Are gays 400% more likely to commit suicide than straight people?

The Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Samuel Nartey George, has claimed the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) says that homosexuals are more than 400% likely to commit suicide. 

Sam George made the claim in an interview he granted on Nigerian TV station, News Central after Ghana’s parliament passed the anti-LGBTQ bill. 

“CDC says that homosexuals are more than 400% likely to be suicidal,” the MP said. 

Fact-Check Ghana has verified this claim and presents the facts in this report. 

The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It is the country’s leading science-based, data-driven, service organisation that protects public health. According to the CDC, suicide is a leading cause of death in the US and is considered a “serious public health problem.” A publication by the Centre indicates that 3.5 million people planned a suicide attempt, and 1.7 million attempted suicide.

The CDC’s latest report on Suicide and Violence Prevention indicates that generally, males are at a higher risk of suicide “nearly four times the rate of females.”

However, regarding sexual orientation and suicide, it stated that “Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men are at even greater risk for suicide attempts, especially before the age of 25.”

The CDC says mental health challenges homosexuals and other people belonging to the LGBTQ community face are one of the reasons that account for their higher rate of suicide and suicide attempts. These mental challenges, the CDC highlighted, stemmed from the “hostile environment” for the LGBTQ community. 

According to the CDC, “a study of youth in grades 7-12 found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth were more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide as their heterosexual peers.”

However, even though the CDC said homosexual males were at risk of suicide, it did not say that they were more than 400% likely to take their lives as claimed by Sam George. 

That aside, the Trevor Project’s 2023 National Survey on Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People showed that 41% of LGBTQ young people considered attempting suicide in 2022. 

Further research work by the National Institute of Health (NHIH)’s Library of Medicine in the US on suicide attempts among gays and bisexual men corroborated the findings of the CDC that homosexual men are at a higher risk of attempting suicide. 

In November 2021, another research work by the NHIH published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine though found some disparities in suicide risk among lesbian, gay and bisexual adults but the study confirmed that homosexuals were prone to committing suicide. 

None of these studies by the NHIH and the National Survey on Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People reported that homosexuals were more than 400% likely to take their lives.

Fact-Check Ghana did not find any evidence of research works or publications by the CDC or other authoritative health organisations stating that homosexuals are more than 400% likely to commit suicide. 

While it is true that persons belonging to the LGBTQ community are at a higher risk of being suicidal, the CDC has not established the rate or percentage of risk at which homosexuals are likely to commit suicide relative to heterosexuals.