GLBT Suicide: More Likely in Conservative Areas

[jbrowder24]

Not surprising but underscores the importance of treating gays as equals not just in certain states but on a national level:

Lesbian, gay and bisexual teens are five times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers - but those living in a supportive community might be a little better off, according to a new study.

The findings, published online today in Pediatrics, showed that lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) teens living in counties with a high proportion of gay and lesbian couples, and those who went to schools with gay-straight alliances and anti-discrimination policies, were less likely to attempt suicide than LGB teens living in less accepting environments.

The finding is "a call to action in providing a roadmap for how we can begin to reduce suicide in LGB youth," Mark Hatzenbuehler, the study's author from Columbia University in New York, told Reuters Health.

He said that while previous studies have shown that LGB teens are more likely to attempt suicide, those studies haven't been able to determine why exactly that's the case.

About 1400 -- or between 4 and 5 percent -- of teens surveyed identified themselves as being gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

Of those students, almost 22 kids out of every hundred said they had attempted suicide in the past year. That compared to about 4 of every hundred teens who identified as straight and said they had attempted suicide.

Suicide attempts were more common in LGB teens who reported being depressed and binge drinking, as well as those who had been victimized by their peers or physically abused by an adult.

But even accounting for all those factors, teens' social environment made a difference too. Those who lived in counties that scored poorly on measures of social environment were about 20 percent more likely to have attempted suicide than teens from high-scoring social environments.

"That challenges the myth that there's something inherent to being gay that puts (LGB teens) at risk for suicide attempts," Hatzenbuehler said.

The findings show that by making a few concrete changes to their policies, schools can improve the community for their LGB students and perhaps cut down on attempted suicides as well, Hatzenbuehler said.

Full Article: Social environment linked to gay teen suicide risk | Reuters

[Glaedr]

That makes a lot of sense. Still kind of shocking, 22 in 100! thats a lot of attempted suicides... I don't know about everyone else, but I think that the rutgers incident had an extremely large impact on LGBT acceptance and tolerance. It my just be the big event that happened in my lifetime, but it seems the most significant to me.

[fredv3b]

22 in 100 is suspiciously large to me. Also I'd be interested to know what the useful purpose of the research was. Just suppose it was to conclusively show that conservative areas have higher LGBT youth suicide rates (a tall order), what could practically be done about it? It would be more useful to learn how to prevent suicides.

[Glaedr]

With that large of a number I too am a little suspicios as to how big the sample size was. If it was just 100 I have a hard time believing that that number is consistent across the board.

[Kronis]

I myself litterally contemplated jumping off of the cliff behind my best friends house. My comunity was neither against nor supportive of the gay lifestyle. However My household was a different story. I stood on that cliff looking at the swamp below and Decided not to do it. But my point is that you cant just look at a comunity as a whole. an accepting family can leave a town. But you cant leave your family.
I once made a speach to half my class representing our GSA. The other half got a different speaker. But in the speach I said something that even shocked me as it came out of my mouth. "When your black or latino or even asian or hell lets not forget caucassion, you will probly get shit based on who you are. And you cant change it. But at the end of the day you go home to a family whos just like you. Now imagine what it would be like if you were the ONLY one like you in your own home. And imagine your own family being the one who judges you. Imagine never having a safe haven."

[jbrowder24]

The number doesn't shock me at all. When I was in college, I was surprised by the number of people I knew that admitted to having attempted suicide during high school (and most of these people I knew weren't even gay). The numbers indicate that about 308 out of 1400 GLBT-identified teens attempted suicide; and 1144 out of around 28,600 straight teens attempted suicide. Of course, there could be other factors and it'd be nice to see a study done with a wider sample across more states/areas. And I apologize if my math is off; not my strong suit.

Kronis, I think you have a good point too, though I suspect households like yours are more common in rural areas (in percentage to the population). But a supportive or judgmental family can make a big difference, whether it's dealing with homosexuality or another issue.

[zeon]

Hello,
I think with the right help and gudiance in all communities right across the world this figure would be drastically reduced... l do understand why though epople that commit suicide do it... Alot of the time its just unable to accept themselves.. l have known 2 people take their own life and usually for this reason

kindest regards

zeon

[naterin11]

1 in 100 still seems like too much for me...

I was in high school when I thought deeply about getting a knife from the kitchen and, you know, but I got over it and now I have absolutely no intention on killing myself because of other people's disapproval. But that's high school, everyone is insecure about themselves at that age...Anyways, there seems to be a bunch of new support programs being created specifically for gay teens, or any suicidal teen, nowadays, which should hopefully lower these statistics.

Sadly, to me it seems that gay bashing is going to be taught to newer generations no matter what, just like racism (KKK, for example).