"There is no population-based evidence that sexual orientation and suicidality are linked in some direct or indirect manner."
Centers for Disease Control, American Association of Suicidology,
National Institute of Mental Health, American Psychological Association,
Gay & Lesbian Advocacy and Service Groups
The Seattle Times, May 22, 1997
"There is no scientific evidence to support this (30 percent) figure."
Peter Muehrer, Chief, Youth Mental Health Program
Prevention & Behavioral Medicine Research Branch
National Institute of Mental Health
The Seattle Times, May 22, 1997
"What we're saying is that we don't know."
Joyce Hunter, Immediate Past President
National Lesbian & Gay Health Association
The Seattle Times, May 22, 1997
The truth was acknowledged six years ago, as reported three years ago by the Seattle Times.
What's news is that six years later -- most recently, in a November 20, 2000 news release -- Michigan's leading homosexual activist group continues to peddle a falsehood as fact in statements to the news media, the public, and in particular, students.
Since representatives of national homosexual advocacy groups were among those who publicly acknowledged the invalidity of the teen suicide claim, is it reasonable to question whether a group as knowledgeable as the Triangle Foundation is knowingly repeating the falsehood with the conscious intent of using news media professionals such as you to mislead the public?
Obviously, now that you know the facts, we urge you (1) not to rely in the future on sources whose information -- if reported as fact -- would cause you to misinform those who depend on you for accurate news, and (2) better yet, help dispel any false conclusions your audience may have reached based on earlier reports of the Triangle Foundation's misinformation by informing them of the facts reported below.
Thanks for your consideration.
Gary Glenn
President
AFA-Michigan
News Release, The Triangle Foundation, Nov. 20, 2000
"As the suicide rate for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning (GLBTQ) teens is 33% higher than for that of heterosexual teens, it is important to encourage Gay Straight Alliances at the high school level."
(under "News" at www.tri.org)
Grand Haven Tribune, May 19, 2000
"'I wish more school districts were brave enough to offer these presentations to their youth because it saves lives,' (Triangle Foundation spokesman Sean Kosofsky) said, adding that 30 percent of teen suicides are committed by gay and lesbian youth who feel isolated."
Jeff Montgomery, "Triangle's Response," May 15, 2000
"(AFA-Michigan President Gary) Glenn knows that 30% of teen suicides are committed by gay and lesbian youth."
(under "News" at www.tri.org)
THE SEATTLE TIMES Seattle, Washington May 22, 1997
STATISTICS ON GAY SUICIDES ARE BASELESS, RESEARCHERS SAY
by Delia M. Rios
Newhouse News Service
WASHINGTON - At the end of an interview with actress Ellen DeGeneres, aired the night her lesbian TV character "came out," anchor Diane Sawyer addressed viewers of "PrimeTime Live":
"And as we close, we're going to repeat a government statistic that a gay teenager is some three times as likely to attempt suicide as another teenager. Ellen DeGeneres has said whatever happens to her, tonight's broadcast was in part to hold on to them."
It's a statistic that has been repeated innumerable times.
The trouble is, there is no scientifically valid evidence that it's true.
That was the conclusion - back in 1994 - of representatives of the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychological Association, the American Association of Suicidology, and gay and lesbian advocacy and service groups, among others.
They had met to see if there was a link between gay teens and suicide, which had been propelled into public consciousness by a single essay included in a 1989 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report on youth suicide.
Their finding was this:
"There is no population-based evidence that sexual orientation and suicidality are linked in some direct or indirect manner."
Joyce Hunter, the immediate past president of the National Lesbian and Gay Health Association, participated in that 1994 meeting.
"What we're saying is that we don't know," Hunter said.
FIGURE SHAPES PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS
Yet the stunningly high number of suicide attempts represented by the "two to three times more likely" figure - along with an unsubstantiated companion statistic that gays and lesbians may account for 30 percent of completed teen suicides - has shaped public perceptions of gay teens for nearly a decade.
They are portrayed as emotionally vulnerable and as victims of an oppressive larger culture who require society's intervention. But Hunter agreed with mental-health researchers that most gay and lesbian teens, like teens overall, are emotionally resilient people who "go on to develop a positive sense of self and who go on with their lives."
Gay advocates and critics - as well as the national press - have cited the suicide link so often that it has become conventional wisdom with the power to influence public policy.
REAL NUMBERS UNCLEAR
Overall, there are about 5,000 adolescent suicides in the United States every year. No one knows definitively how many may be gay, lesbian or bisexual.
Peter Muehrer is chief of the Youth Mental Health program in the Prevention and Behavioral Medicine Research Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health. He has evaluated the major research studies that are most often cited to support a link between sexual orientation and suicide. He has concluded that the research is "limited in both quantity and quality."
