A gay Utah Republican is blaming sex for the high suicide rate among LGBTQ youth.
In a Salt Lake City Tribune editorial board meeting the Salt Lake County Republican Party’s new communication director, Dave Robinson, explained the GOP is a better place for LGBTQ people than it once was.
While the Republican Party still opposes same-sex marriage, pushes anti-transgender bathroom regulation and President Donald Trump tried to ban transgender soldiers from serving in the military, Robin said it’s good for LGBTQ businesses.
“I said, you can own your own business, you can run for office. I don’t think there’s a better time on this planet in history to be gay than right now,” he said, attempting to illustrate the friendly tolerance of the GOP.
But when it came to the high suicide rate among LGBTQ youth, Robinson blamed promiscuity.
“I actually think it has more to do with the lifestyle that the gays are leading that they refuse to have any scrutiny with,” said Robinson.
He went on to claim he knew people in the LGBTQ community who have had “over 2,000 partners” and that this high number is leading to “some of the self-loathing to the point of suicide.”
According to the Trevor Project, “suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24.1,” whether they’re LGBTQ or straight. However LGB youth “seriously contemplate suicide at almost three times the rate of heterosexual youth” and are “almost five times as likely to have attempted suicide.”
For a young person to have had sex with 2,000 people by the time they’re 24 years old, they would have to have sex with one person every day for nearly 5.5 years.
“You talk to some of these people that have had grundles of sex partners and the self-loathing and basically the unhappiness and the self-hatred level is tremendously high,” said Robinson. “The gay community really needs to start having some conversations within their community, saying how is our lifestyle affecting our mental health.”
By contrast, LGB youth “who come from highly rejecting families are 8.4 times as likely to have attempted suicide as LGB peers who reported no or low levels of family rejection,” the Trevor Project reported.
Robinson did concede that such rejection and lack of acceptance an lead youth to live a more promiscuous lifestyle.
Studies on the topic don’t attribute promiscuity to higher suicide rates.
The Tribune cited Equality Utah executive director Troy Williams explaining the comments are a bizarre way to try and attract LGBTQ people to the GOP.
“Condemning who and how we love is a strange way to build a bridge between the Republican Party and the LGBTQ community,” he said. “Mr. Robinson’s rhetoric is deeply irresponsible and unbecoming of a leader in a political party in the state of Utah.”
Image: SLC GOP