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The evidence indicates that homosexually oriented males account for more than half of male youth suicide problems, but mainstream suicidologists generally continue to ignore this aspect of the problem. Information about lesbian youth suicide problems is included, as is other generally unrecognized factors possibly associated with youth suicide problems.

It is hoped that your exploration of the site lead to positive outcomes for the ongoing victims of the traditional Better be Dead Than Gay social ideology. Unfortunately, many professionals  have had a history of abusing, harming and/or ignoring these young individuals. They have also been ignoring the high risk status of many other adolescents targeted for abuse in schools and elsewhere because they are "presumed to be homosexual," usually on the basis of gender nonconformity. A 2004 research summary.  2007 Conference Alert - The Homosexuality Factor in Suicidality: Heterosexual Identified Individuals. - Conference Presentations by P. Temblay & R. Ramsay.

We Belong - Producer: Joe Wilson
"This is the story of two rural teens who had the courage
to stand up to bigotry and intolerance in their schools –
and the determination to tell their stories to the world..."

No Sex, Please, We’re Gay Teens:.
GLBT Youth Being Harmed?

The Child Porn Hoax

The paper, "Does your school track the suicidal student?" (The Clearing House, November/December, 2001: 92-5) by David Helsel begins with:

"Jared was a troubled teenager. He attended a large modern public middle school in an Ohio city. Although his school had no formal crisis management team, many of his teachers and friends and his counselor all agreed, after his suicide, that he had given them ample warning signs. Jared endured abuse in a family setting of domestic violence and alcoholism. Branded a sexual misfit at school, he did his best to cope with his gender confusion and poor academic performance. He let others know of his despair but could not convince them of his pain. On his last day he told his closest friend, Tony, that he could not endure anymore and that he would end his life that evening after school. Tony had heard those words before but Jared had never acted on them. So there seemed little reason to believe him now. Having given his last warning, Jared went home after school and shot himself" (92).

Gabriel Rotello N/A (Alternate Link) (The Advocate, January 16, 01): "In speaking to PFLAG chapters over the years, I have met several parents of gay kids who committed suicide, and their refrain is always sadly similar: 'If only we had known. Why didn’t we send the right signals to our children, telling them we would have loved them no matter what?'"

Barden, Connie (2004). Lesbian and Gay Youths at Risk: Providers must be more open minded about sexual orientation. American Journal of Nursing, 104(10): 13. "I will never forget the day that a physician colleague and I were chatting about his four children. “I’ll be happy with anything my kids do with their lives,” he said, “just as long as they don’t turn out gay. If I found out one was gay, I think I’d shoot myself.” Stunned, I remained silent. This colleague, who has known and respected me for years, assumed his comment was innocuous. I was hurt but not devastated. But how do such comments affect young people? ... An article published in School Administrator in February 2000 reported that gay-related name-calling (for example, “faggot” or “dyke”) occurs an average of 26 times daily on middle and high school campuses—and that many students harassed in this way identify themselves as heterosexual."

Our Gay Voice: "Most Persians in Southern California have never been exposed to accurate information about homosexuality.Degrading jokes about homosexuality can often be heard in Iranian gatherings. Gay youths (gay refers here to both male and female) growing up in such a homophobic community might find suicide or substance abuse as an escape.

Hatred in the Hallways (2001): Violence and Discrimination Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students in U.S. Schools & Hostile Hallways (2001): Bullying, Teasing, and Sexual Harassment in School: 74% of students say they would be "very upset... if someone called them gay or lesbian." More on American schools: 2004. - Bad days for gay teenagers.

The gay / bisexual boys who  have sex with men, their problems (including suicidality, high risk for contracting HIV, etc.) and the related scandalous "silence" about this reality by most researchers and gay community leaders. In Oslo, Norway, a 2003 study reports that for every "1" adolescent girl selling sex, there are 3.5 adolescent boys selling sex.

India: The Deaths of Two Women in Love: "Dead bodies of 2 young women were found at the Satyamangalam forest area, Erode district. They had committed suicide as they could not live apart from each other and they had a homosexual love relationship. They wrote in their heartbreaking letter that they couldn't live apart from each other."

