LGBT deaths raise tough issues

Fourth-year world arts and culture student Kian Boolori returned
from the funeral of one of his friends Thursday, only to find out a
few hours later that another friend of his had died that
evening.

“My initial reaction when I heard about Mandy was complete
shock and trying to simply comprehend what was going on,”
Boolori said. “I felt compounded by the fact that it was so
recent of Steven passing away.”

Steven Thang Quoc Le, 22, and Amanda Hafleigh, 19, both died
within a week of each other. Boolori knew the two because they were
all involved in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
community on campus.

Le, the 2003 – 2004 president of the Vietnamese Student Union,
died at his home in Orange County Nov. 11, and Hafleigh, a
second-year American literature student, was found dead in her
Dykstra third floor dorm room Nov. 18.

The deaths of Le and Hafleigh, both of whom were homosexuals,
have landed difficulty on the LGBT campus community.

Hafleigh’s death, an apparent suicide, has also raised
questions about the high suicide rate among homosexual youths.

Homosexuals account for 30 percent of all suicides among youths
aged 15 to 24, and homosexuals are two to three times more likely
than their peers to take their own lives.

Ronni Sanlo, director of the LGBT Resource Center, said
Hafleigh’s sexuality was not the reason she had died, but
that suicide is still a problem within the greater LGBT
community.

“I just don’t believe that Mandy’s sexual
orientation had anything to do with this,” Sanlo said, adding
that she thought depression was one of the reasons Hafleigh
died.

Shortly after friends of Hafleigh shared stories of her life,
during a memorial in Kerckhoff Hall Tuesday night, a university
psychiatrist shared similar statistics and pleaded with students
and community members to fight homophobia within their
communities.

Suicide is a very serious problem within the LGBT community,
said Pat Alford-Keating, a clinical psychiatrist at Student
Psychological Services.

Something must be done to stop the “drip” of
homophobia in the community, Alford-Keating said.

Jorge Valencia, executive director of The Trevor Project,
agreed.

The Project is a California based organization devoted to
raising awareness about suicide among homosexual youths.

“Society as a whole is not very embracing of someone who
is different,” Valencia said, adding that many people believe
homosexuality is a choice, contributing to prejudice.

Valencia said the process of dealing with one’s own sexual
identity can also be difficult and many gay youths fear rejection
by society.

Sanlo said homosexual youths find themselves depressed and the
victims of discrimination.

“Being the victim of discrimination takes its toll,”
Sanlo said.

“It’s exhausting. … It can easily throw someone
into a depressing state.”

Sanlo said UCLA is one of the most welcoming campuses for
homosexual students in the nation ““ relatively.

Derogatory slurs towards those in the LGBT community as well as
other hateful phrases can be heard almost anywhere on campus, Sanlo
said, adding that developing allies within the community is one of
the best ways to combat the overall problem.

The Trevor Project, based in California, provides a free 24
hour, seven day a week, hot-line for gay or questioning youths. The
hot line number is 1-866-4-U-TREVOR.