A 14-year-old girl who was living in a devout Christian family hanged herself as she was too scared to tell her parents she might be a lesbian, Manchester, England, UK.
Elisabeth Lowe, known as Lizzie, was found hanged in a city park. Despite desperate attempts by paramedics too reanimate the girl, it was too late, she was pronounced dead shortly after midnight. A post-mortem examination concluded she had no drugs or alcohol in her body at the time of her death. She also had no diagnosable mental health problems.
It was later discovered that the teenager was experiencing serious stress as she was scared of telling her parents about her sexuality and had struggled to reconcile her feelings with the family’s strong Christian faith. Only Lizzie’s friends knew about her depression as they had regularly talked to her, both in person and over texts and Facebook messages, about self-harming and having suicidal thoughts.
What is even more sad is that her parents had no idea about the issues the girl was fighting with. Asked how the family would have reacted if she had spoken to them about her sexuality, Mr Lowe said:
“It wouldn’t have come as much surprise. She was very much a tomboy. In fact, she was more of a boy than some of the boys were, so it would have been no surprise at all. We would have been very supportive.”
Researchers have found that attempted suicide rates and suicidal ideation among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQQ) youth is comparatively higher than among the general population. LGBT teens and young adults have one of the highest rates of suicide attempts.
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