Over the past year, the news has been filled with stories of the suicide among gay teenagers who’ve suffered bullying from their peers. The stories are tragic. And there’s no doubt that some gay teenagers suffer more emotional distress than straight ones. But what do we really know about their lives? Is the discrimination overplayed in the news media?
Ritch Savin-Williams, professor of Human Development at the College of Human Ecology and director of Cornell’s Sex and Gender Lab, has written a book that covers these topics called The New Gay Teenager.
In the book, Savin-Williams makes the point that it is much easier to get grants to study clinical problems and treatment, meaning that gay teenagers without health or emotional problems have fallen under the radar of most academic studies.
“We hear only the negative aspects from research. We don’t hear about normal gay teens,” he told the New York Times for an article earlier this year. “It’s hard to get studies published when researchers don’t find differences. A large number of studies found no group differences between gay and straight youth, but these have not been published.”
Hi main concern is that the media presents a negative picture to teenagers who are questioning their sexuality.
“I’m concerned about the message being given to gay youth by adults who say they are destined to be depressed, abuse drugs or perhaps commit suicide,” he said. “I believe the message may create more suicides, more depression and more substance abuse. I worry about suicide contagion. About 10 to 15 percent are fragile gay kids, and they’re susceptible to messages of gay-youth suicide.”
More recent studies have found that straight youths are just as much at risk of being bullied if they exhibit atypical behavior.
“Bullying is less about sexuality than about gender nonconformity,” Dr. Savin-Williams said. “There are straight youth who are gender-atypical and they suffer as much as gay kids. But whether there’s a direct link between bullying and suicide among gay teens has not been shown.”
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