Explain How Suicide Is The Leading Cause Of Death Among Gay And Lesbian Youth

The mental health of individuals in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) community is something that is a serious problem. For most of the history of the United States and many different parts of the world LGBT people faced much persecution and in some cases even death. This constant fear of discovery and the pressure that one feels on oneself when “in the closet” can lead to major mental distress. Research has shown that people who identify as LGBT are twice as likely to develop lifetime mood and anxiety disorders (Bostwick 468). This is extremely noticeable the past couple years in the suicides of bullied teens on the basis of sexual identity and expression. The stigma on simply being perceived as LGBT is strong enough to

Suicide rates among LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) youth are some of the highest in nation today. The traumatic end result which has lead lgbt youth seeking an ultimate peace to their life is a saddling fact that is becoming all too real too often in society today. The impact of these young lives being loss has sparked a social shift in the appropriate direction yet the rates are continuing raising throughout the country. As with any shifts it has effect, such in the music world, of once untouched speaking through chord, vocals, and beats have taken center stage. Artists such as lead vocalist, Tim Mcllrath of melodic hardcore, punk band Rise Against song, “Make it Stop (September’s Children)”, album entitled End Game (2011) address the youth in the month of September 2010 which saw a huge spike in lgbt suicides-related deaths, and the need for change in society. Forwarding to the modern day of 2015 and the stride the lgbt has made since then, yet lgbt youth continues to be the leader in youth suicide, artist singer/song writer Pauley Perrette’s, “Beautiful Child” independent single (2015), brings about a light in a pit of darkness as the youth turn to thought of suicide, that light is there and that it can get better for them. Both songs provide a glimpse of the reality of the lgbt youth and the struggle they experience during everyday life. The issue of lgbt related suicde is one that spans over many years, kinds of people and through these lyrical works, we

Gay teenagers are a large portion of teens taking their lives by suicide this source states that 30 to 40% of gay boy and 20% of gay girls have attempted suicide. This group of teens feel isolated, lonely and reminded that

Eleftheria Wolff and College of Saint Elizabeth did this research articles on adolescent suicide back in February 1, 2006. They used a search from Social Science Index and the American Journal of Sociology. In this research we find out that suicide is the third high in adolescent today. Adolescent has to matter or belong in some type of way to be able to fit in and not to think of suicide. One when the adolescent is accepted by family and friends that are a part of their lives. Another is in high school as it comes to belonging to social groups, clubs, team sport, and being able to speak with teach within the school when facing a problem. Then you have the self-identify of the adolescent of their sexuality of the adolescent. Sexuality is a

Suicide has become one of the biggest social problems of our time affecting not only the gay community, but many others. Suicide will affect your life one way or another, that's the truth about it. Suicide is a day to day experience, you might have seen it happen, you might have been a victim, or you just might have heard it on the news. But everyone is aware that this is a serious issue. According to Oxford English Dictionary it defines suicide “as an act of taking one’s Life, one who dies by his own hands, self-murder.” It's such a deep definition but with many meanings, after digging some more I have found that there are many different types of suicide. For example, Egoistic suicide, Altruistic suicide and many more, each type has their own meaning and the cause for it. But how does suicide affect the gay community, and what are the affects leading to this final

Grzanka, P. R., & Mann, E. S. (2014). Queer youth suicide and the psychopolitics of “It Gets Better”. Sexualities, 17(4), 369-393. doi:10.1177/1363460713516785

A lot of teenagers are discriminated at school as a result of their sexual orientation. The strong effect of sexual orientation on suicidal thoughts is mediated by critical youth suicide risk factors, including depression, hopelessness, alcohol abuse, recent suicide attempts by a peer or a family member, and experiences of victimization (Stephen T. Russel). They go through a lot of bullying. They feel everyone does not equally notice them. Gay people do no choose their sexual orientation; they are born like that. Only ignorant individuals cannot accept people that are not like them. Young teenagers get very depressed to see that world has turned on them, and a lot of them choose to end their life, so they do not have to deal with this terrible feeling. The teenager stage is one of the most difficult stages throughout the life span. It is important to teach our children respect towards everybody to prevent this type of things caused by bullying at school. By legalizing gay marriage, young teenagers will feel accepted by society, and they will feel

The result of excessive bullying of LGBT kids in schools, for some, gets to the point where they feel like they have to end their life to be rid of it all. All the bullying is capable of leading a student to think suicide is the only option left for them. So many teenagers have taken their own life or have thought about taking their own life in the past couple of years. It isn’t far fetched either, in fact, “Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24” (The Trevor Project). Suicide being the 2nd leading cause of death-- from 10 to 24 year olds? It doesn’t stop from there. “1 out of 6 students nationwide (grades 9-12) seriously

Marginalization may also be the explanation for the high risk of self-harm in gay, bisexual, transsexual teenagers who are 2 to 3 times more likely to self-harm than heterosexual young people, this groups results in regular absenteeism at school due to homophobic harassment. 50% of those reported bullied at school had contemplated self-harm, 40% of those had self-harmed at least once. A survey in 2000 to 2002 interviewed 2,430 lesbian women, gay men and bisexual men and women in England and Wales and concluded that there is a greater link between discrimination and mental health issues. (Truth Hurts, Mental Health Foundation 2006).

