Bisexual, gay and lesbian youth are more likely than their straight peers to be punished by their school or the criminal justice system for the same transgressions.
In an analysis of the US National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, teenagers attracted to people of the same sex were 41 percent more likely to be expelled from school and 42 percent more likely to be convicted of a crime as an adult, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics.
The study highlights the extent of bias and intimidation experienced by non-heterosexual teens, study author Kathryn Himmelstein said.
BULLYING
Some suicides of gay teenagers, including that of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, have been linked to peer bullying.
It appears that bias against gay, lesbian and bisexual teenagers extends to adults as well, Himmelstein said.
“It’s not just kids who are bullying, adults are stacking the deck,” said Himmelstein, who is now a high school teacher in New York.
The paper was completed when she was an undergraduate at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
The differences weren’t explained by greater participation by gay and lesbian teenagers in illegal behaviors or actions that violated rules, the paper found.
PULL OVER
The research also found that gay and lesbian teenagers were 38 percent more likely to be stopped by the police, compared with heterosexual teenagers, and 53 percent more likely if they identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual.
Research has shown that gay and lesbian teenagers are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide. Suicides of students such as Clementi, who was a freshman at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, have sparked campaigns against bullying.
Clementi plunged from the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River on Sept. 22, three days after live video of a sexual encounter between him and -another man was transmitted on the Internet, according to Middlesex County, New Jersey, prosecutor Bruce Kaplan. Two people were charged with invasion of privacy in the incident.
In October, the US Department of Education said schools that don’t address the bullying of gay students may lose government funds for failing to enforce gender-discrimination laws.
Himmelstein and co-author Hannah Bruckner, a sociology professor at Yale, analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of 20,745 teenagers in grades 7 through 12 in the US from 1994 to 1995 and a follow-up, of 15,197 young adults, from 2001 to 2002.
People who work with adolescents need to be aware of the challenges that face gay teenagers, Himmelstein said.
FAIR POLICIES
“Institutions need to design policies for treating all youth fairly and equally,” she said.
In a separate report, San Francisco State University researchers found that an accepting family significantly lowered the risk of suicide attempts, substance abuse and depression in gay teenagers, according to a study published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese