Gallagher: Gay teens 3 times more likely to become pregnant

[begin_within]

National Organization for Marriage President Maggie Gallagher:



"Perhaps most oddly, gay teens are also three times as likely as non-gay teens to report either becoming pregnant or getting someone else pregnant."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/don_blame_me_for_gay_teen_suicides_l1Wt32kEJFFve2SzkjbpYP

[Hosnon]

1. Possible contributing factor?

Young gay men choosing not to use protection out of fear of, well, non-performance.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

2. I note that she doesn't quote sources for any of her claims. N.T.

[begin_within]

6. I'd be happy with just an explanation of how gay female teens are getting pregnant,

or how gay male teens are making people pregnant.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

8. By having straight sex, of course.

I don't know what the proportion of teens who self-identify as gay who sometimes also have straight sex is, but I'm sure it's not 0*. I'd be really quite surprised if it was high enough for her "three times as many pregnancies" claim to be accurate, though**.

Obviously, rape will make a contribution to the statistics for lesbian teens getting pregnant*, but I'd be surprised if it were terribly statistically significant**.

*This is certainly true; no expertise is needed.
**This may well not be true; I make no claim to expertise. It is, however, the way I'd bet.

[bobbolink]

29. "but I'd be surprised if it were terribly statistically significant**." So, let's look at some

stats, shall we?

1. 80% of homeless female youth are raped.

2. Gay youth make up 2% to 3% of the youth population, but 20$-40% of the Homeless Youth Population.

3. I recently spent an evening listening to a young gay woman who spent 9 months homeless on the streets of Denver, whenn she was younger (because she was kicked out of her parent's home, of course... probably because she was gay.) In her experience being with a lot of youth on the streets, what is happening to the young women is being drugged, raped, drugged again and forced into prostitution.

All of this BEGS the question: Why aren't "progressives" more interested in homelessness, so that you KNOW these statistics, and UNDERSTAND the reality of the situation?

WHY aren't gay people heavily involved in the homelessness issue, especially given that so many of the youth they claim to care about are on the streets, without a place to live?

[w8liftinglady]

36. There are a multitude of references that confirm a lot of this

http://gayteens.about.com/od/resources/Resources_for_GLBT_and_Questioning_Teens.htm

Growing up in a homophobic area tends to encourage this behavior.
being bisexual,I can vouch for this.i spent my teenage years screwing every guy I could get my hands on in West Texas,just to prove I wasn't attracted to women.After High School,I finally discovered my true feelings were for men and women,sexually.

[bobbolink]

42. Thank you for the sources! I didn't see the one listed where I got many of those stats I quoted,

but I am sure those stats are available for anyone who gives it a cursory look.

I am very sad that the homeless gay kids are being ignored, because their suffering is IMMENSE.

I wish all here had been listening when the young, gay, formerly homeless woman was talking to me. It is shameful to ignore her and the other youth on the streets.

Thanks again! :yourock:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

37. What are the sources for those statistics, please?

All three statistics strike me as surprising - I would have expected the first and third to be smaller and the fraction of gay youths to be larger, although not on terribly strong ground.

[bobbolink]

39. I am putting together a resource on ALL homelessness, because it is vitally important

that ALL "progressives" learn these facts, and begin to educate each other and the population at large.

You can be sure that they are sourced, but I am too busy doing what all of you should be doing right now to go find the facts for you. You CAN find them, they are readily available, and as a matter of fact, if you avail yourself of it, w8liftinglady has already posted it for you... just ahead of your reply.

Given that this is DU, the chances are that you will give me snark for this, and I am fed up with that. It is time for ALL of you to learn these facts about homelessness. There are websites aplenty with the information. The stats I quoted were from a website sent to me by a gay DUer, one who cares.

[bobbolink]

48. Here ya go... Learn. These.

http://www.wegiveadamn.org/issues/youth-homelessness/

Since I have done your work for you, and showed you I know what I am talking about, my guess is that you will never reply.

Nor read and educate yourself.

