New resources aimed at creating a "Best Practices" guide for suicide prevention among LGBT youth have been released this week by the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University.

Over the past few years, media reports of suicide among LGBT youth has become increasingly more common. Communities, schools, colleges and youth service organizations have struggled to fill an urgent need in identifying at-risk youth, risk behaviors and intervention strategies to prevent suicide and suicidal behavior.

The new "Best Practices" resources include several studies and publications created by the Family Acceptance Project under the direction of Dr. Caitlin Ryan and are designed to help reduce vulnerability and risk among LGBT children, youth or adults.

The first of these resources – a multi-lingual, multi-cultural series of family education booklets – Supportive Families, Healthy Children: Helping Families Support their LGBT Children – have been designated as the first “Best Practice” resources for suicide prevention for LGBT youth and young adults by the national Best Practices Registry for Suicide Prevention.

“Our work is grounded in rigorous research and rooted in the cultural experiences and values of scores of diverse LGBT youth and families," said Dr. Caitlin Ryan, Director of the Family Acceptance Project. "So these family education booklets resonate for very diverse families and help them decrease rejecting behaviors which our research shows -- though motivated by care and concern – instead contribute to serious health risks for LGBT young people. For example, our research shows that common rejecting behaviors such as trying to prevent LGBT youth from learning about their identity, not allowing them to have gay friends or not letting them participate in an LGBT youth group are related to a 9-times greater likelihood of attempted suicide.”

In discussing the importance of FAP’s family education materials, Dr. Ann Haas, Director of Prevention Projects for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, noted: “For the past decade, Dr. Ryan and her team have undertaken foundational research on the role of families and related social institutions in contributing to protective factors and risk for suicidal behavior among LGBT young people. They have turned that research into powerful prevention tools for diverse families. Used in programs across the country, these tools will save lives.”

Supportive Families, Healthy Children is available for download on the FAP website at: http://familyproject.sfsu.edu/publications. Printed copies are available for distribution from the Family Acceptance Project in orders of any size. Lower literacy and faith-based versions are in development. FAP provides on-site training on using these materials and FAP’s research-based supportive family intervention model and other resources and tools. Contact [email protected] to obtain printed versions and for information on consultation and training.

Information on Supportive Families, Healthy Children’s “Best Practice” designation is available on the Best Practices Registry’s webpage hosted by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center at www.sprc.org.

Corey Jackson, a 19-year-old student at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., was found dead in a wooded area near campus. Police say he hanged himself on Tuesday, Oct. 19. The report of another gay teenager committing suicide at an American college only reiterates the fact that LGBT youth suicide is a national epidemic.

LGBT youth do not commit suicide because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. They commit suicide because how society -- families, friends, government, churches, etc -- treats and views LGBT people.

According to local Michigan police bullying was not a factor in Johnson's death - but why does this matter? We must go beyond the national dialogue that has focused on "bullying" and remember that LGBT youth had been in the midst of an epidemic of suicides for decades.

Suicide is not a new problem. We are just paying attention now. Although bullying is a component to this national epidemic, we must dig deeper into the epidemic of LGBT youth suicide to truly understand why young people claim their life as an answer. What is REAL and much more pervasive than bullying is the anti-gay social stigma, internalized homophobia, discrimination and self crisis that LGBT and questioning or closeted youth experience.

All of us in society -- and specifically the LGBT movement itself -- needs to prioritize youth when it comes to support and funding of youth concerns. It is a travesty that it has taken a national news headline, and sadly many more now, to bring attention to LGBT youth suicide being a national epidemic.

Campus Pride is committed to doing whatever is necessary. Our mission is to give "voice" and "action" for LGBT young people -- to build future leaders and safer, more LGBT-friendly colleges and universities.