So, there I was, minding my own business, just looking at my email in-box, and I saw this weird headline from an organization that sends me stuff I rarely open. Given that I am neither gay nor lesbian, why, I wonder, am I on the “Equality Democrat” mailing list (lgbtequalitypac.org)? But I am now on so many Democratic fund-raising mailing lists that I imagine it all stems from that one single contribution I made in 2020 to the Amy Klobuchar presidential campaign.
To find out who are these Lays and Gesbians who constantly send me emails, I went to the “Equality PAC” website, where I found the statement below (under "Comments"). Now, admittedly, times have changed just a bit since I graduated from high school in the antediluvian days of 1967. Still, I wonder: Do 22% of female high school students really self-identify as LGBT-QRSTUVWXYZ? That figure seems a bit high to me, but then again, how would I know?
Notice that the supposed source for that statistic is the much-esteemed CDC. So my next stop was the CDC website, where I found the following page, which seems to be sort of a promotional pitch for going gay in high school!
It informs me that “Most lesbian, gay, bisexual, (LGB) youth are happy and thrive during their adolescent years.” Really??? Maybe I was on the wrong team, ‘cause I do not recall being particularly happy and thriving, as a straight male, during my adolescent years in junior high and high school.
By the way, notice the source for the CDC assertion of happy-go-lucky LGB teens… Oh, there isn’t any source provided! Did somebody at CDC just make it up that “most…LGB youth are happy and thrive during their adolescent years”?
A couple paragraphs later on the same CDC webpage, we learn that at least some LGB youth are NOT so happy and thriving: “LGB youth are at greater risk for depression, suicide, substance use, and sexual behaviors that can place them at increased risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Nearly one-third (29%) of LGB youth had attempted suicide at least once in the prior year compared to 6% of heterosexual youth. In 2014, young gay and bisexual men accounted for 8 out of 10 HIV diagnoses among youth.”
So, which is it? Happy and thriving or suicidal? Yes, I realize that “most” LGB youth means more than 50%, whereas the attempted suicide rate for these LGB youth is only 29%. ONLY? That seems damn high to me! If nearly one-third of any group “attempted suicide at least once in the prior year,” I would say that this is NOT a happy, well-adjusted group. THESE KIDS NEED HELP!