Muehrer noted the difficulties in quantifying suicides among gay teenagers. Suicide research, in general, is difficult. There is no agreement on standard definitions, and there are no reliable methods for measuring suicide attempts.
All of which is further complicated when looking at suicide and sexual orientation. Death certificates do not list whether an individual is heterosexual or homosexual. And, as Hunter points out, gays and lesbians - whether adults or teens - may not be inclined to identify themselves to researchers.
For those reasons, Muehrer said, " . . . it is not possible to accurately compare suicide attempt rates between gay and lesbian youth and non-gay youth in the general population."
THE FIRST REPORT
So where did those shockingly high numbers come from?
The "two to three times more likely to attempt suicide" and "30 percent completed suicide" figures so often cited in discussions of gay teens and suicide originated in an article written by Paul Gibson, a licensed clinical social worker in San Francisco. He was among those asked to submit a report to the Task Force on Youth Suicide at the Department of Health and Human Services in 1989. Of the 50 papers included in the task-force report, two - including Gibson's - addressed suicide and sexual orientation.
Gibson says his report was not a research study. It included no original field research. It was a review of existing research out of which he drew the "two to three times more likely" number. He used that figure to estimate that 30 percent of completed teen suicides are by gays and lesbians.
Muehrer, having reviewed major studies that Gibson cites, wrote that "there is no scientific evidence to support this (30 percent) figure."
"Only two relatively recent community-based original research studies have examined the sexual orientation of individuals who completed suicide," he wrote. "Both found that between 2.5 and 5 percent of the suicides in their overall samples were by people believed to be gay."
EXPERIENCES OUTDATED
Among the research weaknesses Muehrer found in the other studies was that "several of the key published sources are based on interviews with gay and lesbian adults in the early 1970s, asking them to recount their adolescence years earlier."
"Even if problems of retrospective bias could be overcome, the pace of change in North American culture for lesbian, gay male and bisexual youths has been so rapid that the adolescent experiences of current gay and lesbian adults may be of questionable validity . . . "
Researchers have largely confined their work to "convenience samples" - that is, they have studied gay teens in runaway shelters and counseling centers. These are teens already in crisis and who may be more predisposed to suicide.
No one is discounting that some gay teens experience emotional distress or that some do attempt or commit suicide. Clinton Anderson of the American Psychological Association, who addresses gay, lesbian and bisexual issues and who was present at the 1994 workshop, said that the lack of "good science" on the issue should not be an excuse for not getting help to teens who need it. Clinicians who see teens in distress may not offer scientific evidence, Anderson said, but neither should their observations be dismissed.
Gibson stands by his numbers.
"I think that there is ample evidence available to indicate that these youth are at risk and that we need to help them now," Gibson said. "We can't wait to help these youth until complete information is available." [LINK]
ERROR ABOUT GAY-TEEN SUICIDES IS WIDELY REPEATED
WASHINGTON - The myth that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that one-third of the teenagers who kill themselves are gay has been widely reported, as this collection of quotes shows.
-- "One third of successful teenage suicides are said to be attributable to sexual-orientation issues." - New York Times, May 4, 1997
-- "A 1988 study by the federal Department of Health and Human Services showed that gay teens commit suicide at a rate two or three times that of heterosexual adolescents." - The Seattle Times, April 27, 1997 -- "A . . . federal study showed that 30 percent of teens who committed suicide were homosexual. Sexuality experts estimate that more than 10 percent of Americans are homosexual." - Washington Post, May 18, 1991
-- "A 1989 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated that gay and lesbian youths are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than are heterosexual teenagers and that gay and lesbian teenagers account for about 30 percent of all youth suicides." - Los Angeles Times, Nov. 24, 1994
-- "A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study in 1989 found gay and lesbian teenagers were three times as likely as heterosexual teenagers to try to kill themselves and that they accounted for 30 percent of all teenage suicides." - The Associated Press wire, May 31, 1991
-- "A 1989 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says gay youth are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual youths." - The Chicago Tribune, April 20, 1993
-- "The Massachusetts commission cited alarming statistics on teen suicide from a 1989 Department of Health and Human Services report. Gay and lesbian youth accounted for about one-third of all youth suicides, according to the report. Gay students are at risk for suicide because of low self-esteem, lack of support and family difficulties." - The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, Feb. 26, 1994
-- "And there is a lot of suffering, according to several federal reports, which found that homosexual youths are three times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers, comprising a third of all youth suicides nationwide. They are also at a higher risk for developing alcohol or drug dependency." - St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 3, 1996 [LINK]
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