Groundbreaking Research on Family Rejection of LGBQ Adolescents

I am reposting a couple of blogs from earlier, because they are very important to the direction this is going to take:

Groundbreaking Research on Family Rejection of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Adolescents Establishes Predictive Link to Negative Health Outcomes

Paper Authored by Dr. Caitlin Ryan of San Francisco State University’s “Family
Acceptance Project” To be Published in the journal, Pediatrics

San Francisco, CA – For the first time, researchers have established a clear link between rejecting behaviors of families towards lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adolescents and negative health outcomes in early adulthood. The findings will be published in the January issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics...

Major Research Findings:
• Higher rates of family rejection during adolescence were significantly associated with poorer health outcomes for LGB young adults.
• LGB young adults who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence were

• 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide.
• 5.9 times more likely to report high levels of depression, 3.4 times more likely to use illegal drugs.
• 3.4 times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of family rejection.

• Latino males reported the highest number of negative family reactions to their sexual orientation in adolescence.

“This study clearly shows the tremendous harm of family rejection, even if parents think they are well-intentioned, following deeply held beliefs or even protecting their children," said Dr. Sten Vermund, a pediatrician and Amos Christie Chair of Global Health at Vanderbilt University.

You can find more details at THE FAMILY ACCEPTANCE PROJECT

The video below is one teen's account of his family forcing him into "ex-gay" therapy.

You ARE a gift from God

The Reverend Ed Bacon's clarifications on "Being Gay Is a Gift From God."
Reverend Bacon created quite a stir on the Oprah show when he declared that "being gay is a gift from God."
Following are two sermons he gave explaining exactly what he meant:

All Saints Pasadena's rector, Ed Bacon. Taped January 11, 2009



Reverend Ed Bacon on Sunday, February 1, 2009.

Day of Truth? or Day of Bigotry

Day of Truth. The truth is, they are affirming bigotry against LGBT Teens:

Statistics from the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network's School Climate Survey highlight the prevalence of such bullying and harassment:

* 91% of LGBTQ students frequently hear homophobic remarks in their schools.

* 80% report being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation.

* 42% report being physically harassed, often with a weapon, because of their sexual orientation.

* 33% skipped school in the past month out of fear for their personal safety.

How much more hate can our children keep receiving from not only adults but their peers?

I want to repeat some of the findings from the report released last month by the Family Acceptance Project showing the harm many LGBT youth receive at home and the consequences of that rejection:

• Higher rates of family rejection during adolescence were significantly associated with poorer health outcomes for LGB young adults.
• LGB young adults who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence were

* 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide.
* 5.9 times more likely to report high levels of depression, 3.4 times more likely to use illegal drugs.
* 3.4 times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of family rejection.
(the figures are times more than their LGBT PEERS who experience little or no rejection)

• Latino males reported the highest number of negative family reactions to their sexual orientation in adolescence.

Full Human Rights and Shakespere for a new day...

The daily hypocrisy of the Anti-Gay Industry has ceased to shock me. It does however feed this feeling within me that right now is the time we all lay down our differences of opinion and claim our human rights that as American citizens, we already have.

Marriage is only one of those rights, as is employment, housing, medical/dental benefits, freedom from fear, freedom to love and the freedom to just be ourselves.

Each of us need to believe that these truths do indeed apply to us just as they apply to every human being; "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Is not marriage the pursuit of Happiness? Is not a job, a decent home and the knowledge that our persons will not be attacked simply for how we were created? Is it not also for our children's security and happiness that we wish our relationships to be legalized?

The Anti Gay Industry tries to belittle us by say we are (depending on the writer) 1.5%, 2%, 2.5% or 3% of the population to make us seem insignificant. In the United States of America it should not matter if we are .5% because all men are created equal and are endowed with certain unalienable rights.

We have the resources, the people and the voices, why on Pam's House Blend I have read some of the most reasoned, clear and beautiful posts laying out why we should have our full human rights. On any of these you can change the word LGBT or gay or transgendered to Jew or Black or Asian or Disabled and it would still make a profound statement for human rights. Because when you are talking about human rights and the need to claim them, it is universal.

What concept of full civil rights are parts of our family not understanding? How can we accept that any one of our family be thrown under the bus? Some have the opinion that if we get marriage first, it will make us seem less different. Some think the repeal of DOMA is the first step. Others want the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." Some feel if we could just not have to worry about the "trans-folk" or confusing "bi's" we would get everything we ask for.

When one is talking about human rights we should not cut it up just to make it easier for the oppressors to swallow. What message are we sending? That they, maybe, just maybe have the right to keep on oppressing us as long as we are able to take what crumbs are offered?

