20-year-old man takes his own life following months of homophobic abuse

A 20 year-old man from Wyoming in the U.S. has taken his own life after he was bullied and harassed for being gay.

Trevor O’Brien was found by police in a park on Tuesday evening (March 8), after being reported missing by a friend, who found his empty car in a parking lot. He appeared to have taken a fatal overdose.

His family members told County 17 local news that they believed he took his own life as a result of sustained bullying, saying: “No one did anything about it.” They added that he “felt he had no one to turn to for help.”

He shared an image on his Facebook page in December which showed that his car had been vandalised.

Gay youths are three times more likely to commit suicide in the U.S. than their straight peers, according to 2015 research from The Trevor Project. O’Brien was also Native American, a group who have the highest rates of suicide of any ethnicity in the U.S.

The coroner’s office dealing with O’Brien’s death is not releasing any other details surrounding his death at present, as a full investigation is still ongoing.

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