Brett Lavenstein

September 17, 2014

Social Problems
LGBT and Queer Youth Suicide

LGBT and Queer Teen Suicide
Imagine being a privileged, straight, white male. You fit into the norm with the rest of
society and find it easy to marry anyone you want. Youre able to hold hands with any woman
you want in public without feeling nervous about being attacked or ridiculed. You are not afraid
to be open to your family and friends about your sexuality. This is called privilege, and with
privilege brings comfort whether it is at home, in public, circle of friends, romantic relationships,
or other environments. For those of whom who are among the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and queer (an umbrella term for LGBT) community, this everyday feeling of solace
is not present but instead dramatically absent, leaving a hole full of loneliness, depression,
isolation, and discomfort. When you become true to your sexuality with your friends and family,
you leave yourself vulnerable and open to love. With social media, cultural media, pressure from
family and friends who are not supporting, and from self-hatred, it all becomes too much for
many people of the youth of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community as we
see alarmingly high rates of suicide.
A social problem is defined as a condition that undermines the well-being of some or all
members of a society and is usually a matter of public controversy (Macionis, 2013). To briefly
elaborate, when a condition undermines the well-being of some members of a society, it lessens
their quality of life and interrupts their day to day activities in a severe fashion. Lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, and overall queer suicide in youth easily fit into the definition of a social
problem. The depression and pressures from the culture of this decade and history can disrupt a
queer persons day to day activities on a moderately severe level, with their suicide being severe.
A persons suicide doesnt only affect the person themselves, but also tremendously their
Brett Lavenstein
September 17, 2014
Social Problems
LGBT and Queer Youth Suicide

surrounding circle of friends, family, coworkers, peers at school, and the neighborhood on a
daily cycle.
To extend on why queer youth suicide is such a social problem, it fits perfectly within the
criteria to be called a social issue. Just identifying as a part of the LGBT community threatens
the conservative idealisms of the Republican political party. It is not odd to see proposed
legislation for the ban of human rights for the gay community, such as the Defense of Marriage
Act, laws in Arizona that appropriate occupational discrimination based on sexual orientation, et
cetera. To say this problem needs to be remedied immediately is an understatement: according to
results from a study conducted at Williams Institute, the percentage of people who identify as a
part of the LGBT community ranges from 1.7% of citizens in North Dakota; 3.3% in Maryland;
3.8% in New York; 4% in California (a tremendously populous state), 5.1% in Hawaii; and 10%
in the District of Columbia (Gates, 2013). It is reasonable to infer and deduct the smaller the
percentage of people in each state who identify as a part of the LGBT community, the more
isolated they are as people socially. This can lead to increased pressures to change who and that
they genetically are as people, and lead to non-acceptance of their persons, and finally, to
suicide. When you take the United States as a whole, you will find LGB youth are 4 times more
likely, and questioning youth are 3 times more likely, to attempt suicide as their straight peers,
LGB youth who come from highly rejecting families are 8.4 times as likely to have attempted
suicide as LGB peers who reported no or low levels of family rejection, and one quarter of
young transgender people have attempted to commit suicide (Trevor, 2011).
With collective action, this social issue can be remedied to a certain extent. It is not so
much the victims who have an unnecessarily guilty conscious full of suicidal thoughts fault, but
Brett Lavenstein
September 17, 2014
Social Problems
LGBT and Queer Youth Suicide

more so the fault of our culture, the states and more specifically the communities we live in, and
the message that is sent on a day to day basis.
The first stage is clear: the young people of the LGBTQ community are committing
suicide at an alarmingly high rate and percentage, as stated before. There are multiple people
who are well known in todays political, economic, and social culture that are bringing attention
to this specific issue of which branches from LGBTQ isolation, discrimination, and lack of civil
rights. Tyler Oakley, an American YouTube personality and LGBTQ activist, has used his pop
culture stance on the internet to [raise] more than $500,000 to finance support organizations
such as the Trevor Project that provide support to LGBT teens (Bloom, 2014). Tyler is just one
of many spokespersons for organizations such as The Trevor Project to bring awareness to
LGBTQ issues. Celebrities such as transgender (male-to-female) actress Laverne Cox from the
famous Netflix series, Orange Is the New Black, has brought attention to transgender and racial
transgender issues. Organizations such as The Trevor Project (thetrevorproject.org) are a major
example of organization for this issue; people have crafted an official response by donating over
$2,000,000 to The Trevor Project in 2013. LGBTQ allies such as Barack Obama has proposed
legislation to legalize same sex marriage and increase penalty for bullying within the
environment of schools, as a reaction to the attention brought on by advocates such as Laverne
Cox and Tyler Oakley. Continuing, alternative strategies are being used in different platforms
such as twitter. Celebrities and people with a high following count on Twitter try to influence
their audiences opinions daily with messages that support the LGBTQ community and bring
awareness to the alarmingly high rate of suicide in LGBTQ youth.
On an ending note, as international culture becomes more supportive to those of who are
different on a sexual orientation and gender identity basis, we will see suicide rates decrease.
Brett Lavenstein
September 17, 2014
Social Problems
LGBT and Queer Youth Suicide

Works Cited
Bloom, D. (2014, September 07). Streamy Awards Name LGBT Activist Tyler Oakley Entertainer of the
Year. Retrieved from Deadline: http://deadline.com/2014/09/streamy-awards-winners-list-
tyler-oakley-enchufetv-joan-rivers-mamrie-hart-830994/
Gates, G. J. (2013, February 13). LGBT Percentage Highest in D.C., Lowest in North Dakota. Retrieved
September 17, 2014, from GALLUP Politics: http://www.gallup.com/poll/160517/lgbt-
percentage-highest-lowest-north-dakota.aspx
Macionis, J. J. (2013). Dr. In J. J. Macionis, Fifth Edition Social Problems (pp. 4-5; 187-190). New York:
Pearson.
Trevor. (2011). FACTS ABOUT SUICIDE. Retrieved September 17, 2014, from Trevor:
http://www.thetrevorproject.org/pages/facts-about-suicide