[SouthernLiberal]

74. I know one thing for certain

And that is -

To abuse, rape, make homeless, beat up, make fun of, anyone because of what they look like, or who they love is just wrong. My personal belief is that anyone who thinks it's okay to hit a gay kid is morally deficient. I am quite certain that is not possible for anyone else's marriage to affect me.

Yes, the statistics about the abuse of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered young people are horrifying, but if it were only a few who were harmed by this, it would still be wrong.

That even one young person, of whatever sexual orientation, is driven to suicide is a tragedy. That many young people are pushed this far, makes me wonder what kind of society this is, that we cannot, or will not even take care of our children

[begin_within]

31. Do gay teens have heterosexual sex three times more than straight teens?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

38. It seems highly unlikely, which is why I was questioning the claim quoted in the OP.

Even if you add words like "unprotected" and "and don't subsequently get an abortion", three times seems very surprisingly high.

[bobbolink]

43. I am not surprised, but am appalled by the lack of awareness....

Homeless

and

RAPE

seem to be issues most "progressives" simple haven't thought of.

SHAME!

[bobbolink]

50. "They are 3 times more likely to resort to survival sex than their straight counterparts."

" Gay and transgender homeless youth, in fact, are more than 7 times more likely to experience acts of sexual violence than straight homeless youth."

Educate yourself before speaking with such conviction.


http://images.wegiveadamn.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Damn-Issue-YOUTHHOMELESSNESS.pdf

I did your work FOR you: It is now your responsibility to speak out.

[Raksha]

67. "Survival sex." I never heard that expression before,

but it's pretty much self-explanatory. Thanks for the link--I'm going to check it out now and read the whole story.

[mntleo2]

55. HOMELESSNESS OFTEN =s SURVIVAL SEX

Get a grip you people who do not have a clue about being homeless and think you do. You know, a good man about 2 thousand years ago TOLD you that, "if you have ears you will hear, eyes, you will see.." Obviously a great deal of you have neither ears nor eyes. I might also add perhaps you need a MIND to connect the two.

It makes little difference if you are gay, straight or whatever. Homelessness = desperation and desperation calls for desperate steps. A homeless gay teen is ripe temptation for a man, any man, to use him/her for sex in exchange for say, a place to stay the night and a shower, heck maybe even some food. It is also a place to get beat up, raped, seriously hurt, and maybe even murdered because these same men think they are merely using throwaway people, when in fact that homeless person is a child of God just like he is.

We deal with a huge amount of classism in this nation. It is disgusting and bad. It needs to come to the attention of Progressives that homelessness is a dangerous life to live, that it should be one of the top reasons to eradicate homelessness because these people are getting badly hurt.

I am not only speaking for teens here, try sleeping under some bushes somewhere and not be a target for someone or something. Whether is is a bunch of drunken "good ol' boys" looking for someone to beat to death with a baseball bat, a woman shivering in the cold in her car, a family staying in a run down motor home, the police, and the public are out to get you. "Permission" is given to despise a homeless person by making them illegal. They are not any better off and treated as badly as anyone coming into this country illegally.

The classist attitudes around poverty encourage harassment and hatred backed by the law where within "nice" communities that the homeless try to survive, and within the benign classist hatred they face from all sides every time they try to park their car and sleep only to get some "threatened" resident calling the police to come and hit their cars as loud as they can with their batons at 3:00 in the morning to move somehwere else far more dangerous and less protected.

It is illegal to be homeless in most communities, no matter what age. If you are young and relatively untouched, the *only* way to survive for the night is sex since the homeless have nothing else that is valued, not even themselves.

Now perhaps you might see why gay teens are getting pregnant and the homeless of all ages raped. After all with a man in heat, he does not care if she/he is gay, he does not care about her at all, he only cares if she is available for his selfish needs. Then he has NO problem not caring about how much of their soul he took along with their bodies after he is done. He just throws them away like he does a candy wrapper after hes had his fun.

And who else cares enough about these people to do something about it? Not even to have enough of their EYES to see and EARS to hear the Truth? Very few.

Sheesh ...

