Thursday, December 30, 2010

Groundbreaking Study Finds Family Acceptance of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Adolescents Protects Against Depression, Substance Abuse and Suicidal Behavior in Early Adulthood – by Caitlin Ryan, PhD, December 6, 2010 - FAMILY ACCEPTANCE PROJECT.

San Francisco, CA –– For the first time, researchers have established a clear link between accepting family attitudes and behaviors towards their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) children and significantly decreased risk and better overall health in adulthood. The study shows that specific parental and caregiver behaviors -- such as advocating for their children when they are mistreated because of their LGBT identity or supporting their gender expression -- protect against depression, substance abuse, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in early adulthood. In addition, LGBT youth with highly accepting families have significantly higher levels of self-esteem and social support in young adulthood. The study is published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, a journal of the International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses, in a peer-reviewed article titled “Family Acceptance in Adolescence and the Health of LGBT Young Adults.”

Despite all the recent attention to health risks and disparities for lesbian, gay and bisexual youth, prior to this study, little was known about how families express acceptance and support for their LGBT children. Moreover, no prior research had examined the relationship between family acceptance of LGBT adolescents and health and mental health concerns in emerging adulthood.

“At a time when the media and families are becoming acutely aware of the risk that many LGBT youth experience, our findings that family acceptance protects against suicidal thoughts and behaviors, depression and substance abuse offer a gateway to hope for LGBT youth and families that struggle with how to balance deeply held religious and personal values with love for their LGBT children,” said Caitlin Ryan, PhD, Director of the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University. “I have worked on LGBT health and mental health for 35 years and putting our research into practice by developing a new model to help diverse families support their LGBT children is the most hopeful work I’ve ever done.”

Ann P. Haas, Ph.D., Director of Prevention Projects for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, noted, “With this new groundbreaking study, Ryan and her colleagues have provided the strongest evidence to date that acceptance and support from parents and caregivers promote well-being among LGBT youth and help protect them from depression and
suicidal behavior. These findings open the door to a whole new focus on how families can be helped to more fully engage in the kind of behaviors that reduce suicide risk in LGBT adolescents and young adults.”

“Times have changed,” said Stephen Russell, PhD, President Elect of the Society for Research on Adolescence and a consultant to the Family Acceptance Project. “More and more families want to be accepting of their children. Yet, many families still struggle when a child comes out as LGBT. It’s essential to have research like this to deeply understand the ways that families show their acceptance, so that we can identify how to support families.”

The study, authored by Dr. Caitlin Ryan and her team from the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University, which shows that accepting behaviors of parents and caregivers towards their LGBT children are protective against mental health risks -- including suicidal behaviors -- has critical implications for changing how families relate to their LGBT children and how LGBT youth are served by a wide range of providers across disciplines and systems of care, including custodial care systems such as foster care. The study was funded by The California Endowment, a health foundation dedicated to expanding access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities…
Read complete report & more
found on the Family Acceptance Project™ website:


FAP Family Video Series
Helping diverse families understand how to support their LGBT children takes resources that touch the heart – like the sample video you see on this page. We are working to produce a series of 8 of these short documentary videos that show the journey from struggle to support of ethnically and religiously diverse families with LGBT children.
view video
Funding is needed to help complete this protect – together with your help the Family Acceptance Project™ will make a difference for the better for LGBT children, youth and families. Your generosity at this time in the lives of LGBT children and youth will be lasting throughout their lives including all the lives that will be touched by them.  Dr. Caitlin Ryan explains on the Family Acceptance Project™ website the many ways that these videos will be used.  Thank you for your kind consideration about making a donation to this life giving project for LGBT children and youth.

All Donations can be made directly on
Family Acceptance Project™ website:

You Can Make a Difference
The Family Acceptance Project™ is a multi-year project to study the experiences of LGBT youth and families. We will use our findings to help strengthen families and to develop training materials and interventions for health and mental health, and school-based providers, child welfare workers and family service workers. Photo

We're very resourceful in finding volunteers and donated services to make the best use of our limited resources. However, your individual or organizational contribution can make a significant difference in helping us carry out the project.


School Victimization of Gender-Nonconforming LGBT Youth Linked with Depression and Quality Of Life In Adulthood


Youth Development Current Trends 
Dr. Caitlin Ryan and The Family Acceptance Projects’ Study of LGBT Youth 
December 13, 2010 
National Association of Social Workers








Related links:

Gay Covering - "Covering: The Hidden Assault on our Civil Rights" - by Kenji Yoshino

"Covering: The Hidden Assault on our Civil Rights"
A conversation with author Kenji Yoshino about Yoshino's book.
April 20, 2006 – Charlie Rose
View video:



July 2010 

President of the United States
United States Congress
United States Supreme Court
50 United States Governors 

Dear -- --------, 

My name is Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, a Roman Catholic priest from the Diocese of Grand Rapids, Michigan ordained June 16, 1979. 

