GAY TRUTH

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