Cat in Seattle

[w8liftinglady]

56. Working in the MICU in a large inner-city hospital,i saw first-hand a lot of homeless youth who ...

were victims of some pretty horrific behaviors.males,females...living on the streets or fleabag hotels,raped or sold it to get by.
People have sex for many reasons.i have known many who did just for a tank of gas,to eat...and,yes to score drugs...including my friends.
I hope people will learn from this data.We pride ourselves on being tolerant.

this woman's statement have an obvious agenda,but there is a shred of truth in there.

[msanthrope]

30. It's probably the guy who told her "2M4M" was a great name for her marriage initiative. n/t

[NewJeffCT]

3. Did God tell her that?

just curious.

[Tansy_Gold]

19. I most certainly did not. n/t

[begin_within]

33. In fact, God said to her:

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

44. Uh, that would be a big "No"

Dad and I aren't telling her anything. At least not anything that she's actually listening to. :(

[sinkingfeeling]

4. And teenagers in Southern states with abstinece-only sex education is offered have the most.

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/20/births-to-teens-vary-by-region-highest-in-south/

[arbusto_baboso]

5. The religious right just can't wrap their minds around that "bearing false witness" thing, can they?

Because they lie like fucking Berber rugs....

[Lyric]

7. What data is she using? Is there data about gay/lesbian teens and rape?

Lesbians are often targets of rape by homophobic men. It's a tactic of assault.

Gay and lesbian teens are also more likely to be struggling with their sexual orientation, which means they're more likely than gay adults to experiment with the opposite sex, and probably in risky ways because they have very few people to openly talk about such things with.

But I'd like to see the raw data--to see who did the study, what the questions were, and how the numbers work when you consider things like rape, gender, and geography,

[Gormy Cuss]

49. CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey is her claim

but what is really loathsome is she's using the survey to suggest that LGBT teen suicide rates aren't because of gay persecution, it's because of generally screwed up lives.

Off to find the real data from that survey...

[Skidmore]

9. I'd love to see a study of the sex lives and reproductive habits

of people who self-identify as hypermoral or have a great deal of religiosity. Wonder if there would be a way to construct a study that would account for both their stated values and real life practices. I'd lay odds that you would find plenty of all sorts of behavior and and practices in the closets and under the rugs.

Please note that this is a comment Ms. Gallagher's ilk. It is my experience that the louder someone squawks the higher the probability that they have something to hide.

[LynneSin]

26. Here you go. States that teach 'abstinence-only' education have way higher teen pregancies.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9359276

Nuff said.

[YOY]

10. Um...whut???

n.t.

[ProfessorGAC]

25. My Sentiments Exactly

That makes almost no sense, and would require not only some, but mountains of data and a preponderance of leverage to prove.

Somehow i doubt she has either.
GAC

[Enrique]

11. all the more reason for gay marriage

:shrug:

[PVnRT]

12. ..................

[kenny blankenship]

13. Not only are we wrecking marriage, we're wrecking sex-before-marriage! Woohoo!

Yeah we're monsters and you can't stop us, Maggie Gallagher - no matter how many pallets of Mallomars you consume!

[snooper2]

14. See what happens when you cut your own hair?

:rofl:

[begin_within]

32. You made me laugh

[KamaAina]

57. Hey! I cut my own hair!

And I'm not the head of the Junior Anti-Sex League. So there! :P

[xchrom]

15. I thought we couldn't we procreate?

I don't know about anybody else - but I younger years I fucked everybody.

And yes I was and am gay not bi.

[Johonny]

16. I wonder how much she got paid to write that

Maggie of course well known for selling her op ed out to the highest bidding lobbyist group . "Her" opinions are usually ill informed and fantastically boring.

[Upton]

17. Why are Gay teens having straight sex?

For I'm straight and I'd never think about having Gay sex..

[bobbolink]

40. Are you familiar with the concept of ... RAPE?

:eyes:

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

47. Consider this scenario

Let's say you grew up surrounded by gay people who told you that heterosexuality was "wrong", "evil", a "choice", etc. Everything you know about yourself tells you that you are hetero, but everything you hear elsewhere tells you that being gay is "normal". If you thought you would be condemned to burn in Hell forever because you were straight, then you might very well try to cure yourself of this heterosexuality abomination by having gay sex, as often as you could, until you were "cured".