The Phillipines: Suicide attempts among Filipino gays on the rise. -  Alarm over high rate of suicide cases among Filipino homosexuals.

France: British Medical Journal - "Within the framework of an exploratory study conducted among young people attending a French annual festival aiming at solidarity with persons living with the HIV, we found a significant difference (p<0.05) in the prevalence of lifetime (at least one) suicide attempts when comparing young MSM with their heterosexual (HS) peers (30% vs. 5.5 %) . These first data on French youth are very similar to those from larger representative studies conducted in other developed countries." Results of larger study given in 2005 "'Le Monde" article: "Les résultats préliminaires du travail de Marc Shelly, médecin de santé publique et responsable du centre de dépistage anonyme et gratuit de l'hôpital parisien Fernand-Widal, font apparaître que, "toutes choses égales par ailleurs" ­ - âge, lieu de résidence, niveau d'études, catégorie socioprofessionnelle, structure familiale parentale, modes de vie (couple ou célibat) ­-, les jeunes homosexuels ont treize fois plus de risque de faire une tentative de suicide que les jeunes hétérosexuels. Ces résultats confirment les chiffres issus des études américaines, canadiennes et australiennes : elles aboutissent, chez les homosexuels, à des chiffres de "sursuicidalité" variant de six à treize..." [When controlling for many factors, homosexually oriented males in Paris are 13 times more likely to have attempted suicide than heterosexually oriented males.] Two related "Le Monde" Articles: Guillaume "n'arrivait pas à parler", alors, à 17 ans, il a craqué. Marc Shelly, médecin de santé publique, responsable du centre de dépistage anonyme et gratuit de l'hôpital Fernand-Widal: "Ils semblent se considérer comme des personnes de moindre qualité". NOTE: Suicide studies and suicide prevention efforts in France, as well as elsewhere, have generally ignored all issues related to homosexuality. When the people at greatest risk for problems are ignored in prevention efforts, the result will be: maximizing the casualties in this segment of the population. Why this unspoken objective/outcome has been a rule in mainstream suicidology - dominated by 'mental health' professionals who once decreed that homosexual people should not exist and therefore should be 'cured' - should be studied.

Austria: The above French study suggests that one in three males who attempts suicide are homosexually oriented (Suicide : les jeunes gays premiers concernés). A Canadian study (random sample) reported that, for serious suicide attempts, about 62% of male suciide attempters would be homosexually oriented (PubMed Abstract). An Austrian study (PubMed Abstract) suggests that about 50% of suicide attempters, both male and female, are homosexually oriented.

How Times Change: "It's a sad story. Five years ago, 19-year-old Jim Wheeler took his own life because he couldn't deal with being the only gay person he knew existed in his rural Pennsylvania town. To Jim, Lebanon was a horrible, lonely place where the local therapist told him gayness was an unpardonable sin. It was the pinnacle of farm-town small-minded America, its idyllic beauty barely masking an undercurrent of intolerance and fear. Jim couldn't handle it. It ate away at him until, even as his own parents reached out with love and support, he crumbled. Jim's story is told in the documentary film Jim In Bold, airing on PBS and MTV in 2003..."

Gay, Bisexual Women Take More Risks Than Gay Men. - Lesbian and Bi Women More Likely to Engage in Risky Behavior, Study Finds. - Gay & Bi Women Greater Risk Takers. - US Study: Lesbian and bi women more likely to engage in risky behavior.

The impact of transphobia on HIV risk behaviors among male-to-female transgenders in San Francisco (PDF Download): Focus Group (N = 48) & Cross-Sectional Sample (N  = 332), most having had a commercial sex work history: 29% reported having attempted suicide, with another 15% having experienced suicidal ideation.

Largest Ever Study of Anti-LGBT Harassment in Schools Shows the Problem is Widespread, Dangerous and Preventable: "The in-depth companion survey found that school campuses in California are hostile climates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students and gender non-conforming students. Two in every three LGBT students reported harassment based on sexual orientation, and 47% of LGBT students experienced repeated harassment. Almost half of their peers agree that their school is not safe for LGBT students. These findings are supported by the fact that 91% of all students report hearing their peers use slurs about sexual orientation and more than 40% reported hearing teachers making such negative comments or slurs. In addition, 27% of students reported being harassed because they weren’t “masculine enough” or “feminine enough,” and more than half of all students said their schools are unsafe for boys who aren’t as masculine as other boys."

