One of the greatest health risks to gays comes from an unexpected quarter--how well their orientation is accepted by their families. A new study in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics revealed the distressing results. The research was done at San Francisco State University under the leadership of Caitlin Ryan. You can read Lisa Leff's Associated Press story on it here.
The bottom line is that "teens who experienced negative feedback were eight times as likely to have attempted suicide, nearly six times as vulnerable to severe depression and more than three times at the risk of drug use." It is the sense of rejection that seems to matter, rather than the severity of it. "One of the most startling findings was that being forbidden to associate with gay peers was as damaging as being physically beaten or verbally abused."
Researcher Ryan reported that after sharing the results with parents in "strained relationships with their gay teenagers...many were alarmed enough to make immediate changes in their interactions." That is very much to the good. There are a few enigmatic leads, but we do not know why some people are gay. We do know that attempts to convert them to being straight do not work. Acceptance is the best policy for the gay person, for their family and for society as a whole.
It doesn't take very much. As Ryan sums up, she found that, "Someone can still be uncomfortable with their child's sexual orientation, but if they are somewhat more accepting and do the best they can, they will do the youth a lot of good. That to me is an important message."
No comments:
Post a Comment