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The Trevor Project and It Gets Better Project: Models for Suicide Prevention for LGBT Youth?

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The Trevor Project and It Gets Better Project: Models for Suicide Prevention for LGBT Youth? Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Tereza Cahová The Trevor Project and It Gets Better Project: Models for Suicide Prevention for LGBT Youth? Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. 2017 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgment First, I would like to thank my supervisor Mr. Jeffrey Vanderziel for his patience and support. Next, I my thanks goes to Mr. Ondřej Harnušek for his support and ideas when I was lost. Finally, I would like to thank my family and my boyfriend without whom this thesis would have never came into existence. 3 Tables of Content: Acknowledgment ................................................................................................ 3 Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................. 5 Chapter Two: Is truly every LGBT youth at risk of suicidal behavior? .............. 10 Chapter Three: Terminology ............................................................................ 14 Chapter Four: School and Family Environment and Suicidal Factors .............. 20 Chapter Five: Prevention Programs ................................................................. 29 Chapter Six: Conclusion ................................................................................... 36 Works Cited...................................................................................................... 38 4 Chapter One: Introduction The LGBT community has gained visibility in the United States since 1970s after the Stonewall Riots. Issues connected with the LGBT community have been however present long before the Riots. In the past, homosexuality had been negatively perceived and persecuted and the term developed a very negative connotation that persists till today. Homosexuality had not been accepted even by law, punishing sodomy and buggery that were associated with homosexual behavior until 2003. Up till that year, sodomy was still a crime in some parts of the United States. In course of the 20th century, homosexuality became more visible in society. Non-heterosexuality1 started to be present in art and started to appear in literature and later in movies (e.g. Miss Fatty, Sylvia Scarlett, The Boys in the Band). The voice of the non-heterosexual community intensified after the Stonewall Riots that took place in Manhattan, New York City in 1969. It was a turning point for the non-heterosexual community. It was one of the first broadly publicized homosexual issue in the United States. Since the Riots, the LGBT community has been fighting for their civil rights (e.g. decriminalization, right to marry) and it has been a challenging fight for non-heterosexuals. One of the challenging issues emerged during the 1980s when AIDS first appeared in the United States. This new virus caused much fear and negativity towards homosexuals in society as mostly homosexuals were infected by the virus. Not knowing how the virus transfers and how it can be treated caused panic in society and manifestations of homophobia became more common. Non-heterosexuals thus faced even greater 1 Non-heterosexuality is another term the thesis uses for describing LGBT community and their sexuality and is by no means used in a sense of normativity. 5 challenge to have their rights validated. During the 1990s, new terminology related to non-heterosexuality has begun to appear. The term “LGBT” first appeared, relating to the non-heterosexual community. The LGBT as a minority group has also gained scientific and academic interest and much research into the topic has been carried out. The fight for civil rights however continues. As Roxanne Henkin said in 2012, “as second-class citizens, LGBTQ persons are [still] denied the basic rights in the United States to marry the person they love, inherit from each other, be treated as spouses on each other's insurance policies, and to receive pensions and social security from each other.” (112) Furthermore, she claims that “it's estimated that by not being allowed to marry, LGBTQ people lose more than 1,400 federal and state protections by law”. (Roxanne Henkin 112) Although in some states homosexual partners can legally marry or enter into registered partnership, in many states it is still impossible. Scientists and scholars have started to explore the relation between the LGBT and suicidality2 only recently. In the course of the past 20 years, many scientific and academic studies were carried out, agreeing on the fact that LGBT as a minority group is more likely to engage in suicidal behavior. “These studies typically find support for an association between stressors associated with being LGBT and poorer mental health.” (Almeida et al) Fewer studies focus on LGBT youth and suicidal behavior, however the same fact about higher rates of suicidality can be applied to LGBT youth as youths are generally more mentally 2 Suicidality is a word the thesis uses in a sense of describing suicidal behavior, suicidal thoughts and other suicidal tendencies. 6 vulnerable as they are still growing up and they are in the process of being shaped by their environment. The issue of suicidality in LGBT youth gained more attention in 2010. Roxanne Henkin in her article mentions that “in 2010, a number of suicides resulted in part because of bullying and cyberbullying. They include Tyler Clementi, Asher Brown, Seth Walsh, Justin Aaberg, Eric Mohat, Meredith Rezak, Raymond Chase, and Billy Lucas. These students were gay and lesbian and felt that they had no other option than to take their own lives.” (110) These suicides were broadly publicized and prompted not only the research into LGBT youth and related suicidality but they also stimulated the foundation of the currently largest nationwide prevention program for LGBT youth called “It Gets Better Project”. Although the project has been supported by many famous people, “IGB’s critical and scholarly reception has been mixed”. (Bryan and Mayock 66) Few studies have been implemented on the project (Derrit Mason, Erica Ciszek 2014) and research shows that the It Gets Better Project may actually do more harm to the LGBT youth than to help them. I decided to compare the It Gets Better Project to another nationwide prevention program called “The Trevor Project”. Certainly, more programs for LGBT youth exist in the United States, for example GLSEN that focuses on improving school environment and conditions for young LGBT students. Another project is called The Young Men Who Have Sex With Men (YMSM). It is a project under the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) leadership and its “goal of the YMSM Project is to reduce the risk of HIV and STD infection in YMSM students (ages 13–19) with a focus on black and Latino YMSM”. I decided to compare only the It Gets Better Project and the Trevor Project as they are the two largest and most publicized prevention programs and 7 both are most likely to reach most of LGBT youth. They are easily accessible via the internet and support for LGBT youth can be thus quickly delivered. The most challenging environment for LGBT youth where they encounter manifestations of homophobia and related issues and may thus develop suicidal behavior is school environment, even though one may find that GSAs (Say- Straight Alliance), social clubs for students regardless of their sexuality, exist at some schools. “In many states and school districts, LGBT students and teachers lack protections from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. In others, protections that do exist are inadequate or unenforced.” (“Walking Through Hailstorm”) Not only discrimination but other manifestations of homophobia provide impulses for developing suicidal behavior and threaten LGBT youth lives. As Bryan and Mayock put it, “the LGBT youth still face harassment and acts of violence that cause “queer unhappiness, suffering, danger and death”. (68) The topic of LGBT youth suicidality is not yet scientifically and academically widely covered and that is why I decided to choose this topic. The topic provides enough space for discussion and research. Another reason is that the LGBT community issues still carry a stigma not only in USA but also here in Czech Republic and it is necessary to eliminate this stigma in order to provide better livability to the LGBT community. The LGBT youth suicidality is a contemporary cultural issue that is still shaping history of the United States. In the second chapter of the thesis I will briefly explore the general statement that every LGBT youth is at risk of suicide. In the third part of the thesis I will introduce the terminology concerning LGBT and I will compare the differences in meanings and usage of terms “LGBT”, “homosexual”, “gay” and “queer”. In the fourth chapter I 8 will introduce the term homophobia and I will describe how it manifests in two major environments LGBT youth inhabit: school and family. I will focus more on the school environment problematics as most research has been done in this field. In the fifth part of the thesis I will introduce the two mentioned prevention programs for LGBT youth: The Trevor Project and the It Gets Better Project. I will briefly introduce their background of origin, then give the information about the support they provide and the ways they provide it and then I will compare
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