Suicide rates high among gays in both 'anally closeted' Pakistan & US

A psychiatrist friend from Karachi, Pakistan, informs me there is high suicide rate among gays in Pakistan, one of the nine countries in the world where a gay person can be sentenced to death though suicide rates are high in the US too. I too suffered from major depression because of my sexual orientation.

My Karachi gay psychiatrist, who proudly says “No, I never tasted a pussy” preferred to remain anonymous as he says Pakistan is “anally closeted.” He said depression and suicide cases are high among Pakistan gays and that two of his gay clients ended up committing suicide. He regrets that there are no studies about gay depression or suicides in Pakistan. 

He said most gay people in his South Asian country are married and living a dual, secret life, adding that millions of Pakistan men enjoy anal sex but are never willing to admit that in public. “In Pakistan most men are either bisexual or gay, and married. Only a few, who get in the trap of marriage, end up being divorced. I have a number of friends who now curse themselves for getting married. Their children are in 20s and they are depressed.”

Grindr in Karachi, commercial capital of Pakistan.

Social media has helped the gay guys in Pakistan, like elsewhere in the world. On Facebook there are a number of pages including the community group Pakistan Gays and Boys, and even a Pakistan magazine called Gay Dosti that seems to carry pictures of teenaged Pakistani gay.s There are groups that have thousands of followers He said apps like Grindr, Hornet and blued and gay dating sites like manjam have made gay mating in Pakistan much much simpler, but not without risks. For example a gang in Karachi would trap gay guys on these apps. “Mostly after snatching money and beating the guy, they would leave them alone,” he said, adding “I know four of these victims. I treated two of them for depression and post traumatic disorder syndrome (PTDS). Manjam was banned in Pakistan after three gay guys were killed in Lahore, capital of Punjab some years ago by a killer who trapped them on Manjam.

Hornet in Karachi, commercial capital of Pakistan.

I feel myself a total misfit in the fast running US. Just like yesterday when I missed my doctor's appointment due to bad traffic in Washington DC area. It took me 90 minutes to travel to my doctor, 17 miles away. It is true in my culture hurrying is taboo and my late mom always used to say in Balochi language, "A bitch in a hurry makes the puppies blind." 

At the same time, I am  here in the US celebrating my freedoms as an openly gay man. So very happy about it. Just the hand-written letter from the first openly gay congressman Barney Frank can lift my spirits on days when I am very low, like yesterday when I missed my doctor's appointment and spent an extra four hours on the Washington DC Metroploitan area  roads. Barney wrote to me 11 years back." Other than the stars and moon in the sky or occasionally a baby's cry "Thanks for the card. I appreciate the kind words. And if there's any member of Congress who will react entirely positively to learning that someone is gay, its Steny Hoyer, whose chief floor assistant as majority leader is a proud, openly gay man. Barney Frank."

It is true that had it not been for my political views that Pakistan is a bastard child of the UK that was groomed into a prostitute on the world stage by the US, and as such Balochistan needs to be free,  and my sexual orientation, I did have name recognition in Pakistan even if as a member of an ex-rated family. For instance the politician who hosted Barack Obama in 1981 when he visited Pakistan Ahmedmian Soomro was a close family friend, once madly in love with my deceased mom. So here I am happy over my freedoms, but still feeling I lost most of my 41 years of my existence in Pakistan, which I call Cluster Fuckistan (three first years in Burma and two years in UAE).

Suicides high even in USA

But leave alone Pakistan, even in the US gays, lesbians and bisexual folks have high suicide rates.
According to a research study by the US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health (NIH) males who have sex with other males are at elevated risk for suicide attempts, with such risk clustered earlier in life. Some risk factors were specific to being gay or bisexual in a hostile environment. the research suggests that gay men, lesbians, and bisexual persons have higher rates of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and completed suicides than do heterosexual individuals.

Suicide is a big issue in the USA. Every day, approximately 105 Americans die by suicide., says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.(CDC). The organization says there is one death by suicide in the US every 12 minutes, suicide takes the lives of over 38,000 Americans every year, is the 10th leading cause of death in the US for all ages,  while there is one suicide for every estimated 25 suicide attempts but there is one suicide for every estimated in suicide attempts among the elderly.