Same-sex attraction in adolescents

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

Does Education Prevent Infection?

A large study on the association of health risk behaviors and sexual orientation among adolescents concluded: “GLB youth who self-identify during high school report disproportionate risk for a variety of health risk and problem behaviors, including suicide, victimization, sexual risk behaviors, and multiple substance abuse use. In addition, these youth are more likely to report engaging in multiple risk behaviors and initiating risk behaviors at an earlier age than their peers.”

Homosexual activists forced to explain why persons with SSA are at “elevated” risk for addictions, partner abuse, rampant promiscuity, anxiety, depression and suicidality usually blame the increased problems on the stress of living in a rejecting, “hateful and heterosexist” culture. They then use these problems to justify pro-homosexual education in schools. However, if this view were true then one would expect to see lower levels of severe psychiatric illnesses in more accepting cultures such as the Netherlands, but this is not the case.

The hope that identifying boys with SSA and providing them with HIV prevention education will reduce the risk of STI infections is not supported by the research. According to a review of studies of HIV prevention programs, “the efficacy of health education interventions in reducing sexual risk for HIV infection has not been consistently demonstrated…More education, over long periods of time, cannot be assumed to be effective in inducing behavior changes among chronically high risk males.”

Dr. Philip Alcabes, an epidemiologist, commenting on the latest CDC data said, “it looks like prevention campaigns make even less difference than anyone thought… HIV incidence did not decline as much from the 1980s to the 1990 as we believed despite the dramatic increase in condom promotion and so-called prevention education.”

An editorial in Lancet, a leading medical journal, was even blunter, “U.S. efforts to prevent HIV have failed dismally.”

AIDS education, which provides children and adolescents with explicit information about the various forms of sexual behavior that spread the disease, may create curiosity and encourage experimentation among young men. Because AIDS education has also been used as a vehicle for promoting positive attitudes toward homosexuality, while at the same time ignoring the serious health risks associated with SSA, and it is possible that the number of young men experimenting with homosexuality will increase.

As support groups in schools for males who think that they might be homosexual are being established, younger boys will be encouraged to "come out." This "coming out" will probably include engaging in sexual activity at an earlier age and more often. These young men may be attracted to the urban homosexual community, traveling to centers of homosexual activity where they are likely to encounter HIV-positive adults interested in engaging in sexual activity with attractive teenagers. This can lead to hustling (receiving money or compensation for sex) a high-risk activity.

A brochure, entitled Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel, was sent to school officials by a coalition of groups including the National Education Association. It claimed, “If school environments become more positive for lesbian, gay, and bisexual students, it is likely that their differences in health, mental health, and substance abuse will decrease.” This has not been born out by experience. Nothing could be more positive than the Harvey Milk school in Manhattan, which was set up to provide a safe environment for students with atypical sexual orientations and gender identities, yet in November of 2003, five male students were arrested. They had for some time been intimidating other students, working as prostitutes, blackmailing Johns, stealing from trendy stores, and involved with ecstasy and cocaine.

Given the substantial, well-documented risks involved in engaging in homosexual activity as an adolescent and since a certain percentage of males who experience SSA in adolescence find that these feelings disappear in time, schools should not encourage adolescent males to “come out,” but, instead, offer positive support for addressing the serious emotional problems in these teenagers.

Girls -- backgrounds of abuse

While adolescent females with SSA do not face the same risk for STIs as males, a significant number of these young women with SSA have been victims of sexual abuse or rape. SSA is even less stable among young women than among young men with some females finding themselves attracted to men and to women at different times in their lives. Many adolescent girls have crushes on female teachers or coaches. With time and growth in maturity these feelings resolve. Rather than assuming that every young female who ever experiences any SSA is permanently homosexual, schools should encourage young women to try to understand themselves and wait before identifying themselves as homosexual.

Finally, educators, like physicians and mental health professionals, have a serious responsibility to provide informed consent to their students and not advocate a lifestyle which has serious medical and psychiatric illnesses associated with it without warning students about such risks.

