Congrats to DHO #2 on the Top 10 2018 Dbag List

[RubinHighlander]

This is not a top 10 list an Apostle of Jesus should be on...IMO

https://www.advocate.com/news/2018/12/2 ... ry-media-1

It's not news that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, known informally as the Mormon Church, isn't accepting of LGBTQ people, but one of its top leaders, Dallin H. Oaks, took the homophobia and transphobia to new heights this year. “Our knowledge of God’s revealed plan of salvation requires us to oppose many of the current social and legal pressures to retreat from traditional marriage or to make changes that confuse or alter gender or homogenize the differences between men and women,” Oaks said in an address to the church's General Conference in October. Those pressures, he said, come from none other than Satan, who “seeks to confuse gender, to distort marriage, and to discourage childbearing, especially by parents who will raise children in truth.” We could laugh at Dana Carvey invoking Satan when he played his Church Lady character on Saturday Night Live years ago, but Oaks's words are no laughing matter. There's an epidemic of suicide among LGBTQ youth in the church's home state of Utah, and much of the blame can be placed on the denomination's hatred.

[jfro18]

If I remember correctly, there were 2-3 suicides in Utah of teens/young adults in the days/weeks after the DHO talk in October.

Utah also now has the #1 rate of depression in the country.

Maybe it's not *all* the LGBT stance, but it absolutely plays a role in it.

[Hagoth]

Utah has a suicide rate that is 60% higher than the national average. Suicides in Utah have risen nearly 50% since 1999 for everyone. Does Utah have a lgbtq suicide problem alone? Hardly. Utah has a suicide problem.

But the percentage of those suicides who are teens far outnumbers the national percentage, making suicide the number 1 killer of teens in Utah.

According to US News and World Reports: "While the rate of child and teen suicide has risen by 23.5 percent nationally during the years covered by the study, it "more than doubled" (a 136 percent rise) in Utah, according to researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." (March 22, 2018).

The Utah Department of Health reports that youth ages 10 to 17 comprise 13.0% of the Utah population and 22.7% of all suicide attempts. (UDoH Youth Suicide Factsheet).

Whatever the cause of these suicides we have to ask what is different about Utah? The first explanation that always pops up is that higher altitude is to blame. There seems to be a correlation but I haven't noticed that Utah has been increasing in altitude at almost 3X the rate of our neighboring states, or that children have been moving to mountain peaks. Since the overall Utah suicide rates are rising, and since the single outstanding feature of Utah is the influence of the LDS church we have to seriously consider that the church is a significant factor in both youth and adult suicides. After all, the church is the obvious difference between Utah and surrounding states.

On report, I believe it was by the CDC (sorry, I couldn't find the reference), found parental expectations and family crisis to be significant factors in Utah teen suicides.

I'm not aware of any studies that specifically examine the percentage of LGBTQ suicides. The best I can offer is anecdotal evidence from a police investigator who says that his investigations of youth suicides (reading journals, emails, letters, etc. of the victim) indicate that a significant percentage of the cases he has personally investigated turned out to be closeted LGBTQ kids whose parents kept that information confidential. Again, that's purely anecdotal.

But yes, Utah does have a suicide problem and in particular a youth suicide problem. One suicide of a child, regardless of the reason, is too many.

[RubinHighlander]

I'm not aware of any studies that specifically examine the percentage of LGBTQ suicides. The best I can offer is anecdotal evidence from a police investigator who says that his investigations of youth suicides (reading journals, emails, letters, etc. of the victim) indicate that a significant percentage of the cases he has personally investigated turned out to be closeted LGBTQ kids whose parents kept that information confidential. Again, that's purely anecdotal.

But yes, Utah does have a suicide problem and in particular a youth suicide problem. One suicide of a child, regardless of the reason, is too many.

More study needs to be done for sure but as you pointed out the biggest factors can't be ignored: a dominant religion with a one true church claim and bigotry leadership anti-gay misogamy narrative. IMO it's not just church youth and gay church youth but also the nonmember or less active kids that have to deal with bad behavior and social pressures from active parents and youth. In many predominant mormon neighborhoods and schools, being a non-member kid can be very difficult.

I'd also be interested to see how much the seasons play into it, like the inversion layer that hits the valleys, not only affecting air quality to sunlight.

[alas]

Utah has a suicide rate that is 60% higher than the national average. Suicides in Utah have risen nearly 50% since 1999 for everyone. Does Utah have a lgbtq suicide problem alone? Hardly. Utah has a suicide problem.

