Suicide in the LDS Church/Intermountain Region

[_The Erotic Apologist]

This isn't directly related to teen suicide in the Morridor, but I think it's close enough to warrant inclusion.

CELEBRATING EASTER April 19, 1992.  

Easter.   A bill had been proposed in the California State Legislature that would recognize long-term relationships between gays and between lesbians.   Christian fundamentalists across the state were seized with righteous indignation! Reverend Glen Cole of the multi-million-dollar Capitol Christian Center (Assembly of God-Pentecostal) announced a Holy Christian Crusade to prevent gays and lesbians from experiencing any level of social recognition, acceptance or personal fulfillment.   The Pentecostal congregation was organized to picket the legislature daily.   They marched in parades, passing around anti-gay petitions.          

…As did the gender community.   It’s the American political process. Suspecting that the Pentecostals had never actually experienced love in a relationship, a gay group known as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence announced a Kiss-In in Sacramento.  

…By chance, it happened to take place in front of the Capitol Christian Center.   During Easter services.

Reverend Cole was in the midst of an Easter sermon which compared gay efforts in support of the bill to pogroms by Nazi brownshirt thugs during the 1930’ s.   He never got to finish that sermon.   As the chanting outside began to drown out the chanting inside, the congregation decided to pour outside and deliver a sermon personally to the poor benighted Sisterhood-in-need-of-damnation. The lines were drawn on the Pentecostal Lawn:   Nuns on one side praying for their version of love; evangelists on the other side singing stirring hymns of Christian militancy.   Fiery Verses from the Old Testament screamed through the air like mortar shells.

Into the center of this war of ideologies walked a young teenager named Peter.   He stepped into No-Man’s land between the lines, shed his Pentecostal choir robes, and joined the ranks of the gay damned.   The battle froze for several moments of stunned silence as Peter was accepted with open arms by his newfound brothers and sisters. The evangelicals howled with furious frenzy that was now focused on a young teenager— a traitor— a dangerous wolf that had been lying hidden in their midst.   The battle sputtered on for several more hours, but the Christians realized they had lost the day.   Their bigotry had been clearly exposed.   They had been defeated by a gay choirboy named Peter.

Of course, revenge was quick and resolute:   Peter was summarily excommunicated and anathematized in effigy.   His natal family informed him that gay boys were NOT welcome within the holy halls of their home: “Son, don’t even think of darkening our doorstep again.”

Fortunately, Peter had a new family which accepted him for who he truly was.   The Sisters arranged for foster care with a gay couple in Nebraska.   For three years Peter was in heaven.   There was no more hiding; no squirming beneath anti-gay rants by semi-loving parents.   His new parents loved him without limit.   They were sensitive to the things he was going through, because they’d been through it themselves.   Being gay faded into the background as Peter went about the business of surviving adolescence.

But on January 23, 1995, Mary Dean Harvey, director of Nebraska’s Department of Social Services, enacted a policy that permanently and irrevocably disqualified all gays from providing foster care in the state.   Two weeks later a black Lincoln pulled up in front of Peter’s school.   Peter found himself pushed into the back seat between two stern (but kindly) protective services agents, sent by Director Mary to “save him”. He wasn’t told where he was going; only that he’d never see his wicked foster parents again. Peter was released into the custody of new foster parents who assured him that— with a healthy dose of Good Christian Values— they’d cure him of his demonic urges.

Two months later, Peter hung himself in their garage          

It was reported as:   Teenage Suicide.   Cause “unknown”.

Branch MD, Cassandra (2013-03-03). The New Gender Paradigm: Transsexuality in the 21st Century, Volume 1 (Kindle Locations 2907-2917). The New Gender Paradigm Project. Kindle Edition.

[_Doctor Steuss]

In the process of attending grief groups it came to my attention that the area around Utah is referred to as "the suicide belt" by the CDC and APA.

You may find this of interest (it is one of many theories on contributing factors of hightened suicide rates in the Mountain States): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3114154/

My sincere condolences on your loss, and I hope you find what you are looking for in your searches.

[_moksha]

(it is one of many theories on contributing factors of hightened suicide rates in the Mountain States): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3114154/.

Don't forget the seasonal depressive effect from less sunlight due to the tilt of the earth's axis and the anxiety of shortened scroll length from the high altitude.