Johnson & Wales College Student, Raymond Chase, is September's 6th Gay Suicide

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SHOCK: Johnson & Wales College Student Raymond Chase Is September's 6th Gay Suicide

[Geez]. Number six. His name is Raymond Chase, he was a 19-year-old student at Johnson & Wales in Providence, and he hung himself in his dorm room Wednesday night. I can't even believe these young men are now becoming statistics.

Seth Walsh, Asher Brown, Justin Aaberg, Billy Lucas, and Tyler Clementi. Now, a sixth young soul.

From a CampusPride.org release, it's unclear why Chase — a Monticello, New York native — took his own life.


Read more: http://www./shock-johnson-wales-col...mbers-6th-gay-suicide-20101001/#ixzz118ufbPfC
 
Raymond Chase Commits Suicide, Fifth Gay Youth To Take Life In Three Weeks

Johnson and Wales student Raymond Chase, 19, took his own life this past Wednesday, according to the Advocate.

Chase, a sophomore reported as openly gay, apparently hanged himself in his dorm room. According to Now Public, the circumstances surrounding his death are not yet known.

[snip]

Campus Pride (which recently released a study on attitudes towards LGBT students on campus) issued a statement in reaction to the deaths:
...the recent pattern of LGBT youth suicides is cause for grave concern. Campus Pride demands national action be taken to address youth bullying, harassment and the need for safety and inclusion for LGBT youth at colleges and universities across the country. We must not let these tragic deaths go unnoticed. Together we must act decisively to curb anti-LGBT bias incidents, harassment and acts of violence.​
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/01/raymond-chase-suicide_n_746989.html
 
These are only the ones that the public knows about.

How many more suicides by gay youth have there been this month that haven't garnered any publicity?

Many more, I am guessing. :(
 
I also wonder how many suicides by straight males happened in the past week.
Suicide is an ugly, horrible thing and it happens all to often in youth.

I'm really not trying to take anything from this story or belittle this young man, God bless him. It's horrible.

I just wonder what the numbers are in comparison to any other youth.
 
I also wonder how many suicides by straight males happened in the past week.
Suicide is an ugly, horrible thing and it happens all to often in youth.

I'm really not trying to take anything from this story or belittle this young man, God bless him. It's horrible.

I just wonder what the numbers are in comparison to any other youth.

Fair question, Kimberly. Per one site, about 12 persons, aged 15-24, commit suicide every day; since more males than females successfully kill themselves, we should expect 8 or more of those successful suicides to be male. And so merely by counting numbers, one would expect to see a gay male suicide from that age group every other day or so. By that standard, 6 in a month is not surprising; of course, those are merely the 6 that have gotten media attention.

And this site:

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/10/01/four-us-teens-bullied-for-being-gay-commit-suicide-in-a-month/


...details four teens who committed suicide in direct response to being bullied for their sexual orientation. So it is a problem.

Still, not every gay person who commits suicide does so in response to homophobic persecution. And there are plenty of troubled young people who happen to be heterosexual.
 
  • Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15 to 24-year-olds, accounting for over 12% of deaths in this age group; only accidents and homicide occur more frequently (2006 National Adolescent Health Information)
Yes, suicide is obviously a problem with all teens.


  • Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers (Massachusetts 2007 Youth Risk Survey).

  • More than 1/3 of LGB youth report having made a suicide attempt (D’Augelli AR - Clinical Child Psychiatry and Psychology 2002)
A HUGE problem.


  • Nine out of 10 LGBT students (86.2%) experienced harassment at school; three-fifths (60.8%) felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation; and about one-third (32.7%) skipped a day of school in the past month because of feeling unsafe (2007 GLSEN National School Climate Survey).

For more facts, go to: http://www.thetrevorproject.org/suicide-resources/suicidal-signs


This is not to say that ALL teens don't have to worry about this. As the first statistic says, suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death. It happens WAY too much, in ANY group. And bullying is horrible, not just against LGBT students, but against everyone. But I think the National School Climate Survey speaks for itself.
 
It is all so unbelieveably sad! To think this still goes on today.
And if you want to talk about high suicide rates check out the American Indian reservations and see how many young people commit suicide almost on a daily basis. It is terrible.
 
Those years are so hard. And if you are "different" for any reason, you are often targeted and bullied. Gay, overweight, tall, short, really smart... you know. Kids are so dad gum mean. It's horrible. And at that age, if you are bullied, you feel it will never get better. They often feel life is not worth living although they haven't even begun to live yet.
It is a very sad thing.

My DD has always been taller and bigger than her peers. She has been picked on for it before and she is very tender hearted. I've always told her she is how God wants her to be. She is a VERY talented softball player and at 12 pitches 55-60 MPH. I hate to brag, but she is AWESOME! So, I tell her God gives all people different talents.
So now that she is dominating and winning for her school, everybody loves her. It's funny how fickle kids are. They hate you one minute and love you the next.

I always tell her when times are tough, that it will pass.

I pray for our youth. Life can be so tough on them.
 
And while we're on the subject, we should note that many teens who are victimized for being "queer" aren't actually gay. They've just been identified as gay by the mob for some arbitrary reason.

Special thanks to Idaho for the additional research on how widespread is the victimizing of LGBT kids.

I didn't intend to minimize the problem of gay teen suicides; I just wanted to be fair to Kimberly's point that 6 in a month isn't statistically surprising. I suspect the Rutgers incident (in which the gay roommate was secretly taped) caught the media's attention and people began to add up the numbers. Obviously, even 1 is 1 too many.
 
go on youtube and type in 'it gets better' wow, so many people putting the message out for these young kids that things will get better for them.
 
Dan Savage Explains Why He Started 'It Gets Better' Project

Last Thursday, in his syndicated sex-advice column "Savage Love," Dan Savage wrote about the case of Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old high school student in Indiana who committed suicide after being taunted by his classmates for being gay.

In the column — titled "Give 'Em Hope," from a quote by openly gay politician Harvey Milk — Savage, himself an openly gay man, lamented that he couldn't have sat down with Lucas, even for five minutes, and told him "however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better."

But then he realized that, while it was too late to talk to Billy Lucas, it wasn't too late to talk to the millions of kids just like him. So, right then and there, he and his husband decided to do just that.

More: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1649114/20100930/story.jhtml
 

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