TSZ Magazine: June 2016 (Issue #1)

Suicide In The LGBTQ+ Community

First of what exactly is suicide? We find a lot of people mentioning that they have suicidal tendencies but do People really know what that mean.

By definition suicide could be defined as;

  1) (uncountable)   of oneself.

  2) (countable) A particular  of a person intentionally  himself or herself, or of multiple people doing so.

  3) (countable) A person who has intentionally killed him/herself.

Researchers have found that attempted suicide rates and suicidal ideation among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQQ) youth is comparatively higher than among the general population. LGBT teens and young adults have one of the highest rates of suicide attempts. According to some groups, this is linked to heterocentric cultures and institutionalised homophobia in some cases, including the use of rights and protections for LGBT people as a political wedge issue like in the contemporary efforts to halt legalising same-sex marriages. Depression and drug use among LGBT people have both been shown to increase significantly after new laws that discriminate against gay people are passed.

Research on completed suicides in sexual minorities is preliminary. Members of the LGBT community have higher rates of all-cause mortality, and those living in areas with a higher degree of social stigma towards homosexuality tend to complete suicide at a younger age

Bullying of LGBT youth has been shown to be a contributing factor in many suicides, even if not all of the attacks have been specifically addressing sexuality or gender Since a series of suicides in the early 2000s, more attention has been focused on the issues and underlying causes in an effort to reduce suicides among LGBTQ youth. The Family Acceptance Project's research has demonstrated that "parental acceptance, and even neutrality, with regard to a child's sexual orientation" can bring down theattempted suicide rate. Suicidal ideation and attempts seem to be roughly the same for heterosexual youth as for youth counterparts who have same-sex attractions and behavior but do not identify as being LGBTQ. This correlates with the findings of a large survey of US adults that found higher rates of "mood and anxiety disorders, key risk factors for suicidal behavior," are linked to people who identify as gay, lesbian, and bisexual, rather than sexual behaviors, especially for men.

The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention notes there are no national data (for the U.S.) regarding suicidal ideation or suicide rates among the LGBT population as a whole or in part, for LGBT youth or LGBT seniors, for example. In part because there is no agreed percentage of the national population that is LGBTQ, or even identifies as LGBTQ, also death certificates do not include sexuality information. A 1986 study noted that previous large scale studies of completed suicides did not "consider sexual orientation in their data analyses."

Reports and studies Clinical social worker Caitlin Ryan's Family Acceptance Project (San Francisco State University) conducted the first study of the effect of family acceptance and rejection on the health, mental health and well-being of LGBT youth, including suicide, HIV/AIDS and homelessness. Their research shows that LGBT youths "who experience high levels of rejection from their families during adolescence (when compared with those young people who experienced little or no rejection from parents and caregivers) were more than eight times likely to have attempted suicide, more than six times likely to report high levels of depression, more than three times likely to use illegal drugs and more than three times likely to be at high risk for HIV or other STDs" by the time they reach their early 20s.

Numerous studies have shown that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth have a higher rate of suicide attempts than do heterosexual youth. The Suicide

Prevention Resource Center synthesized these studies and estimated that between 30 and 40% of LGBT youth, depending on age and sex groups, have attempted suicide. A U.S. government study, titled Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Youth Suicide, published in 1989, found that LGBT youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than other young people. This higher prevalence of suicidal ideation and overall mental health problems among gay teenagers compared to their heterosexual peers has been attributed to minority stress. "More than 34,000 people die by suicide each year," making it "the third leading cause of death among 15 to 24 year olds with lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth attempting suicide up to four times more than their heterosexual peers."