South Africa: “Isolated and alone”: Gifted Joburg LGBTQ teen succumbs to suicide

The last words of an accomplished LGBTQ teen who killed himself because he believed he could never be accepted are heartbreaking but reflect an all too common reality.

The Sunday Times reported that on 26 June, 19-year-old Adam Seef from Norwood cut his wrists and threw himself from a hotel balcony to his death.

At the time he was in Israel on a group trip with the Bnei Akiva Jewish youth organisation. A haunting suicide note released by his grieving parents revealed that the medical student had been grappling with depression and the fear that his sexuality would always make him stand out.

“The difference between me and my friends [is] insolvable. Deep down they know I’m different and it’s about time I accept it too,” he wrote.

“All I see is them [friends] moving on from me and finding success and heterosexual love, leaving me isolated and alone. Trying to pretend to be someone I’m not in front of all of you is becoming more tiring by the day as I’m not the heterosexual being I portray for you.”

“I wish I could have told you guys everything and I know you would have understood but deep down I know our relationship would have changed,” Adam said.

Adam’s mother, Jodi, and father, Justin, told the newspaper they had no idea that their son was so deeply troubled and insisted that nothing he did or said would have changed their love for him. Read more via Mamba Online