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Consider joining:Today's Health - Wellness / Exercise / Reflections:More support available for teens with sexuality questionsBy MARY SHEDDEN | The Tampa Tribune; Nov 18, 2010The hyper-emotional, sexually-charged world teenagers navigate can be a lonely place.Embarrassment, ignorance and unrealistic expectations can keep any teen from asking questions and getting healthy, direct answers from parents or other adults.
It's a confusing time for anyone discovering his or her sexual identity. However, teens who think they might be gay or bisexual do it within a society full of people unfamiliar with or hateful toward homosexual, bisexual or transgendered identities.
"Having the sex talk -- or the same-sex talk -- is difficult," says Andrew Schmidt, director of behavioral health at Metro Wellness and Community Centers. "It's hard to navigate and awkward" for the parent. But imagine what it's like for that teen."
The bullying and rejection some feel is profound and devastating: An estimated 30 percent of teens who commit suicide are gay, lesbian or bi-sexual, says Schmidt, whose center offers free counseling to teens with sexual identity questions.
The suicide rate is closer to 50 percent for teens who are transgendered or identify strongly with another gender.
Teen suicide is no small issue: 4,599 young people (ages 10 to 24) took their lives nationwide in 2004, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was an 8 percent jump from the previous year.
Suicide prevention has long been a mission within the gay mental health community, but the issue recently went mainstream after several high-profile teen suicides and with the viral "It Gets Better" phenomenon created by the gay suicide prevention group called The Trevor Project.
In just a few months, more than 5,000 video messages, sometimes profoundly personal, have been posted on YouTube telling gay teens there's so much more to life than the bullies dominating their lives now. The voices include gay and lesbian adults from across the country, including celebrities and even an openly gay city councilman in western Texas. Heterosexuals also have voiced their support, including President Barack Obama.
Schmidt says the videos, many of which include long-term partners and gay parents and their children, offers teens healthy role models.
These unique and incredibly positive messages, however, aren't meant to take the place of the support from friends, teachers, school administrators and especially parents, Schmidt says.
"It's very important for parents to say that their child is accepted, no matter what," says Schmidt a licensed mental health counselor. "Parents show their disapproval all the time, and they don't realize it."
Metro Centers, with offices in Tampa and St. Petersburg, recently started offering up to six free counseling sessions to teens struggling with issues related to their sexuality. He emphasizes that the counseling isn't about "making" someone gay. It's about listening to a teen's questions.
"It's about having an open dialogue. It's not forcing someone to choose one or the other," he says. "It's not about picking a team."
The organization is trying to spread the word about the free counseling by contacting local gay-friendly churches, high school gay-straight alliances, and it recently made a presentation at Pasco-Hernando Community College.
Schmidt stresses that it isn't just gay teens who are being bullied or may have questions. Kids who don't fit into traditional roles -- girls who love sports, or boys who want to perform musical theater -- may be subjected to taunts or worse.
"It's about discovering yourself … it's to process what they are going through," he says.
- Members of Peckers Pics should join our President Barack Obama group . (Health Care, Gay Rights, Gay Marriage, Repeal DOMA & Don't Ask Don't Tell
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Take Action:
- Boycott advertisers of Glenn Beck on Fox News as well as all of FOX NEWS! Glenn has lied about Health-care, called our President a racist, and is anti-gay rights.
- We demand immediate end of DADT. It is out-right discrimination.
- Boycott Bill O'Reilly and FOX News and their advertisers. Bill discussed a French commerical by McDonalds that was meant to show that McDonalds is Gay Friendly. Bill said what is next? Is McDonalds going to get be Al-Qaida friendly as well? Further, Bill said that McDonalds would never show a gay friendly commercial in the USA. Imagine, Bill is comparing Gays to Al-Qaida!
- Boycott Arizona the home of senile - Sen. John McCain: because of their Hateful anti-Immigration Law that encourages racial profiling and increases hatred towards minorities. A remedy: Demand Republicans to support Immigration Reform. Further, Their Senator McCain voted against ending DADT and blocked Immigration reform! We shall hold the voters of Arizona responsible!
- NEW: Boycott Target and Best Buy for donating money towards anti-gay political candidates/organizations.
- NEW: Boycott Gold's Gym for donating loads of money to anti-gay candidates.
