Today is the day when people are asked to don purple in “honor of the LGBT youth who have committed suicide in recent weeks/months due to homophobic abuse in their homes and schools” (according to the Facebook page that seems to have started this movement). Additionally, there has been a recent spate of video pieces featuring numerous celebs and the like telling kids that "It gets better."
These efforts are tremendous because teen suicide due to anti-LGBT bullying IS a horrible problem, and because it IS something that can be remedied by love, compassion, and understanding. And, you know, it’s simply just a good idea to give these kids hope, especially when they’re dealing with something that they may be having a hard time wrapping their head around, possibly with no one to turn to, and they’re forced to go to a school where every. single. day. can be a grueling gauntlet of teasing, harassment, and violence. Public shows of support like these help raise awareness, foster understanding, and they are things that can give hope to someone who has no hope left in their reserves.
What I don’t want to get lost in all of this, however, is that while kids may be more vulnerable to pernicious treatment, and that things WILL get better after they can leave the cloistered high school campuses and expand their social bases, things STILL aren’t all ice cream and puppy dog kisses as an adult.
As I addressed in an earlier post, the suicide rate for trans folks is over 30 percent. 3 out of 10 trans people will kill themselves. Because it’s just that much fun to be trans in society today. And even if you overlook these statistics, how many of these people are slowly killing themselves by other means, even as adults?
Even if someone doesn’t come right out and kill themselves (which is just staggeringly horrible), there are still a lot of other, more “quiet” ways to get the job done, and that’s what a ton of people in the LGBT community seem to do. Many studies have indicated that LGBT people have a higher incidence of smoking and a higher incidence of drug and alcohol abuse than their heterosexual counterparts (not that cigarettes and alcohol aren’t drugs... but I digress). Sitting in support groups for people like myself, I heard a litany of horror stories centering around these kinds of abuses. It’s like life gets better enough so that you don’t kill yourself in one fell swoop, but it’s still bad enough and makes you apathetic enough about living to coerce you into the silent, erosive ways of killing yourself: smoking, alcohol, heavy drugs, etc.
Let’s face it, sinking into abuse is essentially a way of coping (for most). I know, because I’ve done it, and I’m still waging an on-going personal war against cigarettes. But shit, cigs—one of the worst things in the world for you, that, by the by, just happens to be one of the most addictive things in the world—have certainly gotten me through some tough, stressful, hopeless times. Maybe that coping mechanism actually saved my life at one point... I don’t really know... and that’s not really my point. I’m just saying that it’s not a coincidence that people who fall into the LGBT spectrum are more likely to smoke, are more likely to abuse heavy drugs and alcohol... and are more likely to kill themselves.
Again, SO much of this can be remedied by love, compassion, and understanding. Maybe reaching the haters starts with these poor kids who have to deal with so much. Maybe they’ll see these young and innocent people who are being destroyed by fear, misinterpreted doctrines, and xenophobia, and they’ll think on it, even if just a little. Maybe seeing the stories of tragic suffering that have been personified by these sorrowful incidents may stir something greater in their souls. Maybe these kids didn’t die in vain, and maybe, just maybe, their very public display of just how much they were hurting can make the world a better place for scores of other people. I’d certainly like to think so, as I’d like to think that something good, ANYthing good, can come from such heartbreak and tragedy, and that through all of this pain, things will truly get better.
No comments:
Post a Comment