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Diego Rodriguez

Professor Powers

English 1302

25 January 2023

Discrimination and suicides within the gay and queer community response paper

Throughout the years, homosexuality has had its fair share of uprises and drawbacks. Being gay and queer

in the 21st century has been extremely difficult for those who choose to be gay and live a queer lifestyle.

For example, many protests across the world have been occurring in favor of gay rights and have made a

significant impact on how we as humans view the world we live in today.

Many problems have been occurring within the gay community in recent years. For example, one problem

the gay community is facing right now is the increase in suicides, mainly due to increased discrimination

towards gays. Gays are often discriminated because of the lifestyle they choose and the sexuality they feel

the most comfortable identifying as. Schimanski & Treharne have been trying to find the answers to these

problems and why these problems occur in the first place. "The perception of suicide among queer

individuals has commonly been examined from the perspectives of heterosexual individuals. Past research

has revealed that same-sex attraction and attributes such as weakness and self-pity are perceived by

heterosexual individuals to lead to suicidality".(Schimanski & Treharne 2019).

As more questions arise in regard to the connection between an individual being gay and the likelihood of

that individual committing suicide, Schimanski & Treharne have been eagerly trying to find the answers

to these questions. As a result, an experiment and study was conducted to find out whether or not an

individual being gay and having the urge to commit suicide are connected in any way. A total of 28

individuals participated in this study. This study consisted of asking the individuals a series of questions

to determine whether or not the researchers could connect a valid final answer to why gay individuals

often have thoughts of suicide. For example, the researchers ask the individuals if they feel about certain
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gay pride events, feelings towards suicide prevention for gays, mental health concerns for gays, and much

more.

The results the researchers got after conducting this experiment resulted in almost all the participants

answering in favor of suicide, discrimination, and the normalization of being queer as important issues.

However, the study results show that suicide is the main issue the gay community has been dealing with.

The researcher's findings also explain in depth how suicide is not openly discussed within the gay

community and how it's affected the community as a whole. These findings have proved to not only

address the problems and questions Schimanski & Treharne have but has given the audience context to

what is currently troubling the gay community and the setbacks they may face in the future. What we

know as a reader is the fact discrimination towards gays and queers is the main cause for suicides within

the community. We, as an audience, can conclude this by looking at the results paragraph and the data the

researchers gathered.

All in all, prior to reading this article, I understood the hardships and difficulties the gay community has

been through and the struggles they face on a day-to-day basis. However, after reading this article and its

findings, I've come to the conclusion that the community faces more struggles than I could ever imagine.

After reading the article, I learned that suicide has become a main issue in the community due to

discrimination. The research and findings provided within the article has given me the knowledge to

understand more about the gay and queer community and how discrimination is often linked to suicidal

thoughts. Prior to reading this article, I never knew suicides were very much common in the gay and

queer community and never truly understood the amount of discrimination the community faces annually.

Work cited
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Schimanski & Treharne (2019). “Extra marginalisation within the community”: queer individuals’

perspectives on suicidality, discrimination and gay pride events. PSYCHOLOGY & SEXUALITY 32.