The suicide of a 16-year-old who was cyberbullied over sexually explicit messages he exchanged with another boy shows acceptance — including legal support — is key to improving mental health, LGBTQ advocates said on World Mental Health Day yesterday.
US teenager Channing Smith killed himself on the night of Sept. 22 after being “humiliated” by screen shots of his messages which were posted on social media by fellow students, his brother Joshua Smith said.
“He couldn’t face going to school,” Joshua Smith said. “The Internet, cellphones, social media ... it’s the weapon of choice that they’re using today... If he had had sex with a girl and had that posted, he’d probably have been a hero to his classmates.”
Attempted suicide rates are almost five times higher among LGBTQ students — at 29 percent in the past 12 months — than heterosexual students — at 6 percent — according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
US President Donald Trump, a Republican with strong support among evangelical Christians, has taken aim at LGBTQ rights, barring many transgender people from the military and revoking guidance letting transgender students use bathrooms of their choice.
The Trevor Project, which works to prevent suicide among LGBTQ young people, said calls to its crisis services more than doubled after Trump in 2017 tweeted that he wanted to ban transgender people from the military.
Calls also nearly doubled in 24 hours after a report last year that the Trump administration wanted to define gender based on sex at birth, which would remove protections for trans people under civil rights laws promoted by former US president Barack Obama.
“Turning off the hate is important,” said Sam Brinton, 31, who once called a suicide hotline run by The Trevor Project and now leads its advocacy work.
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday started hearing three cases on whether LGBTQ people are covered by the 1964 US Civil Rights Act, which forbids sex or race workplace discrimination.
The Trump administration has said that the law does not cover sexual orientation or gender identity, but workers — two gay and one transgender — who were fired by their employers have claimed unlawful discrimination based on their sex.
Brinton confessed feelings for a boy at the age of 11 and underwent two years of so-called “conversion therapy,” which aims to stop people being gay, bisexual or transgender.
“It was a really horrific experience where they tried to change my sexual orientation or gender identity,” Brinton said. “I felt lost, I felt rejected and didn’t know where to go. I would attempt suicide multiple times.”
According to a survey by The Trevor Project, which runs a hotline, text and online chat services, and a safe social network, 42 percent of LGBTQ people who underwent conversion therapy said they attempted suicide in the past year.
Eighteen US states have banned conversion therapy for minors, with legislation pending in 21 more, said Born Perfect, an advocacy group that wants to ban the practice.
Last month, New York City started to repeal its ban in what officials said aimed to avert a legal challenge from a Christian group that could put LGBTQ rights at risk nationwide if it reached an increasingly conservative US Supreme Court.
While researchers and advocates emphasize that complex factors lead to an LGBTQ person trying to kill themselves, they stress the importance of acceptance.
“The greatest risk factor for LGBTQ youth is non-acceptance,” said Jack Turban, a psychiatrist and mental health researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Turban cited examples of “rejection by family, rejection by peers, rejection by doctors through conversion therapy or even rejection by society through anti-LGBTQ legislation.”
All 50 states have anti-bullying laws, but states where those laws explicitly protect LGBTQ teenagers have fewer youth suicide attempts.
Suicide attempts by high-school students dropped 7 percent in states with legal same-sex marriage, a 2017 study by Harvard University found, and 14 percent among students who identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual.
“We are complex human beings,” Brinton said. “The best thing that we can do is to create a safe space, a safe environment, where that person can learn about themselves,and we can support that learning.”
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