Same-sex attraction in adolescents

Encouraging adolescents with same-sex attractions to identify as gay has no scientific or ethical justification.

Vulnerable boys

Over 40 per cent of males who self-identify as homosexual (“gay”) before age 18 have been victims of sexual abuse or sexual assault. An even higher percentage has suffered from untreated Gender Identity Disorder. A study of the sexual behavior of 239 homosexually active males, 13 to 21, found that 42 per cent had a history of sexual abuse/assault. A study of 425 homosexuals males, ages 17 to 22, found that 41.4 per cent reported an occasion of forced sex. Forced sex rarely involves “safe” sex practices.

Sexual child abuse and sexual assault have been linked to long-term psychological problems, including depression, sexual addiction, drug addiction, involvement in prostitution, and suicidal feelings. Some of these young men see their victimization as proof that they were “born” homosexual. Programs directed to “acceptance” rarely acknowledge or address these problems. When these serious emotional conflicts are not uncovered and treated, these males often act out in ways that are dangerous to themselves and to others. It is important to address this highly prevalent problem in young males with SSA.

Even if an adolescent male with SSA was not the victim of sexual abuse and did not experience untreated GID, engaging in homosexual activity as an adolescent carries a high and a truly unacceptable risk. New statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reveal that the epidemic among young men who have sex with men (MSM) is raging unabated. In August 2008, it was revealed that the CDC had underestimated the number of new cases of HIV by 40 per cent. The report found that while new infections among heterosexuals and injection drug users are falling, new infections continue to increase in younger MSM. In 2006, the number of MSM 13-24 diagnosed with HIV/AIDS increased by 18 per cent over the previous year.

A study of sexual risk behaviors of young MSM, ages 17-22, found that 22 per cent reported beginning anal sex with men when they were ages 3 to 14, of these 15.2 per cent were already HIV-positive. Of those who began sex when they were 15-19, 11.6 per cent were HIV positive. While of those who began sex with men when they were 20-22 only 3.8 per cent were HIV positive It is clear that every year a male with SSA delays sexual involvement reduces his risk of HIV.

Vulnerable young men may use the internet to seek out sexual partners. Out magazine, a publication targeted to MSM, printed an article by Michael Gross on how MSM are using the internet, posting pornographic pictures of themselves, and becoming addicted to the process of cruising on the web. Gross worries about the “health risks” and “psychological dissociation that’s characteristic of online social life.” Men may be looking for love, but Gross suggests, “You might as well train for a marathon by doing sprints in a minefield.”

Once a young man has exposed himself on the internet, whatever he has put up becomes part of the public record forever. The 15-year-old boy who realizes at 20 that his SSA was just a phase of his life related to weaknesses in male confidence will have those pictures follow him for the rest of his life.

HIV/AIDS is not the only disease affecting MSM. The number of sexually transmitted infections (STI) transmitted by homosexual activity is staggering. They include syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes, hepatitis B and C, Lymphogranuloma vernereum and Human Papillomavirus (HPV), which has been linked to genital warts and a number of cancers. HPV is transmitted by skin contact and therefore condoms provide only minimal protection. The much touted, new HPV vaccine protects against only 4 of the 100 varieties of this disease.

In some areas the increase in syphilis infections has been traced to an increased use of crystal meth and “high risk sexual behavior at resorts or bath houses, or through meetings initiated over the Internet.”

Not only are MSM at high risk for infection with HIV and many other STIs, the problem compounds itself in that infection with another STI makes a man more vulnerable to HIV and an HIV-positive man is more likely to contract another STI. According to a recent study “HIV positive men who have sex with men are up to 90 times more likely than the general population to develop anal cancer.”

Recently, doctors in San Francisco traced outbreaks in San Francisco and Boston of Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MSRA), the flesh-eating bacteria to homosexual activity.

It is also possible that a new, yet unidentified disease will find its way into this community. In 1980 before the first case of AIDS was identified, Dr. Selma Dritz, an expert on STI’s, looked at the behaviors of MSM and warned, “There are so many opportunities for transmission that, if something new gets loose here, we’re going to have hell to pay.” Her warning came too late, by 1980 the HIV virus was already spreading among MSM. Tragically, in spite of massive education the high-risk behaviors continue.

As treatment for AIDS has improved and life expectancy has increased, young MSM no longer fear HIV as they should. Many of those who start out planning to use condoms, fail to do so because they are drunk or are high on drugs or don’t want to send a message that they don’t trust their partner. If this is a pattern among adult MSM, it is not surprising that adolescent males who have sex with males ignore warnings.