Australia has one of the highest rates of male youth suicide in the industrialised world.
Studies here show that young gay men are up to three times more likely to contemplate and attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.
Sometimes the worst kind of violence visited on gays can end up being the violence they do to themselves.
Even high school children are at risk when they face uncontrolled homophobia from their fellow pupils.
From La Trobe University
Following an earlier study which found that 10% of a sample of rural 14-18 year olds report same sex attractions, a study in 1998 of a sample of rural, regional and some urban 14-18 year old same sex attracted youth by Lynne Hillier and Jenny Walsh from the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University found that
- 46% reported verbal and physical abuse 70% of which occurred at school.
- 11% reported IV drug use compared to 1% of all young people. They also report higher rates of drinking and marijuana and heroin use.
- Only 5% of same sex attracted youth sought help from counsellors and 14% from teachers.
Sexuality & Suicide
The following is from Sexuality & Suicide - An Investigation of Health compromising and Suicidal Behaviours among Gay and Bisexual Male Youth in Tasmania by Kent Fordham, 1998.
The aim of the project was to learn about suicidal behaviours among gay and bisexual male youth by investigating the prevalence of health compromising behaviours and other traits that have been established as "risk factors" for suicide in the general population.
The gay and bisexual men had seriously considered suicide at twice the rate of the heterosexual men, and were more likely to have run away from home, been arrested, been involved in prostitution, to have driven while under the influence of alcohol and to have had a greater number of sexual partners in the six months preceding the survey. The gay and bisexual men generally reported lower levels of substance use than the heterosexual sample, although the rates were higher than expected in both groups.
Twice as many gay and bisexual men were in a relationship compared with the heterosexual men. They were twice as likely to live alone and half as likely to be living with their parents.
Consistently higher rates of health risk behaviours and psychosocial stressors were measured among those gay and bisexual men who had seriously considered suicide (suicide ideators), compared to their gay and bisexual counterparts who had not considered attempting suicide (non- suicide ideators). They were more likely to have run away from home, engaged in high levels of teenage sexual activity, had unsafe sex and been involved in prostitution. They were also more likely to have regularly been in fights, been arrested, argued with parents and teachers, lost friends as a result of coming out, been sexually abused and been the victim of homophobic violence. The suicide ideators consumed cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana and other illegal drugs more than the non- suicide ideators.
Compared to gay and bisexual non- suicide ideators, suicide ideators had a later age of first awareness of same-sex attractions, and a younger age of both self-labelling as gay or bisexual and first same-sex sexual experience.
Overall, the gay and bisexual men demonstrated a higher prevalence of suicide risk factors than the heterosexual men. Furthermore, the gay and bisexual men who considered suicide showed higher rates of suicide risk factors than those who had not.
|
