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  Mainstream Suicidology has generally ignored and/or denied "the homosexuality factor" in youth suicidality. Related issues are presented in:

• A Denial Situation at the US Department of Health and Human Services. (04/97) - The evidence indicates that the US Department of health and Human Services (the National Institute of Mental Health: NIMH, the Centers for Disease Control: CDC), youth suicidology professionals, and others have contributed to maintaining higher-than-heterosexual-counterpart levels of suicidal behavior in the North American gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth population.

 
• A Denial Situation Has also Existed at the Official Publication of the American Association of Suicidology: Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. (02/97, 03/98)

This "denial" situation is highlighted in Dr. Gary Remafedi's 1994 book, Death by Denial. It describes  what has become the increasingly apparent mandate of numerous mainstream suicidologists via The American Association of Suicidology and its journal, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior.

In 1994, with the help of (gullible?) GLB professionals and GLB representatives from advocacy and service groups, the stage was set for the publication of the 1995 special "sexual orientation" issues of Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior, which essentially concluded that there was no scientific evidence of suicide problems among gay and bisexual youth. This conclusion then permitted professionals and mainstream journalists (including some homohating right wing Christian fundamentalists) to challenge (with the full support of The American Association of Suicidology) the validity of all serious suicide problems experienced by gay and bisexual male youth. A 1997 Seattle Times article illustrates the result: Statistics on gay suicides are baseless, researchers say (Alternate Link). Diane Sawyer had noted that gay teenagers were "three times as likely to attempt suicide as another teenager," and the assertion was being challenged. "It's a statistic that has been repeated innumerable times. The trouble is, there is no scientifically valid evidence that it's true."

The reporter would have been somewhat correct had she challenged the assertion that gay teenagers were three time more likely to die by suicide than their heterosexual counterparts (Note 1). The above statement, however,  is  INCORRECT  now (given the recent study results), was  INCORRECT  in 1997 when the article was published given that it was also  INCORRECT  in 1994 when many study results were available to "scientifically" assert the high probability that gay & bisexual males had very serious suicide problems compared to heterosexual male youth (Bagley & Tremblay, 1997: Listing of study results). The above relative "suicide attempt" statistic originated from the Bell & Weinberg (1978) study, and it is certainly  very scientific  to use the two samples studied, given the attributes controlled for, and then produce the "suicide attempt" relative risk factor of "six-times" (to the age of 25 years) for homosexual males compared to heterosexual males. An insight into why mainstream suicidologists have behaved in such a homo-harming ("Death by Denial" = genocidal ?) manner may result after reading the presentation & evaluation / implications of the Adams et al. (1996) research results.

GLSEN did not, however, issue an ALERT in June/July, 1997, when the Canadian Study on male youth suicide problems was published. The study replicated a rarely noted Bell & Weinberg (1978) American study result: Homosexually oriented males, although being 6-times more at risk than heterosexual males for becoming a suicide attempt by the age of 25 years, have a "14-times" greater risk than heterosexual males to be a suicide attempter by the age 20 years. The results of the Canadian Study were reported in The Advocate at the end of 1996 but, for reasons unexplained, the editors decreed that "the replication" status of the study was not to be mentioned. The reasons for this remain to be ferreted out.

Everyone  was therefore apparently jumping on the bandwagon to make sure - in a number of ways - that a maximum casualty status would be maintained for "at risk" gay and bisexual male youth, and more were joining the death denial team, growing by leaps and bounds.

"The American Journalism Review did some belated checking and found what any enterprising reporter could have discovered: the statistic is an invention. AJR reports that a panel convened in 1994 including representatives of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychological Association, the American Association of Suicidology and various homosexual advocacy groups found no evidence of higher suicide rates among homosexuals or any correlation, direct or indirect, between suicide and sexual orientation" (Emphasis mine: Lies and Statistics: Homosexual Suicide Rate Grossly Exaggerated).

