GAY TRUTH

Image via Wikipedia A study published in Pediatrics this week claimed to have found a link between a negative ‘social environment’ and suicide attempts among lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth. [1]  The headline of the news feed from Reuters read “ Social environment linked to gay teen suicide risk” [2]  The first line more accurately reflected the content of the study: “Lesbian, gay and bisexual teens are five times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers – but those living in a supportive community might be a little better off…” The headline could have more accurately read “LGB Teens 5 times more likely to attempt suicide, whether they live in communities with positive or negative attitudes to homosexuality.” The study found that 21.5% of LGB teens (vrs. 4.2% of heterosexual teens) surveyed in the Oregon Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported a suicide attempt. The authors attempted to link these suicides to community attitudes in the counties where the teens live

Decrease of suicide risk with delay of self labeling By Neil E. Whitehead, PhD September 2005 Summary : Remafedi et al. state in a study of attempted suicide among gay and bisexual youth that the risk diminished by 80% per year. I show this is a misprint and should read “diminished to [bolding added] 80% each year” The paper under consideration is Remafedi, G, Farrow, JA, Deisher, RW, (1991) Risk factors for attempted suicide in gay and bisexual youth. Pediatrics 87:869-875. The 137 male subjects mostly lived in Minnesota and Washington states. In it the authors state (p74): For each year’s delay in bisexual or homosexual self-labeling, the odds of a suicide attempt diminished by 80%. This is a dramatic statistic, but immediately suspicious. The ages involved were 14-21. If he risk is taken as 100% at age 14, it would be 20% at age 15, 4% at age 16, 0.8% at age 17 and about 0.15% at age 18. After that anyone who self labeled as gay or bisexual would essentially never commit

Peter Sprigg Last week, the journal  Pediatrics  published a  study  designed to bolster the political case for pro- homosexual policies in schools. The  Associated Press  described the findings this way: “ Suicide attempts by gay teens — and even straight kids — are more common in politically conservative areas where schools don’t have programs supporting gay rights.” The study’s author, Mark Hatzenbuehler of Columbia University , called his findings “a call to action in providing a roadmap for how we can begin to reduce suicide in LGB youth.” Enact anti-discrimination policies that include “ sexual orientation ” as a protected category, adopt anti-bullying policies that give special protections to homosexuals instead of protecting everyone equally, and form pro-homosexual “gay-straight alliances” in the schools, and you will save lives, he appears to be saying. (Oh, and it also helps to have more homosexual couples and registered Democrats living in your county.) Those five vari

Teens who self-identify as homosexual are five times more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to attempt suicide, according to a study released last week. The study, published in the journal Pediatrics online on April 18, was conducted in order to determine whether living in a gay friendly social environment affected the risk of a teen identifying as homosexual committing suicide . It found that teens in “unsupportive” social environments were 20 percent more at risk of attempting suicide than those in “supportive” environments. “This study documents an association between an objective measure of the social environment and suicide attempts among lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth,” concludes the study abstract, adding that the results “have important implications for the development of policies and interventions to reduce sexual orientation–related disparities in suicide attempts.” But Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council pointed out that the takeaway finding from