Notes

1. J. Michael Bailey et al. (2000) “Genetic and Environmental Influences on Sexual Orientation and its Correlates in an Australian Twins Sample,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, March, 78 (3) 524-536; John de Cecco, David Parker (ed), (1995) Sex, Cells, and Same-Sex Desire: The Biology of Sexual Preference, Harrington Park Press: NY. This book presents the debate on biology. The editors conclude, “Current research into possible biological bases of sexual preference has failed to produce any conclusive evidence.”
2. Edward Lauman et al. (1994) The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States, (Chicago: University of Chicago); K. K. Kinnish, et al. (2005) “Sexual Differences in the Flexibility of Sexual Orientation: A Multidimensional Retrospective Assessment,” Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34 (2), p. 173-83; Nigel Dickson, et al. (2003) “Same-sex attraction in a birth cohort: prevalence and persistence in early adulthood, Social Science & Medicine, 56, p. 1607-1615.
3. Lisa Diamond, (2008) “Female sexuality from adolescence to adulthood: Results from a 10-year longitudinal study,” Developmental Psychology, 44 (1) p. 5-14.
4. Lynda Doll et al. (1992) “Self-reported childhood and adolescent sexual abuse among adult homosexual and bisexual men,” Child Abuse & Neglect, 16, p. 855-864: Over 40 per cent of adult homosexual and bisexual men in this study reported a history of sexual abuse; R. Johnson, D. Shrier (1985) “Sexual victimization of boys: Experience at an adolescent medicine clinic,” Journal of Adolescent Health Care, 6, p. 372-376; J. Siegel, et al. (1987) “The prevalence of childhood sexual assault: The Los Angeles epidemiological catchment area project,” American Journal of Epidemiology, 126 (6), p. 1141; Gregory Dickson, Dean Byrd (2006) "An empirical study of the mother-son dyad in relation to the development of male homosexuality," Journal of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists, 30: The study found that 49 per cent of homosexual men versus 2 per cent of heterosexual men had a history of sexual abuse.
5. Kenneth Zucker, Susan Bradley (1995) Gender Identity Disorder and Psychosexual Problems in Childhood and Adolescence (Guilford: NY); George A Rekers,: Gender Identity Disorder, www.leaderu.com/jhs/rekers.html; George Rekers, (1995) Handbook of Child and Adolescent Sexual Problems (NY: Lexington); Susan Bradley, Kenneth Zucker (1998) “Drs. Bradley and Zucker reply,” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 37 (3), p. 244-245; R. Friedman, L. Stern (1980) “Juvenile aggressivity and sissiness in homosexual and heterosexual males,” Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 8 (3), p. 427-440.
6. Remafedi, G. (1994) Predictors of unprotected intercourse among gay and bisexual youth: knowledge, beliefs, and behavior. Pediatrics, 94, p. 163-168; D. Osmond, et al. (1994) “HIV Infection in Homosexual and Bisexual Men 18 to 29 years of age: The San Francisco Young Men's Health Study,” American Journal of Public Health, 84 (12) p. 1933-1937.
7. P. Halkitis, L. Wilton, J. Drescher, eds. (2005) Barebacking: Psychosocial and Public Health Approaches, Haworth Medical Press: NY; Milton Wainberg, et al (2006) Crystal Meth and Men who have Sex with Men: What mental health care professionals need to know, Haworth Medical Press: NY.
8. S. Kalichman, D. Rompa 1995) “Sexually Coerced and Noncoerced Gay and Bisexual Men: Factors Relevant to Risk for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection,” Journal of Sex Research. 32 (1) p. 45-50.
9. Kaisernetwork.org, (2008) “HIV Diagnoses Among MSM 13-24 Increased by 12 per cent annually from 2001 to 2006, CDC Report Says,” June 27, http://www.kaisernetowrk.org/Daily_Reports/print_refort.cfm?DR_ID+52995&dr_cat=1