"Organizations represented include the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League of Washington, D.C., the National Gay and Lesbian Health Association, the Gay and Adolescent Social Services of Los Angeles, the Hetrick-Martin Institute of New York City, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists, the Office of Gay and lesbian Concerns of the American Psychological Association, and the Homosexual Affairs Committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry."

Sometimes the proliferation of such errors carries more serious implications. A couple of years ago, Diane Sawyer concluded a “PrimeTime Live” interview with Ellen DeGeneres the night her lesbian television character “came out” by reciting what Sawyer called “a government statistic”: gay teenagers are “three times as likely to attempt suicide” as straight teenagers. This factoid, which Sawyer said was provided to her by DeGeneres, is a crock. Sleuthing by a diligent reporter named Delia M. Rios of Newhouse News Service revealed that this figure is not a government statistic, but rather the opinion of a single San Francisco social worker. In fact, a high-level interagency panel made up of physicians and researchers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institute of Mental Health and other organizations concluded that there is no evidence that “sexual orientation and suicidality are linked in some direct or indirect manner.” Yet, the bogus stat is still routinely cited by certain gay-rights activists, and thanks to Internet-assisted databases, has made its way into the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times—and onto prime time network television…" (p. 92)

"Other clinicians fear that this misinformation could turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Peter Muehrer of the National Institutes of Health says he worries that a public hysteria over gay-teen suicide could contribute to “suicide contagion,” in which troubled gay teens come to see suicide as a practical, almost normal, way out of their identity struggles." (p. 92)

  The Over-representation Of GLB Youth in Clinical Settings - Including Hospitals - Was Being Observed by the 1960s:

"...when I was finishing my doctorate -- in the late sixties. I was interested in pediatric psychology at that time, and as I learned the ropes, I found that gay youth certainly did exist and they made up a disproportionate segment of the kids we saw in the clinical setting, that is, kids who were hospitalized for psychological or behavioral problems."

"Well, not enough is being done to intervene [in the GLB youth suicide problem], that's for sure; not enough is being done in intervention and little is being done for preventative efforts. I have yet to see any public school-based program that even involves homosexuality as a factor in the risk for suicide, anything that acknowledges this risk and that communicates to gay youth that they are not alone in their problems, anything which encourages them, which provides them with somewhere to go to get help. Most public schools have presentations and other teaching about suicide as a risk of adolescence, so where is the specific inclusion of gay youth as a group at added risk?"

"In other words, aside from a supportive family environment, a supportive and non-threatening school environment is the best defense against losing these kids to suicide, or drugs, or something else. Certainly, in major cities we have interventional programs outside of the schools that have proven largely effective in intervening where teens --whether gay or otherwise-- have displayed risky behavior, mainly in the case of drugs, yet I ask why not incorporate preventional efforts to match these interventions, to stop the damage before it starts? Again, I don't see many high schools even acknowledging that gay youth are a risk group for unhealthy behavior, I don't see them taking on this problem from a preventative perspective."

From: - A Kate Fordham June 1998 Oasis interview N/A  - with Laura Joan Herst, Ph.D. She "is an internationally-renowned psychologist who specializes in adolescent psychology, with her main area of interest being the developmental and social problems faced by minority adolescents, including gay youth. Dr. Herst has recently published several ground-breaking research studies in the academic literature concerning her counseling work with gay adolescents." Kate Fordham's Web Pages.

  - For Journalists, Advocates and Activists. (03-05/97)

By 2003, one good population-based study of youth in Norway reported that the "1.4%" of adolescents who sell sex consisted of 0.6% of the girls and 2.1% of the boys studied, meaning that for every "1" girl selling sex in Oslo, there are "3.5" boys selling sex ("Children and adolescents who sell sex: a community study" by Willy Pedersen & Kristinn Hegna. Social Science and Medicine, 56: 135-147 (PubMed Abstract).

