Politicians’ anti-gay policies and homophobic speech can play a role in the suicides of LGBT people, according to one of the world’s leading psychiatrists.

Professor Dinesh Bhugra's remarks follow the decision last week of Belfast-based suicide prevention charity Lighthouse to suspend a board member for tweeting that the Democratic Unionist Party's opposition to equal rights leads to suicides.



Bhugra, a former president of both the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the World Psychiatric Association, told BuzzFeed News that discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation “can contribute to suicide, suicidal ideation and self-harm”.

There is, said Bhugra, “a very clear link between policy, social factors and psychiatric problems in LGBT groups” with one of the three main causes of suicide being the social environment in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people live.



“Social causation [of suicide] is well linked with the state of the society and how people feel they fit in – or don’t,” he said. “If there is no equity and one group is seen as inferior then it is inevitable that there will be problems in self-image and self-esteem and that may contribute to the feeling of worthlessness.”

This feeling of low self-esteem is a key factor in many suicides, said Bhugra, who characterised the internal thought process as, “If I don’t feel valued by the society – who’s going to miss me? – I might as well die.”

Bhugra, who also takes up presidency of the British Medical Association this summer, spoke out after Lighthouse mounted an investigation into Malachai O’Hara, a trustee, for tweeting that the DUP’s “homophobia is killing kids across the country”. Northern Ireland has the highest suicide rate in the UK.

O’Hara also mentioned in his tweet newly appointed DUP councillor Dale Pankhurst, who in turn made a complaint to Lighthouse, prompting the investigation. Pankhurst told a local newspaper he “doesn’t have a homophobic bone” in his body and “knows many people who are gay”. Lighthouse said O’Hara’s views do not “reflect or represent” the charity.