Does that sound completely ridiculous? Of course it does, but it's exactly the position many gay teenagers find themselves in.

[Jamastiene]

72. Thank you.

I don't think a lot of people understand what it is like. I'm glad you put it into perspective.

[Dappleganger]

64. I know my best friend in high school

had straight sex with several girls, because he somehow believed it would make him straight and help his reputation.

Obviously that didn't work out so well.

[Jamastiene]

71. Rape

Also, fear of others finding out you are gay before you can find some decent support...and trust me, that support is NOT out there as much as it should be.

Also, in a lot of cases, prostitution on the streets for survival, after being kicked out and made homeless by parents who found out about the kid being gay.

There are many factors. Those are some of the main ones though.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nykym]

20. Gay teens 3 times more likely to become pregnant

Hmmmmmm, Immaculate conception, whole Lotta Jesus babies being born to Gay teens.

[GeorgeGist]

21. I thought you were quoting the comedian.

[arbusto_baboso]

22. Might as well be. Same level of credibility.

[QC]

23. This might actually be true, as odd as it sounds.

Most of us did go through a time when we were desperate to "cure ourselves," prove we were not really gay, etc.

[Xithras]

28. Yep, I've known three gay men with kids, who got them just that way.

It's not all that uncommon. We've all heard the stories of married men who suddenly "discover" they are gay later in life, and it's really just a modern extension of the same phenomena. Many gay men are raised in a culture or in families that demonize homosexuality, so they deeply repress their urges and have sex with women just to "prove" (to themselves and others) that they're straight. We're familiar with the story, but don't often realize that it happens with gay teens as well.

One of the gay men followed this script perfectly. He married a girl at 20, had two kids, and came out at 30.

Another very good friend of mine came out at 19, but not before getting a girl pregnant in high school. He was in denial and was tired of being constantly bullied by people who "assumed" he was gay, so he picked up a girlfriend and started sleeping with her. He wasn't into her, but he used her as a prop to show that he COULDN'T be gay, because he was sleeping with a girl (I've discussed it with him over many beers, and he feels like crap about that today). Unfortunatly, she got pregnant, and his daughter is a teenager today.

The third one was a similar story, but it didn't happen until a bit later in life. He'd had sex with his first guy, and felt so "dirty" about it that he slept with a longtime female friend...and accidentally got her pregnant. That's a funny one though, because the female friend had long suspected that he was gay, and he's the only one of the three who is still good friends with the childs mother...neither of them have any regrets about it, and it strenthened their friendship in a way that's hard to describe. He once told me that, if he'd been born straight, he'd have married her years ago. I CAN tell you that his odd relationship with her has generated a lot of stress with his various boyfriends over the years. His current long term partner (who he's now been with for four years), was the first to really embrace her and consider her a part of his family.

There is no fixed script directing the lives and development of LGBT youth. We all learn and grow in different ways.

[NewJeffCT]

35. There were a few guys like that from my high school

Most of us thought they were gay when we were in high school.

However, it seems that several of these guys got married, had kids & then officially came out later.

[w8liftinglady]

45. it goes both ways...see my post above.

[Hosnon]

53. I agree.

And gay men in such situations might be more reluctant to use protection due to the desensitizing effects of condoms.

[Dappleganger]

65. Exactly.

My bff in high school did this.

[Greyhound]

77. K&R for truth.

[Mass]

24. All that so that she does not have to feel a part of responsibility in these teens' suicide?

This woman is really disgusting.

I am not even questioning her numbers here. The reason of the article is what I blame: dont blame bullies for these suicides.

[msanthrope]

27. I'm betting her 'source' for this gem was the same person who said "2M4M"

was a great name for her marriage initiative..



"NOM Launches 2M4M, Promises Not To Compete With Manhunt

The new anti-gay campaign from the National Organization For Marriage is called 2M4M. Totally seriously.
SNIP

Too fucking funny. Maybe there really aren't any closet cases working at NOM. Cuz a 'mo would have put a stop to THAT acronym in a heartbeat."

