I can’t believe I’m writing about suicide again, this for the third time in a week, but, well, here we are, as the circumstances require another post.

In today’s Philadelphia Inquirer there is an article, “U.S. Wants ‘Gay’ Out of Title of Suicide Discussion,” by Rick Weiss, reprinted from a recent issue of the Washington Post, that about set my hair on fire.

The Bush administration-appointed right wingers running the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services have spent countless hours and untold effort to prevent attendees -- doctors, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, therapists, professionals, and experts, you know, grown-ups, that kind of thing -- of an upcoming (February 28) conference in Portland, Ore., from hearing such shocking words as “gay,” “lesbian,” “bisexual,” and “transgender,” lest, I presume, these same doctors, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, therapists, professionals, and experts, you know, grown-ups, might be reminded, in Weiss’s words, that “the suicide risk among people in these groups is two to three times higher than the average risk.”

With -- I think -- unintended irony, to say nothing of stupidity, Mark Weber, a SAMHSA spokesperson, whined: “It is incredible, the venom from these people. . . . My boss is being called a Nazi.” Weber’s nod to “my boss” apparently is a reference to SAMHSA administrator Charles G. Curie, M.A.

Separately and coincidentally, but relatedly, in today’s Philadelphia Daily News there is a brief item related to the latest Cause of the Month, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the lead paragraph of which reads: “Dwight L. Evans, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has been elected president of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.” Congratulations to Dr. Evans, M.D.

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