But the percentage of those suicides who are teens far outnumbers the national percentage, making suicide the number 1 killer of teens in Utah.

According to US News and World Reports: "While the rate of child and teen suicide has risen by 23.5 percent nationally during the years covered by the study, it "more than doubled" (a 136 percent rise) in Utah, according to researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." (March 22, 2018).

The Utah Department of Health reports that youth ages 10 to 17 comprise 13.0% of the Utah population and 22.7% of all suicide attempts. (UDoH Youth Suicide Factsheet).

Whatever the cause of these suicides we have to ask what is different about Utah? The first explanation that always pops up is that higher altitude is to blame. There seems to be a correlation but I haven't noticed that Utah has been increasing in altitude at almost 3X the rate of our neighboring states, or that children have been moving to mountain peaks. Since the overall Utah suicide rates are rising, and since the single outstanding feature of Utah is the influence of the LDS church we have to seriously consider that the church is a significant factor in both youth and adult suicides. After all, the church is the obvious difference between Utah and surrounding states.

On report, I believe it was by the CDC (sorry, I couldn't find the reference), found parental expectations and family crisis to be significant factors in Utah teen suicides.

I'm not aware of any studies that specifically examine the percentage of LGBTQ suicides. The best I can offer is anecdotal evidence from a police investigator who says that his investigations of youth suicides (reading journals, emails, letters, etc. of the victim) indicate that a significant percentage of the cases he has personally investigated turned out to be closeted LGBTQ kids whose parents kept that information confidential. Again, that's purely anecdotal.

But yes, Utah does have a suicide problem and in particular a youth suicide problem. One suicide of a child, regardless of the reason, is too many.

There have been studies, and even considering how often it is not known whether or not the person is gay, that is one thing that makes a person statistically more likely to commit suicide. I don’t know of modern studies and of course what I took in college is ancient history, but part of the reason for the whole gay rights movement was the high suicide rate among gays. It was felt that living the closeted life style and inability to have a secure marriage type lifestyle were big factors in that high suicide rate among older known gay men.

In the studies I am aware of, it was significantly higher, enough so that when I worked suicide prevention we joked about if you ever got a call from a 55 year old, single, gay, male, dentist, who owned a gun, he was already dead. I never figured out why dentist was the occupation most likely to try to kill themselves. I don’t remember exact statistics, but being gay was a big factor.

And seasonally, just after Christmas was the biggest peak. Wish I could remember more about it, but then like I said the studies I knew about in college are ancient history, a good 40 years old. But now it is politically incorrect to single out factors like being gay or being Mormon.

[Palerider]

I never figured out why dentist was the occupation most likely to try to kill themselves.

Persistent rumor. My son is a dentist.

The most recent report from the CDC on professions with the highest suicide rates came out in 2012 and stated that it's actually farmers, fishermen, and forestry workers who are at the highest risk of taking their own lives. Dentists were way down on the list at number 12....

[alas]

I never figured out why dentist was the occupation most likely to try to kill themselves.

Persistent rumor. My son is a dentist.

The most recent report from the CDC on professions with the highest suicide rates came out in 2012 and stated that it's actually farmers, fishermen, and forestry workers who are at the highest risk of taking their own lives. Dentists were way down on the list at number 12....

When it was dentists was back about 1980. There was also not that much spread between top ten occupations and bottom ten as far as percentage of population. It just isn’t that good of a predictor of probability—-which might have been why we included that in the joke. I can see farmers and fishermen because of the insecurity of income. I think occupation probably has quite a bit of variance between years with not one being consistently top, and I don’t really think occupation is a very good thing to track as far as probably. But it made for a good joke to release stress.

But being male has a strong relationship to what means are used, and tending to use guns and other violence while women tend to use pills and less lethal means, more men die of suicide, while more women make an attempt.

There are three peaks in age, first peak is for adolescents, from 14-19, then about 30-35, then 55 to about 60. Utah has more that it’s share of the adolescent suicide, which is part of why it is suspected that there is a good percentage of those who are gay.

[moksha]

Tangential thought - How can NOMs best avoid being labeled as haters for their association with LDS General Authorities policy statements against homosexuals?

[wtfluff]

Tangential thought - How can NOMs best avoid being labeled as haters for their association with LDS General Authorities policy statements against homosexuals?

If someone were to actually ask: I no longer associate with the religion (corporation) formerly known as mormon, nor the bigoted old men who act as the "religion's" board of directors. Honestly, when it comes to that portion of their "religion" they are nothing more than a hate group. Maybe it would be better to refer to them as the Westboro mormons.