The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality recently published an article Stigma management? That article explores links between enacted stigma and teen pregnancy trends among gay, lesbian, and bisexual students in British Columbia." It presents data showing that LGB youth show higher rates (two to seven times greater) of pregnancy involvement than their heterosexual peers.
Elizabeth M. Saewyc, associate professor of nursing at the University of British Columbia, is the lead author of the study. A Dec. 17 piece in The Vancouver Sun, "Lesbian Youth at High Risk for Pregnancy: Study at UBC," summarized her findings and quoted Saewyc: "For some gay, lesbian and bisexual teens, [pregnancy is] camouflage because [their sexual orientation] is still pretty stigmatized and they still face a lot of harassment at school."
The Sun article has been making the rounds of LGBTQ listservs and blogs. However, the original study shows more complicated findings and reasons for the rates of pregnancy.
The Journal article summed up three pen-and-paper anonymous adolescent health surveys-carried out in 1992, 1998 and 2003-among 30,000 high school students from grades 7-12 in…
Read more? Internet site reference:
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2009/01/03/02970.html
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