A new study by researchers from Johns Hopkins and Harvard concludes that the legality of same-sex marriage has had a positive effect in reducing suicide attempts among lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender teenagers.
The research tracked data from 1999 to 2015 as various states either adopted same-sex marriage through legislative means or by court order, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
During that period, the researchers estimated, same-sex marriage policies would be associated each year with 134,000 fewer adolescents attempting suicide, the Times reported.
The study is published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics and is supplemented by an editorial from Columbia University public health expert Mark Hatzenbuehler, who hailed the research as exploring the “structural stigma — in the form of state laws” that had represented “a potentially consequential but thus far largely overlooked” role in suicidal tendencies in LGBT youth.
The United States Supreme Court made same-sex marriage a legal right nationwide in its landmark 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision.
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