There are a great number of homosexually oriented adult males who sexually desire adolescent boys and, as a rule, these men quickly learn about the events, life conditions, and/or social conditions that deliver these boys to their beds: gay/bisexual boys being thrown out of their homes, running away from homophobic abusive homes, homophobia in schools / quitting school / becoming street youth, and many other  factors known to be associated with high suicidality such as drug and/or alcohol abuse. Therefore, it is proposed that these men may NOT appreciate seeing any formal recognition that gay/bisexual adolescent males are "at risk" for experiencing numerous problems, including attempting and maybe committing suicide.
 

  - Serious problems in Social Work, the helping professions, and GLB communities. (03-05/97)

Murder By Proxy ?

  The traditional indifference of mainstream Suicidology to GLB adolescent/youth suicide issues has likely produced "lethal" outcomes.

In School-based suicide prevention programs: are they effective (by James Mazza, School Psychology Review, Vol. 26(3), 282-96), not a word was mentioned about the traditional harmful omission of GLB issues in these programs. Furthermore, the program changes proposed by the author - such as emphasizing that suicide victims are mentally disordered - would likely render these programs even more harmful to suicidal GLB adolescents. Ironically, the author repeatedly emphasized that suicidologists should not be harming those they seek to help. This is apparently the result of the existing adolescent suicide prevention programs, especially on male adolescents.

Other professionals have been involved in neglecting/harming GLB adolescents, possibly resulting in situation causing some of these adolescents to attempt and maybe commit suicide. Many social workers and other helping professionals are entrusted (and paid) to help all children and youth, or does this only apply to heterosexual youth? A comprehensive paper on the subject is available on the Internet. To access, click the Children Aids Society logo. Writing a paper with recommendations, however, does not necessarily mean that child abuse by professionals will end. Toronto is one of the most gay-positive cities in North America, meaning that greater abuses of GLBT children and youth would exist throughout most of North America. Fortunately, the abused ones have been talking: "many of our peers have not survived the hostile environment in which we are forced to live. These are our friends whom we have lost to suicides, the young people you are supposed to be caring for."
 

We Are Your Children Too:  Accessible child welfare services for  lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth

Children's Aid Society of Metropolitan Toronto

  In the United States, the situation appears to be similar as noted by many authors and as implied in the titles of two documents authored by Gerald P. Mallon.

- Gay and no place to go: serving the needs of gay and lesbian youth in out-of-home care settings. Child Welfare, 71(6), 1992, 547-57.

- We don't exactly get the welcome wagon: The experience of gay and lesbian adolescents in New York City's child welfare system. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, City University of New York, N.Y., 1994. (Related book published in 1998: Book Review)

The following excerpt - revealing the common anti-gay attitudes of deans of Social Work -  was taken from: Miller J (1998). A narrative interview with Ann Hartman. Part One: Becoming a social worker. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 4(3), 56-69.

Excerpt: "I remember one of my friends overheard several of the male deans at a social work Dean's meeting communicating with each other saying, 'The lesbians are taking over the field.' I am sure there is still plenty going on underground, as you can imagine. For instance five or six years ago there was a concerted, but rather quiet effort led by some of the deans to keep homosexuality out of the Council on Social Work Education guidelines." (p. 66)

Guidelines, however, are of little value if they will be ignored as most people in the so-called 'helping' professions have a history of doing with respect to GLBT child and adolescent issues.

These American Deans of Social Work faculties - and many others - have been 'creating' the 'professionals' now out in the real world where the situation continues to be far from acceptable in many GLBT adolescent situations where social workers are like involved:

Take a foster-care system that’s already scandalously out of whack. Add an inability to deal sensibly with homosexuality. That’s obviously a prescription for disaster. (Foster care needs to nurture gay kids N/A (Alternate Link) - by Deb Price, Dec. 2000).

- The high ignorance of many psychiatrists with respect to GLB children/adolescent realities will likely increase negative outcomes when these professionals are interacting (often unknowingly or ignorantly) with distressed GLB children and adolescent. Some information related to mental health professionals, especially psychiatrists, has been placed in a psychiatry page now under construction.  Internet Resources Related to Professional Education & Counseling.
 

