Bullied to Death: by Jill Estes

After reading recent news articles about three gay student suicides all within the same school district in the same year, I was reminded how important it is to address this issue. It is no shock that LGBT youth face extreme amounts of isolation at school, at home, at religious organizations and in our community. Along with this isolation they are also facing high levels of homophobia, bullying and harassment. This has been the case for decades and is continually a problem for these youth. A gay student by the name of Justin Aaberg took his own life on July 9th this year. He was one of three gay students in the Anoka school district in Minnesota to commit suicide this year. This created uproar in the community between LGBT advocacy groups and anti-gay groups. To hear a testimony from his mother’s words please reference this article. http://minnesotaindependent.com/64047/anti-gay-group-organizes-in-anoka-schools-as-community-deals-with-gay-suicides A 1989 US government study found that LGBT youth are 2-3 times more likely to attempt suicide than other young people. This finding was supported by a 2001 study that found LGBT adolescents 2.3-2.5 times more likely to commit suicide than their heterosexual peers. Also, psychological autopsies- that is the examination of a person’s psychological state in the time leading up to their death, show an alarming 30% of LGBT youth among the dead teens that have committed suicide. Psychologists believe that number may be higher, as LGBT teens are more likely to have the true cause of death and their sexual identity hidden by their family members. Many LGBT teens out there do not know where to turn to for help. Most of these youth cannot go to their families, teachers, peers, religious organizations or communities for help. But there are people to turn to for help. Right here in Long Island we are lucky to have Pride for Youth. We provide counseling including individual and family counseling, a drop-in center on Friday nights and support groups for LGBT youth. Also the Long Island Crisis Center provides short term crisis intervention on a 24/7 hotline. One more great resource is the Trevor Project, the leading national organization focused on crisis and suicide prevention for LGBT and questioning youth. All these resources are free, anonymous and confidential. The question here is how do we lower the risk of suicide for LGBT youth? The answer, I believe, is education. Already in many school districts we provide suicide prevention education. And in some school districts we are able to provide homophobia education. Recently passed was The Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) in New York, a bill that will prohibit harassment against students in school, including harassment based on real or perceived race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression and sex. This bill will require schools to adopt policies to make schools harassment and discrimination-free environments and also incorporate discrimination and harassment awareness into education curricula. This gives us an amazing opportunity to get into more schools to educate staff and students making a less homophobic environment. When taken into account these breaking news stories of gay student suicides and the alarming statistics of LGBT youth suicides in the US, one can hopefully see the need for more diversity education in the schools for both staff and students. With the passing of DASA, doors should be opened for us to get in and provide this ever so important education. My hopes are that over the next few years we will see these numbers drop and we will have less students being “bullied to death”. Resources: Pride for Youth (516)679-9000 www.prideforyouth.org The Long Island Crisis Center (516)679-1111 www.longislandcrisiscenter.org The Trevor Project (866)4-U-TREVOR or (866)488-7386 www.thetrevorproject.org