Unfortunately, as many know, suicide claims the lives of many people every year. Of these individuals, a large portion of them are young as one-third of all adolescent deaths are related to suicide (Liu & Mustanski, 2012). Now add sexual orientation to this equation and you'll find that many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth are at increased risk of suicide and self-harm. As a nurse, I believe this is a growing health concern that people can help change. To help change suicide rates, especially among LGBT youth, the general public should be made more aware of what they can do to show their support. Overall, the LGBT community is a defined subgroup of adolescents at risk for suicide. From a demographic study of 246 youth who identified as LGBT or unsafe, 31.3% had a history of suicide attempts (Liu & Mustanski, 2012). A Massachusetts youth risk behavior survey reported that individuals who identified as LGBT or had had same-sex sexual contact in the past year were three times more likely than their straight peers to contemplate suicide (American Association of Suicidology, n.d.). However, it is really difficult to determine exactly how many of these suicide deaths are related to sexual orientation status, such as LGBT. This is because death certificates do not include gender identity or sexual orientation as a reason for death by suicide (American Association of Suicidology, n.d.). Furthermore, due to a lack of social support, many of these individuals who have committed suicide may not have personally disclosed their sexual orientation to anyone. Just think of all the suicide deaths that could have been avoided if these... middle of paper individuals. Unfortunately, counseling is not enough and is currently not effective as more and more teenagers have continued to take their own lives. More needs to be done in schools to eliminate bullying, starting with administrative staff. It was so difficult for me to understand why some administrative staff would choose to "turn a blind eye" to this matter while it was happening directly in front of them in a school setting. Bullying is never okay. Perhaps teachers need more training and education about LGBT youth being bullied and how suicide can be an end result. If I had witnessed something that shouldn't have happened and now a child had died because of it, I know it would eat me up inside with guilt. Hopefully all those who mistreated Alexander now understand the extent to which it can hurt an individual and will not do so again, unfortunately it is too late though.