Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Well actually, they didn't say gays because they refuse to use the word 'gay' on their website. But this article points out the obvious, that gay people get depressed more than straight people.
A new study in the United Kingdom has revealed that homosexuals are about 50% more likely to suffer from depression and engage in substance abuse than the rest of the population, reports Health24.com.After analyzing 25 earlier studies on sexual orientation and mental health, researchers, in a study published in the medical journal BMC Psychiatry, also found that the risk of suicide jumped over 200% if an individual had engaged in a homosexual lifestyle.
I love the way they phrased that - "if an individual had engaged in a homosexual lifestyle" - as though the mere act of touching genitalia of the same sex causes depression. First of all, we engage in acts and an act is not a lifestyle. Second of all, there is no such thing as the "homosexual lifestyle." The lives of gay people are as diverse as the lives of straight people. If the only thing two people have in common is that they're both gay, that tells as little about their shared traits as it does about two straight people.
More importantly, why do they think this is true? Perhaps it's because gays routinely face hatred, bigotry and discrimination? Talk to any group of gay people and you will find a great many of them, even in this relatively more enlightened time, who were ostracized by families and friends when they came out of the closet.
We hear from these "pro-family" groups all the time about the importance of the family in building emotionally healthy people. Imagine the emotional difficulties one can face when they are thrown out of their own family, when their own parents refuse to have a relationship with them or the person they love, when their own parents tell them that they're sick or possessed by demons and that if they can't pray away the gay it can only mean that they lack faith and are going to hell.
Imagine how difficult it must be, especially on a gay teenager struggling with their identity in the face of societal disapproval. Imagine how unsafe it must feel to walk around school or the mall and hear constant refrains of "faggot" thrown in their face. Imagine how dehumanizing it is to be constantly denigrated as a sissy in a school full of jocks. Imagine the fear of social interaction that must develop in such an atmosphere.
But hell, you don't have to imagine it. Ask any gay person and they can tell you all about it, as my friends have told me time and time again. Faced with all of this, what does the American "Family" Association do? Do they react with the compassion of the Christ they claim to follow and say to the bigots and the bullies, "whatever you do to the least of these, you do unto me also"? Of course not.
They use it as an excuse to encourage more bigotry and discrimination, to portray all gay people as mentally ill and emotionally unstable. They use it to justify denying to all gay people the same protection for their long-term relationships that straight people already have even when they know that forming such relationships can be of enormous emotional benefit to all of us.
They use it to rail against laws that prevent discrimination against them, reinforcing the very conditions that lead to the depression. They use it to justify attempts to prevent the formation of Gay-Straight Alliance clubs in schools so that gay teenagers can find the kind of emotional support that might help them overcome that depression and avoid suicide.
This is akin to breaking a track athlete's leg and then not only criticizing them for limping, but using that limp as proof that they shouldn't have been allowed on the team in the first place. This is madness.
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Columns like this deserve to be syndicated nationally. Where else does one find such strong arguments based on accurately framed assertions?
I continue to be amazed that people like Thomas Sowell or Cal Thomas get paid to write drivel when there is talent like we see on display here.
Posted by: Michael Heath | September 23, 2008 10:15 AM
I disagree. The stuff that Sowell/Thomas crowd writes takes a lot more...creativity. A lot of what Ed writes is so obvious, it writes itself. :{)
Posted by: Ferrous Patella | September 23, 2008 10:28 AM
Personally I can't imagine it. Mainly because it just didn't happen to me (but I did get enough verbal abuse from my older brothers that gave me a thick skin). Lot of people go through high school without ever being harassed this way (heck - a lot of people go through school without ever being noticed). But at the time I didn't realize what 'gay' was. I didn't understand the non-attraction to girls. It wasn't until a couple of years after I graduated that I finally figured it out. A close classmate of mine didn't come out until age 30 and he falls into every gay stereotype that people like to make fun of. And this is because the appropriate topics weren't covered in school. The AFA's and other parents groups war against proper sex education is not only hurting those that are still figuring things out but those that are close to them. Causing a lot of unnecessary pain and misery for all.
Posted by: yoshi | September 23, 2008 10:28 AM
Lifestyle? Yeah, like it's voluntary.
That term is a code used by those living the bigoted lifestyle.
Posted by: WTFWJD | September 23, 2008 10:35 AM
Madness? This is AMERICA!
Sorry.
