Report Suggests Gay Teens Face Substantial Increase In Harsher Punishments Than Those Experienced By Straight Peers; Trend Continues In Adults

The New York Times reports that according to the journal Pediatrics, a new study based on analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Heath reveals that teenagers who are attracted to the same sex are 41-percent more likely to be expelled from school and 42-percent more likely to be convicted of a crime as an adult. Study author Kathryn Himmelstein says that the report underlines the extent of bias and intimidation experienced by non-heterosexual teens, but also by gay and lesbian adults. Himmelstein says ““Gay, lesbian and bisexual kids are being punished by police, courts and by school officials, and it’s not because they’re misbehaving more.” The report says “Ms. Himmelstein, now a high school math teacher in New York City, began the research after spending time working in the juvenile justice system during a leave of absence from college. She noticed a disproportionate number of gay and lesbian teens in juvenile court. After co-workers confirmed the trend, Ms. Himmelstein searched the scientific literature but didn’t find any studies evaluating whether gay teens were more likely to be involved in criminal activity or more severely punished. As a result, she began conducting her own study for her senior thesis at Yale University. She used data collected from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which followed middle and high school students for seven years beginning in 1994. The study is a broad overview of adolescent health but contained information on teen sexuality and both minor and serious misconduct. The study asked teens about nonviolent misdeeds like alcohol use, lying to parents, shoplifting and vandalism, as well as more serious crimes like using a weapon, burglary or selling drugs.” She concludes that instead of protecting gay teens from bullying and harassment by their peers, authorities may actually be contributing to their victimisation, adding “Our data show that lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are being excessively punished, but the data don’t say why. We weren’t able to figure out the circumstances of the punishment, but that’s something that should be investigated more in light of recent events involving bullying and harassment of gay teens by peers.’’