CultureWatch Bill Muehlenberg's commentary on issues of the day
…It is quite common for homosexual activists to blame suicide in their ranks on ‘homophobia’. ‘If we would just be more tolerant and accepting of homosexuals, these rates would drop’ they claim. But are these claims in fact true? The evidence seems to suggest that they are not.
A simple way to test this is to look at places where homosexuality is very much accepted, such as in nations like Holland, or cities like San Francisco. One would expect less suicide and other mental health problems amongst homosexuals in these places. But that is not the case. There is as much if not more suicide and related problems in these localities. So homophobia cannot be to blame.
As one commentator puts it, “Studies done in the Netherlands and New Zealand, for example, where there is generally high tolerance of sexual ‘diversity,’ found the same high rates of psychological difficulties as those done elsewhere.” A number of international studies have borne this out.
A panel convened by such groups as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Psychological Association, and the American Association of Suicidology made this finding: “There is no population-based evidence that sexual orientation and suicidality are linked in some direct or indirect manner”.
A study published in Pediatrics entitled “Risk factors for attempted suicide in gay and bisexual youth,” examined 137 youths who deemed themselves ‘gay’. Says the study, “In this sample, bisexuality or homosexuality per se was not associated with self-destructive acts”. This study found that less than one in ten homosexual youths attempted suicide because of their homosexuality. Bear in mind again that attempts are always much more common than completed suicides.
But the myth that ‘homophobia’ causes high suicide rates keeps being repeated because it nicely serves in the overall cause of the militant homosexual lobby: to get mainstream acceptance of homosexuality. Indeed, by using skewed statistics, homosexual activists are seeking to win over societal acceptance.
Read the rest of this article at: http://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/10/21/just-what-is-behind-these-suicides/
