Many Amerins know someone who is gay, fewer know someone who is transgenr | Pew Rearch Center

Contents:

• WHAT’S WRONG WH BEG “GAY”? HERE’S WHAT THEY DON’T TELL YOU -- AND ’S REALLY DISTURBG.
• HOW TO ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE GAY
• UNTTHS AND FACTS ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE GAY, LBIAN, OR BISEXUAL
• 5. VAST MAJORY OF AMERINS KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS GAY, FEWER KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS TRANSGENR

WHAT’S WRONG WH BEG “GAY”? HERE’S WHAT THEY DON’T TELL YOU -- AND ’S REALLY DISTURBG.

It has bee accepted wisdom most pole circl – as well as schools, ernment, rporate Ameri, and certaly the popular culture – that homosexual behavr is a normal and natural variatn of life.

An creasg amount of state and feral money is beg spent on “gay” diseas, health issu, and programs to unter “gay” domtic vlence. And as legns of ex-gays attt, homosexualy is not an born actual data – readily available and even observable – n be md-bogglg. She wr, “In the 1970s, physicians were treatg the large number of ndns affectg the lower ttal tract of MSM unr the classifitn ‘gay bowel syndrome.

In San Francis, cince of the “Gay Bowel Syndrome, ” as was lled medil journals, had creased by 8, 000 percent after 1973. As Gabriel Rotello—thor of Sexual Elogy: AIDS and the Dty of Gay Men and founr of OutWeek Magaze—wrote, “sexual brotherhood of promiscuy … any abandonment of that promiscuy would amount to a munal betrayal of gargantuan proportns. Rotello also said, “A stranger to gay culture, unaware of the realy of AIDS, might believe om much of the gay prs that HIV fectn was a sort of elixir that produced high self-teem, solved long-standg psychologil and substance abe problems, and enhanced physil appearance … creatg the subnsc imprsn that fectn—the ‘penalty’ of unsafe sex—is really not so bad after all.

HOW TO ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE GAY

O’Leary wr, “Gay bars, gay bookstor, theaters, certa rort muni, and circu parti have tradnally provid venu where MSM uld engage var forms of sexual activy wh numero partners. Sce 1975, APA has lled on psychologists to take the lead removg the stigma of mental illns that has long been associated wh lbian, gay, and bisexual orientatns. The prejudice and discrimatn that people who intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual regularly experience have been shown to have negative psychologil effects.

UNTTHS AND FACTS ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE GAY, LBIAN, OR BISEXUAL

This page provis accurate rmatn for those who want to better unrstand sexual orientatn and the impact of prejudice and discrimatn on those who intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual. In the Uned Stat the most equent labels are lbians (women attracted to women), gay men (men attracted to men), and bisexual people (men or women attracted to both sex). Some people know that they are lbian, gay, or bisexual for a long time before they actually pursue relatnships wh other people.

5. VAST MAJORY OF AMERINS KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS GAY, FEWER KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS TRANSGENR

Prejudice and discrimatn make difficult for many people to e to terms wh their sexual orientatn inti, so claimg a lbian, gay, or bisexual inty may be a slow procs.

There is no nsens among scientists about the exact reasons that an dividual velops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lbian orientatn.

Lbian, gay, and bisexual people the Uned Stat enunter extensive prejudice, discrimatn, and vlence bee of their sexual orientatn. Public opn studi over the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s routely showed that, among large segments of the public, lbian, gay, and bisexual people were the target of strongly held negative attus. More recently, public opn has creasgly opposed sexual orientatn discrimatn, but exprsns of hostily toward lbians and gay men rema mon ntemporary Amerin society.