The traditional GLB community indifference to the welfare of GLB adolescents has been a "Silence Kills!" situation.

By 1994, in cover story on the subject (Is anguish over sexual orientation causing gay and lesbian teens to kill themselves? (Chris Bull, The Advocate, April 5, 1994, pp. 35-42), a new reason for avoiding the issue was articulated: "By alleging that 30% of gay and lesbian youth attempt suicide,... activists are shooting themselves in the foot.' During the debate over the military ban on gay and lesbian personnel... [the] military repeatedly invoked the high suicide rates of gays and lesbians as an example of the threat gays and lesbians pose to military order and discipline. 'Mental illness is a very bad metaphor for gay and lesbian youth. It could well backfire if the advocates insists on using it" (p. 39).

A number of GLB youth (including some leaders) are also responsible for this. "Emphasizing GLB adolescent/youth suicide issues" is often enough frowned upon (as it was manifested by one gay youth leader at a 1995 meeting in Calgary) because it apparently makes GLB youth "look bad." The objective of this leader was to make society and school systems have "a positive image" of GLB youth. When "a positive image" kills, however, these youth become the opposite of the image they are attempting to project. One reason why soliciting help from GLB youth may be counterproductive in having GLBT youth suicide problems (or lesser problems) addressed is rendered in the  research-based article Problems? What Problems? N/A  Another reason is community-related:  "I think the cliques offered to homosexual youth are far more dangerous than the cliques heterosexuals fall into during a normal high school career N/A." The positive development is that a few GLB youth (considered to be "traitors" by some) have begun to openly talk about these issues instead of remaining silent about the negative "peer" related factors in their communities.

For many gay/bisexual male youth, suicidal problems continue after making contact with GLB communities for reasons rarely explored, or they begin after such contact is made. About 40% of "first suicide attempts" by homosexual males in the Bell & Weinberg (1978) study were relationship-related, and this includes relationships teenage boys are having with men. Furthermore, most adolescent gay/bisexual male suicide victims reported on the Internet are in the category of having made contact with gay-identified individuals or elements of GLB communities. How GLB communities are failing these individuals, however, has not yet been widely investigated and reported on, but some related information is available on these web pages and on the internet.

No one to my knowledge, has yet written about the more unsavory sectors of GLB communities which have benefited greatly (usually sexually) by the traditional GLB community indifference to the welfare of the most "at risk" gay and bisexual adolescents. A part of the story is presented in a chapter of The Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Factor in the Youth Suicide Problem: The "gay factor" in the street youth problem. The "at risk" status of Sidney's gay & bisexual male street youth, and a description of some homosexual/bisexual men who use/abuse these boys instead of meeting the needs of these boys. Related information is also available in: Internet resources on male youth prostitution.

The Genocide of Gay Youth?

Educated to Kill ? A Double Lesbian Youth Suicide

In June 1998, a highly reliable university-based information source reported on "a double lesbian youth suicide."

"Two girls, 16 and 18, inseparable and in love. Parents ordered them to part and not see each other again. They climbed onto parapet of bridge but were apprehended by police before jumping.

The following day they were found laying across rail tracks. Taken to emergency room of hospital, seen by House Officer, and discharged without any referral. The next day they climbed to top of high building, jumped and were killed. Result, total silence and denial by adults."

A March, 2000, Update: The case is being included in a paper being written by the information. In an email, he write: "I included the case history of the 2 lesbian teenagers, and cross-checked with someone who is doing research on Coroner's records. She located this case, and all the Coroner said was "possible suicide pact"
without stating any reasons. So sexual orientation was entirely missed or ignored in this case. This means of course that gay background will be missing in many Coroner/Medical Examiner files."

The practice of parental intervention in lesbian relationships is also reported to exist in America: Girls in Love but Kept Apart?.
 

