How to Help Prevent Suicide Among LGBTQ+ Youth
Each September, my colleagues and I at The Trevor Project find ourselves especially busy, completing our usual work as part of the largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQ young people – but with an added spotlight of doing this type of work during National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.
However, last week, the month kicked off differently than in previous years. A group of anti-LGBTQ extremists targeted Trevor’s digital crisis lines, flooding them so that more LGBTQ young people would kill themselves because they couldn’t reach the help they needed.
This incident paints a striking picture of what LGBTQ young people, a marginalized group that is four times as likely to attempt suicide compared to their peers, have to deal with on a regular basis – simply because they exist.
When it comes to the public health crisis of LGBTQ youth suicide, it’s important to understand that these young people are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
