Article Analysis: Is Utah's Youth Suicide Rate Linked to Utah's Culture Surrounding LGBT

The article “Is Utah's youth suicide rate linked to Utah's culture surrounding LGBT?” by Heidi Hatch, addresses the high suicide rates involving two communities that take place in the state of Utah. The LDS has been held responsible for the harms of several LGBT community members. Significantly, the exclusion and the lack of support showed by the LDS community towards the LGBT youth has risen concerns on the Health Department sector as well as social media influencers. 

The emphasis made on the causes of suicides among the LGBT community and how this is related to the Mormon church is that members from the LGBT youth have been feeling rejected from both parents and the church regarding their sexual preferences. 

Furthermore, the effectiveness that the article has on the reader is the high level of emotions and especially the personal stories told that successfully makes the reader perceive the magnitude of the issue. However,  the way the author presents evidence which is regarded as pathos because of the intention to connect to the audience through personal stories of people affected by the issue. Despite the use of emotions, the author’s lack of evidence and facts regarding the Mormon church and its involvement in the high suicide rates among LGBT youth is simply a significant part that understates the issue discussed. 

The author shares at the beginning of the article, the data collected in the past years about the suicide rate among the LGBT youth and the connection between the religious culture in Utah and right after Hatch includes a popular story from a social media influencer that addresses the relation between the LDS community and the LGBT suicide rates. As a result, the audience is persuaded to discard the factual and continue to focus on the personal stories that have a high level of sympathy. Additionally, the author continues to talk about the social media influencer which shares the personal stories of members of the LGBT community that were affected by the LDS policies and their personal journey through the struggle and rejection from the Mormon church. The emotions evoked from this article are strictly involved in the presentation of personal stories that try to reach out to several communities, especially the ones that are not informed about the issue of the high level of suicides. With this in mind, this text attempts to relate people by using social media influencers that are concerned about the topic.

In addition, Heidi Hatch provides statistics about the connection between LDS policy and the high suicide rates when over 80 Utah youth took their own lives from 2012 to 2014 during the announcement by the LDS church in In November, when, the LDS church added same-sex marriage to its definition of apostasy. Even though the author revolves the article in one pathos appeal and its high effectiveness to implement sympathy to the victims and families, there is found the used of logos when a specific suicide rate is given to the reader. In fact, by presenting statistics about the suicide rate and the sharing of personal stories, the author’s purpose shifts from informative to persuasive to gain compassion for the victims.  

Due to the high controversy, the author gives the reader an statement made by the spokeswoman of the Mormon church Kristen Howey regarding the issue and which she states that “The Church is actively pursuing ways to help, including online resources and local leader training, and we encourage communities to continue to partner on prevention and intervention. Every soul is precious.” However, one of the author sources discusses the rejection of family and community towards LGBT members and their high risk to take their own lives when they come out. Moreover, the author’s intentions are to raise awareness to the public about how a community values affect the youth by several sorts of neglections. Additionally, the stories told have a high level of emotions that make the reader emotionally connected to the members affected, and make them aware of the struggles that they’ve gone through.

Truly, the author analyzes both personal experiences and statistics to build a connection between the high suicide rates in Utah and the religious culture. Although, the absence of clear data that links the Mormon church to the high suicide rate among the LGBT community makes you question the intentions of how the author approaches the topic and also the real intentions of the presentation of data. Hatch’s last resource to build any sort of connection to the suicide rate is to show different health associations to give credibility to the article, such as, the Utah health department that had the duty to search for a more valuable reason for the youth that has taken their own lives.

The causes could be several according to the Utah health department, for instance, social media, higher elevation, how often families move and the availability of guns in homes are some of the causes that may have increased the suicide rate. Notably, the factions shown by the author are clearly an attempt to the linking of the Mormon Church to the high suicide rate among the LGBT community but fails miserably for the excessive use of pathos in every paragraph and showing limited data in favor of the community that the author distinctly supports.

Overall, this article presents a notorious issue in the state of Utah where concerns have been risen by the Health Department and two communities that reside in the state. The effectiveness of this article is highly based on the emotional context of personal stories and detailed information that creates a link between policies and statements made by the Mormon church and how they affect the LGBT community members that are or were part of the LDS community. The inspirational anecdotes told in the article are the charmer that creates a web of compassion and understating around the reader. However, the lack of evidence and the use of a few references makes it vain for the highly used of pathos rather than pathos that could build a stronger and more successful article.