In March 1997, after attending a National Symposium of the New Ways Ministry that was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I learned that children as young as 4 and 5 years of age know that they are different. This feeling "different" is only identified in their adult years as being gay. However, the harmful influence of antigay social and religious norms -- in particular, for Catholics, the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings -- are severe and last throughout a child’s lifetime. The harmful effects are not isolated only to these children who grow up to be gay, but also affect their families, siblings, friends and anyone whom they might consider special in their lives. They are a prescribed societal sentence of implicit isolation, which place at risk of suicide so many innocent adolescents and young adults. They stifle an enormous amount of human potential in the world that otherwise could be put to use for finding cures for diseases, offering better ways of maintaining peace among people and improving the quality of life for everyone in the world.
Gay Marriage - “SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE” Does Not Give Churches Or Benedict XVI - The Freedom To Abuse Children or Adults. July 2010 - By Fr. Marty Kurylowicz




SEXUAL ORIENTATION is less about sex and more about LOVE, being one with another human being - ATTACHMENT THEORY 
 “Auschwitz – Benedict XVI - Christmas 2008 - Brokeback Mountain” (NP) 
Photo
Nothing in life is more precious than the intimate relationships we have with love ones. Healthy love relationships delight us give us confidence to take on challenges and support us in difficult times. Photo



Difference Between Life & Death
Being “In” And Living “Out” Of The Closet
"Why, It Is A 'Gift' From God!!!" - Monastic Wisdom - Absolute Fright For Benedict XVI
March 1997 “Coming Out”
"$126,000.00 as reported by Bishop Walter Hurley, May 27, 2006 – The Grand Rapids Press"
By Fr. Marty Kurylowicz



I thought that love
was just a word
They sang about in songs I heard
It took your kisses to reveal
That I was wrong,
and
 love is real
La Vie En Rose
Edith Piaf





 Kenji Yoshino discusses California same-sex marriage ruling 
on
Charlie Rose, August 5, 2010
A discussion about Prop 8 which was overturned this week with Kenji Yoshino Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of law, Jesse Mckinley San Francisco bureau chief of "The New York Times" and Jeff Zeleny of "The New York Times"
View video interview:
Related links:


California Prop 8 
The Best Argument Against Gay Marriage - And why it fails. 
By Kenji Yoshino, 
December 13, 2010 – Slate Magazine

In last week's arguments in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the California same-sex marriage case, it was clear that the main secular argument for limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples is the "common procreation" rationale. The idea is that marriage is properly limited to opposite-sex couples because they, and only they, can engage in procreation within their union. The lawyers defending California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, did not fully elaborate the argument—the New York Times editorial page called it a "tired, and thoroughly specious, assertion."

Now conservative blogs are celebrating—as "one of the best arguments" and "outstanding work"—the more fulsome defense of the common procreation argument made in a forthcoming article by Sherif Girgis, Robert P. George, and Ryan T. Anderson. Yet the article's more comprehensive elaboration of the argument reveals why the Proposition 8 defenders were right not to shine too bright a light on it. Closely examined, the common-procreation argument denigrates not only same-sex couples but several kinds of married opposite-sex couples…
Read complete report:
[Unsubstantiated] --- RELIGIOUS BELIEFS that gay and lesbian relationships are SINFUL or INFERIOR to heterosexual relationships HARM gays and lesbians.
Judge Vaughn Walker Ruling
California Prop 8. August 4, 2010

NO EVIDENCE SUPPORTS THESE [homosexual] STEREOTYPES
Judge Vaughn Walker Ruling
California Prop 8. August 4, 2010
Related Links:

Critical Study Finds Direct Link - Between School Victimization Of Gender-Nonconforming Lgbt Youth With - Depression And Quality Of Life In Adulthood - by Dr. Caitlin Ryan – October 4, 2010 - Family Acceptance Project™ - San Francisco State University

GAY YOUTH SUICIDE | BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups – Negligence Protecting (1) Children & (2) LGBT Children | Family of Rutgers suicide victim lends name to bill – November 19, 2010 – CNN

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee - unyielding force supporting - DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL Repeal Act of 2010 – ENDS discriminatory policy that “forces young men and women to lie,” – to lie – “about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.”



"Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well-considered, and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child's spirit."

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