Lesbian Teens - Suicide Link

Lesbian teens are nearly five times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual girls. A survey by the B.C. based McCreary Centre Society found 38 per cent of lesbian girls and 30.4 of bisexual girls had said they had attemted suicide in the previous year, compared with 8.2 per cent of heterosexual girls.

The McCreary Centre survey was presented to a national conference of public health experts in Vancouver. The results were from their 2003 survey of 30,000 students betwen grades 7 and 12.

By contrast, 8.8 per cent of homosexual boys, 2.8 per cent of bisexual boys and 3.3 per cent of heterosexual boys said they has attemted suicide in the previous year.

McCreary Centre Society research director Elizabeth Saewyc, who is also an associate professor of nursing at the University of BC, said "more kids are choosing suicide as a way of coping." She also noted that suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents, surpassed only by sudden injuries such as car accidents.
Vancouver Sun, by Glenn Bohn - Can West News Service