Patrick Smyth has just reported some tragic news, the suicide of well-known American intactivist Jonathon Conte, at the age of 34. Another American campaigner, Marilyn Fayre Milos, reported the news on her Facebook page – here.
Patrick took a ‘selfie’ with Jonathon during a protest in Denver, Colorado, in July 2014. Jonathon is on the right:
A photograph of Jonathon during a protest in 2012, drawn by Patrick from his Facebook page:
We covered the issue of male suicide in our 2015 general election manifesto (pp.46-8). The male:female suicide differential more than doubled in the 30 years between 1983 and 2013, from 1.7:1 to 3.5:1. In the manifesto we reported that the taxpayer is funding six research studies into male suicide, at a cost of £1.5 million. None of them have a remit to consider male suicide specifically. In the meantime, the government is spending £30 million encouraging more women into engineering.
The primary driver of male suicide is reactive depression, brought on by overwhelming life events. My article on the matter for the International Business Times is here. In most cases the state is the cause of that reactive depression, through its responses (or lack of responses) to:
– access to children following family breakdowns
– male victims of domestic violence
– homelessness
– MGM (failing to enforce the law, by prosecuting the criminals who carry out the mutilations)
I don’t have an estimate of the number of men who commit suicide as a result of MGM, but I’d be willing to bet that in the vast majority of cases the men aren’t anti-MGM campaigners, they’ve suffered in silence. MGM as the direct cause of the mental anguish which led to them committing suicide will have been lost to posterity.
Of course men should talk to professionals about their depression, but talking won’t restore foreskins, deliver access to children, or solve homelessness… or solve most of the other problems impacting so heavily on men, that they decide death is preferable to life.
On Thursday, in two days time, we’ll be having the fourth of a series of six anti-MGM protests, in Golders Green, London. Details of all three remaining protests before the London conference are here. I urge you to join us, in part for the memory of Jonathon Conte, yet another fine man lost through the consequences of MGM. Patrick Smyth will, of course, be there. His dedication to the cause of intactivism knows no bounds, and we salute him.
We end with the start of our manifesto section on suicide:
Anyone with suicidal inclinations is strongly advised to seek help, perhaps by calling the Samaritans. Their website is http://samaritans.org, phone 08457 909090 (Republic of Ireland – 116 123), email jo@samaritans.org.