Are lesbians, gay men, bisexual people, and transgendered people more suicidal that others??? Presentation by Anthony D'Augelli. PDF Download for PowerPoint Presentation. - "I thought of suicide once. I nearly committed it. I wanted it to look like an accident..." - HIV prevalence, risk behaviors, health care use, and mental health status of transgender persons: implications for public health intervention: "We recruited transgender persons through targeted sampling, respondent-driven sampling, and agency referrals; 392 male-to-female and 123 female-to-male transgender persons were interviewed and tested for HIV... Sixty-two percent of the male-to-female and 55% of the female-to-male transgender persons were depressed; 32% of each population had attempted suicide." Free download of paper is available.

Suicide Research (Scotland): Hutchison C, Porter S, De Voil S (2003). Live to Tell: Finding of a Study of Suicidal Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviours Amongst Young Gay and Bisexual Men in Edinburgh. Scotland: Gay Men’s Health - LGBT Youth Scotland. Internet: http://www.lgbtyouth.org.uk/portalbase/pages/download.aspx?locationId=550deae3-11c0-46c9-865a-d38510a7ab6f . (Download Page) -  http://www.mrsite.co.uk/usersitesv/pctherapy.org.uk/wwwroot/USERIMAGES/livetotellpdf.pdf . - Craig Hutchison's Web Site.

Research highlights: 95 Gay/Bi Males aged 15-26 (Average age = 20.8 years). 28% of respondents had at some point deliberately injured themselves with no suicidal intent. This compares to 2% of men in the general population.. 54% of respondents had seriously considered taking their own life, compared to 13% of men in the general population who have ever considered suicide. 51% of respondents who had previously considered suicide now no longer felt suicidal. However, 15% of respondents still seriously considered suicide at least once a month. 27% of young gay/bisexual men have attempted suicide compared to 4% of the general population. Suicide attempts were most common in those young gay/bisexual men aged 14 to 20. 58% of those who had attempted suicide made only one attempt. 35% had made three or more attempts. 23% made five or more attempts. 54% of respondents who had attempted suicide had at some point deliberately injured themselves without wanting to take their own life.

Rosario, M. et al. (2005). Psychological Distress Following Suicidality Among Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Youths: Role of Social Relationships. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 34(2): 149–161. Link to Abstract.

Excerpt: "Youths between the ages of 14 and 21 years were recruited from 3 gay-focused community organizations (85%) and 2 public-college GLB student organizations (15%) in New York City. Approximately 80% of the youths approached for recruitment participated in the study... Of the 156 youths interviewed at baseline, 35% had attempted suicide, 23% had seriously thought about suicide but had not attempted, and 42% had neither attempted nor ideated at any time in their lives. Of the youths who had attempted suicide, many had attempted more than once (M = 3.76, SD = 7.56). The last of these attempts was an average of 3.16 years (SD = 2.88) before the baseline assessment, with 31% having attempted suicide in the year prior to the study. The youths were an average of 15.28 years of age (SD = 2.86) at their most recent suicide attempt. Of the 79 youths who had ever seriously thought about suicide (43 had both ideated and attempted suicide and 36 had ideated but never attempted suicide), 39% reported 1 or 2 episodes of ideation, 35% reported between 3 and 10 episodes, and 26% had more than 10 episodes of suicidal ideation. The youths’ last suicidal ideation had occurred an average of 1.87 years ago (SD = 2.05), with 53% having an episode of ideationago (SD = 2.05), with 53% having an episode of ideation within the year prior to the study. The youths were an average of 16.49 years of age (SD = 2.35) at the time of their most recent suicidal ideation. The suicide attempts of the youths were serious. Of the 55 youths who reported suicide attempts, 93%reported a specific method for their most recent attempt, including cutting (32%), ingesting pills or chemicals (65%), jumping (8%), or some other method (16%). Further, 51% reported that their suicide attempt required medical care, including 33% who were hospitalized. GLB youths who received medical care for their attempt did not differ significantly from thosewho did not receive care on any study variable, including psychological distress and social desirability. Interestingly, social desirability was unrelated to suicidality, further suggesting that this sample of GLB youths accurately reported their history of suicidality. within the year prior to the study. The youths were an average of 16.49 years of age (SD = 2.35) at the time of their most recent suicidal ideation. The suicide attempts of the youths were serious. Of the 55 youths who reported suicide attempts, 93%reported a specific method for their most recent attempt, including cutting (32%), ingesting pills or chemicals (65%), jumping (8%), or some other method (16%). Further, 51% reported that their suicide attempt required medical care, including 33% who were hospitalized. GLB youths who received medical care for their attempt did not differ ignificantly from thosewho did not receive care on any study variable, including psychological distress and social desirability. Interestingly, social desirability was unrelated to suicidality, further suggesting that this sample of GLB youths accurately reported their history of suicidality..."

