What If It Doesn’t Get Better? Queer and Aboriginal Youth Suicide

[Panaconda]

What If It Doesn’t Get Better? Queer and Aboriginal Youth Suicide

Laurel Dykstra

My mother says that when I was born she was given more tiny dresses than I could ever wear because they didn't have flowers at her father's funereal and, "people wanted to do something." My grandfather was a suicide. Sometime in the months between my conception and birth he walked then swam straight out into the salt water at Willows beach and never came back. They identified the body by the tattoos on his arms.

Right now in North America there seems to be an epidemic of suicide, not grandfathers but teenage boys who are gay or whose peers think they are. It makes me sick, my people, my younger brothers are dying by their own hand. As an out dyke with access to middle-class resources like a laptop and the internet, my e-mail and Facebook page are deluged with links to stories of queer kids who have killed themselves and to public responses. Responses like sex columnist Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" project, a YouTube channel where LGBT adults are invited to post videos telling of their own experience and survival to encourage youth who are bullied and harassed or pop singer Cyndi Lauper's "Give a Damn" campaign where celebrities speak out against violence and discrimination experienced by Queers, especially youth.

The messages in my inbox come from mostly by white, progressive friends and are often accompanied by some declaration like, "LGBT youth have the highest suicide rate of any group." This statement that makes me profoundly uneasy, I want to say, "but that's not true." In Canada, where suicide is the second leading cause of death for everyone aged 10 to 24, the Aboriginal youth suicide rate is somewhere between 4 to 6 times that of their peers-it is highest for young men--for LGBT youth the suicide seems to happen at 3 to 4 times the rate of their peers. Figures for the US show roughly the same proportions with a slightly lower suicide rate overall. But I am afraid that pointing this out will be heard as an insult on Queer communities' grief or a white woman talking bad about Aboriginal people.

Statistics are incredibly difficult to find and to compare for a host of reasons. The suicide rate is likely underestimated both for Aboriginal and LGBT youth. Many suicides (overdoses, shootings, automobile deaths) are recorded as accidental. Non- status Aboriginal people and those living off reserve are not counted in some studies. Prisoner suicide rates are higher than the rest of the population and Aboriginal people are disproportionately incarcerated in the US and in Canada. Aboriginal people make up a smaller proportion of the population than queers and of course there are Aboriginal kids who are Two Spirited, gay, lesbian, trans, bisexual and gender queer. And after all, how do you know if a dead kid was gay or if he just walked swishy?

...

http://m.jezebel.com/5657284/what-if-it-doesnt-get-better

[lightningandsnow]

1. Thank you so much for posting this.

Kick!

[Panaconda]

2. You're very welcome

I would hope that folks upon reading this might take the time to read some of the thoughtful responses found at the link.

In solidarity.

[maryf]

3. From the first comment...

"The question of why some stories are told and not others is hugely important to civil discourse and needs to be asked..."

and nothing is taken from any group by doing so, in fact, I think, the understanding of our common humanity is enhanced... K&R

[leftstreet]

4. Wow. Fascinating comments section there

unfortunately, it's tough to get involved in a group less privileged than the one you come from without it being seen as charity, and on the other hand it can be difficult to see the actual issues another group faces if you're not "one of them". but the groups with the least privilege end up with no one fighting for them, if all we do is fight for ourselves.

!!

Thanks for posting this. Interesting stuff
K&R

[readmoreoften]

5. The statistics of 33% of teen suicides being LGBT comes from

interviews with ATTEMPTED suicides. It's not just pulled out of thin air. Although I'm not sure what the date is. And while the aboriginal suicides rates she mentions are tragic, they would seem to be contextual to Canada. There is also no information about how many of the aboriginal suicides are heterosexual and the writer is putting together two false sets (1) All LGBTs in Canada are "white" and "middle class" and (2) All aboriginal peoples are straight.

This is the typical way LGBT issues are always handled though: all LGBTs are white middle class gay men and all "other" minorities they're compared with are always poor straight people of color. You know what? There are poor white transfemale LGBTs, rich gay men of color, and every other permutation you can think of.

That being said, the aboriginal suicide rate in Canada should be investigated. That's truly tragic.

[maryf]

6. Kick

and wondering why this isn't showing on the greatest page with 12 recommendations? I check through those I've posted to to see how they are doing, this one doesn't show on the greatest page. Maybe this kick will do it??