Yes, another sad statistic from my psychology minor. About a third of youth suicides are gay. Or calculated from another starting point, half of all gays kill themselves.
Gays have an extremely high suicide rate. Sex is
extremely important in our culture. Growing into relationships is a major
part of teen life, and is a major challenge for gay teens. The perception
that you will never find
a sexual mate, or be accepted sexually, can really influence a teen's
development. The big moral question or peer-pressure against being gay will
force any gay teen to evaluate the basis for cultural rules, the origin or
right and wrong, etc. Such a teen must develop their own guiding principals
for what they are going to choose to do in their life. Most heterosexual
never get to this basic question, and spend their whole lives following
culturally dictated norms without question.
-- Harvey Newstrom <mailto://newstrom@newstaffinc.com> <http://newstaffinc.com> Author, Consultant, Engineer, Legal Hacker, Researcher, Scientist. ----- Original Message ----- From: Timothy Bates <tbates@karri.bhs.mq.edu.au> To: <extropians@extropy.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 1999 10:18 pm Subject: Re: Sexuality/was Re: Homosexual proto-extropians?
> The only evidence I have read (guy in our department's Ph.D.) is that it
> leads to suicide if you are not. Although independent minded is the wrong
> word for this trait.
>
> > On the issue of homosexuality, should a person's orientation matter that
> > much? I imagine that being in a minority -- even a sexual one -- does
make
> > for one to become more independent minded. (Has anyone actually done a
> > study of this?) Other than that, I guess non-heterosexuals would be
more
> > open on average to experimentation outside of traditional gender and
sexual
> > roles.
>