And that brings me to Shakespeare and his statement on racism, if you change the word Jew to gay or lesbian or bi or transgendered, it is still a relevant and powerful cry for justice.

Edits in quotes mine....

"They" hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am "gay."

Hath not a "bi" eyes? hath not a "lesbian" hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a "heterosexual" is?

If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a "Transgender" wrong a "heterosexual", what is his humility? Revenge.

If a "heterosexual" wrong a "queer", what should his sufferance be by "heterosexual" example? Why, revenge.

The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

Merchant of Venice Act III Scene I

Oh, I know how things get done in politics, we compromise, we cajole and we plead. With the vitriol spewing from the far right and the Anti Gay increasing, we need to be coming together like no group before us. And realize that if/when Prop H8 is overturned it will only increase. We need to take a unified, forceful stand now, at this time. If there ever was a time for an oppressed group to demand full and complete equality with no one thrown under the bus, it is this time, here and now.

No more compromise, no more empty promises, simply FULL equality.

I think we need to let the Equality Summit, HRC, GLAAD, Join the Impact and all our allies know that this what needs to become the first, the only and the actual "Gay Agenda."

Cross posted at Pam's House Blend

MC Flow raps for equality

A 5000 year old look at marriage.......

I just can't seem to get this quote of Rick Warren's out of my mind probably because he is one of the many who finds the Bible inerrant and infallible; "I'm opposed to redefinition of a 5,000-year definition of marriage," Warren told Beliefnet.com's Steve Waldman. "I'm opposed to having a brother and sister being together and calling that marriage. I'm opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that marriage. I'm opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage."

Inerrancy is the view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original autographs and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms, whether that relates to doctrine or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences.

Infallibility means, literally, immunity from error. In Christian theology, the term is applied to the whole church, which, it is believed by many Christians, cannot err in its teaching of revealed truth because it is aided by the Holy Spirit.

I guess why the above quote from Rick Warren won't get out of my head is because if he believes in maintaining the 5,000 year old definition of marriage, then it would logically follow that he believes in the 7 types of marriage found in the Bible then his last statement is false and he cannot truthfully oppose marriage between a man and several women. Or if he does not believe in a marriage between a man and several women, then he cannot believe the Bible is inerrant.

The 7 types of "marriage" in the Bible

The nuclear family: Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall join to his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

The Levirate family: The brother-in-law or close relative of a widow was to marry her and if she had had no children then if she and the brother-in-law had children then those children would legally be considered her dead first husbands. Deuteronomy 25:5-10

The polygamous family: (really Polygynous as men could have many wives but there is no record of women having more than one husband at one time) : Genesis 4:19 has the first mention of polygynous marriage: And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

There are many instances in the Bible about multiple wives, the most famous found in:

Genesis 29-30, the story of Jacob and his two wives and 2 slaves whom had children with Jacob, where each of the sons becomes the head of the 12 tribes.

Genesis 36:2 Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite.

King David had many, many wives, documented in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles

1 Kings details King Solomon's wives who numbered over 1000.

A man, a woman and her slaves Again in Genesis 29-30, Jacob not only had two wives, his wives each gave him their slaves to have sex with him and bore several children to him. In Genesis 16 Sarah gave her slave Hagar to Abram so that they could have a child. The slaves would have had no say in this at all, so today we would consider this rape.

A male rapist and his victim: Deuteronomy 22:28-29 If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days. His punishment other than the 50 shekels was that he couldn't divorce her, how kind......

One man, one or more wives, and some concubines : Concubines were often given to the husband to sleep with as a surrogate mother if the wife was barren, Genesis 22:24; 35:22; 36:12, Genesis 16:1-3; 25:5-6; 1 Chronicles 1:32 According to Smith's Bible Dictionary, "A concubine would generally be either (1) a Hebrew girl bought...[from] her father; (2) a Gentile captive taken in war; (3) a foreign slave bought; or (4) a Canaanitish woman, bond or free."

A male soldier and a female prisoner of war:Numbers 31:1-18 describes a war against the Midianites where they killed all but the virgin girls, in 31:16-18 we see that the girls were spared so they could be "wives" of the soldiers: Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

Other types of marriage and forbidden marriages are also mentioned in the Bible:

The owner of slaves could also allow two slaves to marry, but when the man's 7 years were up, he could leave a free man, but the wife and children remained property of the slave owner. If the former slave so chose, he could stay with his wife and children and work for the slave owner. (male slaves were only required to be slaves for 7 years, whereas female slaves were slaves for life.)

Forbidden marriages were between the Israelites and anyone of another faith. Somehow this passage got warped into some States past laws forbidding interracial marriage.

In the Book of Ruth an example of early wedding vows and where the idea of "till death do us part" comes from, can be found in Naomi's declaration to Ruth "Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge, thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; Jehovah do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."