NAPLES, Fla. — Since Election Day, Naples Pride says it has seen an increase in calls. Many of those are coming from parents.
The Trevor Project, an organization that focuses on suicide prevention within the LGBTQ community, reported a nearly 700% increase in calls on Nov. 6, the day after the election.
"We’ve had a lot of parents of LGBTQ students reaching and that is particularly sad, because children are just really caught up in a lot of what the election produced," said Callhan Solodavini, a board member with Naples Pride.
Watch below to see why they believe more parents are calling:
According to the Associated Press, President-elect Donald Trump said at a rally prior to the election, “We will get…transgender insanity out of our schools and we will keep men out of women’s sports.”
"There was so much fear mongering and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric pushed down people during the election," Solodavini said.
Now, there's a fear of rollbacks for the LGBTQ community, such as limiting access to healthcare and gender affirming care.
"They struggle with being who they are in a society that inherently doesn’t accept their existence," Solodavini said. "In reality, it’s the transgender community that is facing hate crimes, violence, discrimination."
The issue has been long-standing in recent years.
This year, a federal judge blocked a 2023 Florida law that banned gender affirming care to minors.
Solodavini says Naples Pride will do what they can to help the community, such as offering support groups.
"We are continuing to try and provide resources to parents," she said. "We plan to roll out a program where we’re offering mental health services with a licensed practitioners to those who cannot afford it."
That program is expected to start in mid-January. It was in the works before the election, but they fast-tracked it because of the political climate.
Naples Pride says it will continue to offer support for anyone in need.
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