Ferlatte, Olivier. (2014, October). Suicide Attempts Among Gay and Bisexual Men: An Intersectionality Analysis . Presented at the Gay Men’s Health Summit, Vancouver, Canada.

Suicide, like many other health issues, tends to affect segments of the population that are most marginalized. These include gay and bisexual men, as well as Aboriginal individuals and people living in rural and remote communities. While these groups are not mutually exclusive, they are generally treated as such in the suicide literature.Little is known about how suicide is distributed within groups, including among the gay and bisexual men population. We used insights from intersectionality theory to investigate suicide attempts within the last year across a diversity of demographic factors in the Sex Now survey 2011. We found that suicide attempts were unevenly distributed. Particularly at risk of reporting a suicide attempt were gay and bisexual men who had both, a low income and who do not have a college or university degree. More so, we found that these two factors had a stronger effect on urban men. We also found that heterosexual partnerships appear to protect bisexual men from suicide attempts. These results suggest that gay and bisexual men are not affected equally by suicide. Future research and suicide prevention interventions must acknowledge the diversity of experiences among this community, particularly along the axes of income, education, geography, and partnership status.

source