The Advocate: Maxwell Poth is Doing Something Right

Seven months ago I began a project that I believe will be the beginning to the end of an epidemic—teen suicide. Teen suicide is the number 1 cause of death for people aged 10-17 in my home state of Utah. Most of these kids are LGBTQ+, and it is the state's homophobic and heteronormative cultural and social dynamics (not the weather or the altitude) that embed themselves in our youths’ developing minds and cause internal damage. Damages that some do not deem fit to redirect or avoid. 

While I was filming for a documentary in my hometown of Bountiful, Utah, I ran into three girls I went to high school with. When I walked up to say hello, I was happy to see they remembered me. While we were catching up, the host of the documentary joined in our conversation. She asked if they were familiar with my project as well as the epidemic. All three mentioned that they read the articles and were aware of Utah’s problem. Following the question, one of the girls said two people we went to high school with just committed suicide last week. Eye contact is all we needed after that. All of us knew why these suicides happen. Yet, just like the rest of the state, they were afraid to say it aloud…