Comments on: Justice Dept: Bullying Complaints On the Rise http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/09/14/37021 News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric Sat, 18 May 2013 21:32:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: andrew http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/09/14/37021/comment-page-1#comment-106390 andrew Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:13:54 +0000 http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/?p=37021#comment-106390 Take this with a grain of salt: I don't have any numbers, but I was a gay teen once. My strong suspicion is that the numbers are increasing due to the increased visibility of gay youth, as well as a decreased tolerance of / increased awareness of gay bullying. In a way the numbers are encouraging. It means fewer closets, less suffering in silence. I'd be very curious to see research that tracks these numbers along with teenage suicide rates. My suspicion is that when students stop internalizing the animus and gain comfort in standing toe to toe, there will be a decreased sense of despair and that may help. It will be important to look at OVERALL suicide rates, since you can bet that kids in my generation who killed themselves over sexuality issues didn't necessarily advertise that fact. But we know that the disproportionate numbers of gay teen suicides may be high enough to take a pretty good chunk out of the overall rate, and that may be appreciable. Take this with a grain of salt:
I don’t have any numbers, but I was a gay teen once. My strong suspicion is that the numbers are increasing due to the increased visibility of gay youth, as well as a decreased tolerance of / increased awareness of gay bullying. In a way the numbers are encouraging. It means fewer closets, less suffering in silence.

I’d be very curious to see research that tracks these numbers along with teenage suicide rates. My suspicion is that when students stop internalizing the animus and gain comfort in standing toe to toe, there will be a decreased sense of despair and that may help. It will be important to look at OVERALL suicide rates, since you can bet that kids in my generation who killed themselves over sexuality issues didn’t necessarily advertise that fact. But we know that the disproportionate numbers of gay teen suicides may be high enough to take a pretty good chunk out of the overall rate, and that may be appreciable.

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