Parents who reject their queer children

HURT their queer children.*

There’s a new study out that finds that queer teens who are rejected by their parents are 8 times as likely to attempt suicide.

Obviously, while anti-queer bullying in schools is lethal, it’s even more deadly to have anti-queer parents. Given these data, I’m wondering if state-level child protective services ever intervenes to protect queer kids. That is, when are queer children removed from the custody of their TOXIC anti-queer parents?

I suspect this does  NOT happen in states with laws banning same-sex consensual sodomy still on the books. These laws criminalize queer identity and make it very difficult for local public servants to intervene. Although the US Supreme Court decision in Lawrence, in 2003, ruled these laws to be unconstitutional, not a single state that maintained sodomy laws in 2003, has removed them from the their criminal codes.

Clearly, there needs to be a LOT of educating of the adults for these data to improve. That’s hard to do when many homophobes can mask their hate through religion. The injunction, “Hate the sin, love the sinner” still means it’s OK to hate. Clearly, the evidence is if parents spout that sort of religiously based bigotry, that it is deadly for queer kids.

Or as this video puts it, “You bully your kid, you bury your kid.” Fast heads-up: This video is absolutely, positively, not safe for work. And if you’re home, you might wish to turn down your speakers. But I love the attitude.

HT: Dan Savage

*Obviously, I found a spare 30 minutes for this post.