Young and Gay in the Bible Belt: A new study By Bernadette Barton, Ph.D.

Bernadette Barton, Ph.D. has been conducting research on the experiences in the Bible Belt of this country lived by LGBT teens and adult, her findings are horrifying. Some exerpts from her article Young and Gay in the Bible Belt: "My mom came after me with a butcher knife!"

Barton has discovered what 10's of thousands of our youth already know; "Home is not a haven for many Bible Belt gays. Home may be more dangerous than the streets. A 2006 National Gay and Lesbian Task Force study found that of homeless teens, 42 percent identify as gay. If one considers that the most generous estimates of the percentage of gay people in the general population is 10 percent, such a statistic illustrates an alarming over-representation of gay kids among the homeless....

After traveling around parts of the Bible Belt collecting the stories of lesbians and gay men, I believe that gay children and adolescents are the victims of institutionally sanctioned child abuse....

People in the Bible Belt, gay and heterosexual, learn that homosexuals are bad, diseased, perverse, other and inferior within a number of social institutions. Like a creepy, mirrored fun house, abusive language about and threatening actions toward homosexuals on the playground, from the pulpit, in the bar, at work and during family dinner amplify and reinforce one another.

Thus, parents who exclude gay youth and family members who ostracize gay relatives are only mimicking behaviors modeled in churches, schools and the military. Not only then do local officials and local institutions fail to protect gay children and adolescents from maltreatment, in their worst manifestations they teach homophobic families how to abuse their gay children."

The whole article is worth reading and can be accessed HERE!

Bernadette Barton (Ph.D. University of Kentucky 2000) is associate professor of sociology and women’s studies at Morehead State University. Barton’s current research project examines the experiences of gay men and lesbians, and is the focus of an upcoming book, Pray the Gay Away: Religion and Homosexuality in the Bible Belt.

FYI alert, the first comment to this post is from an Ex-Gay advocate. All the links he offers will only lead you to a site with nowhere to comment or respond. As the APA and the AMA both have clearly stated; the idea that one's sexuality can be changed is mentally harmful and often times when the "program" fails, it ends with suicide.
I personally am living proof that if one is truly LGBT, your nature cannot be changed, I tried for over 30 years and even subjected myself to assorted treatments including exorcism. Only until I was lead away from the lies and hate did I find true freedom, peace and happiness in my life.
I know, I do not "feel", we are all wonderfully created and will only find happiness and love when we accept ourselves as such.
--Rebecca