Excellent article, very clear and to the point. Exposing the hypocrisy of the religious right continually and loudly is the only way this is going to change.
Posted by: FutureMD | September 23, 2008 10:37 AM
The brilliance of Stephen Colbert comes to mind. Here's an excerpt from I Am America (And So Can You)
Posted by: Abby Normal | September 23, 2008 10:39 AM
Does anybody remember the name they gave the "mental disorder" that caused slaves to run away from their masters?
Posted by: Jason Failes | September 23, 2008 10:45 AM
I grew up in southern Alabama. Before I graduated from high school, 2 gay classmates ended their own lives. They were ostracized, ridiculed, and rejected by their own families. And forced into programs like "Living Waters" and "Exodus Ministries", that tried to help them pray the gay away. I guess the AFA just wants to point out that it's their own fault. Their choice to live their "lifestyle" brought it upon themselves. What an atrocious group of people, who have no interest in promoting healthy families, but rather in promoting the divisive sectarianism that does nothing more than divide families. They should at least change their name to something less Orwellian.
Posted by: raidsmith | September 23, 2008 10:47 AM
Drapetomania!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drapetomania
Maybe we should create a term for the impulse gays can come down with where they want to live with equal rights in a fair, free, and open society?
He's got a bad case of Homo-Equalitus...
Posted by: Jason Failes | September 23, 2008 10:50 AM
Interesting that "gays" disproportionately get depressed, since the word "gay" means "happy," which is the very opposite of "depressed." Does this mean we ought to start calling homosexual people "sads" now? Or is this just supposed to be chalked up to ironic usage?
Seriously, I know very well the kind of hazing that gays tend to receive in school; many of my classmates (erroneously) decided I was gay, and I received almost as much derision on that account as I did for my nerdiness. And, yes, it is crushingly depressing to be the object of scorn from virtually all sides. It's one reason I sympathize so strongly with gay rights -- in a sense, I walked a mile in their ruby-red pumps whether I wanted to or not.
~David D.G.
Posted by: David D.G. | September 23, 2008 10:51 AM
Let Teddy "Teabag" Haggard's "re-purposing" be a lesson, and an inspiration, to us all.
I've never been gay, but I might wake up tomorrow and see that watching my neighbor, the plumber, bend over when he's putting stuff in the back of his truck, fill me with unholy desire. It's good to know that my depression would be explicable (his wife's depression? I don't know about that). It's even better to know that my future possible decision to embrace gayness--and the plumber--, which is not a sickness, but a lifestyle, is, somehow curable.
Posted by: democommie | September 23, 2008 10:54 AM
Hell, even if you're not gay you may be treated to that experience. I was a serious tomboy in school and through years 13 and 14 was constantly being called a dyke. That wasn't enough to make me contemplate suicide, but it did drive me into depression and incredible insecurity. If it's the "gay lifestyle" that causes the depression and not the abusive treatment of others based on the perception that you are gay, then please explain that, AFA.
Posted by: Gretchen | September 23, 2008 11:04 AM
It'd be interesting to simply look at the "depression enhancement" the AFA claims exists across the fifty states and see if it differs appreciably between rural and urban areas, red and blue states, places with large and small gay populations, differing levels of legal protections etc. It'd also separate the homophobia hypothesis from the "sinful lifestyle" hypothesis pretty well.
Posted by: D | September 23, 2008 11:10 AM
obvious, that gay people get depressed more than straight people
I don't think this is obvious. You present a number of reasons why someone who is subjected to discrimination and hate may become depressed, and those reasons make sense, but too often this "obvious" conclusion is the reasoning used to explain why homosexuality is unhealthy (although I realize this is not the reasoning you are promoting). The article you cite doesn't do enough to explain how the sampling was done (for who identifies as homosexual, let alone for a study like this), and how the controls were done. Interesting analysis though thanks!
Posted by: Jordan | September 23, 2008 11:19 AM
There have been a few such studies. Anthony R. D'Augelli has probably done the most work on the subject and published a number of studies. If you just want a quick overview, this paper might help.
Posted by: Abby Normal | September 23, 2008 12:13 PM
Hey Jason Failes - Did you read the whole Wiki article?
Apparently, according to the illustrious Cartwright, slaves who had 'drapetomania' were made that way by owners who treated them too kindly and gave them equal rights, just like any other person.
