Good day.

Your article on "gay" teens appearsh to have been written by PFLAG and does not reflect the core issues regarding Same Sex Attraction.

Parents have a good reason to be concerned about Same Sex Attraction in children. To sugar coat it with "it's ok" or encouraging words from PFLAG does much to support a political agenda and nothing to support the gender discordant child.

Today our children and grandchildren are not receiving accurate information on SSA due to censorship in public libraries, school libraries, and bookstores ( www.endcensorship.com) .

When children with unwanted Same Sex Attraction are referred to well meaning organizations such as PFLAG, GLSEN, and GLADD, a critical step is missed. “Gay” affirming organizations provided these children with only one line of thinking. This in turn removes “choice” from the equation.

These sensitive children and their families should be offered choices. Undeniably, the media has played an important role in this gradual development SSA in our culture, especially among the young. (http://www.cultureandmediainstitute.org/articles/2008/20081008150647.aspx ). The Rand Corporation recently published a study linking teen pregnancies to what children watch on TV. ( http://www.rand.org/health/abstracts/2008/11/chandra.html ). Based upon this insightful research, one can logically assume when children watch “gay” affirming programming, similar results occur.

The American College of Pediatricians has recently provided an informative article about gender discordant children…. http://www.acpeds.org/index.cgi?BISKIT=1182133937&CONTEXT=art&cat=10005&...
.

If a person chooses to self identify as “gay” or lesbian that is their decision and must be respected. The decision however should be an informed decision. People with Unwanted Same Sex Attraction need to know they have choices.

Please take it upon yourself to understand SSA. The scientific statistics are that 1 in 33 kids will develop SSA (http://www.narth.com/docs/questions.html ), (http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid53742.asp ). PFLAG statistics put the number at 1 in 10 ( http://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=30781). Either way, it’s a lot of kids and nobody can discount the obstacles SSA children will face.

Watch the 15 minute video at www.homosexuality101.com. Two stories worth reading are about Greg Louganis by Richard Cohen of the International Healing Foundation as this story should never ever happen again to a child, anywhere: http://www.charityadvantage.com/International_Healing_FounFDXHCY/images/.... Another story is from AARP about elderly people of the “gay” and lesbian community (http://www.365gay.com/news/elderly-gays-forging-new-alliances/ ).

Additional information and resources can be found at the following web sites: www.narth.com , www.homosexuality101.com , www.pathinfo.org , ww.pfox.org , www.jonahweb.org , www.ismychildgay.com , www.gaytostraight.org , www.endcensorhip.com . Please share with others.

Use some common sense before you allow your child to travel this long and winding road.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jose Schwartz

Thank you so much for this article,I'm sure there people like myself, who could use the information that I just read. It made me aware of some things that my child might be going through.

Thank You
Ms.T,

Jose's comment is full of politically and religiously slanted URLs and other information that might be helpful to some but if you choose to go down the route of doubting your teen's feelings your relationship with your child will likely suffer.

The point is to love and accept your child. If your child has the courage to tell you that they are gay, they've been thinking about this for a long, long time and are no longer questioning, they know. Most parents of gay and lesbian teens are not surprised when told about the child's sexual orientation because they've known the child all their life, so they know it's not a choice, it's the way the child is.

Be supportive of your child, believe them, don't second guess them. They are the best judges of their own feelings. Listen to your kids and appreciate them for who they are, not for your fantasy of who you think they should be.

The author, Katy Abel, stated in reference to the question, What do organized religions say about raising gay teenagers?, "Only the American Baptist and Unitarian churches are open and accepting of homosexual church members." Ms Abel neglected to include Judaism as an organized religion. Reform and Conservative Judaism both are open and accepting of homosexual members. FYI Ms Abel, Judaism was an organized religion far longer than Baptist or Unitarian.

It is not true that only the two churches mentioned openly accept gay and lesbian members. I do not know which denominations have open and affirming policies, but there are many churches, from many different denominations who have open and affirming policies. For example, there are a growing number of Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) churches who are Open and Affirming. You just have to do the research. But the information given here was not accurate.

im gay

My son came out to me at 13. Both my husband and I knew this bout him since he was about age 2. He and I have always had a very close relationship and open, honest communication. He is so very grateful that not only do we support him, but I drive him each week to a LGBT teen group so he knows that he is not alone. I am quite honest with him, though, about my concerns about violence and harrassment, and have asked him to very carefully consider whom he tells, and when he tells them. As I have actively worked with the LGBT community thorugh AIDS prevention efforts, I am able to get him to resources that I trust and that I know are honorable. However, I still "worry" about is that some idiot(s) will try to harm him (jump him) as he does courageously live out who he is.

We must have mercy on our children NO MATTER WHAT!
Your child could be in danger. No one is judging anyone. Get off the populist crap and tell the truth here.
Your urges could be harmful to you before you have the chance to defend yourself. That's what those stats are saying you dumbass!
Your child can be being kept record of right now "on facebook" by a local or area person, who is a transexual meth head, whom wants to lure her to another city where they can snuff them. And your kid trusts them, and you never met any of them.
Your kid may make it to heaven as a wonderful gay person. Congrats!
Do not believe the people who claim that they are tolerent. They just want to win a popularity contest, and are deluded easily.
Believe somone whose kid ran away and with a transexual meth head, and was put out to prostitution and murdered.

Things become much clearer when its your own [filtered word] you smell...

johnboy