Alex Gaytan
ENG 1010
J. Roberts
04/01/2019
Rough Draft
The article “Is Utah's youth suicide rate linked to Utah's culture surrounding LGBT?” by
Heidi Hatch, addresses the high suicide rates involving two communities that take place in the
state of Utah. The LDS has been held responsible for the harms of several LGBT community
members. Significantly, the exclusion and the lack of support showed by the LDS community
towards the LGBT youth has risen concerns on the Health Department sector as well as social
media influencers.
The emphasis made on the causes of suicides among the LGBT community and how this
is related to the Mormon church is that members from the LGBT youth have been feeling
rejected from both parents and the church regarding their sexual preferences.
Furthermore, the effectiveness that the article has on the reader is the high level of emotions and
especially the personal stories told that successfully makes the reader perceive the magnitude of
the issue. However, the way the author presents evidence which is regarded as pathos because of
the intention to connect to the audience through personal stories of people affected by the issue.
Despite the use of emotions, the author’s lack of evidence and facts regarding the Mormon
church and its involvement in the high suicide rates among LGBT youth is simply a significant
part that understates the issue discussed.
The author shares at the beginning of the article, the data collected in the past years about
the suicide rate among the LGBT youth and the connection between the religious culture in Utah
and right after Hatch includes a popular story from a social media influencer that addresses the
relation between the LDS community and the LGBT suicide rates. As a result, the audience is
persuaded to discard the factual and continue to focus on the personal stories that have a high
level of sympathy. Additionally, the author continues to talk about the social media influencer
which shares the personal stories of members of the LGBT community that were affected by the
LDS policies and their personal journey through the struggle and rejection from the Mormon
church. The emotions evoked from this article are strictly involved in the presentation of
personal stories that try to reach out to several communities, especially the ones that are not
informed about the issue of the high level of suicides. With this in mind, this text attempts to
relate people by using social media influencers that are concerned about the topic.
In addition, Heidi Hatch provides statistics about the connection between LDS policy and
the high suicide rates when over 80 Utah youth took their own lives from 2012 to 2014 during
the announcement by the LDS church in In November, when, the LDS church added same-sex
marriage to its definition of apostasy. Even though the author revolves the article in one pathos
appeal and its high effectiveness to implement sympathy to the victims and families, there is
found the used...
