Suicide and homosexuality
 

This has probably been posted here somewhere before, but I just came across this for the first and was floored...

Utah leads the nation in suicide rates among men 15-24 and 1/3 of these are tied to issues of homosexuality.

Wow.

EDIT:
And later in the article, this gem from BRM:
"Suicide is murder, pure and simple, and murderers are damned. There is no more justification for self-murder than for the wilful destruction of another. There is a common and supposedly compassionate tendency on the part of many to reason that all who commit suicide must be mentally unbalanced and that therefore they are not accountable for their crimes…..But the great probability is that nearly all self-murderers–though they may be depressed an mentally ill–do in fact know right from wrong, the same as most killers do. No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him."

Let's say those numbers are correct.

Wouldn't the proper reply be "Shot birds flutter?" Or "how can you expect me to not call a sin a sin?" Or "I wish we could find a way to love these boys better, but we cannot tolerate homosexual behavior, not even for a moment in one person."

I would also like to point out that the church still refuses to meet with Affirmation.

I would also say to those of you that have a had a family member or friend who is gay, and leaves the church, that there are worse outcomes. At least your loved one had the wherewithall to survive, as many do not.

In order to provide some perspective on this, could you cite the percentage of suicide rates for 15-24 year old men outside Utah that are attributable to issues dealing with homosexuality?

Otherwise, that stat is in too much of a vacuum to be of value.

It's still a tragedy whether or not the percentage in Utah is less or more.

Be that as it may, the unspoken correlation (actually it's been spoken in several other threads) is that the LDS culture, as it relates to homosexuality, creates an environment more conducive to teen suicide attempts than elsewhere.

In the spirit of trying to divine whether or not that charge has any merit, it would be instructive to see the ratios outside of Utah.

One of my strongest memories from attending my parents' church as a youth is when an adult church member had committed suicide and our minister gave a lesson on the sin of suicide and whether those who take their own lives are eligible for forgiveness.

I like to think there's a special place in hell for people who invent this kind of shit.

Well, if these men had ever met a gal like you, they'd be swinging the other way, and we could avoid this problem altogether. Alright, enough with this seriousness, back to being glib.

Come to think of it, I don't have any gay male friends. You might be onto something!

Are men out in Cowboyville more ashamed to come out of the closet?