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Loading ...Killing ourselves: Part 2
According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), lesbians and gay men are more likely to commit suicide as well as attempt suicide at every point in their lives than are heterosexuals.
While teen suicide and suicide attempts are more well-documented, suicides among gay and lesbian adults are thought to occur two to three times as often as suicides among heterosexual adults.Gay men and men having sex with other men (MSM) seem at significantly greater risk for suicide. According to AFSP, recent studies have found higher lifetime rates of suicide attempts as well as suicides among gay men and MSM.
AFSP notes that few studies have examined older LGBT adults, but that many in the over 65 age range would be subject to similar vulnerabilities for suicide risk, such as chronic illness or death of a long-term partner as heterosexuals. However, AFSP concluded that older/elderly LGBT adults “may have additional risk factors related to sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Hampering discovery as to where LGBT adults fit in the official suicide statistics is the fact that those statistics do not include information on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The lack of clear data on the prevalence of suicide among LGBT adults means that there is no real understanding in the mental health care system of the underlying causes of adult LGBT suicide. And that means few suicide prevention programs have focused specifically on the LGBT community, because no one is sure what needs must be met.
Next page: The tragedy of Mark Finch
To Robert Mosley
Your rant borders on the insane. What business is it for you to condemn people’s preferred form of sexual expression?
It is not anal sex that kills, it’s a virus that kills – and fortunately much less frequently than in the past. A virus that can indeed be transmitted anally, but also vaginally, through any open sore, through needles and countless other ways.
Perhaps you have a problem with anal sex, but that’s your problem. It’s up to each person to determine what form of sexual expression they need or desire. It’s, for sure, not up to you.
In response to this article about killing ourselves,I want to point out the greatest killer of us all: anal sex.With a prevalence rate of 25% and at a cost of 500.000 lives of innocent gay men almost nothing is mentioned about this form of destructive sexual behavior. Condoms and antiviral medications have led many to abdicate their personal responsibility and to become complacent allowing the scourge of anal sex to continue. How many more lives are going to be jepordized before people realize that anal sex is the greatest killer of us all.
Tremendous review of the hows and whys of depression, in general. I don’t know if this is printed anywhere other than here, but it would be great if this could get some extrememly wide read.