Why do so many gay and bisexual men die om suici?

Contents:

• SUICIS PUT LIGHT ON PRSUR OF GAY TEENAGERS
• TYLER CLEMENTI, STUNT OUTED AS GAY ON TER, JUMPS TO HIS ATH
• FIFTH GAY TEEN SUICI THREE WEEKS SPARKS DEBATE
• SUICI AND SUICI RISK LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR POPULATNS: REVIEW AND REMENDATNS
• SUICIS AMONG LBIAN AND GAY MALE INDIVIDUALS: FDGS FROM THE NATNAL VLENT DEATH REPORTG SYSTEM
• JUDY SHEPARD ON GAY SUICIS

SUICIS PUT LIGHT ON PRSUR OF GAY TEENAGERS

The aths have set off an impassned — and sometim angry — rponse om gay activists and ught the attentn of feral officials, cludg Secretary of Edutn Arne Dunn, who on Friday lled the suicis “unnecsary tragedi” brought on by “the trma of beg bullied. Gay and lbian groups on the mp held vigils last Wednday, rryg posters sayg "We're here, we're queer" than 15, 000 people subscribed to a Facebook group honourg a statement, his fay said that "Tyler was a fe young man, and a distguished mician.

Clementi jumped off the Gee Washgton Bridge Tuday, days after his roommate allegedly posted vio on the Inter of him havg sex wh another recent eptn of gay teen suicis has been across the untry, om the East Coast to Indiana, Texas to California, where 13-year-old Seth Walsh, who recently hanged himself, was memorialized Friday, whose fay said he was harassed by bulli for beg gay, died Tuday, after beg a a for ne days. Lawyers for Ravi and Wei have not returned msag left by ABC News but Ravi's attorney, Steve Altman, told the New Jersey Star-Ledger that he do not thk his client n be held crimally rponsible for Clementi's another recent se, Raymond Chase, an openly gay 19-year-old stunt at Johnson & Wal Universy Province, R.

TYLER CLEMENTI, STUNT OUTED AS GAY ON TER, JUMPS TO HIS ATH

"It is important to allow young people to e out and to fd support and to realize that once you do e out you're not alone, " said Shane Wdmeyer, the executive director of Camp Pri, an anizatn foced on buildg safer and more LGBT-iendly aths have provoked natnwi trospectn about bullyg, and how gay teens are treated, om the heartland to gay sger Lance Bass recently admted that as a closeted teen he would take part bullyg of other stunts. Acrdg to a recently released study by Camp Pri on how gay stunts are treated higher tn, gay stunts experienced signifintly greater harassment and discrimatn, and they were more likely to serly nsir leavg school bee of study also found that there is a lack of safety and clivens for gay stunts on mp across the is hope, however, that light of Tyler Clementi's tragic ath, and the natn's shock at s circumstanc, bullyg of gay teens is an issue that schools are now beg forced to addrs.

Keywords: LGBT, risk factors, suici, suici attempts, suici preventnRelatively ltle attentn has been given to the problem of suicidal behavr lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) populatns, spe reports of elevated risk for over four s. Surgeon General, 2001) and the Instute of Medice's Rcg Suici: A Natnal Imperative (Goldsmh, Pellmar, Kleman, & Bunney, 2002) fed gay and bisexual youth as a risk populatn but provid ltle rmatn about ntributg factors and did not addrs whether targeted terventns, preventn strategi or public health polici are need to rce suici risk this November 2007, the Amerin Foundatn for Suici Preventn partnership wh the Suici Preventn Rource Center and the Gay and Lbian Medil Associatn nvened a nference to addrs the need for better unrstandg of suicidal behavr and suici risk LGBT populatns.

FIFTH GAY TEEN SUICI THREE WEEKS SPARKS DEBATE

Rearchers have tend to fe sexual orientatn by one or another of the dimensns, most often g as the fg crern eher self-intifitn as gay/lbian, bisexual or heterosexual, or the genr of one's sexual partners (same sex, both same and oppose sex, or oppose sex). Studi g reprentative school-based sampl have found that about 3% of stunts gras 9–12 intify themselv as gay, lbian, or bisexual (Garofalo, Wolf, Ksel, Paley, & DuRant, 1998; Garofalo, Wolf, Wissow, Woods, & Goodman, 1999).