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/04/nom-launches-2m4m-promises-not-to.html

[blogslut]

34. I am amazed she was able to pull that out of her ass

...considering the stick.

[Solly Mack]

41. Alrighty then

[athenasatanjesus]

46. If this actually were true wouldn't' gay bashing be to blame?

This could only be true if most gays out of fear of being outed an subject to gay bashers were overcompensating.

[bobbolink]

51. Oh, really? That is the ONLY way it could be true? Are you sure about that?

"They are more than 7 times more likely to experience
acts of sexual violence,15 and 7 times more
likely to be victims of a crime.16"

"• They are 3 times more likely to resort to survival
sex than their straight counterparts.17"

http://images.wegiveadamn.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Damn-Issue-YOUTHHOMELESSNESS.pdf

It would be really nice if "progressives" would check actual facts BEFORE being so "certain".

If more of you actually cared about homelessness, and availed yourselves of the FACTS, you would KNOW better.

[TexasObserver]

52. If that is what the poll data says it only proves the poll data is wrong.

"How we gonna classify the ones who get abortions?"

"List them as gay."


If something defies logic, it's probably not true. This sounds like the kind of "fact" created by intent, not good data.


I would not put any confidence in that woman's ability to tell me anything but where the nearest Catholic church is.

[bobbolink]

54. I have posted several FACTS here in this thread.

If you actually care about gay youth, you might be willing to read them.

[TexasObserver]

60. I've read and dismissed them.

Accept that your notions may be completely inaccurate.

[Name removed]

61. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[treestar]

62. Do you always have to be hostile?

Simply pointing things out with kindness gets you farther than this kind of thing.

[WolverineDG]

58. girls can get girls pregnant?

who knew?

this is beyond felony stupid....

dg

[lightningandsnow]

59. Sexuality is fluid, kiddos.

And a lot of the people lumped in as "gay" in studies (and on DU) are actually bisexual, pansexual, just queer, or sexually fluid.

I'm almost 19 years old. I'm bisexual. I've slept with girls, I've slept with guys. I practice safer sex, but not everyone does.

[Dappleganger]

66. Did you read all of the above posts?

Just because you sleep with opposite sex doesn't mean you are turned on/prefer the opposite sex. A lot of gay/lesbian kids try straight sex for various reasons, but they aren't bi--they are gay.

[lightningandsnow]

76. I definitely agree with that,

but I'm pretty sure a lot of the people who get lumped in to the "gay" category are bi, unless they are married to someone of the opposite sex, in which they become "straight" in the eyes of most of the public. People, even on DU, have trouble acknowledging that there are sexual identities other than straight or gay. And even people who do identify as straight or gay sometimes still are more sexually fluid than you might think. I have a straight-identified male friend who once had a sexual encounter with a man and enjoyed it. He's not homophobic at all - he's actually a great ally, so it's not an internalized homophobia thing. Human sexuality is a lot more complex than most people are willing to acknowledge.

[Quantess]

63. Her double knit polyester jacket is so sexy.

What a great gal. :thumbsdown:

[progressoid]

68. most oddly indeed.

Lunatic.

[Mimosa]

69. I don't believe that

People can make up all kinds of weird stuff.

[ProfessorGAC]

70. I Agree

Although some of the folks on this thread are making valid points about the stresses on young gay folks, and those may all be absolutely accurate and factual, i think the basis of this thread is fraudulent, especially given the source of the opening comment.
GAC

[NC_Nurse]

73. Perhaps if they weren't pressured to appear hetero, this would not be a problem

You stupid bitch.

Sorry, couldn't help myself on that last part. NOM makes me gag.

[begin_within]

75. excellent comeback!

I wish lots of people would send her that message!

[canetoad]

78. I could kiss you

Well, not really, but you are the first person in this thread to proffer a logical (on-topic) and plausible reason for pregnancy figures among gay teens.

For those pushing their own personal agendas, I repeat NC_Nurse's words. PRESSURED TO APPEAR HETERO.

PS Hope your post doesn't get deleted. It should stand.