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It is interesting that the study showed a drop across all teens. I mean a drop among lgbtq teens seems pretty predictable, so I'm not surprised that the effect
by Brockenstein 10y ago
It is interesting that the study showed a drop across all teens. I mean a drop among lgbtq teens seems pretty predictable, so I'm not surprised that the effect seems to be much greater for them.
For a lot of lgbtq teens who are having a rough time because the sliver of the world that they live in is against them at every turn, the hope that the wider world is more accepting and that they'll have equal rights and protections, that they'll just be able to live, has to provide hope to some. Same-sex marriage is just another rung in the ladder of progress and every step up that ladder is going to be the tipping point for someone to decide to live instead of checking out.
- ZeroGravitas 10y agoI have heard that suicide is 'contagious' in that it has 'copycat' outbreaks so if an LGBT teen doesn't attempt it, then perhaps a near suicidal non-LGBT teen in their community will also not attempt.
- jimmies 10y agoPerhaps the people who are the most likely to commit suicide (or be depressed enough to influence other people to commit suicide) are the people who are closet gays. There was a study which concluded closeted gay men tended to die much quicker because of HIV than openly gay men [1]. Especially the teens, they probably depend on family/parents much more than older people - so there might be a higher percentage of closeted gays in teens. If the study had only considered only teens who came out, that could have ignored those who are depressed of being gay but not yet come out. 1: https://newrepublic.com/article/113176/science-loneliness-how-isolation-can-kill-you https://newrepublic.com/article/113176/science-loneliness-ho...