Suicide Research Conclusions: Gay Men's Health

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Conclusions

Young gay and bisexual men in Edinburgh are clearly at disproportionately high risk of attempting suicide and of self-harming when compared with the general population. Many of the causes are the same as for the general population of young people; money, work, relationship trouble and so on. However, young gay and bisexual men may experience increased suicidal feelings because of homophobic bullying, rejection and hostility when they come out, the stress of remaining ‘closeted’ or of not being comfortable about their sexual orientation.

It is important to remember that it is the social oppression that young gay and bisexual men live under in our society that needs to be challenged, not their sexuality itself. Evidence suggests that gay and bisexual men using mental health services can find that their sexual orientation is thought of as the problem instead of social oppression, personal difficulties or environmental issues. The tendency to pathologise Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people has been outlined in a recent large-scale research study by Mind (King & McKeown, 2003). This discrimination creates barriers to accessing services and may go some way to help explain why young gay and bisexual men find services so unhelpful.

Additionally, we wonder if the potential sources of support available to young gay and bisexual men are not generally viewed as helpful because they come too late or because they provide the wrong type of help. There needs to be a closer look at how young gay and bisexual men want to be supported.

Young gay and bisexual men should clearly be considered as a priority group for further research and for targeted work to reduce the risk of self-harm or suicide. Unfortunately they are not mentioned as a priority group in “Choose Life: A National Strategy and Action Plan to Prevent Suicide in Scotland”. We consider this to be a serious omission, particularly in the light of our research findings, and hope this will be remedied.