More good news: Bullying study: It does get better for gay teens

[No Elephants]

Who broke AP? It has at least two positive stories on its home page this morning. Usually, by the time I get through with the AP home page, I am ready to take up residence in a secluded cave somewhere.

Feb 4, 12:10 AM EST

Bullying study: It does get better for gay teens

By LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO (AP) -- It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.

The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 percent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls.

The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.

In both countries, a "sea change" in cultural acceptance of gays and growing intolerance for bullying occurred during the study years, which partly explains the results, said study co-author Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor of human development at Brunel University in London.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_GAY_BULLYING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-02-04-00-10-07

Sea change. From displaying hate and bigotry to kids. In the name of God, no less.

Sounds good to me.

Meanwhile, who broke AP? Two positive stories on the home page? Usually, by the time I finish looking at the AP home page, I am ready to take up permanent residence in Antarctica.

[Enthusiast]

1. This really is an amazing change.

And despite the efforts of religious extremists and righties in general. The nutters can even be heard to promote bullying of gays, because, you know, they deserve it.

[No Elephants]

2. The bible says a heck of a lot more about greed and deception than it ever does

about homosexuality. And, at no time does the Bible deputize any of us to persecute gays on behalf of God.

My theory: Many are prone to greed and prone to deceive, so things like that tempt them--and they probably give in to temptation more than they would like to admit. But only a relatively small minority of people have lifelong temptation to be intimate with people of their own gender. So, most of us can be self-righteous about this "sin" of the flesh.

There are probably a lot more cheating spouses, liars and uncharitable folk than there are gay people, but we don't focus on those things with the same vengeance do we? Heck, we even let convicted murderers marry in prison.

No problemo, as long as it isn't two guys or gals have the same kinds of "breadcrumb sins" that most of us have, but were born gay or transgender and therefore love each other.