Excerpts from The Killing Fields: schools, peer groups, and the helping professions(?).

  "They told jokes about her, too. About how she is a lesbian. And everyone would snicker. But it isn't the name-calling or the laughter that hurts her the most. It is the fact that her teacher heard the comments and never intervened." (Washington Post) "Because he was different, Robin was sexually harassed by mean-spirited peers who called him 'fag,' 'sissy,' 'queer,' 'gay blower,' and other sexually derogatory terms," an anguished Reed told the school board. "Robin did not commit suicide because he was gay. He committed suicide because he was in pain." (Petula educators get lesson in gay awareness.) (We all knew that Ken was a "faggot"...)

  "What exactly does it mean to be different in the minds of others? For many gay individuals, it means being hated, ostracized, isolated, condemned, and even killed... This new kid, whom I'll call "Keith", was good looking, very athletic, and quite smart. I didn't know then, nor do I know now if he was really even gay. Keith spent his entire school year being ridiculed by the "in crowd"... Eventually, he ended up spending every recess alone in a secluded area of the school grounds.

The desire to intervene, for myself at least, was overpowered by the fear of being found "guilty by association". As I witnessed firsthand the degree of hate expressed for a person labeled as being "gay", I slowly began to develop a fear of being different, rather than a defiance against similarity." (Growing up normal...N/A, Alternate Link).

  A part of the story related to how society and its professionals (especially teachers) have participated in the abuse (and related problems, including suicide) of gay kids is presented in a 1997 paper presented to teachers in Australia: Homophobia and masculinities among young men (Lessons in becoming a straight man [which includes abusing different/suspect boys] N/A - Alternate Link.

- Medical abuses of GLBT youth. Some of the more general unethical medical abuses of GLBT individuals (especially adolescents) are available at Medscape (Free Registry!) via articles such as "Health care should not only be aimed at heterosexual patients," "Gays and lesbians shortchanged by doctors," and "Physicians must meet the health care needs of their gay patients."

  From: Gay and lesbian issues in child and adolescent psychiatry training as reported by training directors. by Townsend, MH, Wallick, MM., Pleak RR., and Cambre KM., Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 1997, 36(6). 764-8: "The prediction that the majority of child and adolescent [psychiatric] training programs would reflect a heightened awareness of the vulnerability of LGB youths was not confirmed." (Abstract available via PubMed - Place this Unique Identifier Number in search window: 97326263 . (Direct PubMed abstract Access.)

  From: Survey of curriculum on homosexuality/bisexuality in departments of family medicine [in the United States]. Family Medicine, 1998, 30(4), 283-7: "The mean number of departmental curriculum hours devoted to this topic was 2.5 hours for all 4 years of undergraduate medical school. About half (50.6%) of respondents reported that their department spent zero hours teaching about homosexuality / bisexuality." (Abstract available via PubMed - Place this Unique Identifier Number in search window: 98229921 . (Direct PubMed Abstract access.)

An 18-year-old lesbian, Jeanne Fontaine, used the words "criminal neglect" to describe the school administrators' avoidance of GLBT adolescent issues in schools. Given the above information about the ones teaching family doctors and adolescent psychiatrists, and the facts of the case, the expression "criminal neglect" and Dr. Gary Remafedi's 1994 book title, "Death By Denial" both correctly describe the situation in the Medical professions, including family therapy.

A study of articles from 17 journals from 1975 to 1995 reported that only .006% of articles were related to homosexuality issues, the conclusion being: " Findings support the contention that gay, lesbian, and bisexual issues are ignored by marriage and family therapy researchers and scholars. From: Clark, WM., and Seovich, JM. (1997) Twenty years and still in the dark? Content analysis of articles pertaining to gay, lesbian, and bisexual issues in marriage and family therapy journals. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 23(3), 239-53.

The Genocide of Gay and Lesbian Youth?
 

Notes

The U.S  Surgeon General : Will He Do something to Help ?

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