A Stitch in Haste

How tough is it for teens to be different?

[T]eens who perceived themselves at either weight extreme — very fat or really skinny — were more than twice as likely as normal-weight teens to attempt or think about suicide.

The study was based on a nationally representative 2001 survey involving 13,601 students in ninth through 12th grade.
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"Suicide ideation was more likely even among students whose perceptions of body size deviated only slightly from 'about the right weight,'" said lead author Danice Eaton, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Alain Joffe of Johns Hopkins University said widespread media images of perfect bodies might help shape adolescent perceptions of normal.

If just being too fat or too skinny is enough to increase the risk of suicide ideation or attempt, then just imagine the increased suicide risk to gay youths from their externally-imposed poor self-image.

Imagine being in a school system where the educrats and politicians all express a desire to help the fat kids (whether through intelligent programs or warm-fuzzy-feeling junk food bans) and the anorexics too, but where gays were being scorned, ridiculed, or thrown out of their homes, where their clubs are banned or restricted, where they see adult gay role models being legislated against (and sometimes brutally murdered).

And would those "widespread media images" — the same ones that that portray everyone as beautiful, lean and healthy — be the same images that portray an exclusively heterosexual society, where gays, if present at all, are often mere caricatures?

Good data are hard to find, but anecdotal evidence is almost limitless. Gay teen suicidalism rates (at least ideation and attempt, if not success) are far above straight counterparts. It remains a much neglected issue in the gay rights movement and is often completely unspoken within educrat circles.

We may be losing the battles against high school drop-out rates, illiteracy, drug abuse, teen pregnancy and so on, but at least those battles are actually being waged. Gay teen suicidalism, meanwhile, is subject to malignant neglect.

After all, partnership rights are of no use to a gay teen who kills himself before he even graduates from high school.

My previous post on the subject here. Resources for troubled gay teens (and adults too), including help lines, here.