathroom law died by suicide earlier this year, and her family says the relentless expansion of anti-transgender laws made her daily life increasingly isolating, according to NBC News.

May Pollard was 16 when she died in January. Before her death, she had been identified as Jane Doe in a federal lawsuit challenging Idaho’s 2023 law requiring public schools to separate bathrooms, locker rooms and overnight accommodations based on students’ sex assigned at birth.

NBC News reported that Pollard’s parents believe Idaho’s political climate shaped nearly every part of their daughter’s adolescence, from where she could use the restroom at school to whether she could obtain gender-affirming medical care in her home state.

Related: Lawsuit challenging Idaho’s bathroom bill dismissed after student plaintiff dies by suicide

“There is a huge amount of animosity, every single day, thrown at trans kids,” her father, Joseph Pollard, told a police detective after her death, according to NBC News. “The whole f***ing country. The whole f***ing administration, every single f***ing day.”

Pollard told her father while she was in ninth grade that she was having suicidal thoughts and needed to transition, her family told NBC News. Her parents eventually took her to Oregon for gender-affirming care after receiving a referral from their pediatrician and spending months on a waiting list.

At school, Pollard could use a restroom in the nurse’s office or another building across campus instead of the facilities used by her classmates. In an affidavit filed in the lawsuit, she described those options as alienating.

“While I am transgender, I don’t view it as the defining feature of who I am as a person,” Pollard wrote. “I just want to fit in. It is upsetting to think that I may have to go through the rest of high school without access to something as basic as the ability to use the same restroom as everyone else.”

The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed after Pollard’s death and the graduation of the other student involved in the case.

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador celebrated the dismissal in a news release that did not mention Pollard’s death, the Idaho Statesman reported. Asked about it, Labrador called her death a “personal tragedy” and said his office does not comment on the private circumstances of people involved in litigation, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.

Pollard’s story comes as Idaho has become one of the country’s most aggressive testing grounds for laws restricting transgender rights. Since Pollard’s death, Idaho has continued to expand restrictions targeting transgender people. This year, Gov. Brad Little signed legislation making Idaho the first state to criminalize transgender people for using restrooms or changing facilities that align with their gender identity in many public and private spaces, with repeat violations carrying felony penalties.

A federal judge later blocked the law before it could take effect, finding it was likely unconstitutional. The state also continues to enforce restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors and bans transgender girls and women from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

If you or someone you know needs mental health resources and support, please call, text, or chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or visit 988lifeline.org for 24/7 access to free and confidential services. Trans Lifeline, designed for transgender or gender-nonconforming people, can be reached at (877) 565-8860. The lifeline also provides resources to help with other crises, such as domestic violence situations. The Trevor Project Lifeline, for LGBTQ+ youth (ages 24 and younger), can be reached at (866) 488-7386. Users can also access chat services at TheTrevorProject.org/Help or text START to 678678.