10. David Brown (2008) “AIDS Infection Rate in U.S. Higher Than Previously Estimated,” Washington Post, August 2, 2008
11. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review (2008) “Trends in HIV/AIDS Diagnoses among Men Who Have Sex with Men,” June 12, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5725a2,htm.
12. G. Lemp et al (1994) “Seroprevalence of HIV and Risk Behaviors among Young Homosexual and Bisexual men,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 272 (6) p. 449-454.
13. Michael Joseph Gross (2008) “Has Manhunt Destroyed Gay Culture? A cost-benefit analysis of our quest to get laid,” Out Magazine, Sept. 5, http://out.com/detail.asp?id=24005.
14. Michael Carter (2007) “England starts enhanced surveillance for sexually transmitted infection LGV,” AIDS Map, Oct. 8.
15. Joseph, Brian, (2004) “Syphilis is back,” The Desert Sun, Oct 3; Jeffrey D. Klausner, et al (2000) Tracing a Syphilis Outbreak Through Cyberspace,” JAMA. 284, p. 447-449. Halkitis, P., Wilton, L., Drescher, J. eds. (2005) Barebacking: Psychosocial and Public Health Approaches, Haworth Medical Press: NY; Milton Wainberg, et al. (2006) Crystal Meth and Men who Have Sex with Men: What mental health care professionals need to know, Haworth Medical Press, NY.
16. Cranston, Ross, et al, (2007) “The prevalence, and predictive value, of abnormal anal cytology to diagnose anal dysplasia in a population of HIV-positive men who have sex with men.” International Journal of STDS & AIDS, 18 (2) p. 77-80; Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review, (2001) “Outbreak of syphilis among men who have sex with men – Southern California, 2000,” Feb. 23.
17. Lawrence Altman (2008) “New Bacteria is striking gay men,” The New York Times, Jan. 15. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/health/15infe.html?; Bihn An Diep, et al. (2008) “Emergence of Multidrug-Resistant, Community-Associated, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Clone USA300 in Men who have sex with men,” Annals of Internal Medicine, Feb. 19, 48 (4).
18. Shilts, Randy, And the Band Played On, St Martins Press: NY.
19. Robert Garofalo et al. (1998) “The association between health risk behaviors and sexual orientation among a school-based sample of adolescents,” Pediatrics, 101 (5) p. 895-898.
20. Susan Cochran, Vicky Mays (2007) “Physical Health Complaints among Lesbians, Gay Men, and Bisexual and Homosexually Experienced Heterosexual Individuals: Results from the California Quality of Life Survey,” American Journal of Public Health, April 26, http://www.ajph.org
21. Theo Sandfort et al. (2006) “Sexual orientation and mental and physical health status,” American Journal of Public Health, June, 96 (6), p. 1119-25;
22. R, Stall, T. Coates, C. Hoff (1988) “Behavior Risk Reduction for HIV Infection among gay and bisexual men,” American Psychologist, 43 (11), p. 883.
23. Lawrence Altman, (2008) “HIV Study find rate 40 per cent higher than estimated,” The New York Times, August 3.
24. Ibid.
25. Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel
26. Ashley Cross (2003), “Gay teens’ rich milk shakedown,” New York Post, Nov. 9.
27. Judith Bradford et al. (1994) “National Lesbian Health Care Survey: Implications for Mental Health Care,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62 (2), p. 228-242: “41 per cent of the sample reported that they had been raped or sexually attacked at least one in their lives.” Of those age 17 to 24, 50 per cent reported rape or sexual abuse.”
28. Lisa Diamond, (2000) “Sexual identity, attraction and behavior among young sexual minority women over a two year period, Developmental Psychology, 36 (2) p. 241-250; Lisa Diamond, (2008) “Female sexuality from adolescence to adulthood: Results from a 10-year longitudinal study,” Developmental Psychology, 44(1) p. 5-14.