If we start treating Gays like that, hell they'll ... umm .. run away, or summin (mumble)
[looks around nervously]
[Dingo bolts for nearest door]. ;) -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | September 23, 2008 12:50 PM
At the risk of waking Orac's Hitler Zombie, I'll venture a guess that there were lots of unhappy Jews in Nazi Germany in the 1930's.
Obviously proof that living the Jewish lifestyle is bad for your mental health.
Posted by: ZacharySmith | September 23, 2008 1:21 PM
Abby - thanks for the link!
Posted by: D | September 23, 2008 1:29 PM
Speaking of Hitler, didn't the Nazis keep their concentration camp victims in filthy, overcrowded conditions, only to use it as "proof" to how "dirty" they were?
Posted by: namowal | September 23, 2008 1:46 PM
namowal:
I've never heard that, but after seeing how the poll taxers in the Jim Crow South didn't even pretend to be fair to the blacks they were screwing over, nothing surprises me about racist thuggery anymore.
Posted by: Brian X | September 23, 2008 2:03 PM
Yeah, it's funny, when your church/society/parents so casually dismiss the struggles of gay people, and so regularly demonize them, I can't imagine what kind of disconnect, isolation, and spiritual torture that might inflict on a teenager who can't come to terms with the sexual feelings he secretly has, who's been so inundated with images of gay people as monstrous hell-bound sinners that it's nearly impossible to even fathom that that could, indeed be you. I can't imagine what kind of depression that might cause.
Oh wait, I lived it.
Forgot.
Posted by: Evan | September 23, 2008 2:19 PM
If anything a mere 50% greater risk illustrates how well they endure the pressure.
Posted by: rpsms | September 23, 2008 2:52 PM
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: At what point did these AFA folks decide to be straight? And if they didn't, then why do they think I decided not to be?
Oh...yeah...right. Because logic isn't in the Bible.
Posted by: Dr. Kate | September 23, 2008 2:59 PM
Evan wrote:
For me, I can only experience it vicariously. But that's what pushed me to be so adamant about equal rights, listening to my friends talk about how devastating it was to grow up that way. I was struck by the fact that I didn't have to experience any of that, that their reality was so different from mine. Sure, I got picked on in school too, I was a debate nerd for crying out loud. But that was just routine teenage stuff, nothing compared to what gay teenagers have had to endure. Having come from a very loving family and being extremely close to my parents, it was just shocking to me to even contemplate how a family could disown a child for being gay. It made me recognize all the things I'm able to take for granted that others have to fight like hell for. And it made me want to fight along with them.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | September 23, 2008 5:18 PM
I don't have much to add to what everyone else has said. But when you're ostracized for something that's out of your control, the tendency is to get depressed and blame yourself. I know a young man who is really a kind, sweet person, who self-identifies, at least, as gay(I really don't know what his sexual orientation is, and I don't really care). He has had a mountain of various kinds of problems, and while he hasn't tried to kill himself, he also hasn't had an easy time of it. And he comes from a relatively "enlightened" family! If a gay person comes from an "enlightened" family, and still has problems, how much worse it must be for kids who come from fundamentalist families who think they can, as one poster put it, "pray the gay away". Acceptance is the key, but even with acceptance from those closest to you, there are still "bumps" you have to negotiate, and that is often not easy.
Anne G
Posted by: Anne Gilbert | September 23, 2008 5:56 PM
I don't have much to add to what everyone else has said. But when you're ostracized for something that's out of your control, the tendency is to get depressed and blame yourself. I know a young man who is really a kind, sweet person, who self-identifies, at least, as gay(I really don't know what his sexual orientation is, and I don't really care). He has had a mountain of various kinds of problems, and while he hasn't tried to kill himself, he also hasn't had an easy time of it. And he comes from a relatively "enlightened" family! If a gay person comes from an "enlightened" family, and still has problems, how much worse it must be for kids who come from fundamentalist families who think they can, as one poster put it, "pray the gay away". Acceptance is the key, but even with acceptance from those closest to you, there are still "bumps" you have to negotiate, and that is often not easy.
Anne G
Posted by: Anne Gilbert | September 23, 2008 5:57 PM
Dr. Kate said: "I've said it before, and I'll say it again: At what point did these AFA folks decide to be straight? And if they didn't, then why do they think I decided not to be?
Oh...yeah...right. Because logic isn't in the Bible."
I've actually asked people who have proclaimed the evils of "being gay" just how old they were when they chose to be heterosexual. The response I loved the most was the deadpan "I didn't have to."
