Far right wing Christian extremist pastor Kent Christmas says gay people die by suicide at a high rate because they feel guilty about being gay. Christmas sees homosexuality as an act, not as a state of a person’s being, and declares “they hate doing it,” meaning, being gay.
“Hallelujah!” Pastor Christmas declared. “When we see God begin to do some powerful things in the Spirit, God begins to set men and women free by the power of the Holy Ghost.”
“I cannot tell you how my heart goes out to the homosexual community because there are so many of them,” Christmas said in video published by Right Wing Watch (below.) “Suicide amongst the homosexual community is one of the highest rates of suicide of anything in the earth. And part of it is because of the guilt, they know that it’s not right but they, they’re bound, and they hate doing it.”
Christmas recently attributed the increase in people who identify as LGBTQ to a “demonic spirit that comes after our seed.”
Pastor Christmas is right that the rate of suicidal thoughts and suicidal behavior is higher among the LGBTQ community, especially youth and teens, but he is entirely wrong as to the cause.
“Research shows that anti-LGBT discrimination and victimization contribute to an increase in the risk of suicidality and that LGBT people are at disproportionate risk of suicidal ideation, planning, and attempts,” UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute reports.
One study of LGBQ youth published just this week reveals that these children are “less satisfied in their family and tend to experience more bullying at school and in social media,” which can lead to “high rates of suicidal ideation, planning, and attempts.”
Conversion therapy, which LGBTQ people have compared to torture, is also a cause. Pastor Christian has said his own son “was” gay, and suggested he went through some type of religious conversion therapy.
“I watched the Holy Ghost deliver him and set him free,” Christmas said.
The Williams Institute also reports that “LGB people who have undergone conversion therapy almost twice as likely to attempt suicide.”
And a Trevor Project study last year revealed 48% of “gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other gender nonconforming young Americans…said that in the last 12 months, they engaged in self-harm; that number rose to 60% for trans and nonbinary youth.”
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