School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK.
Cult Health Sex. 2023 Nov;25(11):1559-1576. doi: 10.1080/13691058.2023.2172614. Epub 2023 Feb 13.
Suicide is a major public health concern, patterned by systematic inequalities, with lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT+) people being one example of a minoritised group that is more likely to think about and attempt suicide worldwide. To address this, UK national suicide prevention policies have suggested that LGBT+ people should be prioritised in prevention activities. However, there is little research seeking to understand how LGBT+ suicide is re/presented in political and policy spheres. In this article, we critically analyse all mentions of LGBT+ suicide in UK parliamentary debates between 2009 and 2019 and in the eight suicide prevention policies in use during this period. We argue that LGBT+ suicide is understood in two contrasting ways: firstly, as a pathological 'problem', positioning LGBT+ people either as or as and in need of mental health support. Alternatively, suicide can be seen as externally attributable to perpetrators of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate, requiring anti-hate activities as part of suicide prevention. In response, we argue that although these explanations may appear oppositional; they both draw on reductive explanations of LGBT+ suicide, failing to consider the complexity of suicidal distress, thus constraining understandings of suicide and suicide prevention.
自杀是一个主要的公共卫生关注点，存在系统性的不平等现象，男同性恋、女同性恋、双性恋和跨性别者（LGBT+）人群就是一个在全球范围内更有可能考虑和尝试自杀的少数群体的例子。为了解决这个问题，英国国家自杀预防政策建议将 LGBT+ 人群作为预防活动的重点。然而，很少有研究试图了解 LGBT+ 自杀在政治和政策领域是如何被呈现的。在本文中，我们批判性地分析了 2009 年至 2019 年间英国议会辩论中以及在此期间使用的八项自杀预防政策中所有提到的 LGBT+ 自杀的内容。我们认为，LGBT+ 自杀有两种截然不同的理解方式：首先，它被视为一种病态的“问题”，将 LGBT+ 人群要么视为易受伤害的，要么视为潜在的自杀者，需要心理健康支持。或者，自杀可以被视为外部归因于仇恨同性恋、双性恋和跨性别者的行为者，需要反仇恨活动作为自杀预防的一部分。因此，我们认为，尽管这些解释似乎相互对立，但它们都依赖于对 LGBT+ 自杀的简化解释，未能考虑到自杀困扰的复杂性，从而限制了对自杀和自杀预防的理解。
