New Research Just Linked Same-Sex Marriage Legalization With A Drop in Suicide Attempts
In 2015, the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage the law of the land in America, a landmark victory in the fight for gay rights. Over the 11 years before that, though, 35 states passed their own marriage equality laws-and new analysis of the effects of these laws shows that marriage equality is linked with 134,000 fewer suicide attempts a year.
The study, published on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics by researchers from Johns Hopkins University's school of public health, shows that the legalization of same-sex marriage was connected with a huge drop in suicide attempts among high school students and especially among LGBTQ high school students. Overall, U.S. suicide rates are surging, and LGBTQ youth are at especially high risk. But when researchers looked at 32 of the 35 states that passed laws either for or against marriage equality in the years leading up to the Supreme Court's ruling, they found that states with laws in support of same-sex marriage saw teen suicide attempts decline by seven percent and LGBTQ youth suicide attempts specifically decrease by 14 percent. Suicide rates didn't change at all in states that enacted laws against same-sex marriage.
"These are high school students so they aren't getting married any time soon, for the most part," study leader Julia Raifman, ScD said in a press release. "There may be something about having equal rights-even if they have no immediate plans to take advantage of them-that makes students feel less stigmatized and more hopeful for the future." When LGBT kids think about the options available to them as adults and see that marriage is one of them, they may conclude that other options will be open, too, and feel optimistic about their futures-even if they're struggling in their day-to-day lives. "It's not easy to be an adolescent, and for adolescents who are just realizing they are sexual minorities, it can be even harder," Raifman adds. And when civil rights and mental health are as deeply connected as her research suggests, fighting for one means fighting for both.
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