Legalization of gay marriage would help reduce teen suicide. To illustrate this point, many gay teens experience bullying which

To whom this concerns. Actually this concerns everyone. We are in a state of crisis. This crisis is not in the form of a war, unemployment, or the lack of health care but it comes in the form of teenage suicide. Over the past month more than a handful of young people have taken their own lives because they were being bullied at school. These young kids were not bullied because they dressed differently or they were poor they were bullied because they were homosexual. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender children are being targeted at school and being bullied to the point that they feel they have no other choice but to take their life.

The majority of teenagers that commit suicide are LGBT. LGBT teenagers get bullied worse for being different than other people. This makes it harder for LGBT teenagers to fit in as a “normal” teen because many won’t accept their sexual orientation. Harold S. Koplewicz says, “According to a survey by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, approximately 90 percent of gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual middle and high school students report being physically or verbally harassed in 2009” (Koplewicz, pg.1). While LGBT teenagers get harassed, there is no one to stop this because no one usually cares about them. According to Koplewicz, parents or guardians of gay teenagers are sometimes “the last to know” there is an issue (Koplewicz, pg.1). When LGBT teenagers have a problem, they inform it to their parents. There are some parents that just hide the fact their child is gay. They find a way to think that the verbal and physical abuse that is caused on their child is not a problem. In this situation, LGBT teenagers feel helpless and the only way to stop their pain is suicide. Last year, my English teacher was discussing in class about LGBT suicide. There was this article that she told the class about, it was about Tyler Clementi. Tyler Clementi was a gay college student, a musician, and he was living in a dorm. His roommate was Ravi. Ravi always exposed Tyler for being gay until one day he decided to have a

One young person—age ten to 19—takes his/her own life every 90 minutes (Gould et al. as cited in Kitts, 2005, p. 622).  Russell and Joyner revealed that adolescents who identify as gay or lesbian are two times more likely to attempt suicide than straight adolescents (as cited in Kitts, 2005, p. 624).  The risk factor for suicide for gay and lesbian adolescents is not their sexuality, but psychosocial distress they experience due to their sexuality (Kitts, 2005).  Adolescents

Today’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youths come out to family and friends at a younger age and public policy and support for their community is on the rise, yet LGBT youth are still faced with a significant risk of mental health issues. Adolescence is an important period of life characterized by rapid development where teenagers experience physical sexual changes and establish their gender identity. Youth who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual have been proven to demonstrate higher mental health and substance abuse issues than their heterosexual peers (Seil, Desai, & Smith 2014). Stressors from identifying as an LGBT youth come at different milestones in an individual’s life, but are not limited to: the age of first awareness of same-sex orientation, age of labeling oneself as LGBT, age of first disclosure of sexual orientation, and the age at which they disclose to a parent their orientation. When individuals are young, and realize they identify with a sexual minority, they may face psychological danger due to the risk of prejudice, discrimination, and living in a world that fosters “hereosexual love” (Kwak & Kim 2017). Most youths spend about one-third of their life aware of their same-sex orientation, but do not reveal this information to others. These years of secrecy and internalization can create significant worry, social withdrawal, fear, poor academic performance, and school avoidance. Normative experiences for LGBT youth are classified as victimization because of the psychological conflict they impose on individuals. Such experiences include: feeling different, experiencing atypical family life due to sexual orientation issues, and burdens such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This type of victimization in youth has been hypothesized to create a detrimental effect on mental health in adult years. Also, many LGBT youth experience verbal and physical attacks from their peers (D’Augelli, 2002). According to the 2011 “national school climate study”, 81.9% of sexual orientation minorities experienced unfair harassment due to their orientation and 63.5% believed their school to be an unsafe environment, ultimately not attending (Kwak & Kim 2017). The minority stress model argues

With the research and statistics given, one can conclude that youth whom identify as LGBT have a greater chance of being mistreated than their heterosexual peers. Those children suffer from a tremendous amount of depression and suicidal thoughts due to the inconsideration of their peers. Understanding that when it comes to statistics( generally) and regarding the surveys given to the students mentioned in the literature review, some of those students may or may not have been 99.9% truthful,. However, taking into consideration the sample amount, for example, the 75,344 youth surveyed, the results were recorded and submitted into a national database. LBGT youth are targeted for reasons that could well be infinite. Although, the one I mentioned out of Dr. Nassem’s article on Why Do Children Bully when she mentions popularity are one of the many explanations a bully could conjure to validate their victimization of another human being. Valid point from a psychologists points of view, yes maybe to explain the mental process of a young child or adolescent, but valid for the person being victimized. The numbers showed the results of negative actions performed by adolescent youth and the reaction of