Posted by: Ken | September 23, 2008 7:11 PM
It is incredibly difficult to be a gay teenager in an evangelical church. I wrote here this spring about a young man who committed suicide because of the pressure (and he told me he had never actually had sex, although I wouldn't be surprised if he shot himself after his first encounter). Whatever the case, the fact was that he could not discuss his feelings with his mother, or his pastor, but instead sought out me, who didn't even go to his church (it's a small church and their youth often join our youth group when we do things; he once stayed for a week in a cabin I was in charge of on a retreat).
The AFA has no shame, no soul, and no part in Christ from what I can see.
Posted by: kehrsam | September 23, 2008 8:43 PM
I had a crazy therapist--go figure--who became angry when I told him how much I was abused for being gay when I was an adolescent. I was always called "sissy", "girly" and other names that questioned my masculinity. My therapist, who is also gay, said that he didn't find me effeminate at all and he didn't believe me. I tried to explain that I grew up in the 50s and 60s in a working-class, Catholic Chicago neighborhood. He grew up in an affluent neighborhood in Baltimore in the late 70s and 80s. His parents were both well-educated professionals. The standards of masculinity were different. He still didn't believe me, so I fired him. Throughout high school some of my friends would figure out that I was gay. At that point I became invisible to them. They wouldn't answer when I said "Hi"; they would just pretend I wasn't there.
By the way, I liked the Onenewsnow article on post-abortive men. I wondered what the fuck that meant. It's the mental anguish the father of a fetus feels after it is aborted. I think it's all about the feeling of loss of control over their women and their seed.
Posted by: wrpd | September 23, 2008 9:38 PM
*Reads the article*
Well, they tried to address the claims apparently in the very research they're quoting that depression in homosexuals is a product of discrimination - by posting unsourced and unverifiable factoids masquerading as "empirical proof". Seems like the article was more a chance to parade around their existing lies about previous "research" supposedly done on homosexuals. I see Paul Cameron's fraud about life expectancies of homosexuals got a mention.
Any idea what these "empirical studies" are that supposedly demonstrate equivalent rates of problems among homosexuals in both gay-friendly and gay-hostile environments? No, I suppose not. Wouldn't do to provide information in these propaganda releases that is actually independently verifiable now, would it?
Posted by: Neil H | September 24, 2008 1:07 AM
I had a similar experience. I am female and heterosexual, but am not 'feminine' in many ways. I prefer male type clothing, and am always assumed to be male on the internet; I don't sew, and am crappy at housework. I don't wear makeup or dye my hair (I'm almost 60).
It seems any sort of 'nonstandard' behavior is a threat to society.
=====================================
I have long supported the local LGBT organization financially.
Last week I went to one of their events for the first time. There were about 50 people there, various ages colors dress...
There were some people (male and female) pushing their partner's wheelchairs.
The men and women were friendly with each other (despite stereotypes, homosexuals do not hate the opposite sex).
While we were standing in line for the buffet, I noticed one man give another man a slight hug from behind (just as I used to do with my boyfriend). It didn't seem 'abnormal' at all, it was sweet; made me a little jealous.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that these are people trying to make it through life and love whom they want to; they are no threat to anybody.
Posted by: khan | September 24, 2008 6:10 PM
Madness? THIS IS SPARTA!
What a set up.
I read an article from the AFA some time ago regarding a similar issue dealing with gay rights. It was about McDonald's supporting a gay-rights parade. I sent the writer of the article in the email laughing directly in his face.
The article mostly stated that the AFA has constantly urged corporations to "stay neutral" in the battle of gay-rights. When McDondal's support the parade, the AFA told their followers to boycott the fast food restaurant.
My email, in such a short way, stated that corporations have the right to chose what they support. I then called upon his hypocrisy, bringing up several cases of religious marches, parades, and churches that were supported by various corporations (including McDonalds). I asked him, directly, why corporations can support the religions, but not a gay-pride parade?
I never got a response back.
I can be contacted at Konraden AT gmail DOT com if anyone is interested.
Posted by: Konraden | September 24, 2008 11:27 PM
As a young gay man, my only reply to this study is this: "No S#!T Sherlock." I have suffered this first hand and likewise seen such suffering and pain in others. When every message you see is about how horrible a certain group of people are, and you just happen to be a member of that group, you really do begin to hate yourself and suffer large amounts of emotional pain.
Posted by: Anon. | September 25, 2008 9:13 AM