NOM

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.

Blashyrkh wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 4:53 am 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.

Hagoth wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 8:12 am
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.

Hagoth wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 8:12 am

Blashyrkh wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 4:53 am 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.

alas wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 12:27 pm I never figured out why dentist was the occupation most likely to try to kill themselves.

Palerider wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 3:08 pm

alas wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 12:27 pm 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....

moksha wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 10:18 pmTangential thought - How can NOMs best avoid being labeled as haters for their association with LDS General Authorities policy statements against homosexuals?