Anti-Gay Harrassment leads to poor adult health (and in other news, the religious right really doesn't give a %@!)

From Box Turtle Bulletin comes this news:

The Urban Men’s Health Survey (UMHS) has revealed a lot of useful information in the decade since it was conducted. Much of it “dismaying,” in the words of Ron Stall, who worked on the survey at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is now at the University of Pittsburgh. Stall was one of four researchers from the University of Pittsburgh (joined by a fifth researcher from Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis) who analyzed a subset of that data and concluded that “experience of homophobic attacks against young gay/bisexual male youth helps to explain heightened rates of serious health problems among adult gay men.”

The UMHS was a telephone interview of a probability sample of men who have sex with men (MSMs) living in four cities: San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The survey was conducted between November 1996 and February 1998, with 2,881 UMHS participants being asked a wide-ranging battery of questions resulting in 855 variables. The results of that survey were fed into a database, which scores of researchers have been mining ever since for dozens of studies covering many different topics. Dr, Mark Friedman, who has previously investigated the link between anti-gay hostility and suicide among young gay males, led a team which poured over responses to key questions in that database to see if a link could be established between anti-gay hostility against young gay men and adverse health outcomes as adults.

This study confirms a common sense idea that a child who has his/her self esteem destroyed (via name-calling or any other type of harrassment) will most likely grow up to participate in negative behavior.

It's an idea that isn't necessarily bound to sexual orientation. In his classic novel, Native Son, African-American writer Richard Wright demonstrated, through the turbulent life and death of his protagonist Bigger Thomas, that when society works against building the self esteem of youth, it usually creates criminals and those who engage in negative behavior.

Not that members of the religious right care about Bigger Thomas, Richard Wright, or this study.

To them, any attempt to stop such harrassment is a part of the BIG GAY CONSPIRACY.

Yesterday, Matt Barber of the Liberty Counsel railed against an educator for daring to stop homophobic language in her class.

Today, Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), is bitching about "No Name Calling Week," a week where students are encouraged to treat each other with respect regardless of their differences:

Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), says while the event's name sounds innocent, it is a way of indoctrinating children so that they will support the homosexual agenda after they become adults. A PJI press release reveals the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, is a key sponsor of the program.

"They're promoting, all the way down to the first-grade level, children to read and be exposed to books and material that is pro-homosexual -- and it's all under the guise of opposing name-calling," he contends.

. . . "The alleged homosexual kids are not the only ones being bullied," the attorney points out. "There's [sic] kids of faith being called 'homophobic' and 'homophobe,' and yet those words and that name-calling is not under attack and is not being addressed by this alleged week of tolerance that's being pushed."

Dacus urges parents to be aware of what happens in their children's schools and to opt out their children out if necessary.

That's right parents - opt your kids out of this event so that they can name-call other students with impunity. And why stop there.

Why don't you sit down with your child and draw up a list of slurs that he/she can use.

After all, family togetherness is so Christian.

Really though, if there are any incidents of Christian children being called names, they should be addressed. Of course like so many other things when it comes to the religious right, I am sure that this is an anecdotal story with little evidence or one intentionally taken out of context.

In my day, those who pushed conspiracies where there were none were looked at with caution.

Nowadays, it seems that they are given platforms as "pro-family" activists.

Seriously though, a week that encourages children to show respect for differences (religious, sexual orientation, race, or otherwise) should be encouraged, period.

If you ask me, I think it should be a mandatory week for adults also.