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January 2, 2009 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 5
newsbriefs
Parents' reaction to coming out affects kids' health
San Francisco-Young gay people whose parents or guardians responded negatively when they revealed their sexual orientation were more likely to attempt suicide, experience severe depression and use drugs than those whose families accepted the news, according to a new study.
The way in which parents or guardians respond to a youth's sexual orientation profoundly influences the child's mental health as an adult, say researchers at San Francisco State University, whose findings appear in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Among other findings, the study showed that teens who experienced negative feedback were more than eight times as likely to have attempted suicide, nearly six times as vulnerable to severe depression and more than three times at risk of drug use.
More significantly, ongoing work suggests that parents who take even baby steps to respond with equanimity instead of rejection can dramatically improve a gay youth's mental health outlook.
One of the most startling findings was that being forbidden to associate with gay peers was as damaging as being physically beaten or verbally abused by their parents. Lead researcher Caitlin Ryan has used the information in workshops with parents and other caregivers who have strained relationships with their gay teenagers, and said many were alarmed enough to make. immediate changes in their interactions.
Ryan recalled a teenage girl whose mother forced her to date a boy and sent her to live with her grandmother when she learned her daughter was lesbian. After hearing about the connection between parental attitudes and suicide, the mother stopped arranging the dates with the boy and instead inquired about her daughter's girlfriend.
Man gets 51⁄2 years for gaybashing
Rochester, N.Y.-A man who attacked a gay patron in a suburban Rochester bar drew a sentence of five and a half years in prison on December 23.
Jesse Parsons, 25, hurled a stream of antigay invective at Lance Neve before beating him severely at a bar in Spencerport in March. Neve, 28, sustained fractures to his skull, nose, eye socket and jaw.
Parsons was initially charged with assault committed as a hate crime, which carries a sentence of five to 15 years. The hate crime component was dropped in a plea deal that called for a four-year sentence--but the agreement was voided when Parsons made disparaging remarks about his victim at his sentencing last month.
Returning to court Tuesday, Parsons apologized for his outburst and opted to stand by his plea in return for an extra 18-month sentence imposed by Judge Richard Keenan. In exchange for prosecutors dropping the hate crime, Parsons also agreed to pay Neve's medical expenses of more than $24,000.
Woman gang-raped for being lesbian
San Francisco-Four men taunted a woman for being lesbian, then repeatedly raped her before leaving her outside an abandoned apartment building, authorities said.
Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked December 13 after she got out of her car in Richmond, in the San Francisco Bay area.
"It just pushes it beyond fathomable," said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan. "The level of trauma-physical and emotionalthis victim has suffered is extreme."
Authorities are characterizing the attack as a hate crime. Gagan said the victim lived openly with a female partner and had a rainbow flag sticker on her car.
The 45-minute attack began when one of the men approached the woman as she crossed the street, struck her with a blunt object, ordered her to undress and sexually assaulted her with the help of the other men. When the group saw another person approaching, they forced the victim back into her car and took her to a burned-out apartment building, where she was raped again inside and outside the vehicle. The assailants took her wallet and drove off in her car. Officers found the car abandoned two days later.
Judge bars partner from mom's home
Nashville, Tenn.-A same-sex couple is asking the Tennessee Court of Appeals to lift a judge's restriction in a child custody agreement that prevents the divorced mother's partner of nine years from staying overnight.
The Nashville Tennessean reports the American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief with the Court of Appeals in Jackson on behalf of Angel Chandler, a divorced mother with two kids.
Chandler said Chancellor George Ellis of the 28th Judicial District in West Tennessee imposed the restriction, called a paramour clause, in May without a request from her ex-husband and despite an evaluation. that showed the children were not in harm's way from their mother's relationship. Ellis cited local law and precedent for the paramour clause, according to the appeal.
After Ellis imposed the restriction, Chandler's partner moved into a duplex near Asheville, N.C. Chandler and her daughter, now 13, moved into the opposite side of the same duplex. Chandler's ex-husband has custody of their 15-year-old son and has remarried.
ACLU spokesman Paul Cates said the clause primarily affects lesbians and gays with children because same-sex civil unions are not recognized in Tennessee. Heterosexual couples can circumvent the paramour clause by getting married, Cates said.
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Birth certificate must show both dads
New Orleans-A same-sex couple in California has won a federal court ruling that their adopted son's Louisiana birth certificate must bear the names of both adoptive fathers.
An attorney for Louisiana's Vital Records Office argued that Louisiana law does not let even grandparents adopt jointly.
But a federal judge in New Orleans ruled Monday that Louisiana must give full faith and credit to the New York state court in which the boy was adopted. District Judge Jay Zainey ruled without a trial, saying the law is clear.
The boy was born in Shreveport. Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith of San Diego adopted him in April 2006, through Ulster County Family Court in Kingston, N.Y.
Bill would change C.U. to full marriage
Concord, N.H.--Gay civil rights activists want to replace the term "civil union" with "marriage" in New Hampshire's oneyear-old civil union law.
Rep. Jim Splaine, a Portsmouth Democrat, has filed a bill to make the change, which he says would confer a level of dignity and acceptance on same-sex couples that civil unions do not. He argues that marriage is a civil contract validated by the state. not by churches as religious institutions.
Other bills on the issue would ban samesex civil unions and marriages, allow heterosexuals to enter into civil unions and bar New Hampshire from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states as civil unions.
New Hampshire's law gives couples in civil unions the same rights and responsibilities as married couples in all aspects but
A
name, but that promise, though largely untested, has clear limits. Gay couples taking advantage of the law acquire substantial new state protections ranging from important health benefits to the ability to inherit without a will. But they are treated legally as unmarried adults in most states.
Compiled from wire reports by Brian DeWitt, Anthony Glassman and Patti Harris.
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