Suicidal Behaviors Among LGBT Populations

Introduction

There are a lot of suicidal risk among the behavior of LGBT youth adults and it is a function of our social environment, including discrimination and stigma. Social stressors are associated with mental illness, isolation, victimization, and stressful interpersonal relationships with family, peers, and community.

Literature Review LGBTQ

Mustanski, B., & Liu, R. T. (2013). A longitudinal study of predictors of suicide attempts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42(3), 437-48. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-0013

The authors believe that suicidal behaviors in LGBT populations appear to be related to “minority stress”, which stems from the cultural and social prejudice attached

This stress includes individual experiences of prejudice or discrimination, such as family rejection, harassment, bullying, violence, and victimization. Increasingly recognized as an aspect of minority stress is “institutional discrimination” resulting from laws and public policies that create inequities or omit LGBT people from benefits and protections afforded others. Individual and institutional discrimination have been found to be associated with social isolation, low self-esteem, negative sexual/gender identity, and depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders. These negative outcomes, rather than minority sexual orientation or gender identity per se, appear to be the key risk factors for LGBT suicidal ideation and behavior. Discrimination increases suicide risk because of being rejected by family members and friends that they become social isolation, low self-esteem, negative sexual gender identity, and depression, anxiety, and other mental

It was the disruptions of World War II that allowed isolated gay men and women to meet as soldiers, war workers,. It was Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigation of homosexuals holding government jobs during the early 1950s that led to the first American-based political demands for fair treatment in mental health, public policy and in 1950s and 1960s The Homosexual in America (Cory, 1951), asserting that gay men and lesbians were a legitimate minority group, and in 1953, In 973 that the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality as an "illness" classification in its diagnostic manuals. Through the 1980s, as the gay male community was decimated by the AIDS epidemic, demands for compassion and medical funding led to renewed coalitions between men and women as well as angry street theatre by groups like AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Nation. Enormous marches on Washington drew as many as 1 million gay rights supporters in 1987 and again in 1993. A different wing of the political rights movement called for an end to military expulsion of gay and lesbian soldiers. The patriotism and service of gay men and lesbians in uniform eventually resulted in the uncomfortable compromise "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as an alternative to decades of military witch hunts and dishonorable discharges. and equal rights. Because of