Suicide In The Lgbt Community

In recent years, there has been growing support for the LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other) community; however despite this there is still quite an epidemic within the community itself. Tragically, suicide is still a prevalent cause of death within the community and one that continues to churn out tragedy after tragedy. The recent suicides of Leelah Alcorn and Tyler Clementi have brought national attention to the need for preventative measures so that this does not continue. The issue then lies with the complex way American society deals with the LGBT community, as while some accept them it is still not as publicly as accepted as the heterosexual, cisgender community. This lack of unanimous public acceptance leads to some

Despite a growing public acceptance for LGBT individuals, there are still some who would still seek to physically and mentally harm another person for their sexual orientation. The apparent isolation of LGBT individuals has been helped in part by the growing number of community spaces available, as well as the internet allowing for more private and closer friendships to develop (Li Kings p.626). Unfortunately, the internet can be a double-edged sword for the LGBT community. Cyberbullying has become a so common for LGBT students, that they are less likely to report it than their heterosexual peers due to the amount of constant negative online interaction they experience (Johnson p.60). The spaces that the LGBT community is trying to make for themselves on the web seem to unfortunately attract people who would rather spread their hate from safely behind a

Depression and other similar disorders lead to one attempting to commit or committing suicide. There are several warning flags for suicide, such as self-harm and suicidal ideation. In the LGBT community, it is believed that the increased stress is resulting from external and internalized homophobia and transphobia resulting in these self-destructive behaviors being so much more prevalent in the younger community than they are in the heterosexual cisgender community (McDermott p.815). Gay and bisexual men are four times more likely to ideate and attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers; lesbian and bisexual women are twice as likely (Mereish p.1). Transgender individuals are at an even higher risk, as half of the transgender participants reported suicidal ideation, and a quarter of them had reported attempting suicide (Johnson p.56). Furthermore, LGBT individuals are more than twice as likely as their heterosexual counterparts to report in some way that they have suicidal ideations (Mereish p.1). There are several other intersectional factors such as income, education level, HIV status, and family acceptance that affect how likely a LGBT person is to commit or ideate suicide (Mereish