After teen suicis, gay opponents look ward | The Christian Century

Contents:

• SUICI RAT FALL AMONG GAY YOUTH BUT STILL OUTPACE STRAIGHT PEERS
• GAY TEEN SUICI: RISK FACTORS, STATISTICS, WHERE TO GET HELP
• IS THERE A GAY TEEN SUICI EPIMIC?
• PARENTS OF GAY TEEN WHO DIED BY SUICI SUE SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR IGNORG HIS PLEAS FOR HELP
• AFTER TEEN SUICIS, GAY OPPONENTS LOOK WARD
• FIFTH GAY TEEN SUICI THREE WEEKS SPARKS DEBATE
• SUICI AND SUICI RISK LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR POPULATNS: REVIEW AND REMENDATNS
• SUICIS PUT LIGHT ON PRSUR OF GAY TEENAGERS

SUICI RAT FALL AMONG GAY YOUTH BUT STILL OUTPACE STRAIGHT PEERS

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 teen suici and suici attempts are a ser problem as lbian, gay and bisexual youth are four tim more likely than their straight peers to attempt suici and transgenr people have the most suici attempts of all. Suici attempts by lbian, gay, bisexual and qutng youth are typilly more ser and are four-to-six tim more likely to rult jury, poisong or overdose which requir treatment om a profsnal, pared to their straight peers.

GAY TEEN SUICI: RISK FACTORS, STATISTICS, WHERE TO GET HELP

In the wake of the suici ath of Rutgers Universy stunt Tyler Clementi, the natn's attentn has been foced on what many have lled an epimic of gay teen example, Ciara Thomas, a wrer for the webse ("Ameri's Mental Health Channel") stat that, "For a number of years, rearchers have known that one-third of all teenagers who m suici are gay. "Ined, that statistic has been wily repeated over the past few weeks, cludg by Unarian Mister Debra Haffner a piece published the Washgton Post a few days ago: "We have known for more than thirty years that at least one third of all suicis to teens are to gay youth, " Haffner told the one-third of gay teens may be killg themselv is ed a shockg 's not Bt, profsor and chair of soclogy and crimal jtice at the Universy of Delaware, untangled the knotty statistics behd the gay teen suici rate his book "Damned Li and Statistics" (Universy of California Prs, 2001) did the number e om?

IS THERE A GAY TEEN SUICI EPIMIC?

He adds that multiplyg 10 percent (the timated proportn of homosexuals the populatn) by 3 (a suici rate timated to be three tim higher than heterosexuals), along wh a mathematil mislculatn, led to an timate that gays and lbians acunted for 30 percent of suicis. (The mislculatn: Even if 10 percent of the populatn is homosexual, and their suici rate is three tim that of heterosexuals, homosexuals should acunt for only one-quarter — not one-third —of suicis)This figure was round up to one-third.

"Whout accurate numbers on how many gay teens there are, any timate about their suici rate is ltle more than a rearcher, Cornell Universy's Rch Sav-Williams, examed the two studi that had asserted the high gay teen suici rate and found many methodologil flaws. For example, the rearchers failed to acunt for the fact that "most dividuals wh same-sex attractns do not intify themselv as gay, " Sav-Williams wrote the December 2001 issue of the Journal of Consultg and Clil Psychology.

PARENTS OF GAY TEEN WHO DIED BY SUICI SUE SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR IGNORG HIS PLEAS FOR HELP

"The effect is that nclns about suici risk among sexual-mory youths are based not on same-sex attractns but on self-intifitn [and] rearchers who rely solely on gay-intified youths might be omtg signifint, more diverse and reprentative populatns of youths wh same-sex attractns.

" There's no doubt that many gay teens are harassed and bullied (a study published the January 2010 issue of the Journal of Adolcent Health suggted gay and lbian teens get bullied two to three tim more than their heterosexual peers), and some of them may take their liv bee of . Attorneys for the fay of Nigel Shelby said school staff vlated Tle VI, which prohibs tentnal discrimatn on the basis of race, lor and natnal orig, and Tle IX, which prohibs public schools om ignorg harassment based on genr attorneys, civil rights lawyers Benjam Cmp and Jasme Rand, said Shelby, 15, who was gay, had repeatedly reported beg bullied at school and on social media, but was told by Huntsville High School's then-hman prcipal Jo Stafford that beg gay was a prcipal "did not offer any assistance or take any rponsibily to make sure that this child was protected and nurtured and loved, " Cmp said.

"Consistent wh the district’s Core Valu, HHS [Huntsville High School] has a strong Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) place to provi support to LGBTQ+ stunts, and the district has partnered wh GLSEN and the Anti-Defamatn League to support s schools and stunts, " the statement Tuday, Rand said: "To make a statement and to enforce policy are two different thgs.

AFTER TEEN SUICIS, GAY OPPONENTS LOOK WARD

"Lbian, gay and bisexual youth are almost five tim more likely to have attempted suici as pared to heterosexual youth, acrdg to the Trevor Project, which provis crisis terventn servic to LGBTQ youth. 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.

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.

FIFTH GAY TEEN SUICI THREE WEEKS SPARKS DEBATE

"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.

Clayton, MD1AbstractDpe strong ditns of elevated risk of suicidal behavr lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people, limed attentn has been given to rearch, terventns or suici preventn programs targetg the populatns.

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. 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).

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

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).

SUICIS PUT LIGHT ON PRSUR OF GAY TEENAGERS

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.