Kenagy GP 2005. Transgender health: findings from two needs assessment studies in Philadelphia. Health and Social Work, 30(1): 19-26. Link to Abstract.

From Abstract: "A total of 182 people responded to a face-to-face interview or self-administered mail survey: 113 male-to-female individuals and 69 female-to-male individuals. About three-fifths of respondents had engaged in unprotected sexual activity during the past 12 months. The risk for HIV infection from unprotected sex was significantly higher among respondents of color than among white respondents. About one-third (30.1 percent) of respondents had attempted suicide."

Excerpt: "Suicide among transgender people has rarely been studied. Although researchers have speculated that transsexuals are prone to suicide (Block & Tessler, 1973; Levine, 1978; Wicks, 1977), only two empirical studies were found that asked transgender people about suicide (Clements, Marx, Guzman, Ikeda, & Katz, 1998; Xavier, 2000). A study of 515 transgender people in San Francisco found that 32 percent of the sample had attempted suicide (Clements et al.). The percentage of transgender people who had attempted suicide was lower (16 percent) among a Washington, DC, sample (N = 252), however, 35 percent had experienced suicidal ideation and among them, 64 percent had thought about suicide because of gender issues (Xavier)... When asked "Have you ever attempted suicide?" about one-third (30.1 percent) of the 176 respondents who answered the question said "yes." Among the 111 MTFs who answered the question, 32.4 percent had attempted suicide; among the 65 FTMs 26.2 percent had attempted suicide. Respondents who had attempted suicide were asked: "Did you attempt suicide because you are transgendered?" Of the 49 people who answered the question, about two-thirds (67.3 percent) said "yes." Among the 32 MTFs who answered the question, three-quarters (75.0 percent) said being transgender was the reason they attempted suicide. Among the 17 FTMs who answered the question, more than half (52.9 percent) said being transgender was the reason they attempted suicide." Note: Most (68%) were African American.

Transkids.us

Inquest finds asylum refusal was motive for gay Iranian's suicide.

Advice & Information (UK)

Click On the "SEX ED" Logo!  GLBTQ Information By:  "Advocates For Youth"

Alerts! ....

A 2002 Re-Evaluation of Massachusetts 1995/97 & Vermont 1995/97 Youth Risk Behavior Surveys: Bisexually Active Adolescents Most At Risk. See related information in 2003 PowerPoint Presentation by Pierre Tremblay & Richard Ramsay.

Is it possible that some researchers would behave somewhat unethically with respect to the "at risk" suicidality of homosexually oriented males? Coming Soon!

Cultural Diversity And Suicide: Ethnic, Religious, Gender And Sexual Orientation Perspectives - 2006 - by Mark M Leach (Contents) (Google Books).

Full Text Papers!  - - AsiaPacifiQueer 3

Sexualities, Genders, And Rights in Asia: An International Conference of Asian Queer Studies Bangkok, Thailand, July 8-10, 2005 Closing date for submitting paper and panel proposals: October 31, 2004

Suicide memorial. Why This memorial? Suicide Information. Articles.

Suicide Vigils. Memorial Links. Awareness Links. Bibliography.

Survey Sept 1 to Oct 31 - Results Published January, 2001 Survey Results Highlights"

The Save-The-World Factor: Overview/Contents - (01/99)