Had to share...

Relationship with family....

     A gay/lesbian teen will one day have the difficult decision of when, how and if to tell their parents about their sexual orientation. I can only imagine how difficult this would be. I also hate to think of the many teens who end up having no love and support from their parents and family after sharing this personal information.
     Most of the existing research I found focused on negativity in the relationships between lesbian and gay teens and their parents. No research I easily found considered the possibility of acceptance and support  from the family.
     A study conducted by Ryan and Russell (2010) looked at the relationships between a gay/lesbian teen and their parents at the time of the "coming out". The researchers looked at a group of 245 teens and found that the teens who expected a negative reaction from friends and family also reported they had a problem with substance abuse. Another part of their study assessed the relationship between the health of the teen and family rejection. Their study showed clear associations between parental rejecting behaviors during adolescence and the use of illegal drugs, depression, attempted suicide, mental health problems and sexual risk by the gay/lesbian teens. But, they also discovered that after their parents become sensitized to the need and well-being of the teens, many family relationships improve (Ryan and Russell, 2010).
     I feel that gay/lesbian teenagers whose family has rejected them would be at the most serious risk for serious emotional distress. I want to always try my hardest to help my children be happy and be who they really are on the inside. My job as a parent is to support and love my children no matter what their sexual orientation. I want them to be able to be honest and open with me about who they are as a person without the fear of me ever rejecting them. If one of my children choose a different sexual orientation I will support them and let them know they are loved and accepting....I feel every parent should always do the same. If my children are happy...then I am happy.


Diaz, R., Huebner, D., Russell, S.T., Ryan, C., Sanchez, J. (2010). Family acceptance in adolescence and the health of LGBT young adults. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 23(4), 205-213.

The hard part for many teens....

I wish I could say this mindset was surprising to me.....

   
     A prom is suppose to be a fun event for high school students. But, if you are gay or lesbian it may be nothing but an event that causes more hurt and pain. In Utah a young girl was asked to leave a special dance because she was there with a female date. This clearly violated her rights because of the federal court cases there have been upholding the rights of same sex couples to attend the prom. Those two court cases were: Fricke v. Lynch in 1980  and McMillen v. Itawamba in 2010 ("ACLU of Utah", 2011). A public school in Mississippi cancelled the prom rather than allow a student to bring a same-sex date ("ACLU of Utah", 2011). To cancel a prom for this reason seems so completely wrong in so many ways!
     We have talked so much about discrimination over the last four weeks. I feel that a school board ruling that gays/lesbians are not allowed to attend their prom is a perfect example of just that; discrimination. There are several different sexual orientations and it seems ridiculous that a school would ban certain students due to their choice of orientation. Makes me wonder how much the schools are helping to continue the bullying and discrimination of gays/lesbians in high school. 
     Let's look at Sullivan High School in Indiana...be prepared to be very angry!

The school board at Sullivan High School is against banning any gay/lesbian students from attending the prom. Because of this, a group of about 600 students from Sullivan High have rallied to have a prom that bans gay couples; a "traditional" prom as they are calling it. These students believe that if they make the prom "good" they convince more people to "follow what they believe" and attend the traditional prom. Not everyone in the community thinks what the students are doing is right (Anderle, 2013).
    Many high school students look forward to attending their prom.  It's a very big event in high school....everyone should be able to make the memory of attending it no matter who they take as a date.

American Health Information Management Association. (n.d.). AHIMA code of ethics. Retrieved from

    http://www.ahima.org/‌about/‌ethicscode.aspx

Anderle, M. February, 2013. Gay ban at prom nixed, so some students try to hold their own. Newsmax. Retrieved from

    http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/gay-ban-prom-nixed/2013/02/11/id/489791

A quote for everyone to live by, no matter their sexual orientation...

Not a good statistic....

We must prevent more suicides...

     A typical teenager may have hard issues to deal with through high school.  If that teenager happens to be gay/lesbian, it can make things even more difficult.  But, how are we supposed to make things “get better” if we avoid the issue.  So many kids are misinformed on this subject.  A better education could mean a better future for all the gay/lesbian teens who are contemplating suicide.  I feel discrimination has a lot to do with experience.  Unfortunately there are many people who are having no experiences with this issue and learning nothing about it.  There are also religious groups who continue to teach hatred against gay/lesbians.

     McFarland (2008) stated that professional counselors at high schools have the ethical duty to serve all students including gay, lesbian, and bisexual students.  He feels that they need to understand why this hidden minority is at a high risk for suicide in order to develop and implement interventions through a developmental guidance program. 

     Gay/lesbian teens may end up contemplating suicide because they are not behaving in ways that conform to their gender roles.  After watching the video tribute for gay/lesbians I thought to ask my teenager children if they have ever spoken of this issue in their health class.  They all answered no.  They have spoken about dating and how the male and female bodies work but never anything on this issue.  They have never discussed this topic in school.  I wonder….would any teenager still be alive today if an adult at their school had opened up a conversation on the topic?  There has to be someone reassuring these teenagers that it really will “get better”.

McFarland, W.P. (1998). Gay, lesbian, and bisexual student suicide. Professional School Counseling, 1(3), 26-29.