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teen suicide

Continued from Page 5 physical abuse of gay and lesbian students.

Support of positive programs aimed at student sexual identity is widespread. During its 1988 national convention, the National Educators Association passed a resolution stating, "Every school district should provide counseling for students who are struggling with their sexual/gender orientation."

The HHS Youth Suicide Report recommended that "training programs for health professionals should focus on groups at high-risk for suicidal behavior. . . including, as training components, sensitivity to various cultural groups, language differences, and sexual orientation."

The HHS report further recommends an "end to discrimination against youths

Congress

Continued from Page 5

"The report correctly identifies the special vulnerability of gay and lesbian youth," wrote Vaid. "It reveals that gay youth face extremely hostile, stressful, isolating and unsupportive family environments that have led to a disproportionate number of suicides among homosexual youth. Your [Sullivan's] statement to Congressman Dannemeyer appears to be unmindful of these facts, and potentially may even fuel anti-gay and lesbian family hostility."

The HHS report says killing oneself is the leading cause of death among sexual minority youth, noted Kevin Berrill, ho heads NGLTF's Anti-Violence Project. "The increased risk of suicide facing them is linked to growing up in a society that teaches them to hide and to hate themselves. We welcome this report and hope it will lead to action that will save lives."

People working with gay youth also face difficult problemslack of information and researchers' tendency to slight sexual minorities, according to Joyce Hunter, a social worker who helps run New York City's Hetrick-Martin Institute (known earlier as the Institute for the Protection of Gay and Lesbian Youth). "When we look at all the factors about teen suicide, the one thing left out is sexual identity, sexual orientation," she said. "Gay and lesbian youth have been overlooked for years."

The Human Rights Campaign Fund (HCRF), Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), NGLTF, and allies fear another Senate battle over ap propriations for the departments of Labor, HHS, and Education

Earlier in this session of Congress, Danneymeyer proposed an amendment to cut off funds to Los Angeles' Project

on the basis of such characteristics as disability, sexual orientation" and other factors.

Sponsors of the congressional briefing included the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the Municipal Elections Committee of Los Angeles (MECLA), National Association of State Boards of Education, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, National Parents and Teachers Association, and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

Congressional cosponsors were Senators Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Alan Cranston, D-Calif., and James Jeffords, R-Vt., and Representatives Ted Weiss, D-N.Y., Henry Waxman, DCalif,, George Miller, D-Calif., Gerry Studds, D-Mass., Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Donald Payne, D-N.J. ▼

10. Last year, Rep. Gordon Humphrey, R-N.H., was able to add an amendment that would have barred federal support for school programs or materials that "promoted or encouraged" homosexuality. It was killed in a HouseSenate conference.

"Lesbian and gay teens have the right to have access to accurate information about themselves, and to positive role models in person and in the curriculum," said Project 10 founder Virginia Uribe. "Crippling self-hate is not going to be our youth's legacy."

In the Report, Gibson said, "The root problem of gay youth suicide is a society that discriminates against and stigmatizes homosexuals while failing to recognize that a substantial number of its youth has a gay or lesbian orientation." To best revise homophobic attitudes and conduct, he urged colleagues in the helping professions, religious workers, educators, and parents to learn more about lesbian and gay youths' problems.

Gibson also suggested that coroner reports and police statistics list whether a victim's sexual orientation was a factor. "Ending that omission might help health workers limit suicide among adolescents by acknowledging gay-related issues during therapy," he said.

Gibson also, in the Report, called for laws at all levels against homophobic bias, arguing that fear of retribution has kept adult gays from coming out and serving as positive adult role models.

Commented PFLAG leader Paulette Goodman, "So much negativity and pressure comes to bear on young people struggling with their sexual identity that they frequently turn to suicide as a way out of their dilemma. Education is most urgently needed to help prevent the loss of our children."

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