Queer suicides: Complicate the issue

[Shana A]

Queer suicides: Complicate the issue
by Yasmin Nair
2010-10-13

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=29016

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of stories about the supposed rise in queer suicides, particularly by youth and young adults. But while the deaths are undoubtedly tragic, they are by no means unusual and have not increased in number; they are simply being reported on more often. The exact reasons why the press would, at this time, take such an interest in queer suicides are the subjects of a future piece. For now, I want to complicate the narratives and stories about queer youth that are being spun in the media and in our cultural discourse.

It is necessary to pay attention, as we have been doing, to why queer youth in particular are more than four times as likely to commit suicide than their straight peers. It is even more important to pay attention to how we deploy and even, on occasion, distort their reasons for doing so. Attempts to provide both reasons and solutions for the problem are often shamelessly manipulative and display a rank ignorance of the many multiple contexts in which queer youth live and die.

[Kentrie]

I disagree with that article. Personally I find the word "Queer" to be highly offensive because the meaning of the word is differing from what is usual or ordinary, odd, strange, doubtful, suspicious, having mental quirks, eccentric. The article uses the word "Queer kids" and many gay teenagers look up the meaning to the word when they are called a "Queer" and they're going to feel even worse reading the definition. I'm a straight male but I am Transgender so the word "Queer" would be applied to me as well. The reasons I feel suicidal are: I will never really be male, I have family values and want to get married and have a family but it's not legal where I live and if they banned marriage for LGBT individuals then I will never be able to get married, I lack the right reproductive organs, and many other reasons. In the article it says kids don't kill their selfs over not being able to marry but their are few that DO feel suicidal when they learn they cannot marry the one they love. I'm not sure if this article was for or against LGBT rights though.

[spacial]

I also disagree.

1. Suicides and despair among people whose sexuality doesn't conform to a norm may well not be rising. That is no excuse for ignoring it. It is utterly wrong and unjustified that society should marginalise us because of how we feel.

2. There is little doubt that social attitudes won't change quickly. The pressure for young men to be tough and successful with women, the pressure for young women to bag the best guy and make him a loyal partner, these are part of the way society thinks.

But it is completely unacceptable that our government should marginalise us through its regulations. That we should be denied the same rights as everyone else because of our feelings.

Governments have been progressing over the years. They no-longer put people on different levels according to their race. The disabled, certainly here in Europe, have enormous amounts of new legislation and such, outlawing stupid discrimination.

It is, I suggest, understandable that someone confined to a wheel chair might not be given the opportunity to become a front line soldier. It is completely unacceptable that someone should be discriminated because of their race.

It is equally unacceptable, that someone should be discriminated because of their feelings or sexuality.

Removing irrelevant discrimination won't solve the problems faced by those of us with different feelings, over night, any more than it will cure racism or patronising attitudes toward disabled people.

But that is not a justification to maintain this irrelevant discrimination.

Addition.

We can't really know how many people, who consider suicide, do so because of their sexuality.

Like many others, I seriously thought about it. For many years, while I wasn't seriously considering it, I held my life in very little value and wouldn't have cared too much if it ended. My only caution, to be honest, was not wishing to impose it upon others.

If I had died, would anyone have thought it was because of my sexuality? The problem is that I have been unable to express my sexuality. There were no facilities for me to transition. I was reluctant to come out as gay because I didn't want to attract the inevitable promiscuousness that is associated with it. And, sadly, it is.