This group is called "Peckers PICS." The English - slang definition of "pecker" is to pluck at the truth. Therefore, we peck at items such as Gay Men's Health, Male Fitness, Gay (LGBT) Politics & Issues. In this section you may peck at each photo in order to decide the winner of the "war of the fittest!" Whereas, you should select the guy that may inspire you to exercise and "get fit!" Warning: This may stoke you!
Remember your participation in discussion of health / news articles - appearing in this message is greatly appreciated.
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74Rio Gay Pride; Nov 14, 2010
Gay Pride; Taipei, Taiwan; Nov 12, 2010
By Olivier Knox (AFP) - Nov 18, 2010WASHINGTON --- The White House and its Senate allies pushed Thursday to scrap a widely unpopular US military ban on gays serving openly, warning the restrictions harm national security and flout civil rights.
"We're going to keep fighting, in the spirit of the American military, until we get the job done," said Independent Senator Joe Lieberman, a leader in the fight to repeal the 1993 policy dubbed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Lieberman acknowledged stiff Republican resistance and a ticking year-end legislative clock, but quoted US civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr's admonition that "the time is always right to do what is right."
Democrats hoped to make the most of a year-end "lame duck" session before their Senate majority shrinks and they turn over the House of Representatives to Republicans in January.
"If we don't get this job done this year, I think it could be years until we have another opportunity," said Democratic Senator Mark Udall. "It's time for 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' to take a hike."
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced late Wednesday that he would move ahead, most likely in December, on an annual military spending bill that includes a measure authorizing the Pentagon to repeal the ban.
The legislation needs 60 votes in ensure the ability to overcome parliamentary delaying tactics, so Democrats and their independent allies will need to gain two Republicans to proceed to a final ballot they are sure to win.
A vote would take place after the Pentagon releases a report, due December 1, laying out a strategy for repeal after surveying US troops and their families to get their thoughts on what would be a seismic shift in policy.
The study, grouping 400,000 active-duty and reserve troops and 150,000 military spouses, reportedly found that 70 percent of respondents said impact from lifting the bad would be "positive, mixed, or non-existent."
The House has already passed legislation authorizing an end to the ban, which Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer warned put the US military at odds with some of its dearest international partners.
"Our brave young men and women fight alongside allies like Australia, the United Kingdom, and others who allow gays and lesbians to serve openly," she said. "Let's not stand with Pakistan, and North Korea and Iran."
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden cited a study that 10 percent of those discharged under the policy were experts in Arabic, Farsi, Chinese and other languages, and warned "there's no way we can win the war on terror" by "frittering away" such talent.
President Barack Obama's defeated Republican White House rival, Senator John McCain, has steadfastly opposed action on the ban at least until the Pentagon report has been made public.
Asked whether he had tried to win over his colleague and friend, Lieberman replied: "I've had discussions. I've had no success."
A new public opinion poll out Thursday found that 58 percent favored scrapping the ban and 38 percent backed the current policy. In military families, the numbers were 55 percent and 38 percent, respectively.
The Quinnipiac University study was the first time the survey had found military families supporting lifting the restrictions.
Other militaries, including US ally Israel, have allowed openly gay troops to serve without reporting major problems.
The top US uniformed officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, has been an outspoken advocate of lifting the ban, condemning it as forcing gay service members to lie about their identity.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates also backs lifting the ban, but General James Amos, the new head of the US Marine Corps, has said he opposes it because he fears it could harm unit cohesion.
Foes of the ban have compared the issue to then-president Harry Truman's 1948 executive order ending racial segregation in the US armed forces.
"As a black American, I know what it is to go through discrimination and unfairness," said Democratic Senator Roland Burris, who holds the seat once held by Obama.
The president has reached out of "dozens" of senators over the past week in favor of repeal, according to a White House official.
"Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges."
URGENT: Boycott Gold's Gym, Target and Best Buy for donating money towards anti-gay political candidates/organizations and to Proposition 8 (California) to prevent gay marriage. I would not purchase "Blood Diamonds," nor should a person / organization be contributing funds to both Hitler / Nazi's and the Jews at the same time! Obviously giving money to the Jews and not Hitler/Nazi's was the right thing to do. Hence, these companies violated my trust and well-being. They gave money to my enemy who would terminate me from my job, deny me housing and send me to a Internment camp. Therefore, goodbye Gold's Gym, Target and Best Buy! The CEO's of these companies have been insensitive to our reaction and do not even comprehend their actions! What takes so long to "fire" these Neanderthals?
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