S. 2634, The Garrett Lee Smith Act

S. 2634, THE GARRETT LEE SMITH ACT -- (Extensions of Remarks - September 29, 2004)

Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring attention to a tragic issue that faces our country today: youth suicide. On September 9th, the House of Representatives passed, with my full support, S. 2634, the Garrett Lee Smith Act. The Act was named in honor of Senator GORDON SMITH's son who committed suicide last year. This legislation establishes grants for suicide prevention efforts directed at young people, authorizes the creation of a technical assistance center to help local and state providers of suicide prevention programs; and establishes a grant program for suicide prevention programs on college campuses. I am proud to support for this bill and confident that it will make a difference in the lives of countless young people in south central Wisconsin and across our Nation.

We must do all we can to nurture and support our Nation's greatest asset-our children. Suicide is currently the third leading cause of death among teenagers in the United States. Too many young people think they are facing lives that lack hope and promise. We must do everything we can to help our youth through difficult times and teach them that life is indeed worth living. The Garrett Lee Smith Act will go a long way to help in that effort.

Youth suicide is at epidemic proportions. All youth are at risk. But I want to speak about a group of youth who are sometimes invisible, ignored, or worse-condemned for simply being who they are. I am talking about America's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth.

Allow me to tell you a true story. When the people of Wisconsin first elected me to Congress, I received a letter from an 18 year-old from a small town in southern Illinois-population forty-four hundred. This young man had a passion for public service. He wrote, "I was president of my graduating class, treasurer of the student council, and senior board member on a local community service youth group ....." Here was a young man who cared about others, and who was already a valuable, productive member of his community. But then I read the next lines of his letter, and was devastated. It read, "I was following my dreams, until I realized that I am gay. At that point, I gave up."

Luckily, this story has a happy ending. Surfing the internet one day, this young man read an article about my being the first out lesbian elected to Congress. Thankfully he realized that he could be honest about himself as an openly gay man and still devote his life to public service. But, he went on in his letter to explain the real reason he was writing me. He told me that by reading about my story, "You not only saved my hopes and dreams, you saved my life. I have never told anyone this. I was on the edge before I read that article. The pressures had built up in me to the point of suicide. I was going to give up, not only on my hopes and dreams, but on my life altogether." The pressures he was talking about were not only the difficulties that all American youth face today, but the steady drip, drip, drip of intolerance and discrimination he experienced as he tried to live his life honestly as a gay man.

That young man needed and did not have access to adequate suicide prevention services. According to the Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth are four times more likely to report attempting suicide than their heterosexual peers. Along with the growing acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans, the Garrett Lee Smith Act will help ensure that all young people, including our LGBT youth, have access to high quality and effective suicide prevention services.

None of America's youth should consider suicide as an option to end pain in their lives. I am thankful for the passage of the Garrett Lee Smith Act, and am committed to doing all I can to combating youth suicide.