More recent studi of adults have generally nfirmed the figur and have nsistently shown that more rponnts dite same-sex sexual behavr, and pecially same-sex attractn, than intify themselv as gay or lbian (Black, Gat, Sanrs, & Taylor, 2000; Persen & Kristiansen, 2008; Sell, 1997; Wells, McGee, & Betrais, 2010). One recent adolcent study that rporated multiple measur of sexual orientatn found suicidal behavr to be signifintly higher youth who intified as gay, lbian or bisexual, pared to those who intified as heterosexual (Zhao, Montoro, Igartua, & Thombs, 2010). Adults that clud multiple qutns related to sexual orientatn (Bostwick, Boyd, Hugh, & McCabe, 2010) showed that rat of mood and anxiety disorrs, key risk factors for suicidal behavr, were more strongly lked to gay, lbian or bisexual inty than to sexual behavr or attractn, particularly ntrast to sexual orientatn, genr inty refers to a person's ternal sense of beg mascule, feme, or androgyno.

Although precise numbers are lackg, one survey of 515 self-intified transgenr persons found that 31% of male-to-female rponnts and 65% of female-to-male rponnts intified as gay, lbian, or bisexual (Clements-Nolle, Marx, Guzman, & Katz, 2001) this article, we foc first on summarizg the accumulated rearch lerature on suicidal behavr and suici risk lbian, gay, and bisexual people. Consistent wh wispread age the rearch lerature, we equently e the acronyms LGB (lbian, gay, bisexual) and LGBT (lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr) while regnizg that they do not aquately reflect the heterogeney of self-intifitns or behavrs wh the populatns. In any se, nclns based on the small numbers reported mt be regard as San Diego study lacked a livg ntrol group and has been cricized based on the rearchers’ assumptn that the 11% of young male suici cents who were intified as gay approximated the expected prevalence rate for young gay men the populatn unr study (McDaniel, Purcell, & D'Augelli, 2001).

SUICI AND SUICI RISK LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR POPULATNS: REVIEW AND REMENDATNS

Usg a more likely prevalence rate of 3–4% would have suggted that young gay men were overreprented among suici cents by a factor of at least studi have ed Denmark's extensive registri of val statistics and other socmographic data to exame whether people same-sex registered domtic partnerships (a proxy ditor of sexual orientatn) were overreprented among suici cents.

A recent meta-analysis of 25 ternatnal populatn-based studi that measured suicidal behavr LGB adolcents and/or adults (varly fed) nclud that the lifetime prevalence of suici attempt gay/bisexual mal was about four tim that of parable heterosexual mal (Kg et al., 2008). In a natnal probabily study of Lato and Asian-Amerin adults (Cochran, Mays, Alegria, Ortega, & Takchi, 2007), gay and bisexual men were more likely than heterosexual men to report a recent suici DisorrsIn the populatn as a whole, mental disorrs nstute the sgle largt risk factor for suicidal behavr, and studi have also reported a generally strong associatn between mental disorrs and suici attempts LGB adolcents and adults. The fdgs of higher rat of prsn and panic disorr gay/bisexual men, and higher rat of substance e disorrs lbian/bisexual women pot to different genr patterns among LGB people, pared to the populatn as a Natnal Epimlogic Survey on Alhol and Related Condns (NESARC), a populatn-based survey of U.

The terms gay-related strs (Rosar, Schrimshaw, Hunter, & Gwadz, 2002; Rotheram-Bos, Hunter & Rosar, 1994) and mory strs (Meyer, 1995, 2003) have been ed to scribe a range of strsors rultg om dividual and stutnal discrimatn agast LGB people. The likelihood of gay-related victimizatn has been found to be pecially high youth wh cross-genr appearance, tras or behavrs (D'Augelli, Grossman, & Starks, 2006; Fzpatrick, Euton, Jon, & Schmidt, 2005; Friedman et al., 2006; Plorl & Fartacek, 2007; Remafedi et al., 1991), or who exprs mory sexual orientatn at an early age (Friedman, Marshal, Stall, Cheong, & Wright, 2008).

