No one speaks up, not in junior high and high school. College, perhaps; pride events are more easily seen then, but in high school no one speaks up. Imagine dearly loving someone else and having to keep it totally secret because if you don't you will be punished -- cast out of your home by your family, ostracized by your friends, perhaps losing your job. This is the world of the lesbian and gay young person.

If a homosexual youth is lucky enough to find their way to the Internet, they are eventually greeted by a bit of a LBG-supportive environment. Several sites exist to help homosexual youth realize that they are normal, lovable, and can be successful. The sites also have many tips on coming out, especially to parents and family. However, many sites with very useful information for homosexuals are restricted to adults (age 18). Many of these sites do not contain sexually explicit material above what shows on prime time TV. The information directed at adults (announcements of pride events, etc.) is also of use to youth, and restricting the entire site to adults prevents youth from reaching useful pieces of information. The youth also need to know about adult same sex relationships; they have no or few role models available locally, and often the only way that they can learn that same sex relationships can last like marriage does is to read about it over the net. Keeping all inform!

These amendments would efectivley ax the very few school based programs that teach tolerance and foster self-acceptance. If homosexuality is mentioned at all, it is usually skimmed over and brushed off as something that "no one here actually needs to know about." It is assumed that the entire class is heterosexual and should not need to know what homosexuality and homophobia really are. However, according to popular statistics about 10% of the population is homosexual. In a class of 20 students, that's 2 people. If the class size is 30, it's 3 or even 4 students. Up to 3 or 4 students must listen to how everyone else's sexual and emotional feelings are natural, but theirs are never mentioned. Rather than providing proper information on how homosexuals are often discriminated against, and what homophobia means and how it hurts, the class barely even mentions the subject if it does at all.

Homosexual teen suicide, discrimination from all areas of life, and misunderstanding of homosexuality, both from the heterosexual community and from the homosexual youth who have not have access to information, would greatly reduce, or nearly disappear, if proper education was given in the public schools to combat homophobia. "Liberty is the right not to lie."

More information can be found at the URL http://cent1.lancs.ac.uk/lgb/eight.html which is a detailed retranslation of eight major Bible passages used to condemn homosexuality. Homosexual youth often go to church with family as expected, only to hear the condemnation of themselves echoed by the entire church. Where is the loving God the church is supposed to be echoing? What love exists in condemning people for who they love? Each youth sits there listening to parents, siblings, friends, and religious leaders tear apart t

Some common words found in the essay are:
Senate August, Youth Suicide, , Public Health, Newt Gingrich, Boards Education, homosexual youth, lesbian gay, Smith-Jesse Helms, sex relationships, commit suicide, gay bisexual, silence equals death, lesbian gay bisexual, role models, adult sex, six times, cutting remarks, physical safety, adult sex relationships, 3 4 students,
Approximate Word count = 1860
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)