The Advocate: When a Mormon Teen Comes Out

In this four-part series Maxwell Poth tells his own story as well as sharing the stories of three other Mormon teens. All photography courtesy of Maxwell Poth.

Suicide is the number 1 cause of death for people ages 10-17 in the state of Utah, nearly tripling since 2007. This past summer alone, at least four LBGTQ teens in Utah took their own lives. We cannot know how many more suicides went unrecognized or unreported. It is only when a teen is out and is visibly struggling in the blazes of institutionalized homophobia that the media takes notice. Despite this unforgivable loss of life, the state continues to fence the issue, blaming weather rather than taking a good look at the pandemic homophobia in Utah’s youth culture.