Gay Youth In America Incredibly Disenfranchised.
advocate.com
So, as expected more coverage and acceptance of gay marriage has done nothing for GLT teens. This view of no worth shows what their life experience actually is. They need something to believe NOW!
It’s not easy growing up gay in America, despite the nation’s increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage and other issues of gay equality.
Gay and lesbian teenagers across the United States are less likely to be happy, more likely to report harassment and more inclined to experiment with drugs and alcohol than the nation’s straight teens, according to a new nationwide survey of more than 10,000 gay and lesbian young people.
The survey, which will be released Thursday by the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights group, is described as one of the largest ever to focus on the nation’s gay youth. It was conducted online and involved 10,030 participants aged 13 to 17 who identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. It also included interviews with about 500 13- to 17-year-olds who composed the poll’s “straight” population.
The study paints an often stark picture of the challenges of growing up gay in this country, even as same-sex marriage gains support among many Americans and other legal and cultural barriers to gay equality begin to fall.
The survey showed, for example, that half of all gay and lesbian teens reported being verbally harassed or called names at school, compared with a quarter of non-LGBT kids. About twice as many gay and lesbian respondents as straight teens also said they had been shoved, kicked or otherwise assaulted at their schools, with 17 percent of LGBT teens and 10 percent of straight youths reporting such assaults.
Fewer than half of gay teenagers said they believe their community is accepting of people like them, and 63 percent said they would need to move to another town or part of the country to find acceptance. Just 4 in 10 gay teens reported being happy, compared with nearly 7 in 10 of their straight peers.
And more than twice as many gay (52 percent) as non-gay (22 percent) respondents said they had experimented with drugs or alcohol.
I WISH PARENTS WERE TEACHING THEIR CHILDREN TO HAVE BELIEF IN THEMSELVES.
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