ABC NEWS: Students at Mormon college Brigham Young University have released avideo about their experiences as homosexuals in a religious community that prohibits gay sex and marriage.
The video, called "It Gets Better at Brigham Young University," is part of the "It Gets Better" project, founded by columnist Dan Savage to prevent suicide among LGBT youth.
Erikka Beam, a recent BYU graduate in psychology, said that when she realized she was gay, she became depressed, started cutting classes, and was told by her bishop that she wasn't worthy to take the sacrament.
"I just felt, 'I'm not worthy. God clearly doesn't love me because he does not love gay people,'" she said in the video.
Beam also talked about her struggle with suicide.
"I just thought that I needed to just kill myself because the heartbreak of me dying would be less than the heartbreak my parents would experience if I came out to them," Beam said.
According to the video, 74 percent of LGBT students at BYU in Provo, Utah, have contemplated suicide, and 24 percent have attempted suicide.
"I thought that eventually maybe it would be better if I died," one male student said, "so I did everything I could to really be that perfect Mormon. I thought that was going to cure myself." » | Olivia Katrandjian | Sunday, April 08, 2012
