Rutgers Suicide: Sex Columnist's Simplistic Solution

The recent suicide of 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi made national news because of what preceded it: Clementi's roommate secretly broadcast over the Internet a video showing him having sex with another man in his dorm room. Several days later Clementi jumped off a bridge.

In the wake of the tragedy, popular advice columnist Dan Savage began appearing on the news to promote a suicide-prevention video titled "It Gets Better." Savage's project was recently highlighted on ABC Nightly News, with anchor Diane Sawyer reminding viewers in a closing comment to "Tell your friends it gets better."

The project began on the spur of the moment when Savage and his husband sat down in front of a camera and told stories about their abuse in high school as gay teens, and how they survived to lead happy lives.

Savage told MTV News:

"I could use social media, I could go on YouTube, I could make a digital video and I could post it, and I could directly address (bullied gay suicidal youth) and tell them, 'It gets better.' When a gay teenager commits suicide, it's because he can't picture a life for himself that's filled with joy and family and pleasure and is worth sticking around for... . Anybody whose privacy was invaded the way Tyler Clementi's privacy was invaded would've been outraged, humiliated and embarrassed and angry, but we have to ask ourselves: What pushed him to suicide? I suspect that Tyler Clementi, as we find out more about him, we'll find that he was a victim of bullying in high school, bullying in middle school... . It's really hard to look at this suicide and not see, perhaps, the culmination of years and years of abuse... ."

Savage is certainly knowledgeable about relationships and sex, but his grasp of effective suicide prevention -- and indeed of the facts surrounding Clementi's death -- is shaky at best.

Savage is assuming, without facts or evidence, that Clementi was driven to suicide because he had been bullied (or, in Savage's words, "had endured years and years of abuse"). While that is a possibility, so far there are no reports of Clementi being assaulted, bullied, or abused at Rutgers University or anywhere else.

The facts of the case have yet to be established, and Savage, in his eagerness to co-opt the Clementi tragedy to promote his project, got ahead of the story.

Furthermore, Savage is simply wrong when he states that gay teens kill themselves because they can't picture a life of joy, family and pleasure. In fact, teens -- both gay and straight -- kill themselves for many reasons.

There are several recent cases of heterosexual teens who killed themselves following embarrassing sexual revelations, so it's not even clear that Clementi's death necessarily had anything to do with his sexuality. (For more on how homicide victims are often posthumously co-opted into social and political causes, see Chapter 8 in my book Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists and Advertisers Mislead Us.)

No one doubts that Savage's "It Gets Better" project is well-intentioned. Gay bullying and suicide are of course important issues: Studies show that homosexual teens and young adults are at up to four times higher risk of suicide than straight kids, and are bullied more often than heterosexuals.

But the fact is that suicide is a complex issue, and suicidal people need more than a hug and a video telling them that life gets better. Suicide is a serious problem -- in fact it accounts for more deaths in the United States than homicide -- and those considering it need professional counseling, medication and other real interventions, not simplistic solutions.