I Was A Gay Boy Who Tried To Kill Myself. Now I Know It Wasn't My Flt. | HuffPost HuffPost Personal

Contents:

• GAY SUICIS ARE ON THE RISE. THIS EPIMLOGIST EXPLAS WHY.
• STUDY HIGHLIGHTS DIFFERENC BETWEEN GAY, STRAIGHT SUICIS
• I WAS A GAY BOY WHO TRIED TO KILL MYSELF. NOW I KNOW IT WASN'T MY FLT.
• PEOPLE WHO ARE GAY, LBIAN OR BI HAVE MORE MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE E PROBLEMS, SURVEY FDS
• SUICI ATTEMPTS AMONG GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN: LIFETIME PREVALENCE AND ANTECENTS
• DEPRSN IS KILLG GAY MEN
• REARCHERS FD DISPARI SUICI RISK AMONG LBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL ADULTS
• NEARLY A THIRD OF YOUNG GAY PEOPLE HAVE ATTEMPTED SUICI, STUDY FDS

GAY SUICIS ARE ON THE RISE. THIS EPIMLOGIST EXPLAS WHY.

Suici is the send leadg e of ath among young people aged 10 to 24 (Hegaard, Curt, & Warner, 2018) — and lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer, and qutng (LGBTQ) youth are at signifintly creased youth are more than four tim as likely to attempt suici than their peers (Johns et al., 2019; Johns et al., 2020) Trevor Project timat that more than 1. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex wh men are at overall creased risk of vlence bee of homophobia, harassment, and vlent acts directed towards gay persons.

STUDY HIGHLIGHTS DIFFERENC BETWEEN GAY, STRAIGHT SUICIS

72 MB] has shown that around 40% of gay men experienced sexual vlence (other than rape) their lifetime and around 47% of bisexual men experienced sexual vlence (other than rape) their lifetime. Acrdg to data om the Youth Risk Behavr Survey (YRBS) nducted durg 2001-2009 seven stat and six large urban school districts, 14% to 31% of gay and lbian stunts across the s and 17% of 32% of bisexual stunts across the s had been forced to have sexual terurse at some pot their liv.

Homophobia — wh fai, schools, muni and even doctors and unsellors offic — is a key e, acrdg to the Still Here project wh the Men’s Health Rearch Program at the Universy of Brish Columbia. As a postdoctoral rearch fellow nursg at the Universy of Brish Columbia, I work on the Still Here project to engage gay and bisexual men who have prevly stggled wh suici (or who have lost another gay or bisexual man to suici) to tell their stori through photographs. Many Still Here participants also scribed how they were nonted wh homophobia and stigmatizg attus when they opened up to talk about their feelgs to their doctor or unsellor.

I WAS A GAY BOY WHO TRIED TO KILL MYSELF. NOW I KNOW IT WASN'T MY FLT.

Of urse, not every LGBTQIA+ person attempts suici – most don't – but those that do often do so bee of the strs of anti-gay stigma, discrimatn and harassment. Cril to remember is that the more openly people talk about suici and homosexual suici and the ls stigma people feel around the issu, the more people n succsfully fight back agast LGBTQIA+ suici.

HuffPost talked to Salway about the persistent challeng and the fight for health did you fd out that more gay and bisexual men were dyg of suici than of related to HIV?

PEOPLE WHO ARE GAY, LBIAN OR BI HAVE MORE MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE E PROBLEMS, SURVEY FDS

So we thk that the mortaly l have crossed for gay and bisexual men, wh suici likely havg surpassed HIV as a leadg e of do suici rat rema so high among the LGBTQ populatn?

The next wave of gay rights needs to be about buildg meangful, lastg social supports that whstand the three major threats we first threat is the loss of the “gayborhood. CLARIFICATION: A prev versn of this article clud Canadian data on the statistil divergence of the mortaly rat due to suici and HIV for gay and bisexual men. Subgroups at an creased risk of suicidal behavr, a new study sh a spotlight on the ways which suici among sexual mori differs om that of their heterosexual study, published late last month the Amerin Journal of Preventive Medice, is thought to be the first to e a large body of ernment data to exame suicis of gay mal and lbians.

SUICI ATTEMPTS AMONG GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN: LIFETIME PREVALENCE AND ANTECENTS

"Compared to heterosexuals, the report found gay men who killed themselv were likelier to have had a diagnosed mental health ndn, a history of suicidal thoughts or plans, an argument before ath and a crisis around the time of ath. Like gay men, lbians were also likelier than heterosexuals to have had a diagnosed mental health ndn prr to suici and were likelier to have tried to signal their sire to attempt suici before dog study also pared the "most monly ed mechanism of jury” for straight and gay people who took their own liv. For gay men, the likelit method of suici was “hangg/strangulatn/suffotn" (38 percent); for lbians was “hangg/strangulatn/suffotn” (36 percent) and firearms (35 percent) that when pared to straight youth, lbian, gay and bisexual youth are five tim more likely to attempt suici, the study suggts “a need to nduct suici preventn activi across age groups, cludg youth.

DEPRSN IS KILLG GAY MEN

”Another signifint fdg is that lbian and gay people are likelier than straight people to have reported a “prsed mood” or “timate partner problems and arguments” before dyg by suici.

REARCHERS FD DISPARI SUICI RISK AMONG LBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL ADULTS

Var theori abound as to why rat of suici and/or suicidal iatn are higher among youth who intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer/qutng, tersex, or asexual (LGBTQ-IA).

One may, for stance, intify as transgenr and gay, stggle wh mental illns, rell memori of childhood abe, feel hopels, have accs to weapons, yet elect not to end one’s own life.

NEARLY A THIRD OF YOUNG GAY PEOPLE HAVE ATTEMPTED SUICI, STUDY FDS

An ternatnal team of scientists recently found that gay men had ls gray matter volume the bra’s thalam regn, which n atrophy unr extreme strs, pared to heterosexual men. The team also found that creased gray matter volume this regn, which is rponsible for procsg external stimuli, was associated wh creased may believe that the reason LGBTQ+ people are more likely to die by suici or have mental health problems is bee homosexualy is “unnatural” or is a psychiatric ndn. Dpe creasg acceptance of the LGBTQ+ muny, at least some circl, adults who intify as gay, lbian or bisexual are more likely than those who intify as straight to have ser thoughts of suici and mental health ndns cludg major prsive episos, and they are more likely to mise substanc like alhol or dgs, acrdg to a new US ernment report.

And about a third of all bisexual people and gay mal said they had a problem wh a substance e disorr the year before they filled out the survey, the report found. However, gay, bi and straight men seemed to have siar substance e patterns: There was no difference smokg between straight and gay mal, for example, and the rate of bge and heavy drkg the month before they took the survey was the same among gay, bi and straight men. “LGBT dividuals experience addnal strs as a rult of discrimatn and stigma, stigma both at the societal level but also the way that livg a society that privileg heterosexualy that has homophobic laws and polici to sort of teach LGB people even to view themselv as ferr, ” Kidd said.

“For stance, you n image beg environments that might be validatg of people who have gay and lbian inti but might eher not regnize bisexual inty – so they are sort of visible that space – or might be really validatg of dividuals wh bisexual inty, even while the environment is affirmg or at least a ltle more ntral to folks who are gay or lbian, ” Kidd said.