Out on Campus: Addressing suicide prevention among queer students

This article contains mention of suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis or needs assistance, please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988.

The Crisis Text Line can be reached by texting “HOME” to 741-741. To use The Trevor Project’s LGBTQIA+ Hotline, text “START” to 678-678.

September is suicide prevention month, and for LGBTQIA+ individuals, there are disproportionate impacts on those with diverse identities.

According to an article about risks of suicidality in queer youth, published in the Journal of Adolescense, suicide is the fourth-leading cause of death among youth and young adults aged 15 to 29, worldwide.

They also found in a meta-analysis and review of multiple studies that individuals identifying as LGBTQIA+ were more than three times as likely to have attempted suicide than their cisgender or heterosexual counterparts.

This fact is not lost on me, either. Throughout my time being surrounded by peers with queer identities, I have witnessed, time and time again, queer youths facing aggressive mental health struggles.

The Rider News and the whole Rider community had even lost one of its own to suicide in October 2024. Suicide is a problem that heavily impacts youth, and even more, queer youth.

While there is so much more for everyone to do to help keep suicide rates as low as possible, it is imperative that, especially in college, we uplift queer individuals and queer voices as to make life comfortable and positive for them.

The Trevor Project works to prevent suicide in LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults.

There are expansive options for support from The Trevor Project, including their 24/7 crisis text line and phone call services, peer support services through Trevor Space, educational services with ally-training sessions and research to help save lives of at-risk queer youth.

Queer individuals face a large amount of struggles that their cisgender and heterosexual peers do not. There is an extra sense of societal pressure on people who identify as LGBTQIA+.

At Rider, students have the opportunity to self-report their gender identities. Though sexualities are not included in the self-reports, data gathered by Enrollment Planning show that nearly 3.5% of Rider’s student population identify with gender markers that do not align with their assigned sex at birth.

Pew Research conducted a study on gender identities in young adults, and the research found that approximately 1.6% of U.S. adults identify with a gender that does not align with their biological sex.

With that said, Rider’s population of gender-diverse students is just around, if not, a little bit higher, than the average. This means that, as a campus, it is necessary to make a place for students of different identities and backgrounds.

Those who are from diverse backgrounds are at higher risk for suicide due to the adversity they face. Some may feel alone, misunderstood, not accepted or taken less seriously.

Suicide Prevention Month is incredibly important to draw awareness to because so many people, even non-queer individuals, face struggles they feel they cannot talk about.

The stigma must be removed from mental health, now more than ever. Suicide rates have been steadily climbing and it was the cause for 48,824 deaths in 2024, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

It is scary and unsettling to know how deeply suicide impacts individuals, and how many lives it takes yearly. But, we can do something about it.

Reach out to your friends. Reach out to people from your classes. Check on those you know who are having a hard time. And reach out to the ones who seem happy.

We, as students, can try to break this. Lend a helping hand to someone in need, make queer people and non-queer people alike feel safe, supported and loved.

No matter who you are, you are loved and supported here at Rider. Reach out for help if you need it. People are in your corner.

Cal Sutton is a junior journalism major

This article is part of the Out on Campus column by Cal Sutton to spread awareness and shine light on LGBTQIA+ identities.