Where there's more support, fewer suicides among gay teens

[William769]

Dan Savage knows what it's like to be teased for being different. Savage, who writes the syndicated relationship and sex advice column Savage Love, remembers being mocked by his homeroom teacher in the eighth grade. Why? He loved to cook. "And of course, that was code for being homo. I felt like he was painting a bullseye on my back," recalled Savage.

Savage has been at the forefront of the movement to stop teen bullying. Last fall, after the suicides of Justin Aaberg and Billy Lucas, teens bullied for being gay, Dan and his husband, Terry Miller, created a You Tube video to encourage kids who are facing harassment. The video exploded into the It Gets Better Project.

Savage's project came to mind when I heard about a new study out in the Journal Pediatrics about gay, lesbian and bisexual kids and suicide. The headline: Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth living in places that are not supportive are 20 percent more likely to commit suicide than LGB kids living in supportive environments.

The study looked at counties in Oregon and developed a composite index of the social environment. It measured for five things: the presence of gay-straight alliances, anti-bullying policies, and anti-discrimination policies in schools. It also took into account the proportion of same-sex couples living in the counties and political leanings.

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/18/where-theres-more-support-fewer-suicides-among-gay-teens/?hpt=T2

[Rhythm]

1. This does not surprise me in the least...

I grew up in NC in the '80s, though fortunately in a large city that was slowly beginning to have a visible LGBT community. Because my just-coming-out friends and i were able to access social/emotional/spiritual support within our community (way before there were GSAs in schools... but there were several organizations who weren't afraid to work with teens), amazingly my peer group managed to escape the sort of suicidal depression that plagues so many places and people.

We humans--though not wholly created by it--are all distinctly affected by our environment.

[qb]

2. Fortunately, I failed in my teenage suicide attempt.

I often wonder how my life would have been if there had been even one gay role model in my town... or if our family therapist had offered me resources for gay youth instead of aversion therapy.