Law, health and suicide: Impacts of laws and judicial decisions on the health of LGBT youth

Abstract

Suicide has long been considered a major public health problem. This is a complex phenomenon that has grown significantly all over the world, more markedly in young people. Several researchers point to a greater vulnerability to the ideals, attempts and suicides of the population of certain social groups, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people compared to their cis-heterosexual peers. This higher propensity for this phenomenon is described by such researchers as resulting from the stigma, violence, and prejudice suffered by these subjects on account of their sexuality/ gender identity. The objective of this article is to analyze whether the State guarantee of rights has repercussions on the reduction of ideations, attempts and suicides in the LGBT Youth population, in order to understand the relationship of the State with these specific risk factors to the suicide of the LGBT population. This work was produced from a qualitative research, as far as the objectives was an exploratory research and in relation to the procedures is a bibliographical and documentary research. It was evidenced through the present research that the State in guaranteeing/denying rights to the LGBT population contributes to the decrease/increase of the social stigma directed to such population. Thus, such guarantee/denial laws/judgments can significantly influence the rates of ideation, trial and suicide in the LGBT youth population. This work is important because of the scarcity of studies in Portuguese with this perspective of law as a possible means of producing health for the LGBT population.