Queer Resistance and Education for Suicide Prevention : HIV/AIDS Activism and Structural Change for 2SLGBTQIA+ Communities

Critiquing initiatives that fail to address traumatic conditions causing queer suicidality, this book proposes adapting AIDS activist strategies as educational resistance to the structural forces that make many queer people not want to be alive.

This book takes inspiration from AIDS activist history to argue that current individualized approaches to the queer suicide crisis could be expanded to include structural work. Critiquing initiatives that fail to address traumatic conditions causing queer suicidality, it proposes adapting AIDS activist strategies as educational resistance to the structural forces that make many queer people not want to be alive. The book explores six areas critical to improving the livability of queer communities: (1) familial homophobia and transphobia, (2) poverty, (3) healthcare, (4) education, (5) lateral violence, and (6) administrative violence. Examining both lived realities and educational implications, it makes an urgent case for the importance of addressing these six areas for queer folks, especially trans youth, in an increasingly conservative climate. A timely and forward-thinking volume, this book will be of interest to researchers, students, and activists working on queer history, mental health, HIV/AIDS, activism, and queer and trans studies.