“Gay teens have higher pregnancy rates than their straight peers.” That’s the headline in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, reporting on findings by a non-profit focused on teenage sexual health. How does that work, you ask?
In this context, “gay” is a catchall term encompassing the entire LGBTQ community. Oh yeah. We just keep tacking new letters on there. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and now the marvelously nebulous category of “questioning” all share the same treatment in these findings. So a girl who identifies as bixsexual, and gets pregnant by a boy, affects the numbers we’re looking at.
Naturally, gay activists have jumped on the findings to further build their rhetorical victim status. From the Tribune:
Struggles with mental health, homelessness, substance abuse and sexual violence were described by pregnant youths interviewed by researchers for Rainbow Health Initiative.
The environment in schools or at home also can play a significant role, said John Azbill-Salisbury, director of programs at Minneapolis-based Rainbow Health Initiative.
“You know, if you’re being told all day long that how you think about yourself is wrong, or that it doesn’t fit into the environment that you’re in, that has a negative effect on all of those things, including risk behaviors that would lead to pregnancy,” he said.
Here’s a much simpler explanation. If you’re a teenager with a professed sexual orientation, it’s probably because you’re having sex. Indeed, the Tribune acknowledges this point on the next page, even while overlooking its significance.
The Tribune continues:
Among the revelatory findings: Bisexual females were five times more likely to have been pregnant than straight females. And questioning and gay males were four times more likely than straight males to report getting someone pregnant.
They also were more sexually active than their straight peers, with about 51 percent of lesbian females reporting that they have had sex compared with 23.5 percent of straight females.
Duh. Maybe that’s because many of those “straight females” aren’t obsessed with their sexual identity. After all, straight is a default category. If you identify as something other than straight, it’s probably because you are engaged in or seeking sexual encounters. This shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Another bizarre claim coming out of these findings is that LGBTQ kids aren’t getting the same quality of sexual education as straight kids. Someone needs to explain to me how the facts of life require unique presentation to a gay kid.
The gay movement touts these findings as argument for further normalization of alternative lifestyles. If kids feel better about themselves, the argument goes, they won’t engage in so much risky behavior. But that’s placing the cart before the horse. Being LGBTQ isrisky behavior. These identities have no meaning outside a context where they are acted upon.
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