The Health and Human Services is trying to force a federally funded conference to change it’s name. The talk is called, “Suicide Prevention Among Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Individuals.” However, there has been a push to drop “gay”, “lesbian”, “bisexual” and “transgender” from the title to promote inclusiveness. The HHS thinks that “sexual identity” covers it, and of course they’re wrong. Everyone, from chaste nuns to a newlywed heterosexual couple to has a sexual identity, so the HHS is just plain wrong.
Suicide has been proven to be up to three times higher in the GLBT community than the heterosexual community. That is what the forum is gathering for, to focus on the problems specifically around GLBT folks. There’s no reason to change the title; GLBT folks are just as important as their heterosexual counterparts, and a symposium dedicated to understanding suicide should be conducted as is, and not shortcircuited by HHS.