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© 1999, Centre Daily Times, August 20, 1999
Please note that this piece is in part an press release for a lecture to be given by the author. Sexual orientation is a serious teen problem
By Anthony R. D'Augelli In the fall of 1998, Adam Colton, a 17-year-old high-school student in Novato, Calif., told people he was gay and, within a week, was beaten up by three teenagers as he was shopping. In February of this year, after he helped form a Gay-Straight Alliance in his school, he was beaten again.
This case echoes another similar situation in which a gay Wisconsin teen-ager named Jamie Nabozny was repeatedly attacked in his school. A jury awarded Nabozny $800,000 because teachers and administrators didn't take action to stop the daily torment of his high school years.
These nearly routine events have taken a back seat to the national uproar about the vicious murder of gay college freshman Matthew Shepard, who was viciously beaten and left to die under the frigid Wyoming skies.
Most people still think of adults when they think of homosexuality; few think about teen-agers and even fewer imagine a junior high school student.
We know that many such young people seem to know they are attracted to their own sex at about age 10. They may not label themselves for several more years, partly because they may not be sure of their feelings, but mostly because they know that their parents would be very upset, and that their friends could desert them. Most wait, hiding their feelings from everyone and trying to fit in as best they can, a particularly important requirement for a teen-ager.
How many teen-agers would share their feeling with parents and best friends? How many parents and friends would be excited with the news? The answer is very few, for both questions. We know the lives of teen-agers revolve around their friends, and less so their parents, and that research shows adolescents hold negative views about lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
Few adolescents realize that some of their friends are not heterosexual. My own research shows that being open about being lesbian, gay or bisexual as an adolescent puts you at risk. Not only might you be called names, but you will be threatened and you might even be physically attacked.
Recently, the Surgeon General announced a major national effort to address suicide among young people, singling out certain groups for special consideration. Among the groups are lesbian, gay and bisexual teens, because several studies have pointed to higher suicide-attempt rates among these youths, when compared to heterosexual youth.
For instance, in a 1995 study of Massachusetts high-school students, 35 percent of the lesbian, gay and bisexual teens reported a suicide attempt in the last year, compared to 10 percent of the heterosexual teens. Two studies I have done found about the same number of suicide attempt reports among these youths.
We have much to learn about why some teen-agers take their own lives, but surely for some the constant fear and loathing they experience because of their sexual identity adds tremendous stress to whatever else they must cope with. There is much that we can do about the situation, but it must start with acknowledging the lesbian, gay and bisexual teens in our homes, schools, scout troops, sports teams and in our fast-food restaurants.
Teachers, coaches, counselors and anyone who works with young people have a special obligation to learn about these youths, because they are in their classrooms, their teams and their offices. That's one of the reasons why I helped develop a workshop on understanding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youths for school personnel, youth counselors and other mental health professionals.
Incredible pain is caused if these young people are ignored by people whose responsibility it is to help them. Helping teen-agers who have already told others is another responsibility, for we know now that they are likely to be the victims of verbal and physical abuse. There is a lot of work to be done to avoid more tragedies like the ones Adam Colton, Jamie Nabozny and Matthew Shepard experienced.
The workshop, "Understanding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth," is scheduled for Oct. 22 at the Nittany Lion Inn.
(The writer is a community psychologist and professor of human development in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development.) |
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