SUICIS AMONG LBIAN AND GAY MALE INDIVIDUALS: FDGS FROM THE NATNAL VLENT DEATH REPORTG SYSTEM

Data om the Natnal Epimlogic Survey of Alhol and Related Condns (2004–2005) further documented the associatn between personal experienc of discrimatn and terpersonal vlence on elevated rat of substance e disorrs (McCabe, Bostwick, et al., 2010) and posttrmatic strs disorr (Roberts, At, Corliss, Vanrmorris, & Koenen, 2010) LGB adults over the age of is some evince that the terrelatnship among gay-related strsors, mental disorrs and suicidal behavr may vary between different racial and ethnic groups.

JUDY SHEPARD ON GAY SUICIS

Notg that the nstutnal amendments largely unrsred preexistg state laws, the rearchers hypothized that the negative mental health impact on LGB cizens stemmed primarily om the hostile polil mpaigns and public disurse that preced their passage, which further promulgated stigma and rerced the margalized social and legal stat of LGB LGB rponnts livg the 34 stat where nstutnal amendments agast same-sex marriage were not enacted durg the perd examed, creas generalized anxiety disorr and substance e disorrs were also found between the two wav of the survey, possibly related to extensive natnal media verage of the amendment mpaigns and the associated anti-gay rhetoric. One recent study California found that partnered lbians and gay mal were more than twice as likely to be unsured as married heterosexuals, primarily bee of lower rat of employer-provid verage of pennt partners (Ponce et al., 2010). Usg data om the California Health Interview Survey 2001, 2003, and 2005, the study found that partnered gay men were ls than half (42%) as likely to have pennt health surance verage as married heterosexual men, and partnered lbians were only 28% as likely to have verage as married heterosexual women.

PROTECTIVE FACTORSIn spe of an creased risk of suici attempts among LGB pared to heterosexual rponnts, those reportg suicidal behavr are a clear mory of the LGB dividuals who have been studied, timated at 12– 19% of gay/bisexual mal, and a smaller percentage of lbian/bisexual women (Kg et al., 2008). A nonrandom study of self-intified young and middle-aged LGB adults New York Cy found nnectedns to a gay/lbian muny and posive sexual inty were associated wh greater social and psychologil well-beg (Kertzner, Meyer, Frost, & Stiratt, 2009) fdg that exclive same-sex sexual behavr and attractn are associated wh posive mental health out women, but not men (Bostwick et al., 2010), suggts that women may be protected by greater latu and tolerance regard to female sexualy. Natnal Transgenr Discrimatn Survey (Natnal Center for Transgenr Equaly & the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force, 2009), which clud almost 6, 500 transgenr and genr-variant people intified through a work of 800 trans-related service and advocy anizatns, support groups, list-servs and onle social works, showed that 47% reported an adverse job actn bee of transgenr stat.

This group's rpons related to suicidal behavr were pared to those reported by six other groups: heterosexual mal and femal, homosexual mal and femal, and mal and femal who matched the transgenr dividuals on natnaly, age, sexual orientatn, relatnship stat, and populatn size of the area which they rid. Where there appears to be a logil basis for assumg monali across sexual mory persons, we clu transgenr along wh lbian, gay, and bisexual groups our remendatns, aga urgg that reful evaluatns be nducted to intify possible differenc out among transgenr pared to LGB people, and among transgenr people havg different sexual orientatns as well as different genr inti, behavrs and Health InterventnsLGBT anizatns have been at the foreont of brgg natnal attentn to health problems that disproportnately affect LGBT people, notably HIV/AIDS, seekg remedi to associated dispari rearch fundg, and workg to improve accs to high qualy, culturally appropriate health re servic. Commensurate efforts have not been directed toward elevated rat of mental disorrs LGBT people and the risk the disorrs pose for suicidal behavr, even though Healthy People 2010: Compann Document for Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr Health (Gay and Lbian Medil Associatn and LGBT Health Experts, 2001) provid well-documented remendatns to support a foc on LGBT mental until 1973, when LGBT psychiatrists, other mental health profsnals, and their alli spearhead efforts at the annual meetg of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn to remove homosexualy per se as a psychiatric diagnosis, variant sexual orientatn was routely equated wh mental disorr and sexual viance, leadg to a theraptic foc on “curg” people of same-sex sexual attractn and behavr.